Another Art Installation in my 'Hood - Saturday, 6 April

Fashion is an art form, right?  Even (or especially?) bustier fashion?

This installation greeted me on rue Montorgueil when I got out of my cab after my class at Le Cordon Bleu.  There must have been two dozen mannequins in fanciful ... um ... outfits lined up along the street.

And, of course, it being a Saturday afternoon, there were bands and street performers and the regular parade of life to entertain us while we stopped for refreshments at one of the many cafes lining the street.  I was at the one just under the red awning on the right.

Béchamel - Saturday, 6 April

Le Cordon Bleu featured their new teddy bear, "Béchamel," in a recent e-newsletter. I knew I just had to have him, so I put him on my shopping list immediately and planned to buy him when I attended my terrine class at LCB today.  Well, lucky me, I got the LAST ONE!

Here he is, lounging in the nice leather chair back at the apartment.  Hey, a hard-working bear chef needs to put his feet up from time to time! And who better than me to give him a place to do so?

Tremendous Terrines and Terrific Training - Saturday, 6 April

First, the end results of my day's labor, unpacked back at the apartment and displayed!

Potato and Mackerel Terrine
with Horseradish and Dill

Country Pork Terrine
with Rabbit Livers

Vegetable Terrine with Tomato Coulis

Happy Mariellen!

This really is a hecuva deal.  We arrived at about 8:15 and were given our recipes, aprons and towels (which are ours to keep) and were escorted up to the student dining room for coffee, tea, juice and getting to know each other.  Then  up to the top floor student kitchens at 8:45 for instruction by Chef Patrick Terrien, the head teacher at LCB.  [UPDATE: one of my correspondents asked if Chef's last name was pronounced "terrine!"  I didn't listen closely enough.  Must go to another class of his and ask him to say his name!]  We worked right along with him, prepping ingredients and making our first terrines until about 11:30.  Then it was back to the dining room for lunch (terrines (!), salads, breads, cheeses, wine, coffee) and relaxation (we had been on our feet all morning) and chatting with fellow students and popping more ibuprofen!  Then back up to the student kitchens at 12:30 for more instruction, prep, tasting and fun with Chef and classmates until 3:30 when we got our certificates and shook Chef's hand.  We packed up our terrines and sauces and headed to our various corners of Paris.  I treated myself to a cab - I would have been hard-pressed to spend any more time on my feet!  

Where else can you get a day's worth of training from a world-class chef, cooking apparel, food with which to impress your friends (assuming they're in Paris with you), meals, a day's entertainment, and aches and pains worth writing home about for a mere 190 euro (about $250)?  Pretty much nowhere else!

By the way, the terrines are deeeelicious!  From the sweet-subtlety-with-a-kick of the mackerel & potato terrine to the intensely concentrated flavors of mushrooms, red bell pepper, confited tomatoes, spinach, zucchini and chicken of the vegetable terrine, to the earthy-salty-garlicy-meatiness of the country terrine - these three terrines cover all the bases!  What a treat.

Here are a few more shots from the class.  Now, be careful that you don't drool on your keyboard!

Chef and translator

Chef introducing himself and the
plan for this class just after we
arrived in the student kitchen

We got to use Chef's ancient
but very effective mandoline
for slicking our zucchini

Baking parchment is used
constantly.  I loved this way
of storing it in tall cans in
the windowsill!

Our country terrines, just out
of the oven

The confited tomatoes

Assembling the vegetable
terrine

Holy mackerel!
Gorgeous fish being prepped

Stuart Friendly - Saturday, 6 April

Just a quick post tonight since I still seem to be sleep deprived (not surprising after last night's 4-hour slumber following a long day of traveling).  Tomorrow I will post photos from my swell day-long "terrines" class at Le Cordon Bleu and of the three terrines I made and brought home with me.  (They still need a few hours of refrigeration to solidify and to meld their maaahvelous flavors before I cut into them!)

Tonight I was looking for something warm and nourishing and tasty for supper.  I didn't need haute cuisine, and the restaurant just outside my door (really - step out the door, take a right, go a dozen steps) fit the bill!  It's called Stuart Friendly (this street being rue Marie Stuart).  For about 35 euro I got an appetizer portion of linguine with a lovely cream & bleu cheese sauce, thin slices of smoked duck, walnuts and parsley; then Blanquette de Veau (veal stew) with really tasty tender veal, button mushrooms, a simple creme fraiche type sauce, a 3-rice medley and a small salad; a nice glass of Bordeaux, and some bottled water.  I wouldn't make a special trip to this 'hood for this resto (there are some others for which I might recommend that), but it does exemplify the kind of quality you can find every day without breaking the bank.  And when the waiter saw me pull out my iPad he gave me their wi-fi password without my even asking.  And it was very Friendly!

BADA BOOM! An Entertaining Lunch - Friday, 5 April

After unpacking and taking a short nap and getting my technology set up in the apartment, I decided that I needed some nourishment so that I could have the energy to pick up some groceries and supplies for the next few days.  So I went to Cafe du Centre just at the end of my block for - OK sorry to disappoint you - for a cheeseburger and fries and a Leffe!  Just had to see if they were still serving their fries in the cute little "fryer" baskets, and I was not disappointed.  (Beth Olson, I will resume my search for these baskets at the cookware stores in the 'hood - somebody must carry them!)

