Chocolate Week: Round Three

I was extremely lazy this week in class and barely took any photos.  Actually, to be fair, I would have taken more but I forgot to charge my camera battery.  Whoops.

One of the chocolates we made looked a complete mess, but they were pretty yummy.  They were made with dark chocolate, slivered almonds, rice crispies, and crystallized lemon pieces.  We first tempered the chocolate, then poured the rest of the ingredients inside and then spooned it out in dollops.

I think my favorite chocolate we made this week was a Bailey's and speculoos combination.  We made a Bailey's ganache with milk chocolate, then poured it into milk chocolate molds.  Then we made speculoos cookies and attached the Bailey's and milk chocolate balls on top of them by using tempered chocolate as glue.  After they were attached and set, we used the spray gun to coat them with more chocolate.  Yum!

A runner up to my favorite chocolate was this final one.  We made feuilltine and spread it into a round.  Then we made a white chocolate and citrus ganache and poured it over the feuilltine in the round.  After that set, we sprayed it with the chocolate gun to "chablonner" the chocolate, then cut it into little squares.   Then we dipped the squares in tempered milk chocolate to make the final product.  Yum!

This coming week (the week I'm technically in right now) is the final week of my pastry course.  After that I'm off to travel the world!  Ahh, so nervous but so excited!!

Cake Week: Round Three

The last cake week!  It was pretty fun.  I was partnered with someone as obsessed with decorating perfection as I am, so we worked very well together.

The first cake we made was a raspberry and basil tart.  The tart dough we made is called "Sable breton," and it's a traditional dough from Bretagne.  In Bretagne they really like salted butter, so everything they make in pastry used salted butter instead of the typical unsalted butter.  We filled the tart with a basil pastry cream, then topped it with fresh raspberries.  It was so fresh and summer-y!  I think it was my favorite cake of the week.

The second cake we made was called B52.  It was a coffee, orange, and Bailey's themed cake.  We made a chocolate sponge and made ladyfingers with it, as well as two layers of sponge for the inside of the cake.  The layers were (from bottom up), chocolate sponge, feuilltine, orange bavarian cream, chocolate sponge, coffee jelly, Bailey's bavarian cream, topped with a mountain of chocolate curls and surrounded by chocolate ladyfingers.  It was delicious, but also extremely rich and heavy.  Our apartment only kept one cake and we ate only about half of it.  Too bad.

The third cake we made was called "Mac Cap D'Agde."  Our chef invented the dessert and the name.  The "mac" part is because the base of the cake is a macaroon, and rest of the name is pretty self-explanatory (the area it was invented).  This cake was kind of more of an individual cake, but we made a ton of them.  It reminded me of something we would normally make during plated dessert week.  The base was a long macaroon (kind of in the shape of an eclair), and on top we put a line of mango pastry cream we made then poured into long skinny molds to set.  On top of the mango we piped chocolate banana pastry cream in pretty braids and shells, then sprayed it with a chocolate gun (though I

Mac Cap D'Agde final product.

would have preferred not to).  Then on top of that we put a long line of chocolate then put passion fruit caviar on top decoratively.  Making the passion fruit caviar was an interesting process.  We heated passion fruit pulp and agar-agar together, then poured it into syringe which we then used to push droplets into room-temp oil.  The drops then set up into little caviar-like balls, which we strained from the oil to use to decorate.  It was very cool.           

Making passion fruit caviar.

Dough Week: Round Three!

After returning from Barcelona and Ireland on my week off, we jumped right into our final dough week!  We didn't make a lot of different dough this week because Thursday and Friday were completely devoted to making desserts for a really important cocktail the school was catering for, but I'll show you some of what we did make.

Two of the breads we made were "Tradition" baguettes.  Traditions are actually my favorite kind of baguette you can get from the boulangeries around here, so I was pretty excited about that.  We made the classic Tradition baguette and then we made a second one where we added a bunch of seeds.  Both were very good. We also made another bread that the chef called "Tranchoir."  "Tranche" means "slice" in English, and that's where this bread gets it's name.  It's wide enough to be cut into slices and used for sandwiches or toast.  It was pretty good, but I don't have a photo.  

This week we finally made croissants!  I've been waiting to make them ever since I got here.  I'm really proud of the croissants my partner Merav and I made, they were so pretty.  Also, we got the right number of croissants we were supposed to get from the amount of dough we made, which I'm pretty happy about.  

The cocktail the school was catering for was kind of like a promotion for the school so a lot of important people were there.  The mayor of Agde was one of the guests, and we spoke about the school and we posed for a bunch of photos with him.  I'm really not 100% sure what it was about to be honest, but the desserts we made for it were pretty sweet.  We made Paris Brests but with a twist.  Hazelnuts are usually the preferred nuts to use but instead we used pecans.  They were very good and I ate about three of them.  Nom.  We also made tiny tarts made from chocolate sugar dough and filled with almond cream, and on top we put a raspberry coulis that was frozen and dipped in gelatin so it holds it shapes.  When you bite into it the coulis kind of explodes out, so you have to pop the whole thing into your mouth at once.  The third dessert we made were macaroons smoked with wine wood and filled with chocolate cream.  It was the strangest thing.  It almost tasted like it should be filled with something savory like a cheese instead of chocolate because of the smokey taste.  Another thing we made was pannacotta layered with passion fruit juice.  That was very good, and I liked that we used juice instead of jelly because it gave it a different texture/consistency.  The last dessert was a cheesecake square filled with orange marmalade on a sugar dough square, topped with a piece of chocolate.  I would have liked it if it didn't have the orange marmalade.  Marmalade in France is too bitter for my taste.  Overall though the desserts for the cocktail were delicious and they went over pretty well. 

