We've Reconciled!

Bonsoir y'all!!  I sincerely apologize for leaving you with such a melancholy post for the past couple of days, but I haven't had ANY time to update!  Don't worry, I haven't holed up in my apartment with all of the lights off, rocking back and forth and sobbing uncontrollably because I miss the US of A.  I have actually been super busy with class (shocking, I know) and my visit with Mom!!!  Paris and I are officially friends again, and I really  appreciate all of the warm wishes concerning last Wednesday.  Y'all will be happy to know that the melodramatic mood passed, and I had been quite happy and even more in love with Paris ever since!  So, my wonderful glass of red wine (I finally upgraded from the 1,86 euro bottle of wine vinegar.  Note: nothing good in life costs only 1,86 euros -- except croissants!) and I will update y'all on everything that has been going on across the pond since last week.

My Thursday practical went MUCH better than Wednesday (ugh -- I am still bitter about it!), and I think that had a lot to do with the chef we had.  He was really nice, but stern, and made sure that everyone understood exactly what we needed to do....AND he did his best to communicate in both English and French, which helped IMMENSELY because most of the chefs speak solely in French.  He is the youngest chef at the school, so maybe they haven't influenced him too much yet on the yelling and stuff.  Anyway, he started out the demonstration making a couple of different quiches because our lesson today was on various cuisine pastry doughs.

Rolling out the dough for puff pastry -- which we started today (along with quiche) and will finish in our next practical

His beautiful quiches.  The closest is Quiche Lorraine, and the middle is a mushroom quiche -- magnifique!

And voila!  My Quiche Lorraine!  It looks similar, right?!

And just for fun, I think I have found the BEST croissants in Paris, and the bakery is across the street from the school...which is very dangerous!

Mom flew in on Friday, and as I had previously lamented, I had class essentially from 08:30 - 21:30 (with a little break from 11:00 - 15:30).  It was a pretty hectic day, as you can imagine, but it ended up working out well!  It started out with pastry demo at 08:30 (of course!), where the crazy and very loud chef made Saint Honore --- it is a classic French cake, but it isn't even really a cake...more like thin pastry and LOTS of Chantilly cream.  YUM! 

The chef piping the Chantilly cream into the Saint Honore

The closest cakes are the St. Honore, and the middle cake is called a Paris-Brest

After class, I rushed over to meet Mom at her hotel room...check out the view, it was pretty awesome from the 27th floor!

Can you spot my friend peeking out from the top of that building??  Trust me, she is behind there!

And I definitely have the BEST mom in the world because she brought me the laundry list of stuff that I forgot, along with some other fantastic goodies...including the GREATEST SURPRISE EVER!!!

Chick fil A in Paris!!!

That's right!  She hauled 3 chicken sandwiches allll the way from the Sugarloaf Chick fil A...and I'm pretty sure I inhaled that thing in less than 30 seconds (big shocker, I know!)...and had another one for dinner that night!!!  So, after we dropped off all of our stuff at my apartment, we headed over to school because she was going to sit in with me and watch my 15:30 cuisine demo!

The chef made a puff pastry filled with leeks and a poached egg, and let me tell you, he made it look a WHOOOOLE lot easier than it really was.  I was scheduled to make it on Saturday morning (at 08:30...can you see there is a pattern here?!), and it was quite a chore...but more to come on that later!

The leeks, eggs, bell peppers, and sauces all awaiting their puff pastry

Mom and I in demo!

After demo, it was time for me to go to my last class of the day at 18:30 and make the Saint Honore cake that I had watched in demo a million hours earlier that morning.  That was the absolute LAST thing I wanted to do on a Friday night, but I did, and it was fun because we were able to make a couple of different doughs and play with screaming hot caramel!  I thought it turned out pretty good in the end!  The chef kindly informed me that my pate a choux (the exterior ball-like things...see below) turned out well, and I did a good job dipping them in the caramel, however, he said (in rather broken English) that he would rather close his eyes than look at how I piped the Chantilly cream.  I asked him to please open his eyes and look at it, and he shook his head and walked away.  What does that even mean??  I guess I need to put piping on the list of things to practice...or maybe the chefs just tear us down to build us back up or something...who knows.

