Eating my way through French pastries: Les Millefeuilles

When you're in the city where delectable desserts abound, where streets are dotted with boulangeries and pâtisseries at almost every turn, resisting to stop, look, admire and then covet for those delightful treats is almost a futile attempt. The reason why I simply don't even try. Bad for my blood sugar? Yes. Equally bad for my waistline? For sure. Will it totally reverse the 15+ pounds I've worked so hard to lose since late last year? Definitely. But one just can't be in Paris and not go all out to sample, then discover which pâtisserie has the best croissants, or the best millefeuilles, or the best èclairs or offers the most exquisite L'Opera.

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It had to happen...somehow

My third week in France. So far, it has been nothing but a wonderful ride through and through. All these complaints about the French being rude, aloof and unhelpful must be really unfounded, I thought to myself.  Everyone I've met has been more than friendly and gone out of their way to help. I've not had one single bad experience so far! 

And then it had to happen. 

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Week in Review

Quiet moments before the week started

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Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum

Allez, allez, allez!!

Vite, vite, vite!!

Pastry boot camp - that's how I'd summarize the pastry practicals we had during the first week of school. A word on the class format: each lesson begins with a demonstration session where the Chef would teach a new recipe then show several recipe variations, for example, the first lesson was on shortbread pastry - the Sablés (French butter cookies) and Chef demonstrated up to 5 different types of variations on the shortbreads.
Only the ingredient lists are included in the student manual, hence it's mandatory to attend the demonstration classes, try to stay alert (and awake) during the 2 1/2-hour demo sessions and take detailed notes, otherwise one would be at a total lost of what to do during the practical classes. "Do I add the butter last? Should the butter be melted first? What's the baking temperature and how long is the baking time?" Now, these are exactly the questions

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The more your knives, the better your pastries? Orientation day & takeaways.

A play of a similar title of the book that I had read in preparation for pastry school in Paris but those were exactly the first words that came to mind when I saw these:

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Lazy Sunday

Sunday morning at the market

Fruits in season

Skinny French asparagus

Even the mackerals look stunning, don't you think?!

I hope Dorie's new book has great recipes for this!

Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous Spring blooms

What do you think of the color combination? Matches my trolley? Très Français, non?

I could've bought more but had to stop myself

A gorgeous Sunday morning in Paris!

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Settling in.....

In another couple hours' time, it'll be exactly one week since we set foot on Paris. Strange, but it feels like we've been here much longer than just a week and I still haven't figured out why that is so. Perhaps it's because everything has been going wonderfully smooth, settling in has been tremendously easy and we've already established a regular routine in this short time like waking up to this

.....sometimes this......

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Guilty Pleasures

Gray skies. Cold. Wet. Awakened by the pitter-patter of the raindrops against the window panes, I propped myself up and took a peak out the bedroom window.

Just the kind of day to pull the sheets over your head, curl up in bed, snuggle with your other half - your beau - and just sleep in for the rest of the day. Pas moi.

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Paris, oh Paris!

Today's our fourth day here and my, how time flies! The weekend breezed by in a flash; D and I did some touristy stuffs in the city, took a short trip to Versailles to visit the magnificent Chateau,  moved into the apartment, my home for the next several months and by the time this entry is posted, I've had a great dinner at a neighborhood bistro nearby, took a short stroll back to the apartment and happily digging into my baked-from-scratch-with-all-French-ingredients

 cake that I had baked earlier this evening!

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A Very Late TWD Post: White Chocolate Brownies

In the midst of packing, packing and more packing, I was so tempted to simply skip this week's TWD bake. I've always been well-organized and probably over-ambitious when it comes to putting a list of to-dos and making sure each item is checked off prior to a trip, especially one such as this,

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First day in Paris

I'm here! Finally, back in Paris! We arrived early this morning, after a long, cross-country, transatlantic journey - one that was filled with unexpected flight delays but followed by favorable flight re-routes and better seats! Despite the almost full-day travel, I had this fresh burst of energy as we landed in Paris. Je suis arrivé!

Since it was way too early to check into our hotel, we took a short walk to Rue Cler, the renowned open market street that's just a stone's throw away from the hotel. We chose to return to Café du Marché, coined the "living room of Rue Cler" by Rick Steves, to have our first meal. Brunch was a simple meal of French ham and cheese omelette with jus d'orange et cafe créme but for some reason, everything tasted so fresh, flavorful and downright good! Not an imagination nor exaggeration but there's just something about Paris that awakens all my senses!

When we were here back in December last year, I knew we would return but didn't have a clue that it would be this soon and that I'll actually get to live and experience the Parisian life for several months. This will take time to sink in. I am looking forward to this week of vacation with D; we plan to cover the sights and sounds of the City that we didn't get to during the Winter. I will miss him terribly but at the same time, it's been a while since I felt so passionate about anything; I can't wait to start pastry school and I'm totally ready to immerse myself into the Parisian life, language and culture!
A toast to a new beginning!

We had a casual celebratory dinner at Les Cocottes, one of the many restaurants owned by the great Christian Constant.  Good bistro food, served individually in Staub cast iron pot (cocotte) but it wasn't just the presentation - you could taste the quality in the ingredients and the flavors were far from simple fast food. D had the plat du jour - fillet of sole with gnocchi and chanterelle mushrooms. I had the beef stew with pearl onions. Perhaps we were just famished but found the flavors to be really wonderful. For me, the highlight was the dessert, bien sûr! Their signature chocolate tart was simply devine and I've just got to make sure I learn how to make this tart! D took some pictures of dinner, just a few (click on photo below for link). It's only the first day, we've got plenty of time (and 50G of memory card space!!) and the week is still young......
It's good to be back in Paris again! I'm fully exhausted now so bon nuit everyone!

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