Next week is the final cake week-- can't wait!

Plated Desserts: Round Two

Plated dessert week was pretty fabulous.  I had a lot of fun with all of the recipes, and they tasted pretty amazing.

The first one we made may have been my favorite.  It was a flourless chocolate biscuit, a layer of chocolate earl grey tea mousse, a layer of sesame tuile and chocolate, then an earl grey tea ice cream, and another sesame tuile.  It was so good and it was very interesting to look at as well.

The second we made was an apple terrine on pate a sucre base, with a cerdon granite on one, rosemary flowers on the other, black currant coulis, black currant jellies, and a rosemary ice cream.  The flavors were so itneresting.  I really liked the rosemary ice cream, but I wasn't a fan of the cerdon granite.

The third dessert was by far the prettiest in my opinion.  The base was a semolina cake, then a layer of sweet vanilla cream, and in the middle was a grapefruit reduction.  On top was a layer of almond tuile, grapefruit sorbet, and a slice of dehydrated grapefruit and a piece of chocolate.  Underneath was more of the grapefruit reduction.  Chef complimented me on my quenelle of sorbet which was pretty cool!

The last dessert was maybe my second favorite of the week.  In the middle of the glass was a tube of lime mousse, and around it we poured in rice pudding, and on top of that we added a layer of strawberry jelly.  On top of the lime mousse we put a ball of exotic fruit sorbet rolled in caramelized coconut, and then on top of the glass was kind of a swirl of cigarette paste.  The flavors were so fresh and light and nommm.

Chocolate Week: Round Two!

Finally up to date.  Today was the last day of the second week of chocolate week, though we still need to finish up a recipe on Monday.  The chocolates we made this week were fantastic.  All three of the chocolates we made thus far are some of my absolute favorite flavor combinations.

The first chocolate is a classic french chocolate called 1848.  We made ours with hazelnut praline (which we made ourselves), roasted hazelnuts, feuilletine, and milk chocolate.  It's pretty sickly sweet, but so good.  We brushed it with an edible gold powder after taking it out of the bar molds.

The second one we made was a white chocolate, strawberry, and lychee ganache inside a milk chocolate shell which we then put a stick in, dipped in more milk chocolate, then sprinkled with crystallized rose candy.  They're ridiculously adorable, and they may be even more delicious than they are cute.

Another chocolate we made was sort of a caramel ganache with milk chocolate, which we cut into triangular pieces, dipped in more milk chocolate, and sprinkled with sea salt.  Caramel, chocolate, and sea salt?  Yes please!
The last chocolate we made this week was a rocher truffle made from a coffee infused dark chocolate ganache, then dipped in dark chocolate and caramelized almonds.  Coffee and dark chocolate may be the winning flavor combo from this week.

Cake Week: Round Two!

This was a delicious week.  The cakes may have even been better than the first cake week, which is really saying something.

Cake 1:


This was probably my least favorite cake out of all the cakes we've made.  This cake had a pate a sucre (sugar dough) base, and on top of that was a brownie.  I feel like I should describe this brownie though, because it is not a normal brownie-- it's a frenchified brownie.  It started out pretty normal (melted chocolate, sugar, nuts, etc.), but we made a meringue which we then folded into the chocolate mixture.  The brownie was not at all fudge-y and gooey, it was light and relatively dry.  It would have been good if we had left it at that, but on top of the brownie we spread a layer of really bitter orange marmalade.  I was not a fan.  On top of the orange marmalade was a chocolate-tea mousse.  I actually really liked that, but not everyone was fond of the tea in it.  We decorated the top with chocolate decorations we made ourselves.  Pretty cool!

Cake 2:

This was suuuuuper good.  Chef called it an Inflorescence cake.  It was layers of almond dacquoise, milk chocolate mousse, cherry jam, and another layer of the almond dacquoise.  We then submerged it in an amaretto flavored bavarian cream, then poured a marble glaze on top.  The decoration on top is made of isomalt, which we painted with an really pretty mauve-ish colored edible powder.  I think it's the prettiest thing we've made since I've been here. Gorgeous.



Cake 3:

This may have been my favorite of both cake weeks thus far.  It's a coconut cream tart with exotic fruits and a lime mousse.  I'm normally a sucker for chocolate desserts and often skip over the fruity desserts, but this fruity dessert is giving all of the chocolate desserts I've eaten a run for their money.  The dough is a pate a sucre dough, and we baked that slightly then filled it with a coconut cream we made and put it back in the oven.  We put an apricot glaze over that, then sliced the lime mousse we made (which we poured into tubes and froze to get the round shaped slices) and decorated the tart with the mousse and a bunch of fresh fruit.  We used mango, baby bananas (which I still don't know the technical name for), pineapple, kiwi, papaya, passion fruit seeds, and dried pieces of coconut.  Then we sprayed it with apricot glaze again, et voila!  Delicieux!

