Jewish Easter (as they say in France)

A few days ago, I was invited to a Passover seder in Paris by a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend. Literally. I immediately excepted.

All day today, I kept thinking about what the seder would be like. Would there be gefilte fish, matzah ball soup, brisket, and macaroons? Or escargots, coq au vin, and fromage? Would they have Manichevitz?

It turned out to be fairly similar to what I am used to, with a few exceptions. The gefilte fish was made from real fish, not a processed ball packaged in a congealed jelly. There wasn't Manichevitz, but instead kosher Bordeaux. We read the Hagadah in French (interestingly the books had a forward written by Elie Weisel). They even hid the afikoman, yet by the end of the meal they had forgotten to look for it. The seder lasted well past midnight.

I have to say that this will be a night I will always remember. I was really nervous before, considering my French isn't quite up to par. But not to worry, everyone was really nice and very talkative. The family was huge, there were probably twenty-five of us at dinner, having come from all over France (Corsica and Marseilles).

After hours of struggling to understand conversation, slowly reading the Hagadah out loud in French, and replying to an endless string of questions, the family members began to present themselves to us in English. In a way this was a really nice gesture on their part, showing us that we shouldn't be embarrassed by our French, considering their English was about the same, if not worse. The best English speaker proudly proclaimed:

"Hello, I am Sacha. I have 18 years and I like the pretty girls"

I was amazed at how hospitable this family treated us despite never having met us. They fed us about 30 different dishes, engaged us in conversation the entire night, dropped me off at my apartment afterwards, and gave me their number in case I ever need anything. And after complementing the gefilte fish, I was invited back for Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur. It was the first time that I felt like people understood that French was my second language and that I wasn't just an idiot.