Who cares about the piping?!?! It was SOOO good -- I still have some in my fridge, so if you want to come visit in the next few days, it is ALL yours!!

Funny side story --- see all of that Chantilly cream?  Yeah, we had to whip it by hand.  When it was time to get started on that part of the recipe, everyone grabbed a flat bottom metal bowl and a whisk and started whisking...and whisking...and whisking!  It was not until we all finished (and our arms were about to fall off) that the chef pulled out a rather large round bottom bowl and a giant whisk and told us that is was much easier to whip cream with those tools, and we would never make that mistake again!  Isn't he sweet??

As I headed down to the locker room after that crazy practical, I spotted Mom and my old friend Nicole (she is now considered my "old" friend because we met the day before class started --- are going on 3 weeks!) were sitting at a table waiting for me with wine, flowers, and a house plant!  It was glorious...and the 10 hour day was over! 

Aren't they beautiful?!

So, that pretty much wraps up Fridays festivities, but there is much more to come about Saturday!  Stay tuned for that update!  Before I sign off for the night, though, I figured it was probably time to show y'all how ridiculous our uniforms are...so please keep the mocking to a minimum...

WWII nurse meets Waffle House short order cook...the hat kills me!!

Anyway, there you have it...it's definitely not my best look, but whatever, I'm not here to impress!

Coming up: More of the weekend with Mom!

- à tout à l’heure! 

A Case of the Wednesdays

**Caution:  This post is heavily laced with complaints.  Enter at your own risk***

Wednesday, September 8, 2010 has been a crappy day.  I think I may have a touch of seasonal mood disorder or whatever that psychological condition is where you are affected by the weather...that is something, right?  Or maybe I am just crazy.  Who knows.  Anyway, today has been cold and rainy, and my mood has kinda been the same way.

See how dreary it is??

I only had one class today, however, it was the first cuisine practical where we were actually being graded, so my stress level increased exponentially.  We were supposed to make a caramelized onion and anchovy tart (it sounds gross, but it was actually pretty good...basically a pizza without the sauce, which is right up my alley!!).  We had the demo yesterday afternoon, and of course, the chef produced a tart that looked soooo easy and beautiful and delicious.

Totally scrumptious, right?!

If we are being honest, mine was none of the above.  For whatever reason, I completely skimped on all of the toppings because apparently I want my customers to zero in on the bottom layer of non-caramelized onions.  When the chef came around and tasted each tart, he kindly let me know that I rolled my dough out too thin, hence the reason it did not rise properly (and why the crust was so screwy).  Also, he said that my onions were still crunchy and not completely caramelized like they should have been.  I think he was being a bit dramatic on that one, but whatev. 

Now, obviously, me being me, I had no problem picking away at the crust and consuming it in record time, but the rest of this disaster when straight into the garbage.  (Insert long winded, dramatic sigh here)

But, before I even got into practical today, I realized that one of my two hats had gone M.I.A., which totally sucks because that means I have to spend money on buying another ugly hat just so I am always prepared...boooo.  The lockers themselves are the size of a shoebox, and the locker room is even smaller -- so imagine 20 girls running around like crazy trying to get changed and keep up with all of their crap...AT THE SAME TIME!  I feel like I would lose my head in that room if it wasn't attached to my neck.  So from now on, I am going to be even more neurotic than I already am and quadruple check every time I go in there and come out to make sure that I have E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G!

I have had pretty good luck (so far) on getting the stains out of my jackets in the washing machine at home, but the stupid machine keeps eating my buttons!!!!  The jackets have a vertical column of faux-buttons, if you will, so if the front of the jacket gets really dirty, you can just flip the front, and Voila!  You have a clean jacket.  This one jacket, however, is now missing 2 of these buttons, due to my hungry washing machine, so it looks incomplete.  ( I apologize if that doesn't make sense...I'm not the best at explaining...just trust me, it doesn't look good.)