Cocktail Week/Dough Week

The week after plated dessert week was even crazier, and I wasn't sure that was even possible.  We started the four week sequence over, so we were back to doing dough.  But!  That was the last week for the students who started in January (and a couple who had started in September), and at the end of every term there's a cocktail party.  All of the students leaving/graduating at the end of the term are required to make a dessert (or appetizer if they're in the cuisine course) from their country of origin, and they spent most of that week in the kitchen preparing for it.  That was also the first week of a few new students, so the kitchen was absolutely packed.

I don't have any photos of the bread we made that week, and honestly I'm not sure that I even remember all of what we made.  I do remember we made an anise flavored bread, pain de mie, classic baguettes, and financiers.  That may have been it.  Chef also had the students who weren't leaving make some more desserts for the cocktail party (like mini tarts, macaroons, pate a choux with cream filling, etc.) So have some photos of the desserts at the cocktail party!

That was a really sad week.  The students who were graduating all left on the Saturday morning, and tears were definitely shed at our apartment.  Luckily that day my roommates and another two girls from the school went to Carcassone, so that brightened our spirits a bit!  Carcassone was such a beautiful town.  It kind of reminded me of the renaissance festival a bit too, so that automatically makes it amazing.

Plated Dessert Week

 Sorry I haven't been active on here at all lately!  I'm gonna try to catch up and post about all the delicious things I've been learning to make.  Here's where I left off.

Plated dessert week was crazy.  There were a thousand recipes for each of the desserts so for most of the week the kitchen was pretty hectic.  Friday was the worst-- and the best!  Friday was the day we plated all of the desserts, but we had to eat all three of them in about five minutes before moving on to prepare the next plated dessert!  I think everyone either had a massive food baby or was suffering from a major food coma for the rest of the day.  It was delicious but pretty sickly.

Plated Dessert 1:

This dessert was made from pink meringue squares, chantilly cream, peaches soaked in black currant juice, (x2).  On top was an anise ice cream and a raspberry sorbet, and in front was a strawberry coulis that was dipped in gelatin, so it held it's shape on the plate but as soon as you cut into it the coulis ran all over.  That was my favorite part of this dessert.

Plated Dessert 2:
 
The cake part of this dessert was made of layers of alambra biscuit, lemon jelly and a chocolate-asparagus mousse.  On top was a lemon-asparagus sorbet, with cocoa tiles on the side.  This dessert was a pain in the ass to put together thanks to the cocoa tiles, but it was actually really delicious.  Who would've thought asparagus would be a good dessert food?  Not me, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Plated Dessert 3:

This was my absolute favorite.  The three main flavors were chocolate, raspberry, and ginger-- a.k.a. the best flavors in the world.  Inside the cocoa tower were layers of joconde biscuit, chocolate raspberry ganache, fresh raspberries, and a ginger creme brulee, with raspberry sorbet on top.  Delish!  I almost ate this one in entirety even though it was the last dessert and I was already suffering from food baby contractions.

Chocolate Week!

Chef Florent tempering a large batch of chocolate for the class.

This entire week in pastry all we did was work with chocolate and it was possibly the best week so far.  We learned how to temper chocolate properly depending on what kind of chocolate it is, without using a thermometer.  That pretty much meant that we were constantly eating the melted chocolate, because you have to test the temperature with your lips, and most of us had chocolate on our faces for pretty much the whole time.

The coconut and the liquorice chocolates

I was partners with Courtney, one of my roommates, this week so that worked out perfectly, because all of the treats we made ended up at our apartment.  The first chocolate we made was a dark chocolate that we tempered ourselves, then we mixed it with pistachios, roasted pine nuts, feuilltine, and dried apricots.  We brought that home on Tuesday afternoon, and since we had a party at our apartment that night, by Wednesday there was only about 1/10th of it left. I don't have pictures of it because it people ate it so quickly.  To be honest though, it wasn't very pretty, so not having a photo isn't a big deal.  It was so nummy though.
We also made two other kinds of chocolate.  One had a filling of caramelized coconut and milk chocolate, and the other had a filling of almond paste and liquorice.

Our final product!

For the finale, we wrapped up our week by making a chocolate sculpture that Chef Florent designed for us.  I'm not even gonna lie, I am so proud of the one Courtney and I made.  For our first time ever making a chocolate sculpture we kicked a lot of ass at it.

So proud of this sculpture, not gonna lie.

Springtime in Cap d'Agde

a tree right outside my apartment

It's starting to get a bit less windy and chilly here and now there are so many flowering trees.  Cap d'Agde really is a beautiful area, despite the fact that it's still pretty comparable to a ghost town, and probably will stay like that until the tourist season starts.

the view from my hotel room's balcony

Last week a group of us decided to go to Montpellier on Friday for the night.  Finding a hotel was a pain in the ass because the Cirque du Soleil was in town, but eventually Hanel and I (being the champs we are) found one at the last minute on Friday morning before french class.  So that day after pastry our group (consisting of Hanel, Gemma, Clif, Chris, Naki, Mateo, and me) rushed back, finished packing, caught the last bus to the train station then hopped on a train to Montpellier.  It was a very fun night.  We had a little trouble finding our hotel, but eventually we made it there.  We went out for dinner (I had a starter of beef carpaccio, a main meal of sea bass and risotto, and a dessert of seasonal fruit with custard-- yum!), then we stopped at a bar or two, and found our way to Club Panama where we spent most of the night.  I will definitely make my way back to Montpellier at least once during the rest of my time in France.  There's so much more going on there than in Agde, that's for sure.

