School daze, cook’s tour and a new bra size

Just a day or two ago, while reading one of our handy resource books about adapting to life in Paris, Susan discovered that her bra size is now 90D, at least according to the French. Which of course came as quite a shock to all concerned. But she’s learning to live with the news. I think we all are. (photo: on the Place des Vosges, Louis XIII with a bicycle tire in his right hand.)

The really big news here is that Susan began the intermediate level at Le Cordon Bleu this past Wednesday. We’ll have more on this in the next day or two but for now a few notes will have to suffice.

There were a few returning students from the intensive level class but also quite a few students who had done the basic level this past spring/summer term and had the month of August off. There were also quite a few new faces in the office staff as well as among the chefs – most had been on holiday of course and were back for the normal routine of the coming school year.

Anyway, after a day or two of everyone in Susan’s group adjusting to each other and their workflows (there once again 24 students in 2 groups of 12 each) things seem to be running smoothly. Already we have been blessed with several fresh desserts at home, although I expect that number will be nowhere near as high as it was last month since Susan will only be baking in school probably 2 or 3 times a week (as opposed to nearly every day). Her schedule is in fact quite relaxed compared to last month. She might have a demonstration class (2.5-3 hours) one day followed by a practical class (about the same hours) the following day; occasionally she will have both demo and practical on the same day. (photo: Susan's latest, a raspberry tart with passion fruit creme.)

It’s nice that Susan will have a good deal of time off though, which will be good for her emotional health. It will also allow us to spend more quality time seeing Paris and traveling through France and beyond. In fact we hope to get over to Germany in late September to see our niece and her new daughter before they leave for an extended visit to the U.S. But our first trip outside of Paris we hope will be to the beaches at Normandy.


As for me I spent two days each at Montparnasse and Montmartre cemeteries and am still alive to talk about it. Anyway I have put plenty of photos online (click here) from those various explorations and of course notes on my Paris cemeteries blog as well. There are so many wonderful stores in those old cemeteries, stories about Paris, about the people who lived here, died here and about who we all are or want to be. (photo: odd creatures guarding the entrance to the Hotel de Sully.)

It was such a beautiful day yesterday (Friday) that we decided to meet after Susan’s early morning demo class. We thought it was high time to explore some of the culinary resources touted so much around Le Cordon Bleu and so we decided to meet after Susan’s early morning demo class. I grabbed our maps, packed us a lunch and right after Susan called me to say she was finished I left for the Metro – she did the same and we rendezvoused at the Etienne Marcel Metro stop near Les Halles. (Frankly there is little reason for spending much time at the broadly unattractive and featureless tacky underground shopping center known as Les Halles, after the city’s ancient food market was called before it was moved out to the suburbs back in the late 1960s. It is a great place to have lunch though, and we did indeed use some of the shaded green space just for that purpose.)


Anyway we had a short list of culinary suppliers to visit, places which were specifically designed for both professional and serious amateur alike. (photo: Nijinksy the dancer, Montmartre cemetery.)

So within a block or two of one another are several places you might want to pop into if you interested in kitchen things – and mind you these are serious cooking and baking tools. Only one shop, A. Simon had the more traditional kitchen and home accessories (flatware, silverware, plates, glasses etc.), as well as a separate store for the serious cook or baker. Most of these shops deal just in cooking and baking equipment, and this corner of rue Montmartre seemed to be their gathering place since they were all within earshot of one another, and just just s short walk up from Les Halles.

Check out A. Simon at 48 and 52 rue Montmartre 75002; they have two stores next to one each other, one is home and kitchen and the other is equipment for the kitchen. Then there is Mora at 13 rue Montmartre 75001. And then there is La Bovida, at 36 rue Montmartre and Blvd Etienne Marcel. And just across from La Bovida at 58 rue Tiquetonne near the junction with rue Montmartre is G. Detou which specializes in bulk food items: flour, sauces, nuts, lots of wonderful specialty items for the restaurant community but available to the public as well. This was our first stop and Susan loaded up on nuts, almond powder and numerous other hgard-to-find baker's necessities. Another good thing was their prices were most reasonable: a large container of vanilla beans for less than €7!

Another equipment store we visited a week or so ago and is also close by the rue Montmartre shops is Dehillerin's at 18-20 rue Coquillerie and 51 rue J-J Rousseau, another stop for the serious kitchen supply freak. The place hasn’t changed since Julia Child was here over 60 years ago! A wonderful place just to get lost in – at least if you like getting lost in a cook’s warehouse that is.