Also, my Mom is coming on Friday, and I have really been looking forward to it since she left...BUT I have class ALLLL DAY and into the night (21:00, to be exact).  Then, I have to go back bright and early on Saturday morning...the day that we had scheduled (3 weeks ago!!) to go to Versailles.  (Insert long winded, dramatic sigh x2 here)

Because I had had a bad day and the weather was completely crummy, I just wanted to lay in my sweatpants and mindlessly watch something on T.V....but wait!  I don't understand a damn thing on my 3 channels, so that doesn't really get me very far.  I started searching around on the internet looking up comforting things that reminded me of home (mostly The Bert Show), and I got sad and really started to miss my friends and family.

In the grand scheme of life, I know that I really don't have anything at all to complain about, but I am just homesick today, and I miss unsweet tea and a good dose of trashy American reality T.V.  I will be fine tomorrow, I just felt like it was important to get this out today and to let everyone know that Paris isn't flowers and sunshine all of the time (only most of the time!).

So, I will end this day with the following comforts:

- A piping hot shower
- A big bowl of nice warm broccoli (I haven't had a green vegetable in at least at week...)
- A glass (or two) of my 1,86 euro bottle of rose
- At least one delicious Madeleine that I made in pastry yesterday (I won't even tell you how many of these I have had so far...)

So cute!!  I actually got a "good job" from the chef on these! Woo!

and I will not let Wednesday, September 8, 2010 get the best of me.  "After all", in the words of my Southern sister, Scarlett O'Hara, "tomorrow is another day."

- à tout à l’heure! 

Shortbread and Tarts and Fillets - Oh My!

Today marks my first week at Le Cordon Bleu, and it has been an experience so far --- to say the least!!  Where do I even begin??  They welcomed us on Thursday to a wine and cheese reception at the school...at 11AM.  Just in case you don't believe me, check out the picture below!

I also had my first pastry practical class where we made the shortbread cookies that we had seen in demonstration the night before.

They weren't the prettiest cookies in the class (but they weren't the ugliest either - woo!).  They sure did taste incredible though --- and that's all that really counts in my book.  I am embarrassed to admit how quickly these disappeared, and how many times my count got to the double digits in one sitting.  It's best if I keep that information to myself.  So far, the pastry practicals have been a lot more laid back compared to cuisine, so it is a nice break from the absolute chaos and constant running around. 

So, I went from pretty little shortbread cookies on Thursday to filleting fish on Friday.  Yup, that's right.  If you recall, our first cuisine demo/practical was making an easy soup that is pretty difficult to really screw up, and our second required us to fillet TWO sole.  I obviously couldn't take pictures while I was actually doing it, but you can get the gist from the demonstration pictures below.  Of course, the professional chef makes it look soooo easy...and believe me, it was not.  I had never even touched a whole fish prior to this practical, so it was pretty tricky (and disgusting) to say the least...

We started with the whole fish -- head, eyes, EVERYTHING

This was his finished product

And this was mine -- reheated that night.  We had to plate the dish in practical, and it actually looked very similar to his, I promise!

I have spared you the nasty details...including when I had to use my cleaver to break the bones and cut the main artery down the center of the fish in order to make the stock, and every time my knife hit the board, fish blood and guts flew up at me.  It was pretty awesome.  Also, I am fairly positive that I left about 98% of the meat on the bones because apparently filleting is not my forte, so my actual fillets were quite small...oh well.  I did get a hug and a high five when the chef tasted my sauce, so I am assuming it all turned out okay in the end!

One thing I have learned thus far is that you don't get much time off when you are at Le Cordon Bleu. That's fine, I suppose, because that IS the main reason why I am here...which brings me Saturday...when I had class at 08:30 and 15:30.  Sweet.