Le Pâtisserie (les semaines 1 et 2)

Alright.  Time to give updates on some of the yummy things I've been learning to make in pastry class.

Week One:  Dough

Tartine Grecques

For the first week of pastry the chefs focused on teaching us a few different kinds of dough and methods to make them.  We made roquefort bread, which was basically like a soft dough with roquefort cheese added.  Normally I don't like the taste of strong cheese (or cheese in general, but I am learning to!), but this bread was so delicious that I ate my entire loaf within two days.  All three of my roommates brought a loaf home and none of it was thrown away, that's how good it was.  

brioche with pistachio and almond paste

We also made tartine grecques, which is puff pastry that in the last two folds (of the six folds we made with the dough) we incorporated a shit ton of sugar and some five spice.  Then we divided them into three pieces, stacked them, then cut them into little strips which we then baked.  The really skinny strips after being baked on their sides puff out and turn into these rectangular size pieces, which we then spread orange marmalade on and turned into little sandwiches.  These were really good but there were so many to take home that we couldn't eat them all.

The third thing we made was brioche, which we rolled up with a pistachio and almond paste that we made, then shaped them and baked them.  I'm not happy with how mine turned out in terms of presentation (I didn't cut through them enough to lay them out to look really pretty), but they tasted sososo good.

banana cake

The fourth recipe we made was a banana cake with orange cardamom jelly pieces baked inside.  This recipe was alright.  It wasn't banana-y enough for most people's tastes, but chef taught us a fun way to decorate it.  The final product was brushed with an apricot glaze and covered with coconut on two sides.  The decoration on the top are two slices of banana that we sprinkled with brown sugar, torched to caramelize the sugar, then put on top with a decorated chocolate piece.  I thought the decoration was impressive considering how plain the cake looked just by itself out of the oven.  You can go ahead and ignore the bakery wrap underneath the cake in the photo.  We don't have any square or rectangular plates in our apartment and I didn't like how it photographed when I put it on a round one, but I promise I didn't buy it from our local bakery, haha. 

panneton

The last recipe we "realized" (a word the french chefs love to say in English when speaking about recipes), was an Italian bread called panneton.  It's a sweet dough with golden raisins (soaked in rum), and candied orange peel.  I really liked it but it's kind of a hit or miss with most people here.

Week Two: Cakes

This past week we focused on making cakes.  It was pretty awesome.  We made three cakes and they were all unbelievably delicious.

the best chocolate cake ever

The first we made was a chocolate cake.  It had a ton of layers.  Chocolate dacquoise, coriander feuilltine, chocolate bitter foam, chocolate mousse, chocolate crumble (which we also used to decorate the outside), and then covered with a dark chocolate glaze/ganache.  It was chocolately heaven.  I was really proud of how pretty mine turned out too-- it was actually mistaken for the chefs!  I ended up giving mine away as a birthday present to Brett, one of the guys here, since his birthday was Saturday this week.  He and his roommates ate it in less than 24 hours, haha.  The pieces of chocolate on top that were used for decoration didn't hold up too well during transportation, so please forgive the broken piece in the photo.

brioche with pistachio pastry cream and chocolate cream

My second favorite cake we made was another brioche and pistachio combination.  It's a round piece of brioche, sliced in half, the insides were brushed with a cherry and kirsch syrup, then we piped a spiral of pistachio pastry cream and a spiral of chocolate cream.  The decoration are pieces of cocoa and pistachio.  I'm really feeling the brioche and pistachio combo, it's so good, but I gave mine away to another group of guys not in pastry because we have such an excess of pastry in our apartment.

apple and chestnut cake

The third cake (and the third in my order of favorites), was an apple and chestnut flavored one.  It has a layer of chocolate and chesnut mousse, a layer of apple biscuit, a layer of green apple jelly, another layer of the mouse, and then we sprayed it with a green colored white chocolate on the top.  The decoration is of chestnut batons (made from chestnut cream and chestnut dough) and apples.  This was really pretty, though like the chocolate cake, the decoration didn't hold up too well during transport (a 20-30 min walk from class to the apartments).  My only criticism of this recipe is that there wasn't a huge variety of texture.  I wish the apple biscuit was crunchy instead of soft.  Other than that though, the flavors worked really well and it was very yummy.

Our apartment is practically overflowing with pastries.  Four pastry students in one apartment (instead of cooking or wine students) is turning out to be a very dangerous thing.

   

Pictures!

I got the care package my parents sent me so now I have my camera cord (as well as Cadbury's caramel eggs and Barry's Irish Tea!)!  Anyway, that means I can upload my photos and take more pictures, so I've also gone back and added photos to two of my previous posts, if you're interested in checking those out.

The internet here is really terrible.  It takes forever for a page to load and a lot of the time there are so many people on that it doesn't let you connect.  That's sort of why I haven't been updating as often as I'd like to, I just can't be bothered to deal with the internet.  But we've been making a ton of yummy things and I've been taking lots of pictures of them so I will make a post with them very soon.  Not today, but maybe tomorrow!

Days 12-15

Day Twelve: Goodbye Paris, Hello Agde!

