Rainy walk through Paris

My mom met me at work when I was finishing up today and after a quick bite of lunch we headed out for some museum touring, since it was still raining. We walked westward to the Musée Rodin where we toured the bronze-caste sculptures outside, including the Thinker, and then the full exhibition indoors.

He was very into sculpting hands and feet.

After this we walked north to the Musée d'Orsay, but the lines were so long outside to buy tickets, we didn't feel it was worth it. And we've been there before, the last time we were in Paris. So we crossed the bridge to the Tuileries Garden and wandered around there, heading toward the Musée de l'Orangerie. And what do you know, its closed on Tuesdays. We thought we were good because its usually Mondays that are closed at museums. But it wasn't a complete waste because my mom got her first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower (on this trip).

After that we headed back through the Tuileries towards the Louvre and I took her down Rue Mazarine to show her Cafe Le Procope and the Cour de Rohan (both of which I visited before on this blog). We stopped at a little cafe for some drinks and Croque Monsieur before heading back to the hotel. We saw a chocolatier, Patrick Roger, with a gorgeous orangutan made of chocolate, but everything there was very pricey so we just looked. Now we are relaxing in the hotel.

Provins

So today it rained ALL DAY! It has yet to stop. Kind of annoying since we would like to be out enjoying the sun, since all of our planned trips are outdoors. But we have raincoats and umbrellas so it worked out ok. It was super chilly though. So Provins is a small town to the east of Paris that has existed since the early Middle Ages, its importance confirmed in 802 by Charlemagne. The fortifications and old stone buildings still remain to this day and it has become a medieval fair town, complete with jousting events on weekends in the summer. Unfortunately this is not considered summertime so it was pretty quiet and dreary, apart from all the student field trips wandering through. We wandered through the streets and up to the highest point where we found the Church of St. Quiriace, which was a gorgeous monument built in 1160 for Henri le Liberal, Count of Champagne. Unfortunately a lot of its large windows and rose windows were bricked up for safety reasons, between natural wear and tear, a later fire and then many of the wars. After this we visited Tour César (Caesar's Tower), sitting next to the church on the top of the hill, this was the vantage point that allowed views of all the surrounding countryside and probably what kept so much of the town intact from outside threats. We found a cute little shop selling products made from their local rose gardens and bee keeps. The rose petal honey was delicious! My mom and I bought a couple little things from here. It smelled AMAZING! After this we had a quick bite to eat at a local cafe and then continued to wander through the rest of town (still in the rain). We found the Medieval Library (closed on Mondays of course) and then the Jouy Gate, another place with beautiful views of the countryside and the fortifications still standing around the city. At this point it was cold and wet so we decided to head back to the train station to catch the next train back to Paris. It was a very fun, if water-logged trip. I'm sure it would be a lot of fun in the summer with the sun out and all the medieval events going on.

Chantilly: Horses and Cream

So my mom made it safely to Paris, despite a demonstration happening just outside her hotel when she arrived, forcing her to walk the last few blocks since the taxis were turned away. We rested up a bit and then headed out to walk around the town so I could give her a short tour of the surrounding area and a quick view of Notre Dame.

Today we took a nice day trip north of Paris to the town of Chantilly. It's a 25m train ride and its a quaint little town with a château and huge horse stables. We took the scenic forest path to get to the castle but got slightly distracted by an exhibition going on and walked in the VIP entrance to an horse dressage and jumping competition on the grounds of the racetrack and stables. I'm pretty sure we needed tickets but we just made sure to look like we belonged and walked right in. Eventually we found what we were looking for: the ticket booth for access to the castle, gardens and the horse show going on at the moment Metamorphoses. My uncle Kim actually found this for us and recommended it. The show wasn't until 2:30p so we toured the castle first. Unfortunately it was misty and gray the entire day, but since it wasn't pouring rain on us, it wasn't too bad.

After this we stopped at a little café for a bite to eat and then headed into the stables for the show. It was an odd combination of music, dance and horses, with two cute little burros/donkeys as part of the show too.

After the show we walked through town and along the canal for a bit, mostly just wasting time since we had a few hours before our return train to Paris. We found a nice little English Tea Shop where we had hot scones with Chantilly cream and jam. We ended up getting a second order of it because they were delicious. We were fortunate enough to catch an earlier train back to Paris, since the town was pretty much shut down, being Sunday and French Mothers Day. Now were are back at the hotel planning tomorrows day trip. Au revoir!

Finally Some Baking!!!

So after two weeks of being here (it feels like a month already, though) I feel like I got to do some REAL baking. As in, I actually got to apply things that I learned in pastry school to my work. Today it was just me in the kitchen (plus the decorator at her station) and I just had to get the shop front counter set up by noon. So I had some of those items working, but for the most part its pretty easy. And then I was in charge of testing out a recipe for cinnamon rolls. Apparently some intern they had a little bit back (not sure if they were from my school or not) had made this recipe and they were great. Well since the intern left, every time anyone at the cake shop has tried to make them, they weren't light and fluffy. So I figured I'd give it a whirl. First of all, the recipe was AWFUL! It gave measurements of time, like how many minutes to mix the dough, to ferment the dough, to proof the dough. When you are working with bread you need to look at it and see if its ready, not just assume the time they give is correct. So many outside factors can affect your dough and how it behaves (humidity & temperature, and sometimes it just likes to be a pain in the ass). So I ditched the instructions and followed what I was taught at school (warm the milk before stirring in yeast, mix until gluten forms, ferment until doubled in size, proof until doubled in size). All of these things would NOT have happened if the instructions were followed properly, which is probably why their rolls never turned out right. So I am happy to say that all my hard work (and my Chef Nicole's hard work) from school paid off, because they were delicious!

I had a great time just trusting my instincts and not having to make the same 5 things over and over. Now that it worked and the owner knows I can work with bread, I'm hoping to be able to do more. Maybe some croissants! After work I wandered toward the city center, basically skipping my first metro ride and walked the "scenic" route to where I could catch my second metro. I found a fun little series of alleyways off of Rue Saint-Jacques that are crammed with restaurants, cafes and little tourist stores. They had some good looking places to eat, like a fondue place and a Moroccan place. I also stumbled across this delicious looking chocolatier shop. Complete with French macarons and chocolate scenes of the Eiffel Tower. I'm thinking I'll take my mom along here when she gets in tomorrow. Can't wait!