There is nothing like trussing a chicken at 08:30 to welcome you to the weekend morning (when you should be sleeping in...).  I actually trussed my chicken today, but we had demo and got to watch how it was done.  It was actually pretty easy (after I got over my raw chicken phobia that has haunted me since childhood)!  I would say about a million and one times easier then filleting a stupid fish.  We also made a rice dish to accompany the poached chicken and some sort of white sauce with a roux base (I can't remember the name -- ahh! Bechamel, maybe?).  All I know is it had a whole lotta butta...and it was incredible.  I had it for dinner tonight to accompany my 1,86 euro bottle of wine...which I had to try because I had to see what 1,86 euro wine tasted like.  It's got nothin' on 2 Buck Chuck.

Using a blow torch to remove any remaining feathers.  They actually let us play with fire!

Beginning to truss...

The chef also prepared a cheese souffle which we won't be making until later in the semester, but it was DELICIOUS!  You know you are in a room full of foodie nerds (like myself) when you can feel the excitement in the room as the souffles rise in the oven, and the rush to the front of the kitchen to take pictures before they fall.

It started to fall before I could get all the way up there

We made a tarte aux pomme (apple tart) on Saturday afternoon.  When the chef came around to check mine out, he said something (in French) along the lines of, "the apples are okay on the outer ring, but the interior ring is a catastrophe!!!!!"  Hm...okay...I didn't really know what to make of that.  All I know is, the tart was created on Saturday night.  It is now Monday night, and it's gone.  Maybe I should put a lock on the fridge...

I made a rule with myself that I am not allowed to bring home a new dessert until the one at home is complete...so, if I have to buy 5 seats on the flight home in order to fit, now you know why.

Now that I am a week into school, my assumptions that butter was involved in the preparation of every. single. French. dish. were painfully correct.  We start dishes with butter, add it in the middle of cooking, and then finish them off with pads of butter to give them shine (duh! - why else?!) And have I been shying away from ANYTHING?  NO!!  All I can say is that I hope my arteries are able to come out on top when this is all over.  Seriously...it's almost gross (and delicious!) how much butter is used.

And why we are on the subject of painfully delicious food, I find it incredibly ironic that bread in French is "pain" (think: "pauhn" , rhymes with Ron-- for those of you who are French illiterate, like myself).  Seriously, I have actually consumed a baguette so quickly that it caused me pain (think: short A, rhymes with rain).  When you go and pick one up from the boulangerie, they give it to you like this...

So, it is A. completely exposed to your senses and B. still warm and wonderful, and it tempts you as you are making the long trek home...so after a few short minutes, the above picture quickly turns into this...

The baguette (and the many that have come before and the ones that will come after) did not stand a chance.

Anyway, enough food tangents for one day.  You are now completely caught up on all of the culinary shenanigans that have been happening on this side of the pond.  Thanks for sticking around all the way until the end of this LOOONG post!

- à tout à l’heure! 

Rustic Vegetable Soup AKA The Longest Day Ever

9/1/2010

Today was a ridiculously long first real day of school.  I'm talking alarm clock blaring at 06:45, home at 21:45, and in bed at 00:30....And I thought I worked long hours at Coyote!  My schedule for today was as follows:

08:30 - Cuisine Demo
12:30 - Cuisine Practical
15:30 -Pastry Demo
18:30 - Pastry Demo

The demonstrations (2.5 - 3 hrs) are like college lecture classes.  They take place in one of the 2 kitchen classrooms, and we sit (in full uniform minus the hat, hairnet, apron, and tea towel) and frantically try to scribble down notes (and take pictures!) pertaining to everything the chef is doing to prepare the dish.  We are then expected to replicate the dish in the practical classes (2.5 hrs) at our own individual work stations within the smaller kitchens.  So after knowing that, the schedule above might not look SO bad, right? WRONG!  

