A couple of weeks into being here in France, I met the dad (I will call him Henry) of one of Mia’s classmates while waiting to pick her up from school. Thankfully, he spoke a good amount of English so our conversation could last longer than a minute or two :D. Before I knew it, he was inviting our family over to his house that weekend for a “goûter” (pronounced GOO-TAY). I accepted the invite (without knowing what a goûter was) as I was just thrilled to have received an invitation to a French family’s home.
As I would come to learn, goûter is an afternoon snack meant for children, usually around 4 of 4:30pm. Two important things to note. First, French families don’t usually eat dinner until 7 or 8pm so the goûter tides the kids over since they usually eat lunch around noon. Second, this is typically the only snack French children get during the day, so it is very precious to them. This was very shocking to us, as our kids pretty much snack continuously throughout the day.
After having to cancel two weeks in a row due to sick kids, we were finally able to head to this family’s house for goûter last weekend, although it was only Mia and I that went since Desmond had another fever. This was a really neat experience as it was our first time inside a French home and it was Mia’s first play date with someone from school. They served crepes with Nutella, coconut flakes, honey or jam as toppings. Much to my delight, I was also invited to eat. We ended up spending about three and half hours there and it was a really fun time to get to know Henry and his family better. It was also excellent French practice for me as Henry’s wife doesn’t speak any English.
We plan to have this family over to our house for a meal sometime soon and to visit a local pool with them during our two week break from school (2/12 – 2/27). Watch out for another post about our French pool experience!
-Adam