Saturday was my last day in Paris.  I woke up at about 6:00 am in order to get ready and pack my last minute things before leaving to catch the metro at 7:00 am.  My bus was scheduled to leave at 8:07 am from Gare du Nord, and because it was so far away and the metro trip involved a transfer we had to leave pretty early, though we did end up with time to kill before I had to get on the train to leave.  We ended up getting café crèmes at a coffee shop (and I of course got a croissant as well).  It was a nice last minute breakfast.  Catching the train wasn’t a problem, and because my ticket was first class the train ride was so comfortable. 

view from right outside our apartment

I got off at the train station in Agde at 12:15 pm and was met out front by Martine and Valerie from Gastronomicom.  The train I was on actually turned out to be the same train a lot of the new students for Gastronomicom took, so a bunch of us piled our luggage and ourselves into the “shuttle” for the school. 

Hanel and Courtney were the first roommates I met because they were both on the train that morning.  Valerie showed us to our apartment and we sort of settled in a bit before having to go down to register with the resort and the school. 

After registering we decided to explore the area and find the local supermarket.  We unfortunately went around 3:00 pm, which is apparently still lunch time to the French, so the supermarket was closed, but Courtney (who took a one month pastry course at the school three years ago) remembered that there was another supermarket down the road so we ended up going to that one to get the essentials.  We bought ingredients to make sandwiches for dinner, and a few extra things like milk and orange juice.

When we got back we decided to pick rooms (two rooms for four people) and to move our clothes into our closets and the like, and while we were doing that Gemma, our fourth roommate, arrived!  We ended up picking the same room.

Some of the other students who had already been at the school for a few months invited us over to their apartment that night to meet everyone, so the roommates and I decided to walk back down to the harbor shopping area to buy drinks to bring with us.

After we got back we started dinner and then hung out talking and getting to know each other a bit.  It’s actually pretty great how well we get along, especially considering how we all are from different parts of the world and we had met so recently.   

At around nine (actually a little bit later, because we were fashionably late), we walked across to our neighbor’s apartment to meet people.

a daytime photo of the park where Hanel and I got lost

We ended up staying out until 5 am that night.  A small group of us went to the one club that was open down at the harbor to go dancing.  It turned out to be really fun and we met quite a few of the other students at the school.

Hanel and I almost got lost though, because the park we cut across to get down to the harbor looks so different at night, and we had to go back to the club ourselves to find her I.D.  We took the wrong path at a fork in the road and got completely turned around, but then we ran into two other people from the school who directed us safely to our apartment for us to go to sleep.

Day Thirteen: I Hate Hyper U 

We all woke up pretty early Sunday morning considering how late we stayed out.  At about 11 am we were all up and about.  Courtney and Hanel ran down to the bakery to pick up some croissants and a few pains au chocolat for breakfast, and it was so nice of them!  That day we decided to go to the big grocery store to buy the things we put of buying the day before, but since the bus doesn’t run on Sundays we thought we’d walk.

View of the sea on the way back from Hyper U
(sorry for the terrible zoom quality)

It ended up being a 2 hour walk there, and we took such a crazy route to get there.  We went through a path through some woods, trudged through brambles, then walked along a stretch of highway, and guess what?  The store was CLOSED!  We rested a bit at a restaurant next to the store before starting back.  The way back was much nicer because we found a proper bike path to take, so it only took 1 ½ hours to get home.  Once again, we ended up going to a little grocery store to get some more essentials, but for dinner that night I ended up eating an entire baguette by myself.  Baguette dipped in salted olive oil is my favorite thing in the world now.  It’s delicious.

We decided to go to bed pretty early that night because of how little we slept the night before, and we were pretty exhausted after our 3 ½ hour trek to and from the grocery store.

Day Fourteen: First Day of School

Monday morning we woke up and had a leisurely breakfast before going to French class at 9:00 am, when we took our French placement test.  Hanel and I ended up getting sorted into the same intermediate level French class for the rest of our classes here.  Pretty cool!  I was pretty impressed with myself that I didn’t forget all of my French. 

Most of the day we just had welcome things to do.  We went for brunch and cocktails down in the kitchen at 11 am, and after we had about a four hour break before we had to meet again for anything school related, so we decided to try going to the big grocery store again.

This time we had much more success.  We took the bus there which took about 15 min., and this time it was actually open.  We all stocked up and between the four of us we brought eight bags of groceries back to our apartment.  Our kitchen has real food in it now though, and it looks like people actually live and eat there.  It’s pretty nice.

At 4:00 pm we went down to the offices to fill out paperwork and the like, and then at 4:30 pm we got our uniforms.  They’re really not bad, though our aprons are huge and we’re required to wear them.  Overall though, the uniform could be worse. 

We finally got the internet code for the wifi that afternoon, so for much of the rest of the day we spent in the classrooms catching up on email and the like.

I made myself a real dinner that night and had vegetables for the first time in a while.  They tasted so good.  It’s funny how after not eating very healthily for a few days you really start to appreciate veggies.

The next day we started our first real classes, so the rest of the night pretty much consisted of the roommates and I talking about how excited we were to start cooking and other school related things.  Also hilariously trying to put names and faces together.  We got most of them down in the end.

