Bon Appetite

by Bridget Walsh
This article was printed in Abroad View magazine fall 2005


I can’t remember a time when my family sat down and ate dinner for two or three hours, but this is a common practice in France. In my middle class host family in Angers, dinner started around 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. and consisted of five or six courses. It began with hors d’oeuvres and an aperitif, supposedly to aid digestion. Next an appetizer was served. It varied each night but usually was a slice of pizza, vegetables, or seafood, like fresh shrimp or lobster. And then came the main dish, which consisted of beef, chicken, or fish, with a vegetable or pasta. The fourth course was a baguette with Camembert, Brie, or Roquefort. Dessert was the best part of the meal. French pastries are incredible.

Throughout the meal we drank wine and talked non-stop. It was amazing to think these people could carry on a conversation for that long. Sure, they talked about day-to-day life and events, but I came to realize how much I enjoyed hearing their stories. It made me feel like I was part of the family; it also made me sad to think that my family never really sat down at dinner and had a conversation or a meal like this.

No matter how busy my host family was when it came time for dinner, it seemed like everything around them stopped. This was their family time.

This is an aspect of French culture that I really came to enjoy and respect. Now that I have returned to the U.S., I miss it and am slowly trying to make our family dinners here more like the French dinners—not necessarily lasting two to three hours, but a dinner that we can all savor.

BRIDGET WALSH was a senior at Allegheny College when she wrote this article. She studied in Angers, France at L’Université Catholique de l’Ouest in 2004-2005.