My First French Catholic Mass

Today my host brother had is Confirmation into the Catholic Church, which I guess occurs later here than in the U.S.  He is 16 and everyone else going through it today was around that age too.  I volunteered to go with my family to the mass.  It was actually pretty interesting, even though I am not Catholic.  Because the priest spoke relatively slowly, I was able to follow along pretty well, as familiar with the general service outline (I’ve been to enough Catholic masses, given that so many of my family’s friends are Catholic, Father Rob from Bad Axe Sacred Heart called us “Catholic by association”).  The church that we went to, in the village of Pignac (Peen-yak), is several hundred years old and is very beautiful.  Service was led by a bishop, splendid in his red ceremonial vestments. 

After mass, some extended family and a friend of Thibault’s came for lunch.  His three sisters were there as well.  We started with champagne and hors d’oeuvres in the salon, and then moved to the table were we had the multi-course meal itself.  First was oysters with truffles, followed by a beef dish that had been baked within a pastry crust served with mushrooms and beans wrapped in bacon.  After that came multiple cheeses and after that dessert, which was an AMAZING dish that was a kind of raspberry pie with a vanilla cream filling.  There were two separate kinds of wine served with dinner, the initial course had a type of red wine which was changed out for a chardonnay as the second course was served.  Today served as an interesting mini-course in French wine etiquette.

After dinner, we had coffee in the family room again.  After a while, Thibault brought out his guitar and amp and I was encouraged by my host family to fetch my harmonicas.  Thibault and I played Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which is my host mother’s favorite song.  I had only played it once before, a few days ago, but I remembered the melody passably enough.  After that we played a few more songs, and then I lead everyone in a few rounds of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence”, as I was the only one who knew all of the words.  The rest read from a songbook while Thibault and I shared one book and he played the chords while I sang the song and corrected the mistakes in the book.  It was good fun.  After the company left, Thibault and I continued to play music together, including “Party Rock Anthem” and several blues and then Irish tunes.  It was good fun.

I was able to follow more and more of the conversation over dinner this afternoon.  I am excited to be making a least a little progress in my French comprehension.  Tomorrow I begin my second week of classes.  Time keeps moving.