Rules for Le Cordon Bleu:

1. Never be late.
2. Do not wear the uniform outside of school.
3. Never be late. EVER.

This all translates to getting out of my classes in just enough time to NOT be able to change into street clothes and even see the light of day until the sun is beginning to set.  Also, because I am a newbie, I did not yet have the sense to pack a lunch (or a tiny crumb), so I couldn't help but ponder the irony behind the fact that I was a culinary student surrounded by food ALLLLL day, and yet I was starving beyond belief.  We do get to taste what the chef prepares at the end of the demo, but let's be real, that's just a tease.  Somewhere around 09:30, while restlessly sitting in my first demonstration, my stomach kindly let me know that the measly banana I scarfed on the way to class was just not cutting it...the food did not come until after my first practical (where we get to take home what we make -- YAH!), somewhere in the neighborhood of 15:00.

So, enough complaining about hunger, you get the point...I was hungry.  The chef made a Rustic Vegetable Soup -- very simple, right?  It consisted of bacon, water, veggies, and of course --- BUTTER!!  He also talked a lot about turning vegetables and various cutting techniques...to which, I though, "Oh, I've totally got this -- chopping is my thing!"  Well, fast forward a couple of hours, to me standing in the kitchen like a lost puppy, looking at my knife and potato like we have never met.  If nothing else, culinary school is a very humbling experience.  Not that I EVER thought that I was a fantastic cook, but I definitely thought I knew my way around the kitchen!

Chef chopping the bacon

The final product!

 A couple of things the chef told me as I was preparing my Rustic Vegetable Soup:

1. I peel my carrots like his grandmother
2. My potato slices should have been triangular and uniform sizes, and they most definitely were not (as he so kindly illustrated by picking up two very mismatched shapes)
3. I browned my bacon because I had too much butter (I did not know that was such a thing!), therefore my soup would be black instead of transparent

Even with all of these potential disasters in the works, the soup actually turned out decent in the end (and it was most definitely not black!).  I got a "Bon" from the chef, so I can only assume I did an okay job!  I know for a fact it was at least edible because I helped myself to it in between my 3rd and 4th class of the day. 

My soup reheated the next day!

The HUGE container we get to bring our food home in...enough to feed an army -- and don't judge me, but so far I have eaten everything all on my own...

 So that was my first experience with Cuisine...now on to Patisserie!

My last 2 classes were both pastry demonstrations, so we were able to see how various glazes, extracts, and fondant were all made, which was pretty interesting considering I brought about ZERO outside knowledge of anything pastry with me to this school.  In the second demo, we started our first actual lesson, and the chef made lots and lots of shortbread cookies!!  He created a million different variations, but we are only required to produce one kind (Diamond Cookies) in our practical.  I am actually really excited about my pastry classes because, as I mentioned before, it is an area that I am not very familiar with, so I will hopefully learn a lot of fun things to dazzle you all with at a future date (even though I am doubling my workload...but we won't discuss that...)! 

Here is what I love about all French cooking.  As we we were watching the chef create these fantastic cookies, everyone kept asking questions about cooking temperature and time, and all the chef would come back with was, "They are cooked between 140 - 160 degrees (Celsius..obvi), and they are done when they are done!"  Hm...okay....reproducing these cookies on my own tomorrow should be fun...

The finished cookies!!  We will be making the bottom left cookies

 So, that was an overview of my first real day at Le Cordon Bleu, and I can say with confidence that it was pretty overwhelming.  I definitely need to practice the techniques that I am learning so I don't always look like a bumbling moron, but who knows when I will find  a second for that!  Also, I am  trying hard not to put too much pressure on my future plans at this point because I really tend to get down on my myself when I am constructively criticized by the chef, and of course I take it all personally...even though they told us not to at the beginning, but you can't help it!  So, as I said, I am going to work VERY hard trying to avoid controlling my future so that I can enjoy every day as it comes...and figure it out as time goes by.  As I was making my trek home after this insanely long day --- with 17 different bags on my arms and literally a vat of Rustic Vegetable Soup --- I saw my first friend in Paris peeking over the buildings on my street, and she put it all into perspective.  As her lights were twinkling (bc I was lucky enough to catch her during her first light show of the evening), I was reminded about how amazing this opportunity really is.