We walked a couple of blocks to Les Halles, found a shady spot to picnic and ate our lunch of baguettes with cheese. We then headed to rue de Rivoli where we turned west, heading in the direction of Place de la Concorde. The rue de Rivoli is one of the longest, straightest streets in Paris, flanked by the Louvre and the Tuileries to the south and a long portico consisting primarily of shops to the north -- many of them selling either very tacky souvenirs or very expensive jewelry, sometimes both.

Actually we weren’t going quite as far as the Place de la Concorde but wanted to stop at Galignani’s bookshop at 224 rue de Rivoli. We browsed a bit and left heading back the way we came. In fact we hopped on the Metro at the Tuileries (close to the bookshop ut on the other side of the street) and headed back home.

We dropped off our stuff, refreshed ourselves and went back out, this time heading to the Marais neighborhood (4th arrondisement) before heading to BHV and the Hotel de Ville for a couple of items for Susan’s course. We took the metro to the Bastille (which is long gone, only the name remains) and walked over to the Place des Vosges, which is, as the guidebooks say very nice looking. There were lots of folks out, families, young kids playing, just people enjoying themselves in the park on a sunny afternoon. After about three minutes of this we headed off and walked through the Hotel de Sully, at the southwestern edge of the Place – worth a little detour by the way – and eventually found ourselves back on rue Sant Antoine. From there we continued our stroll over to the Isle St. Louis where we stopped at a café overlooking Notre Dame and enjoyed a kir and sancerre (a crisp French white wine) while watching humanity streaming in all directions.

We picked up our bag and walked over to the huge BHV department store on the north side of the Hotel de Ville (city hall). Susan needed kitchen gloves for school – surprisingly enough the school doesn’t provide oven gloves. Go figure. Anyway in the basic course the chefs pretty much did all the oven work but not now. So some of the students had discovered these wonderful (and very expensive) Kevlar gloves at BHV. The gloves look and feel just like heavy winter gloves – none of that mitt business. So we bought two (they only come singly curiously) and strolled back toward the Bastille, stopping at a Nicolas shop for wine and then at Lenotre pastry shop to try their éclairs. We were curious if the retail versions were as overfilled as the version Susan had to make last month. We tried both coffee and chocolate versions and while were filled well enough they were significantly smaller Susan’s, which I also thought tasted better.


As we walked back down rue de Rivoli, which soon became rue Saint Antoine, we were struck by how many specialty food shops, pastry shops, open air markets and butcher shops with their large outdoor rotisseries filled with whole chickens, at all the Asian restaurants with their treats on easy display facing the street, just ready for the passerby, at all these food oases and more along this short stretch of Saint Antoine. Amazing. (photo: those are all goat cheeses. Good and good for you.)

But we fought off the temptation to snack, munch, nibble, or otherwise load up on food to go – and not fast food but great food to go seemed everywhere. So we hopped on the Metro at Bastille and three stops later we were strolling back to our apartment so I could fix dinner. Still I felt depressed that my food seemed so plain and ordinary by comparison with what we had just seen, it was so lacking in flavor, devoid of any character. But it tasted pretty good nonetheless. Go figure.

Anyway, it was another grand day in Paris.

Wish you were here,

Steve

Graduation, basically

Today (Sunday) will be our one-month anniversary in Paris – and I must say it seems so long ago that we were actually living in Florence (Italy not South Carolina). I suppose that comes as a natural result of the intense nature of the past three weeks or so, particularly for Susan but for us both as well. This past Thursday Susan completed the Basic Patisserie (Pastry) course at Le Cordon Bleu and graduation ceremonies were on Friday. (I posted photos online; you can see them by simply clicking here.)

The ceremony itself was quite a well-orchestrated affair – very much like high school graduation and very much unlike the complete absence of any sort of “closure” at Apicius this past May. Chairs were set up in the “Winter Garden”, the student lounge at the school. The seats were all full – students and quite a few guests in attendance –in fact it was standing room only. After a few words by one of the school administrators, all translated from the French of course, several of the school’s head chefs were introduced and the two who had been in charge of the Basic Cuisine and Basic Patisserie programs respectively were given an opportunity to say a few words before the certificates were handed out. (By the way, speaking of translation issues there was one student from Spain I think who didn’t speak either French or English and whose mother I believe was translating for her.)

Following the ceremony everyone retired to the demonstration class room where there was food and champagne set up for toasting the new graduates. The talk was all about baking, cooking and the school and naturally everyone felt that great sense of relief that comes from completing something that demanded so much of one’s intellectual and emotional energy compressed into a short space of time.

