The Orsonis were a warm and welcoming family. Taking on a teenage girl for a year represented a major responsibility. Oncle Louis was tall and thin. With swarthy skin, dark hair and blue eyes, he epitomized the typical Corsican. He had a certain presence as Père de Famille but I remember the sound of his laughter as well. Sometimes in the evening he would do a dictée with me. This entailed my writing down a short passage he dictated. French is a sneaky language with silent letters, intricate verb tenses and the irrational gender of nouns. So a dictée requires the mastery of slippery grammatical rules.
Tante Suzanne was a bundle of energy. Short, pretty with blue eyes and blond hair, she was easy to laugh. She kept the house, clean and tidy. Meals were healthful and prepared with fresh ingredients. Each week she was off to the outdoor market on Wednesday and Saturday. Sometimes I accompanied her. We would stop along the way to say hello to acquaintances. She would politely inquire “how they were feeling.” Rather than responding “fine,” This inquiry could develop into an extended conversation involving one’s liver, one’s bladder or even the kidneys.
During the school year, Tante Suzanne would sit down with me after lunch. We would both sip a cup of espresso sweetened with brown sugar cubes and discuss my school work. I needed help with the history-geography class. Patiently, she would explain and elaborate the lesson. One day we discussed Henri IV (Good King Henry)and his religious conversion.
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| Henri IV looks quite jolly! |
An aside: la poule au pot (a chicken in the pot) is an expression attributed to Henri. He is quoted as saying”« Si Dieu me donne encore de la vie je ferai qu’il n’y aura point de laboureur en mon Royaume qui n’ait moyen d’avoir une poule dans son pot.” (If God extends my life, I would make sure that every worker in my Kingdom has the means to have a chicken in his pot.) Back then the peasants were lucky to have meat on Christmas and Easter.
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| La Poule au Pot |
In the winter there was a ball at Pierre’s university in Lille. I had nothing to wear and I fell in love with a fluffy green dress in a magazine. Tante Suzanne told me she would make it for me. Together we went into Paris to buy the fabric. Later, I remember coming downstairs in the late evening. She was working at the dining room table. The chandelier illuminated her head as she bent over the sewing machine surrounded by billowing sea-green silk.
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| A lovely painting of a ball in the 1800s. La Valse de l'Empereur - W. Pervuninsky |
The ball was a home-coming event and the whole family was to attend. Oncle Louis was an engineer and had attended L’Ecole National d’Arts et Métiers as well. For the ball Luce and I needed to learn to dance the waltz. In the evenings after dinner Oncle Louis would put on a record of Strauss waltzes, maybe The Blue Danube. We would take turns dancing with him; whirling around the living room and laughing like crazy.
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| Renoir's Dance at Bougival |
On Sundays we enjoyed a delicious dinner at noon. Often there was a roast or a large steak that resembled a tri-tip in shape and size. The meat was accompanied by sautéed potatoes and a special dessert or pastries. Afterwards we girls did the dishes while Once Louis and Tante Suzanne relaxed in the living room. They would have coffee and Tante Suzanne would smoke one cigarette. (That was her only cigarette of the week.) Oncle Louis often put on a record of classical music. After the dishes, I would come in to listen. I learned to love The Four Seasons by Vivaldi. When I left France, he gave me a copy of the record. The Four Seasons
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| Here is a selection of pastries. The second row from the right is a selection of "Babas au Rhum." These are spongy cakes bathed in rum syrup and filled with whipped cream! Délicieux! |
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