Fois Gras and Christmas Cheer

So Christmas has come to Clermont today with the start of Advent. In order to celebrate my host mom served fois gras from Bordeaux, along with a wine from Strasbourg. It was a multi-regional event with cheese from Auvergne (St. Nectaire to be precise). The fois gras was delicious, much like the fois gras my mom uses on the beef tenderloin at Christmas. Although we just ate it on a slice of bread, it still felt elegant, and delicious. For some reason (maybe subliminal) when eating a food that comes from the specific country, it tastes so much better. The fois gras came from a 4 hour train ride away. The name of the farm was imprinted on the packaging, and the name of the owner was also right next to it. The French take pride in where their food comes from, even on such a small scale. While eating lunch with my host family, we discussed various things, including the taste of the cheeses being served during the cheese course (of which there were 5 to choose from!). When my host sister commented on the taste of the St. Nectaire being strange, my host mom went into a discussion about the cheese making process and her cheese preferences! She told me that the cheese is 2 month old milk, so the cheese we eat today is from summer milk, she much prefers spring milk because the cows eat the flowers and the clovers in the spring, causing their milk to take on a different taste causing the cheese to be more perfumed. She says December is the last month she will buy cheese from the region until May (when the spring milk starts again). This internal knowledge of food is amazing, as well as the French ability to pick out the prefect baguette from a pile of 20. Unfortunately we have been out of bread for dinner for the past couple nights because my host sister has been snacking!!
On a Christmas note, Clermont has put up their huge Christmas tree, along with a ferris wheel in the center town. Lights line every single street and there is a holiday train that will ride around town taking people around to do their holiday shopping! I can't believe that it's almost December, and yet it feels like I just got here yesterday! The food is still amazing, and I already know I will miss it by the time I go home. Alas, the afternoon was a quiet time, knitting in the parlor with my host mom watching the travel channel. Although I know I have homework I should be doing, being in France has caused such a lack of motivation - there's too many other things that I could be doing instead that are much more interesting!
Peace, Love and Procrastination!