(I should point out a bit of curious perspective here. Just the day before, Thursday, several students from the Basic Patisserie went out to lunch following the practical portion of the final exam: Paul, Lori, Ann, Susan and I, Tatiana, Diarmid, Laura, and Valerie. Following a nice lunch the talk naturally turned to the school and there were a number of points raised about the unfairness of some of the written exam questions (accurate) and then the conversation turned to the school’s approach to marketing, that there seemed to be more of a focus on image than on technique, etc. The next day while reading Julia Child’s last book, “My Life in France”, Susan came across Julia relating how her favorite chef at Le Cordon Bleu, chef Mangalette, who then ran his own restaurant, lamented to her that Le Cordon Bleu “was focused on a mad scramble for money rather than on the excellent training of their pupils. The school had lowered its standards, he said.”And this more than 60 years ago!)

After the reception several of us – Valerie and Lori (who had been in the same group with Anna and Susan) and Lori’s friend Georgia -- joined Anna and her husband Pietro and their two kids for lunch. The day was absolutely gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky, bright sun, blue sky, perfect temp and we were in Paris; all in all a pretty awesome combination. We made plans to rendezvous at the restaurant at 1 pm.

Pietro suggested a restaurant, La Ferme Saint Simon (on rue Saint-Simon, near the Rue de Bac Metro), which he knew fairly well. We placed our trust in Pietro since he is something of an expert when it comes to dining out in Paris: he eats out frequently in the city and has developed a keen sense of what’s good and what’s not so good. Better yet he knows where the really good food and wine values are in a city that is often mistaken for being a bit on the extreme side when it comes to dining costs. (He should put a guide together; his knowledge is so broadly based and thorough.)

So we arrived at the restaurant and, given that many Parisians were still on holiday, Pietro found a place to park right in front! We went in, sat and chatted as we waited for the rest of the group to show up (Lori, Georgia and Valerie). As time slipped by and the staff became a bit anxious – the restaurant was going to stop taking orders after 2 pm – and although the rest of the group had not arrived, we started ordering. Which proved to be just the tonic since we had no sooner placed our orders and Pietro was just about to begin ordering the wine when the other three showed up.

We all had a pleasant afternoon – and most had fish I might add, sea bream (“dorade”) seemed to be the hit of the afternoon. It was baked with a crust of grains and seeds on the skin-side and made eating the skin a real tasty treat – something which surprised even Pietro! What a grand time we had together before everyone went their separate ways.

The food generated the conversation as it seems to do naturally in France (as in Italy) and of course the conversation turned to Le Cordon Bleu --- but on a more upbeat note than the previous day’s luncheon. The simple fact is that this wonderful experience had been a truly fantastic accomplishment – the fact that they did it all is amazing to me even now. Naturally I suffer from prejudice of a sort – a strong sort I admit – and can’t wait to see what the intermediate level will bring for Susan and by extension for me as well. Still I felt a pang of sadness for those folks not going on – I understand why they can’t or won’t since they all have other major demands on their lives right now. I can only say that from my perspective for Susan to enroll in the entire diploma program was, is, I believe, the smart move. There won’t be any half measures: just A-Z, alpha to omega, beginning to the end.

This is a great time to be alive and in Paris, believe me.

Wish you were here,

Steve

Demonstration class

Sitting here this morning in our living room, having a bite of breakfast before she left for school, Susan turned to me and said, “I can’t believe I’m doing this, I can’t believe we’re doing this” and then a broad smile crept across her face as she quietly returned to her notes getting ready for class. Every day she says the same thing and every day I say “I can’t either.” Is this great or what?!

Anyway, yesterday Tuesday, 22 August was the day Susan had arranged for me to attend one of the demonstration classes. The demo class is where the chef instructor prepares several recipes, one of which the students will then prepare immediately afterwards in the practical session. Visitors are apparently not permitted to observe the practical sessions. I assume because we would simply get in the way of an otherwise pretty crowded environment, the work kitchen.

I caught up with Susan and several other students as they were getting ready to break for lunch – I had the foresight to bring my own lunch as well – and we all strolled over to a small park by the Vaugirard Metro stop. It was beautiful day, the sun was out in strength for a change and sunglasses were de rigueur so naturally I had forgotten to bring mine. Much of the talk about the written portion of the final exam – some students were clearly unhappy with what they considered to be unfair questions on the exam, and from what I could tell they had a perfect right to be unhappy. Still, the course is largely pass/fail and, as someone in our little lunch group said, “as long as I get 50% I’m happy,” which pretty much echoed the feelings of the group in the park at any rate. For some, however, inequity is, well, inequity and should be reported and made right I guess. (photo: (l-r) Susan, anna, Valerie and Laurie.)

