Sciences Po has a tradition called the 'diner de conference' where the instuctor and students come together outside of the classroom to share a meal. For my 'l'Economie du Maghreb' course, we ate a traditional Moroccan meal at the restaurant of a friend of our professor, which was very enjoyable, with meats cooked in canelle and exotic fruits. Furthermore, during the meal, a flower peddler came through the restaurrant and our Prof bought all the female student roses! Then he took us all on a tour of the quartier, pointing out lively streets and good restaurants/marchés. One of the french students in the class confided to us that the diners are usually not as sweet/nice as this one.
This hasn't proven completely true yet. For 'histoire de la France' course, we ate at a cute little creperie for hours discussing everything from historical films, to vegans, to small concert venues in Paris. Its been surprising and enjoyable to chat with the profs and students outside of an academic setting, getting to know them more, which is a bit sad so late in the semester...
This past weekend, I had a bit of a change-up to the usual 'diner' with a 'dejeuner' or lunch. My french language prof invited her three different classes out to her home in Medoun, about 20 mins outside of Paris, for a pot-luck sort of meal and tour of the adorable banlieue. It was so beautiful to be outside the city and in a HOUSE, with several rooms and a yard seperating the living space from the neighbors. The lunch was amazing with foods from everyone's home countries (I took over a friend's kitchen on Saturday to make PB cookies). After chatting in french, which proved a little difficult as our profs other courses are more advanced so I had to really concentrate in order to keep up, but overall it was a beautiful and fun food sharing experience followed by a tour of the city, which included the grounds for a castle where kings have hunted and the Dauphin (son of Louis XVI) stayed for a while.
All in all a breath of fresh air during the final exam period.
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