Day Fifteen: First Day of Patisserie

I doubt I'm going to be able to keep up this day to day analysis, so most of my posts in the future are probably going to be summaries of what we do in class.  Today I had my first real French class and it really wasn't too bad.  I think I'll learn a lot in it.  It's completely in French, except for when the definitions of words no one knows are given to us in English (though that's pretty rare).
Today was the first patisserie class!  I'm so excited about it.  We started making puff pastry (tomorrow we're going to incorporate the butter and make the folds), and we started a few other things like roquefort bread and a mango and cardamom jelly.  I think we might have a few finished products after tomorrow's class.  Very exciting!  I'll take pictures but I won't be able to upload them until the care package my parents are sending me gets here (hopefully soon!).

Anyway, I'll try to keep up with things but it might get harder now classes have started.  I'll do my best!

Days 6-11

Day Six: Spitafield's Market

On Sunday, Kathleen, Sinead, and I met Fionnula near Liverpool Street and walked up towards Spitafield’s Market.  We walked around for a while and admired all of the items for sale, then stopped to get some coffee (which wasn’t that great, unfortunately).  After our coffee we recommenced our meandering and ended up buying two dresses at the market, and honestly I don’t really know how it happened.  I was torn between the two so I asked them which I should get, and the salesman suggested both and at 20 £ each that would have been too expensive so I said no.  But then my aunt started haggling with him and somehow knocked 8 £ off the price, and before I knew it I was holding the bag with both dresses.

After the market we decided to find place to have a drink, and after leaving one pub because it was too packed (since there was a football match on), we ended up at The Ten Bells where I had my first legal beer in a pub/bar.  The Ten Bells was formerly known as “The Jack the Ripper,” because it is known to be the place where Jack the Ripper would drink and pick out his victims.  Creepy, right?!  My first beer ever in a legal setting was at the pub where Jack the Ripper hung out.  That’s pretty memorable, to say the least.

After drinks we all headed back to the house for dinner and it was an early night for me—I was completely exhaustified. 

Day Seven: Touring London 

Monday was the first day on my own, since everyone was either working or at school.  It took me forever to plan what I wanted to do that day, but I finally came up with an itinerary I was satisfied with.  I took the 101 bus to East Ham, then got on the tube and took it to Tower Hill.  I allowed myself to be a tourist and took loads of pictures as I walked across the Tower Bridge, then explored the area directly next to the river on the south side.  I walked west along the river until I reached the Tate Modern, where I spent a couple of hours inside.  That is really a fantastic museum, and it was free entry!  After the Tate, I walked across the Millennium Bridge towards St. Paul’s Cathedral.  I wandered around the area taking more pictures, and checked out the occupy movement they have set up there.  As I was taking pictures an older gentleman came up to me and asked me if I was a professional photographer.  I told him I wasn’t, but we continued talking and he gave me a bunch of suggestions of good places to take photos in the area.  He also turned out to be a French teacher, and was just recently in the south of France in the area where I’ll be living so he wrote down a few “off the grid” places I ought to check out while I’m there.  Pretty cool!  After he ran off to catch a train I decided to track down a bakery that Fionnula recommended the day before called Bea’s of Bloomsbury.  I ordered a latte and a coffee & chocolate cupcake.  Both were very delicious!  And beautiful, too.

Since the bakery was located in a shopping center, I decided to kill some time looking around a bit there.  I went to Top Shop and H&M but I didn’t buy anything.  Yay for self control!  At around 5:30 pm I took the central line from St. Paul to Wanstead where Kathleen picked me up to go grocery shopping.  I think my favorite part about being in a foreign place is grocery shopping.  Well, maybe not my absolute favorite thing, but it would definitely be in my list of top 5 favorite things about being in a foreign country.

After grocery shopping we went back to the house where John made dinner and we watched a movie.  I can’t remember the name… something with George Clooney and Michelle Piefer being single parents.  Anyway, the rest of the night I planned what to do the next day.

Day Eight: Notting Hill 

Tuesday was my last full day in London.  I took the 101 bus towards Wanstead and from there caught the central line and took it to Notting Hill Gate.  I kind of love the movie Notting Hill, it’s one of my guilty pleasures, so I obviously had to track down the different areas in Notting Hill where they filmed it.  I found the garden where Hugh Grant tried jumping over the fence and embarrassed himself by saying “whoopsie daisies,” and I walked down Portobello Road and found the spot where Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant bump into each other and he spilled orange juice on her, and I also found Hugh Grant’s apartment in the film.  It no longer has the blue door, it’s a black door now.  I think I read somewhere that they auctioned off the original blue door for charity or something, so that’s alright. 
After I found all the spots I was interested in seeing, I walked back down Portobello Road and then found my way to Kensington Palace Gardens where I walked by a ton of embassies and, of course, Kensington Palace.  Right next to Kensington Palace there’s an entrance to Kensington Gardens which then connect to Hyde Park, so that’s where I went.  I walked around the gardens and found the circle pond with all of the swans and geese hanging out.  Then I walked along and crossed over to Hyde Park and I found one of those stands that sell ice cream, coffee, etc.  That was very exciting for me because I have so many fond childhood memories of being in England and eating those soft serve vanilla ice creams with the flakes sticking out of them, but the last couple of times I went to England I didn’t come across a place to get one again.  So of course I had to get one, and it was delicious.  It lived up to all of my memories and expectations of them. 