So the written exam is done and now the big worry is the practical portion since it counts for majority of the grade and naturally everyone wants to not only do well but to shine at the same time. That and where to have lunch Thursday after the exam!

But it was too nice a day to forget that the really important thing was we were in Paris, sitting on a park bench and dressed in cute chef outfits – well I wasn’t of course. And thinking of the outfits, the pants, the coats, brings to mind something someone once said to Susan recently, back in Italy I think, that she had in just traded one white coat in for another. A key difference being, besides the logo and name above the left breast, is that one was covered with bodily fluids and the other with chocolate. A significant difference here.

We drifted back to the school. Anna, Laurie and Valerie stopped for coffee on the way – we still haven’t gotten used to French coffee – and at 12:30 we were all in the demonstration classroom, flanked by monitors on both sides of the class (close circuit camera tracking from one side), and a sloped mirror on the ceiling running the entire width of the counter/work tops. It was just like being in a TV studio, actually, or science classroom with the amphitheater seating. I was half expecting them to wheel out a cadaver and really get going.

Several of us were sitting in as visitors, including Georgia one of Laurie’s friends from the US, who sat next to me in the back, and we were all provided with copies of the recipes to follow along, which was pretty cool.


So I had the camera at the ready and we were off, with the chef speaking French, the translator translating into English, questions from the audience occasionally in French and usually in English. At first it seemed a bit frenetic – which Susan said later was not typical. But things soon settled down once the chef and the translator got their rhythm in sync with one another and we watched a master create three different desserts, a couple of them simultaneously. Very cool indeed. (photo: (l-r) Laurie and Georgia.)

After about 2 1/2 hours the demonstration was finished and everyone rushed forward with digital cameras in hand to snap photos. Lest you think they do this just because it is the thing today to take photos everywhere – the simple fact is the students wanted to have a visual record to check their own work later after they finish the practical – “this is how the thing is supposed to look” as opposed to “my god what I have done!”

So everyone crowded up to the front to gawk and snap pictures – and then the feeding began. Everything was cut up, plated and handed out for the tasting – I mean seeing is one thing but you have to know what a thing is supposed to taste like as well, right? Some folks clearly we concerned about their abilities to replicate the tastes exactly so they had to return for a couple of helpings. Please note that there were no large people in the room – aside from myself of course as a consequence of the things Susan brings home, six days a week! Make her stop, please!

Anyway it was real blast to see one of the classes in action and I hope to be able to get back for another later this fall.

Wish you were here,

Steve

Update on the update

I mentioned in my last update that while aboard a boat cruising the Seine during the school dinner this last Friday we had seen a fellow dressed as a zouave standing at the base of the statue of a zouave, a statue which is found near the right bank side of one of the bridges along the Seine. Well that bridge is the "Pont Alma" (thanks Beata) and I've attached a photo it to help give you an idea of this rather odd but pleasant tiny attraction on the Seine. The locals use it as a barometer of sorts to measure the flood stages of the river -- and that ther have been reports of the river coming up to the neck in years past. (Note also you can just see one of the legs of the Eiffel tower in the right background.)

Wish you were here,

Steve

Paris Week three.

When will it never end?! The butter, the cream, the butter cream, the crème, the beurre, the dough, the chocolate! What torture inflicted upon an innocent bystander! One minute I’m minding my own business, and then the next thing I know Susan walks in the door with a couple of hundred pounds of pastries she made during that day. Figure it out: Susan makes enough food for a family of six every day six days a week and we wind up with a lot of pastry in the house. (photo: steve standing along the seine, after two weeks of eating susan's pastries.)

Ok I’ve got that off my chest. Thanks.

Well, it’s rainy again this Sunday afternoon. We did have sun early on with a huge sky full of gorgeous clouds – very much like a western Michigan sky in fact, and then out of nowhere, BAM! rain and then gone again replaced by sun and clouds you eat on a stick. Then just when I thought it’s safe to out without an umbrella – fool that I was this morning -- BAM! again I get caught in it. Still watching the weather drift casually but inexorably in from the west from our balcony is a real pleasure and makes the climb worthwhile every day. And the temps have been just right too. Great for sleeping or traveling the Metro!

So it’s been another week of intense school for Susan. She’s two-thirds of the way through the basic level and finals are next week already and in fact she’s studying right now for the written exam, which is Monday. The practical – the really important exam is Thursday. Then a break of a few days off followed by a slower-paced intermediate level before the last, Superior level (in French only mind you), again intensive, and then she’s done in mid-December.

