In France, grapes are crunchy

Tonight my host mother Isabelle and I dined together after she got home from her oil painting class.  Annabelle and Paul are often out of the house at dinnertime and later, which is not what I originally expected.

For dessert we had some of the grapes she had recently bought; Burgundy is famous for its wine, so its grapes are pretty well known too.

However, grapes in France are different from what you buy in the states; not only are the varieties different (no, you don't eat the varieties that are used in wine making), but they have seeds.  I'm not sure seedless grapes exist here, and don't expect them to become popular anytime in the near future.  Understandably, there's a great deal of pride associated with France's grapes/wine, and also the French are very against engineered and manipulated foods, which in this case they might extend to grapes bred to not have seeds.  But I disgress.

When I first tried a grape and made a face when I crunched down on the seeds (les pépins) because I wasn't expecting the crunch.  Grapes aren't supposed to be crunchy... plus, the seeds are bitter.  Isabelle thought my expression was funny, as well as the fact that I spat the seeds of the next few grapes I ate into my hand.  "Tu manges les raisins comme les enfants," she amusedly told me (you eat grapes like little kids, spitting out the seeds).

I figured that I should make an effort to act like an adult French person, so I tried to eat grapes "normally," swallowing the seeds. I wish I could have seen my expression the first few grapes, because I'm sure it would have been very pitiful and funny.  The trick, I found out, is to swallow the seeds as soon as possible so the bitterness is masked by the sweet grape.  I also tried not to crunch the seeds, but that was awkward because I felt like I was eating mochi and not grapes.  Swallowing the seeds quickly - which is kind of like learning to swallow pills - still isn't great, in my opinion, because you have very little time to enjoy the grape unless you want a bitter aftertaste.

Anyway, I can successfully eat grapes like a Frenchperson.  I did notice, though, that at the next meal where we ate grapes, Paul spat the seeds out into his hand.  I couldn't think of the words fast enough to mention it, so I just chuckled to myself.