I left Hyde Park by the marble arch at Oxford Street and decided to spend the rest of my time checking out the shops, though I only ended up going to Primark because the entire area was completely mobbed and it was a pain getting around through all of the masses of people.  I bought a scarf from Primark, but it was only 3 £ so I don’t feel bad about it.  Plus, I had been lusting over that scarf since I saw it at Primark the first time so I would have probably felt worse if I hadn’t gotten it.

After Primark I tried catching the central line from Marble Arch station, but for some reason they weren’t letting anyone on, so I went to Bond Street station to catch it there.  At Bond Street station I found out that the central line had a massive signal failure so trains stopped moving for about an hour and there were a ton of delays.  Luckily the delays cleared up right before the train I ended up catching caught up with them, so I didn’t have any trouble getting back to Wanstead station.  From Wanstead I took the 101 bus back to the house. 

When I got back to the house Kate and John were already home, and Sinead and Dom got there shortly after I arrived.  Since it was my last night in London we all decided to go out for dinner.  They brought me to a fabulous Indian restaurant (which I can’t remember the name of, unfortunately), and we basically had a huge feast.  Everything was delicious and it reaffirmed my love of Indian food.   

After dinner we went back to the house and we all (including Bella) hung out watching television.  After a bit I thought I ought to start packing and get some sleep, though despite those good intentions I didn’t end up getting any packing done that night, and I didn’t get very much sleep either.  Oh well.

Day Nine: Goodbye London, Bonjour Paris!

Wednesday I woke up early to say goodbye to Kathleen before she went to work, and then I tried getting back to sleep but I couldn’t for some reason, so I ended up getting a start on some packing. 

I really hate packing, and it does not get easier as you accumulate more things.

A bit later in the morning I said goodbye to Sinead before she headed out for the day, and though she offered me a ride into town I hadn’t come close to finishing my packing yet to unfortunately I couldn’t take her up on that offer.  That was alright though, because I still had some stuff to do before leaving Wanstead.  I took the W19 bus to the Tesco grocery store in Leytonstone and I bought some chocolates and flowers to bring back to give as a thank you gift.  I also wanted to buy a bottle of Club Orange but I couldn’t find any!  I even stopped at a gas station on my way back and they didn’t have any either.  I wonder if it has been discontinued or something.  I hope not.

Anyway, after I got back I finished packing and was pretty much ready to go.  John came back and I said goodbye to him before taking off.

Once again I caught the bus to the central line and took that to the St. Pancras/Kings Cross station.

My train scheduled to leave from St Pancras, but being the Harry Potter nerd that I am, I first went to Kings Cross first to see Platform 9 ¾ , but I couldn’t get to it!   It was sectioned off or something, and I think you had to buy a ticket or something to get in, but I didn’t have time to figure it out exactly.  I was very disappointed, but I suppose that leaves me something to do on my next trip to England.

Gearoid's apartment window

I didn’t have any problems catching my train.  The Eurostar from London to Paris is a very short trip, just a little over three hours I think it was. 

I arrived in Paris at 6:15 pm at Gare du Nord.  Gearoid met me there at about 7:15 pm, and from there we took a taxi to his apartment.  I quite liked his apartment.  It was small, like almost every apartment in Paris is, but the living room was pretty big and it had these two great large windows that looked out onto the street.  It was very pretty.

We went out for dinner that night to a place just around the corner from his apartment called Bistro Nico.  It was seriously amazing food.  For my starter I ordered avocado filled with crab and a salad, for my main course I got risotto with truffles and prawns, and for dessert I ordered a coffee crème brulee.  So good.  Next time I’m in Paris I’m definitely going back to that restaurant. 

After dinner it was pretty late, and I was exhausted from the long day and the wine at dinner, so I went to bed pretty much immediately after getting back to the apartment.

Day Ten: Touring Paris

I woke up so late on Thursday!  It was about noon when I woke up, so I rushed to get ready in order to have as much of the day to spend in Paris as I could.

The metro was so conveniently located just a few yards from Gearoid’s apartment, so I took the metro from Guy Moquet and got off at Champs Elysees/Clemenceau.  As I was walking along Les Champs Elysees (and quietly singing Champs Elysees to myself), I ran across Laduree!  I knew there was one on Champs Elysees, but I read on their website that it was closed for renovations, but it was open!  So I snapped a few photos and walked right on in.  It is gorgeous on the inside, a bit gaudy, but still very pretty.  It wasn’t very busy, so I didn’t even have to wait in line to order my Napoleon box of six macarons.  I got rose, salted caramel, pistachio, milk chocolate, raspberry, and coffee.  So far I’ve only eaten two but they are sososo yummy.  The box of only six macarons put me back about 15 euro, but the experience of being at Laduree and how delicious they are made it so worth the money. 

After Laduree I continued walking along Les Champs Elysees, and I took photos of the hotel I stayed in the first time I was in Paris (Georges 5), and the famed Fouquets (where I have eaten before!), and then I reached l’arc du triomphe!  I took so many pictures of that, because even though I’ve seen it in person many times before, I didn’t take any pictures of it!
From there I walked to La Seine, and then I followed the river towards the Eiffel Tower.  I took a cheesy picture of myself with the Eiffel tower in the background, but I promise I won’t take photos like that very often.  When I reached Le Trocadero I bought a crepe du chocolat from one of the many crepe stands.  It was, of course, delicious.