- à tout à l’heure! 

Syllabus Day

**Note: this post was written on Monday 8/30! (I am desperately trying to get caught up!!!)**

European electrical outlet: 1
Remington T Studio hair straightener: 0

I fried my first American electrical appliance this morning while running around trying to get ready for my orientation...Oh well, it was old anyway, and I look at it more as a rite of passage or something...

So, naturally, me being me, I was literally flying out the door at the very last second in order to get there on time, and believe it or not, I was EARLY for my 09:30 orientation!!  We started off with a welcome session and went through the standard first day of school administrative stuff.

As I was sitting in the classroom kitchen, I could hardly pay attention because I was so excited, and I couldn't believe that I was actually there (and I couldn't wait to get the schedule so I can spend time carefully putting everything into my day planner...)!!  Sometime between arriving in Paris and walking through the front doors for the first time, I got this wild hair that I would actually sign up for the Grand Diploma -- which would award me with a Diploma in both the Cuisine and Pastry programs (9 months total, plus a 4 month internship).  I eventually came back to reality and decided to start off with registering for the Basic Patisserie course (in addition to the Basic Cuisine class I was already taking).  My plan is to figure this out a little bit down the road, and sort out whether or not I wanted to invest a lot more time and money into this crazy adventure (I am banking on a brick falling from the sky and telling me what to do...I will let you know if that happens).  After a little bit of haggling with the Admissions Office, my badge said BC and BP --- I still haven't picked up the revised one yet, but I'm pretty sure that is what is says...I hope...

Anyway, back to Orientation Day!  We took a tour around the school, which took about 5 minutes...I kid... but seriously, I think there is a competition or something for the number of people they can fit into 3 teeny, tiny floors and a basement...it is nuts...let's add some hot ovens, knives, burners, etc...you get the drift.  THEN, we got to the REALLY fun stuff --- our uniforms and really expensive, super wonderfully nice knife set!!!!!!!!

In total, we got:

3 uniform jackets

Pretty official, huh?  What am I doing here?!

2 pairs of pants
2 neck ties
3 tea towels
3 aprons
2 hats (think WWII nurse meets Waffle House short-order cook...)

AND the coveted knife set...

ready to see it yet???  Meet my pride and joy!  This thing stays under double lock and key at all times when not in use.

Don't you love it?!?!

All I have is a picture of the bag because I am not ready to share it with the world yet!  (Just kidding, I forgot to take a picture of all of the goodies inside, and now it is locked up at school...)

After we got all of our stuff, we had a couple of meetings, and then it was time to figure out how in the WORLD I was going to get it all back home.  Well, the crazy bag lady definitely came out and I carted it ALL the way to my apartment -- 23 minutes and 45 seconds later, I was home.

Not the best picture from the elevator, but you get the idea of what I was working with.

It doesn't look like a lot when it is spread out, but trust me, it was!!

 Well, Orientation Day came and went and it was very successful!!  I am nervous about keeping the uniforms clean and pressed for every class.  Now that I am signed up for both the Cuisine and Patisserie courses, I will be at school a lot more, therefore, I will have a lot more opportunities to get very messy!  Oh well, I supposed I will sort it all out...and spend a LOT of time with the washing machine and ironing board!

I have a day off tomorrow to get everything sorted out (hopefully), and then the craziness commences!

- à tout à l’heure!

The Alchemist and SO MUCH MORE!!

Bonjour!  It has definitely been a couple of days since I have updated, and I apologize for that...BUT it could be because I have some friends!!!  That's right folks!  After a week of solitude, I met a couple of girls who share my same sentiments on this crazy journey that we are on.  I know you are excited, and I will give you the details pertaining to how all of this came about in a little bit.

