Christmas and Easter are the two most important holidays celebrated by the western world. Both of them used to have strong religious significance, but as more and more young people hardly practice Christianity or claim that they do not identify with any religion, these holidays have become secular occasions for family to gather together.
Easter in 2016 fell on March 27. My French parents asked me whether I would be available during that weekend to celebrate Easter together with Pierre’s family in Metz. Bernadette is from Lyon while Pierre is from Metz in the region of Lorraine in northeast France. To balance the times seeing their respective family, they have to arrange a plan for where to celebrate holidays every year, which is usually one year’s Easter in Lyon and Christmas in Metz, and the next year, they would switch. In 2015, I was invited to experience Christmas with Bernadette’s family in Lyon. Whether it was to give me more ideas about French important holidays, not to make me feel lonely on this holiday or they’ve deemed me as their Taiwanese daughter, I was really grateful that they invited me to participate in their family reunion again!
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Just like the feast marathon during Christmas, our Easter trip also revolved around “delicious food”. On our way to Metz, we stopped by Pierre’s niece, Catherine and her husband Jean Bruno’s house. They are both musicians, and they bought an extensive land in the countryside not long ago. By immersing in the nature with vast grass, small rivers, and a nearby forest, they can get more inspirations and concentrate on their composition.
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| A log cabin built by Jean-Bruno for their daughter. |
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| They use two mirrors to reflect an inscription on the Greek temple at Delphi: Connais-toi toi-même et tu connaîtras l’univers et les Dieux. (Know thyself and you will know the universe and the gods.) |
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Later, we headed to the old family house where Pierre grew up with his siblings in Woippy, a commune in the north of Metz downtown. Now the house is owned by Pierre’s nephew, Bertrand. When he worked in China for the embassy of France about thirty years ago, he met Xiao Hong and fell in love with her. Later they got married and moved back to France. Xiao Hong is a FLE (French as the second foreign language) teacher, also devoting to promote Chinese language and culture by running Confucius Institute in Metz. It’s been more than 30 years since she dwelt in France, so she is considerably influenced by French culture in all aspects. With a family member from a totally different continent, I think that’s why Pierre and Bernadette’s family are so willing to receive foreigners and so open to accept different cultural viewpoints.
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| The front of the family house (renovated) |
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| The back of the family house and the garden. |
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| Becoming a good chef must be an inevitable consequence of living in France for a long time. |
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| Pierre showed me around Woippy the next morning. This big sink was for clothes washing in the commune. It’s become a historical site for memory. |
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| How to begin a good Easter holiday without chocolate? |
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| Thanks to Bertrand and Xiao Hong for their hospitality. |
At noon, all the family of Ringeison gathered together at the house of Pierre’s sister, Marie Thérèse. We talked a lot and enjoyed the feast in a convivial atmosphere.
Marie Thérèse’s house was like a piece of art itself. The interior decoration and the furniture matched perfectly well. The sunlight spilled through the violet curtain, brightening the room, so that we didn’t need to turn on the light. The wooden cupboards, chairs, wood-color floor tiles, red tablecloths and the painting on the wall created a cozy and homey feeling.
I’ve been to several French and European friends’ house and I found all of them had one thing in common: they were all carefully decorated. No matter it’s exquisite or simple style, it’s obvious that they all spent quite a lot of time and efforts embellishing their place. Perhaps because they are brought up in an environment emphasizing artistic beauty, they have internalized the taste for beauty. When we make our daily surrounding visually apt and pleasing, the living quality will be surely elevated.
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| Rabbits are ancient symbol of fertility and new life, which are associated with spring and Easter. |
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| The backyard of Marie Thérèse’s house. |
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| Marie Thérèse’s house |
As for the exterior, I am fond of the individual house/ cottage in the countryside of France and Europe. It’s usually composed of a spacious house and a garden. The appearance is simple but cute, like what we see in the story book. And in the garden, flowers or vegetables are planted, giving habitants an access to nature. Imagine how pleasant to drink a cup of tea and read a book under the shade of a tree in blossom!
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| Even the kitchen corner is so cute! |
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| Pierre, Bernadette and Marie Thérèse’s husband |
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| Look like I belong to the Ringeison family too. |
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| At the house of Pierre’s another niece. |
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| They have two adorable cats! |
I didn’t go to many restaurants in France, so I cannot really recommend where to go for Michelin-starred meal. But in my opinion, the home-made cuisine is the most delicious French food I’ve ever tasted. In France, most of the time, people would prefer inviting friends or family to their house and preparing the meal on their own, because they can use the same amount of money to buy better ingredients. Also, they can display their love and sincerity for their family and guests through the cuisine. Thus, it’s always a great pleasure for me to be invited to dine with them.
Basically, this trip to Metz was not for sight-seeing but to meet Pierre’s family and eat to my heart’s content. I was already so delighted to be able to celebrate Christmas with Bernadette’s family the previous year, but I didn’t expect that I could join their Easter party, too. Pierre said that in this way, I knew both his family in Lorraine and Bernadette’s family in Lyon. Now two years have passed, but when I recalled the moments I spent with them in France, I still felt very warm and how lucky I was to encounter my French parents and weaved my amazing year abroad.