I walked across the bridge towards the Eiffel Tower and walked around underneath it then hung out in the garden area on the other side.  Last time I was in Paris I went to the very top of the tower, so I didn’t really feel the need to do it again, but I really enjoyed just hanging out by it.  I ate the first of my macarons there. 

Once I decided to be on my way, I walked east towards the neighborhood Saint Germaine.  I walked past Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots, and while I had entertained the idea of getting lunch at Les Deux Magots during this trip, I decided against it because I wasn’t very hungry after eating the crepe and it’s a very expensive place to eat.  Next time.       

I caught the metro at the Saint Germaine de Pres station, and took that to the Cite station.  Cite is the only metro station on the island where Notre Dame is located, so after getting off there I walked to Notre Dame.  I’ve been inside twice before, so I mostly just wanted to get photos of it with my film camera, because I really think Notre Dame is beautiful in film photographs, more so than in digital. 

The sun was starting to set and I had plans to meet Gearoid in front of the Opera House, and since I planned to walk all the way there I had to get going.  I crossed the river and walked along it towards Le Louvre.  As I was walking, a guy came up to me and asked me (in French), where le Pont de Neuf was, and I instinctively answered him in English.  Taken aback by the English, he then said (in English), “Oh, you’re not French!  Where are you from?” So I told him I was from Minnesota and we talked a bit.  I noticed he had an accent, and I was pretty sure it was an Irish one but I asked where he was from anyway, and he told me he was from Cork!  Of all the tourists in Paris to ask me for directions, it ended up being a guy from Ireland.  So funny.  We parted ways, and I continued towards the Louvre, then turned right and walked in front of the pyramids, then continued towards Opera.  I got to the Opera House just in time to meet Gearoid, and then we headed off to the cinema to see The Artist.  I thought it was a very good movie, though overall a bit depressing despite the happy ending.  The entire time I was waiting for something even worse to happen to him.  I’ll probably have to see it again before really loving it. 
We got dinner at a place called Bistro Romain, right next door to the cinema.  It was convenient, but the meal was just not very good.  I had to send something back to the kitchen for the first time in my whole life!  The salad I ordered was completely drenched in this awful tarragon dressing that tasted like it came from a bottle, and they didn’t even devein the prawns.  The main course wasn’t much better.  I ordered salmon, but the edges were over cooked and the side was just a massive pile of french fries.  It was definitely a let down compared to the dinner I had the night before.  Too bad.

It was quite late by the time we got back to the apartment, so I went to bed directly.

Day Eleven: Montmartre

I got another late start on Friday.  I woke up at 12;15 pm.  I really don’t know how that kept happening, because I set an alarm but I didn’t even hear it.

I decided to walk to Montmartre that day.  I had never seen the Moulin Rouge, and I decided that it was about time that I did.  I got a little bit turned around, but I winded up exactly where I wanted to be!  The Moulin Rouge is such an interesting looking place.  The street it’s located on kind of reflects what it used to be, too.  Pretty interesting.  I walked around a bit in the general direction of Sacre Coeur without really knowing where I was going, but I figured if I kept walking up the hill I’d get to where I wanted to go, and I was right!  I found myself directly below Sacre Coeur, so I walked up towards it.  Unfortunately I was basically harassed by those street peddler guys.  I was walking up the stairs when one of them came up and basically cornered me, and tried to get me to give him money for something I didn’t even want.  I gave him a few coins and he told me that wasn’t enough, but I sort of shouted at him and told him that I didn’t even want it in the first place and that he could have the few cents but that was all and I that I was going to leave.  He was pissed.  There was a huge group of them, and I think they may have sent one guy to follow me.  I noticed a guy watching me for the next half hour or so as I was walking around Sacre Coeur taking pictures, so I decided to leave just to be safe.  I followed an older English couple down the stairs and to a street from where I knew I could get back to the apartment without trouble.  I’m so pissed at that stupid street peddler for making me feel like I had to leave though.  I won’t be going back to Montmartre without someone else with me. 

Counter at Laduree

I hung out at the apartment and started to get my stuff together, but then I thought I’d go down to the patisserie that’s practically next door to the apartment to get something to eat.  I ended up buying a pain au chocolat (what we call chocolate croissants in the US) then walked around for a little bit before going back to the apartment to eat it.  I thought about packing some more, but decided to go back to Laduree instead. 

When I was at Laduree the day before I saw that they had the recipe books for sale in the gift shop for only 30 euro, so I asked my parents if they would reimburse me for it as an early birthday present (since I’m going to be in Egypt on my birthday).  They agreed, so when I went there on Friday I bought it.  I also decided to pick up a couple of pastries for dessert to give to Gearoid as a thank you for letting me stay.  I ended up buying a passion fruit and raspberry tart, and a “carre chocolat” which was basically a square of chocolate heaven.

Treats from Laduree

Once I returned to the apartment I couldn’t put it off any longer, so I started the inevitable chore of packing.  Gearoid came home and asked if eating in that night would be okay, and I said it would, so he ran out to get some groceries to make dinner. 

He invited his friend, Ali, over to have dinner with us that night.  We had a very good avocado salad, spaghetti bolognaise, and the treats from Laduree for dessert.  It was a very fun evening, and we stayed up much too late considering how early we had to get up the next morning to get me to the train station on time.  I think I finally got to sleep around 2 am, which gave me only 4 hours before I had to wake up in the morning.

More soon!