I met my French fairy godparents, Anne-Sophie and Emmanuel, through an English Language Library in Angers where their children go to practice their English. They have welcomed me into their home a number of times before and invited me over to stay with them for this last Easter weekend. I feel very lucky to have met them and the rest of their family.

Marie-Claude, the grandma of the family seemed to take a liking to me as soon as she found out my gift as a guest was a bag of Benoit chocolates, which she argues are some of the best in France. She spent the entire weekend slipping me more chocolate and filling my glass with champagne. No one else in her family seems to like champagne and so she employed me to help her finish the bottle each time she opened one. She really likes champagne. There were many.

Though I struggled to understand all his French and he spoke no English, Patrice, the grandpa, still spent quite a bit of time telling me about the cheese industry which he worked in for over 20 years. He had lots to say about what to feed a cow so as to get the best milk, which should of course be unpasteurized for a better cheese. Patrice also expressed much concerned over Camembert, a brie-like cheese traditionally from Normandy that is apparently straying away from its AOC origins.

Emmanuel, the father, loves jazz and played it throughout the weekend as the designated family DJ. He and I bonded over our love of the television show Mad Men (I cannot even begin to describe how bizarre it is to see Don Draper in French) and San Francisco where he spent a summer when he was young. I probably spent the most time talking to him.

His wife, Anne-Sophie was also incredibly nice and was constantly asking if I needed anything. Her younger brother, Francois-Pierre, was the archetypal uncle and was always teasing everyone.

Saskia, their thirteen year-old daughter listens to Wiz Khalifa, Lana Del Ray, and Macklemore. She adores Nike, but she pronounces it “neek.”

The youngest members of the family, Candice age two and Emma age 5, I interacted primarily only with different silly faces. Their mumbling kid-French was incredibly hard for me to understand, but that does not mean we did not share quite a few giggles.

Because they were at home and within their family, often everyone spoke incredibly quickly. There were many times where all I could do was sit and wait for the next word or phrase I could understand. And often even when I could understand what was being argued about (every kind of food industry as far as I can tell as well as some political issues like the state of France’s healthcare and education system), I did not always have the vocabulary in French to participate in the discussion. So sometimes I felt like a lame duck. Yet everyone was always kind and welcomed me to participate in every activity, from Sunday mass at the cathedral and the hunt for chocolate eggs left by the “Easter Bell” in the yard, to the marathons of eating they call “meals.”

Let me explain.

Each of the five big meals I shared with them this weekend involved a number of courses.

First, there is the aperitif, which is small snacks like crackers and nuts and more importantly drinks (alcohol) to set the mood for eating.

Then, there are the more formal starters. This weekend these included seafood like salmon rilettes, crab with mayonnaise, and oysters, as well as taboule and pâté. Besides the cheese round perhaps, the baguette basket is the most dominant here although it is present for every part of the meal.

I could easily have been satisfied after the starters, but that would mean I would miss out on the main course. When it comes to food I may never have tried before, my curiosity is definitely bigger than my stomach. Main course dishes included langoustine (which I learned after I ate them were basically tiny lobsters), escargot, crab, cassoulet, roast beef, mushrooms, green beans, and probably a couple other things I do not remember but ate. Easter Sunday lunch was the traditional lamb served with flageolets, a type of pale-colored bean, as well as french fries, endives made to taste like caramelized onions, and mushrooms.

Over the course of all the courses, on the table there was also a sauce made from special mushrooms called morels that I would not mind keeping in a flask with me at all times and having with me at every meal. For the seafood there was also always mayonnaise and for the meat, dijon mustard, as well as some type of sauce I think that was made from the extra juice from the lamb.

There were also a number of tarts and cakes, but I really only had eyes for the cache of chocolates that was inevitably brought out after every meal.

I was thousands of miles away from my home and my actual mother and father and brothers in Portland, but this last weekend reminded me of all my favorite memories of weekends where both food and family are king.