Here you can see the cute "fryer" basket more clearly!

Nourishment!

I was sitting there for no more than two minutes, and the "BADA UE" drum band came marching down the street (complete with fancy steppin' and stickwork), followed by a guy dressed as a paper cone containing French fries.  Then there were dancers in fanciful costumes (including a couple girls with pink hair).  They apparently went down another pedestrian street to the west, and then came back up rue Montorgueil, this time with jugglers on stilts and people carrying huge bunches of balloons and a whole class of kids from (I'm guessing) the primary school down the street.  The messages and the costumes seemed to be a promotion for "natural" (or non-genetically-engineered) foodstuffs, but I couldn't tell for sure.  I got the sense that this might somehow be connected with Sunday's marathon.  If any of you has any insight, let me know!

All I can say is:  "ONLY IN PARIS!"  Gotta love it.  Am I a lucky chick, or what?!?

(By the way, you can click on any photo in this blog to enlarge it)

Smooth Sailing ... in the Air at Least! - Thursday, 4 April

Other than a 1-hour delay due to a stuck air conditioning valve (or so they said!), the flight to Paris was nice and smooth.  Apparently they were able to step on the gas because we arrived only 15 minutes late.

The girl sitting next to me was flying back from Winnipeg to her hometown of Vienna.  "Huh???" I hear you saying.  Well, get this.  She will be finishing her university studies to become a doctor and move back to Winnipeg.  I'm guessing that it is the charm of her Winnipegian fiance, not the charm of the city itself, that will draw her back there.

"SuperShuttle" has started serving Paris, so I decided to give them a try this time instead of using one of the local companies.  The good news is that they did pick me up a bit more quickly than the other companies I've used in the past, but the driver decided on an unusual sequence of dropoffs for us four passengers, dropping me last when it really would have been more logical to drop me first.  And then he had a hecuva time figuring out how to get to my street in this pedestrian quartier, making the journey more than 2 hours long.  Oh, well.  I was sitting next to a nice guy from Ireland who was in Paris for the first time to run the marathon on Sunday.  (Guess I'd better look into that so I don't get tied up in traffic somewhere!)  The driver's route took us through some of my favorite 'hoods, so I was able to point out some cool stuff to Mr. Ireland.  And I could see some haunts that I may or may not get back to this trip.

As we were driving through the city, I had this strange feeling that I had never left.  Sure, I was here just six months ago, and today's weather was just about like the weather in October (!), but still there's this mysterious feeling as if Paris is "home" for me.  It started on my first solo trip here in 1988 and has only grown.  I will continue to sightsee and shop and absorb culture and learn, but these days just "being' seems to be more than enough.

And a bunch of other fun and games.... Friday through Sunday, 26-28 October

It's so much fun to be able to give the special "Mariellen" tour to friends who hang around in Paris with me. For those who haven't been here before (or maybe have been just once or twice) it's a great chance to introduce them to special places and experiences and shops that they can't find in their tour guides.  And I even make them take the Metro and the bus!  Best of all, sometimes I get us lost or take us on a pointless errand.  Just try to find that in your Michelin guide!

And in the midst of all of this I fail to write my blog entries.  Like what happened on the last three days of this trip.  So here are just a few photos to fill in some of the blanks "sans" stories, finally posted almost six months later.  Just had to get these out there before writing about my April 2013 trip!

Linda T. and I went to the Louvre to view its overwhelmingly beautiful treasures.  We also got silly.  OK...I got silly and Linda took pictures!

I tried to strike the "ahoy there" pose
that seems to have been lost from
my favorite sculpture,
"Winged Victory of Samothrace"
(2nd century BC)

I attempted to compensate for the missing head
on this 22nd century BC statue
of Gudea, prince de Lagash, Mesopotamia

Linda T., Dale H. and I celebrated Dale's birthday in style at "Spring."  It included a 10-selection cheese course (off the charts brilliant!) and a long chat and digestif with chef/owner Daniel Rose while we were waiting for the taxi that never came.  Daniel remembered me dining there a couple years ago when I sat at the stools overlooking the cooking area - he even remembered that we had a chat about Al Franken!

Linda and I had dinner the next night at the also-impossible-to-get-reservations "Frenchie" restaurant, and before we left we had a chance to chat with chef/owner Gregory Marchand.  And I bought the cookbook he had just published.  And he autographed it!  Eating the food of two world-famous chefs and having chats with them two nights in a row!  Yikes.  What a thrill.

And on Sunday we hit a couple churches and the famous Saint-Ouen flea market (sorry, forgot to take photos of the flea market treasures, but we both brought a thing or two home with us!).

It was Reformation Sunday that week, and the preacher at
The American Church in Paris pointed out that statues
of various reformers ringed the pulpit.  I had never noticed!

We stopped by probably my favorite ancient
church, Saint-Severin in the heart of the Latin Quarter.
There has been a church on this site since the 5th
century, and the current building was started
in the 13th century.