Before that, however, I wanted to discuss a little bit about the book that I just finished reading, The Alchemist.  Some of you may have heard of it before...apparently it is kind of a big deal?  Anyway, it is about a shepherd boy who has a recurring dream that his treasure is at the Great Pyramids, and he goes in search of it...all the while learning life lessons along the way.  I had heard of this book back in college (thanks Emilia!), but for one reason or another, had not actually gotten around to reading it.  One day while I was perusing Borders, I saw it on the shelf and decided there was no better time than the present, so I picked it up.  I carted it ALLLL the way to Paris and FINALLY started reading it.  The general theme is that when you are a child, you have  dreams of what you want to accomplish in life (the book refers to it as a "Personal Legend")...I vividly remember telling people when I was younger,  " I want to grow up to be a teacher, a painter, a librarian, a Subway sandwich artist, and an actress/singer --- all at the same time, of course!!  As we get older, however, reality sets in and many of us lose the courage and spontaneity that goes along with following your heart.  The reason why I bore y'all with this little tangent is that I can't help but think that maybe I have finally figured out my Personal Legend, and what I am supposed to do with my life.  My mind sometimes wanders back to when I was applying to grad school (x2), and it was such a headache because everything was a hassle.  Chasing down recommendations, meeting deadlines, rewriting 15 page research papers...it was like I was constantly having to fight the current swimming upstream only to get knocked back to the beginning.  And where did that get me?  A handful of rejections --- and my life was stagnant again...

This process, however, was an absolute DREAM compared to the nightmare described above.  One simple click of the mouse and an "Oh my gosh, Mom, I accidentally just hit the submit button on my application to Le Cordon Bleu..." later, and here I am.  Of course, there were some hiccups along the road (ie. trying to secure a place to live, etc), but even that wasn't too bad once we got it sorted out.  So my point to this very long story is that maybe after a couple of years of ups and downs, I am headed in the right direction.  The Alchemist says that the universe will help you out along the way once you are on the path to discovering your Personal Legend...so maybe that is why everything has been going swimmingly this time around (pun definitely intended!).

Now on to my friends.  Well, I had planned to time the walk from my apartment to school on Saturday when the shops were open, so I could see what it was like with everyone buzzing around...but, I ended up going to tour the l'Opera Garnier (see pics below!) and the 2 big department stores (Galeries Lafayette and Printemps ----- WAAAYYYY too overwhelming for my taste).  By the time I got home, I definitely did not feel like walking any more.  I ended up going on Sunday instead, and exactly 23 minutes and 45 seconds later, I was at the front door!  Now, if you recall from a previous post, I had mentioned that the school is in a residential area with no other shops around it, so you can understand my interest when I saw 2 girls standing out front.  It turns out they both spoke English, and we realized that all three of us were starting school on Monday!! The initial conversation went something like this...

Me:  Do y'all have plans for the rest of the day?  Will you be my friend?

Them:  Sure!

We ended up grabbing lunch and walking all over the city because one of the girls had just gotten here a couple of days ago, and it was her first time to Paris.  It was just really, really exciting to talk to two different girls from different parts of the world (one is from the States and the other is from India), and we all had the same kind of story.  We had worked at various jobs after college that we could not picture ourselves doing forever, and craved something more out of life. 

Here are some pictures to make this post a bit more visually appealing....

l'Opera Garnier

Failed attempt at trying to take a picture of myself with the Grand Staircase

By the way, this is the opera house that Phantom of the Opera is based on, so I totally listened to it on my iPod the ENTIRE time I was on the self-guided tour...huge nerd, I know.

The ceiling and Grand Chandelier in the auditorium

 

My post-Opera eclair!!! 

My new friends!!!

So, there you have it!!!  I have lots and lots of other things to tell you --- as soon as I find more time...ahh!!


- Next up: my first day at Le Cordon Bleu!

- à tout à l’heure!

I. Am. A. Francophile.

Well, it's official folks.  After 1 week of being in Paris, I am officially a Francophile.

