French meetings

I've decided I rather like French meetings. I guess I should say that I liked the three that I've been to in the past month. It's not that the content of the meetings themselves is particularly interesting or that it's always well-presented. No, no. It's knowing that at the end of the meeting, there will be drinks and snacks. And that the person in charge of it all seems to be rushing through his information in order to get to the drinks and snacks in a timely manner.

At the beginning of September, a meeting for all the Anglophone lecturers at Nanterre was followed by red wine and little savory snacks. After this, we were treated to a simple yet delicious lunch of enormous baguette sandwiches. And then to coffee. So nice.

Last week, I went to an obligatory departmental meeting that I was absolutely dreading because I knew I wouldn't know anybody and I wouldn't know what anybody was talking about. To make matters worse, the room we were to meet in was designed to hold 30 people, but over twice as many would be attending. Ugh.

The meeting was indeed crowded, long and full of repetitions, but all this was smoothed over by drinks and food at the end. There was a nice little selection of red and rosé wines, a brut hard cider and various fruit juices. And then there were all sorts of little crackers that would be incredibly well-received in the U.S. if only they were available there! Some of my favorites were shaped like tiny pizzas. And tasted like them too. Another one looked like a normal Ritz cracker, but lo and behold, on the inside of it, there was BACON. Heavenly.

And this was only the beginning. After our departmental meeting, we had to go to another one that was for all the language departments. I believe this one wasn't meant to be a real meeting at all, but rather, an excuse to eat. The speaker made a few introductions and then we were invited to help ourselves to a large spread the departments had provided. Quiche, chips and dips, more crackers and nuts, trays and trays of lovely miniature tarts, cream puffs and other French pastries that I'm not familiar with, and of course a variety of red and white wine, soda and juice. Fabulous.

And so, for me, it turnedout that the most difficult part of the meetings was trying not to look too piggy around all the food. Considering I walked out with a big guacamole stain on my white blouse, I don't think I succeeded.