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
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