Francophile (n): a person who has a strong positive predisposition or interest toward the government, culture, history, or people of France. This could include France itself and its history, the French language, French culture, literature, etc...thanks Wikipedia!

Reasons why:

1.  I am currently reading online about Marie Antoinette
2.  I spent a ridiculously long time at a French history museum today --- learning everything I wanted to know and more about La Révolution
3.  I eat at least one baguette a day (usually more!)
4.  I spend my nights listening to classical music and trying to interpret French TV (the 3 channels that I get)
5. I ordered my dinner in perfect broken French, and for the first time, I actually received what I was asking for!

Anyway, now that I got that off my chest...here is an update on my daily adventures from the past 2 days...

Wednesday:

I ventured over to Musee d'Orsay, and absolutely fell in love!!!  Unfortunately they are in the middle of extensive renovation, so a large part of the museum is closed, and I believe they are only exhibiting a fraction of their permanent collection, BUT either way, I loved it --- and all that means is that I will have to come back after March 2011 to see it in all of its glory!

You can't take pictures inside, so that's all you get...except the picture below that I "accidentally" took...

After lots of walking around, I grabbed a beer at their BEAUTIFUL and incredibly overpriced restaurant, but it was definitely worth it! Check it out...

Then, I walked home along the Seine

And because you haven't see her in a few days...

The rest of the night was pretty lame.  I was showered and was in my pj's by 19:30, piddled around on the internet until around 23:00, and in bed by midnight (still can't seem to get to sleep any earlier...).

Thursday:

I decided to explore the funky Marais district and do a little self guided walking tour because that was the one area that I hadn't seen yet.

And just so y'all know that the other day was not a one time thing, here I am -- no t-shirts or flip flops in sight!

I always have the earphones in because life is much better with a soundtrack.

So, I took public bus #69 over to Marais, and oh, the places I saw!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

My ride

A really small gas station...

The Bastille (no longer exists, obvi...)

One of those windows belongs to the apt where Jim Morrison died

A really beautiful and very quiet garden that used to be part of an old palace

Then I went over to a museum that explained (in paintings and my handy Rick Steves book) EVERYTHING and more about French History, but it was really interesting --- history nerd, I know ---  I'm glad that I went!

As I was walking around, my eye caught a cute little boutique, so I had to go in!  A couple of minutes and lots of broken French later, I came out with these!  I was really excited because they actually had a size big enough to fit my canoes! 

They definitely channel Gilligan, but I thought they were super cute, and they girl in the shop said that they were really comfortable once they were broken in (bring on more blisters, ah!!)

I had dinner at a perfect little cafe somewhere along the Seine, and it was DELICIOUS (aside from the couple right next to me who insisted on making out every couple of minutes...it was pretty awkward...).  I started out with a glass of rosé and fantastic gazpacho and LOTS of bread.  Then the main course came which was grilled chicken, potatoes au gratin, salad, and even MORE bread.  Right after the food came, however, it started to RAIN!  What was I to do??  As groups of people were moving inside, I pulled out my umbrella and kept on eatin'!  I wasn't about to let a little drizzle get in the way of my cheesy potatoes, but it was definitely a challenge...try cutting chicken while holding up an umbrella!

The waiter finally put up large umbrellas when I was almost done eating...

The walk back home was nice because it was drizzling and slightly cool, and I ended up slipping into Notre Dame right before they were closing to visitors.  Mass was going on inside which was interesting to watch.

Also, I made a little donation and lit a candle for David --- I figured he would get a kick out of that.  It is somewhere below hanging with the other candles...

As if I had not consumed enough calories, I ended the evening with a warm and gooey banana and Nutella crepe - MAGNIFIQUE!

So, there you have another ridiculously long post, but at this point, the blog is my only true communication with the outside world, SO until I start class (t-minus 2.5 days!!) and make friends (hopefully!!), then you all get to know EXACTLY what I am up to every day! :)

- à tout à l’heure!