With my exploration of Pere Lachaise largely behind me – OK one or two more trips and then really I swear that’s it -- I’ve turned my attention this past week to another thing I’ve been wanting to do for some time: bring my civil war project to some sort of “closure.”
And so the big news is that at long last the history of the Third Michigan Infantry is done. Not finished mind you – it probably never will, not in my lifetime at any rate. But I hope to have it ready for sale online in an electronic format next month. And in hopes of generating some interest just today (Sunday) I finished the press release and sent off a note to my Third Michigan email list.

Whew!

Still we had time for a couple of interesting outings this past week.


On Tuesday, the 15th, a major holiday here in France, there was no school so in the afternoon we headed off to explore more of the historic center. In particular we wanted to spend a bit of time along there Seine, to check out the Isle St. Louis – worth anyone’s time I might add -- and of course the Parisian “beaches” (“la plage”). The beaches show you just how imaginative a city government can be. First they brought in tons of sand, and laid down boardwalks and put out hundreds of deck chairs and sponsored all kinds of cool stuff for everybody to do as they strolled along the “beach” and they even covered the large overhead streetlights with blue plastic to add to the effect at night, since blue seems to be the “hot’ color here. And they also laid down palm trees and tropical plants – not just in buckets mind you but actually brought in soil and put in overhead misting sprinklers to make a truly tropical garden! Imagination at work! I mean how hard is that? Apparently pretty difficult for lots of folks and I wonder why. Sounds civilized to me.(photo: "la plage".)

And speaking of civilized I don’t know if I mentioned it or not in my last update but we finally got our high-speed Internet access working in our apartment. OK, so big deal you say? Well – get this – for €30 a month (which is included in our rent) we get blazin’ fast connection to the internet, scads of TV channels (including al Jazeera, Algerian TV, Tunisian TV, Polish TV, 3 Italian channels, Classicla music channel, you get the picture) and unlimited calling to 53 countries including the US! Now is that civilized or what?

Anyway around the two islands in the Seine before heading off on the Metro to the Big Arc and strolling along the Champs Elysees. After a glass of wine on the Champs watching the world we took the Metro home, and that night we ate out at a nearby Indian restaurant. Not bad food, actually pretty tasty, and good portions (meaning small). The Indian wine was, uh, shall we say, interesting? The service was goofy and frankly given the number of places to eat here we won’t be going back. Next up we hope Vietnamese. And I don’t mean the Vietnamese food I had when I was there last, which was, how should I put this, far, very far from the Michelin crowd.

Friday night we had yet another pleasingly odd dining experience. Le Cordon Bleu put on a dinner aboard one of the (many) Seine dinner cruise boats and I got myself invited to go along. Susan After class Susan dashed home and after a quick change we headed off on the Metro (one change) to the Eiffel tower, where the boat was moored, arriving in plenty of time before sailing. We sat with the students in Susan’s practical group and what a cool bunch! American, Canadian, French, quite a diverse group – but you knew that already and quite unlike Apicius in Florence. Anyway there was live music – a trio hitting all the top 10 from past 30 years – and while the food was mediocre and the wine more so, the company was fantastic, conversation lively, but the views from the boat along the Seine at night were worth the price of admission – simply stunning.


And put this in your hat: along one of the bridges – I forget which one now but I think near the Isle de Cite’ – there is a large statue of a French zouave soldier from the 19th century, a statue which has over the years become the barometer for the height of the river, I might add, and which is almost at river level, built into one of the pilings. Anyway, the Zouave soldier wore a uniform, which consisted of fez, bright, colored baggy pants and colorful red shirts and were so popular that they were adopted by a number of regiments (north and south) in the American Civil War. Anyway, as we were passing the bridge, there along the base of the statue – at a location that could only be accessed by small boat – was a man dressed in the very same uniform! Waving to everyone who went by. Whoa! Now this is really cool we thought.

But then we couldn’t help but notice the statues built into the bridges – not just the ones for show but statues built literally inside the bridge infrastructure, as if they were somehow participating in the holding up of that bridge or in doing something on the bridge. But this seems very typical of statuary here – dynamic, fluid somehow. I don’t now much about this stuff but man oh man take a boat ride at night, when you’re not distracted by the buildings, when you’re focused pretty much on the bridges – all 23 of them – each one with a different lighting pattern, a different expression inherent in the shape of the bridge as well as in the accessories – such as statues, then you get a sense of what this city is all about.

After the boat docked – it was about 11 pm – we had a nice stroll along the Seine on our way to the Metro stop (Bir Hakeim in case you asked) and home because we both had an early morning.

And now as Susan starts her final week of basic pastry I turn my attention to Montparnasse cemetery.

But we are so lucky to be here and wish you could be here too – if for no other reason than to help eat all this pastry. . .


Steve