pastry class

there is a kitchen store around the corner from us called “coin cuisine” (kitchen corner) which has upscale kitchenwares as well as a working kitchen in the back where they teach classes. in the summer we thought jj would need 6 months before she was up to speed with her french to be able to take a class. funny that in fact, we find now that her problem is not getting enough french because all her friends speak english. so we decided that taking a class in french would be good practice. it’s october school break for a week and a half and i signed us both up for a class for kids and adults in sweet pastries.

there were 5 other kids and one woman. the teacher started out telling us how with normal cooking you could be loose about quantities, but with pastry making it had to be precise. we would start with making batter for “choux” (empty cream puffs with sugar sprinkled on top), “religieux” (one chocolate pastry cream stuffed puff stacked on a vanilla filled puff topped with sugar glaze) and “eclairs” elongated cream puffs filled with vanilla pastry cream, topped with chocolate sauce. he told the kids to measure out water and milk on a scale – the french do much of their cooking by weight rather than volume. he told one boy to measure out 25 cl of water into a container on the scale. first you put the container on the scale and then zero it out. then the boy poured enough water into the container to get a 25 on the digital read out but it was a minuscule amount. there was a long tirade from the teacher that i couldn’t totally understand – something about you wouldn’t be happy if that’s the amount of coca cola you got in a bottle. then he started quizzing him about how many centiliters were in a liter and how much did water weigh... jj was terrified he’d ask her to do something too. turns out the scale measured “grams” and we had to know the relationship of water weight to volume. 1 liter water is 1 kilogram (1000 grams) of weight. so 25 cl would be 250 grams (not 25). so we measured out milk and water and butter and went to boil them. then we measured out flour and sugar. then having said earlier that everything had to be measured precisely, he pours salt from the container into the bowls. i asked how much salt he was putting in. he answered me that precisely 1 pinch, and continues on to define 1 pinch. it is the “precise” amount of salt you can grab with 2 fingers and your thumb. hmmm. that doesn’t sound too precise to me. everybody has different size hands... then after stirring and stirring the eggs into the batter, he stirs the batter and says it needs another egg yolk. so – again it comes to something vague. though, the recipe did say 3-4 eggs and after stirring, add another egg yolk and some white if needed. (little trick to baking puffs – when they are done, open the oven door and keep cooking for 15 mins. this will allow the humidity to escape the oven and dry out the puffs so they will stay firm)

 after the puffs, we were making batter for “financiers” which are little cakes similar to madeleines but with ground almonds in them. “financier” means banker and they are in the shape of gold bullion bars. these are one of my favorite pastries. they have a wonderful slight chewiness. you have to put all the dried ingredients in, then stir in a PRECISE amount of egg whites. so you have to weigh them. he was showing us the trick of how to pour egg whites and stop the flow. you put your index finger over the pouring spout and “cut it like a guillotine”. i laughed and repeated “guillotine” because i assumed it was a joke. but he looked at me and said seriously, “you have to do it that way, to cut the flow of egg whites and get a precise amount”. (otherwise the egg whites, with their gooeyness, will drag more out with them). i whispered to jj that the guillotine was so much part of french history, that it had become part of the language. he didn’t see anything funny about using the term. meanwhile, i was getting a slight glimpse into how teachers speak to students. he was quite abrupt, yelling at them when they didn’t do things right. “i showed you how to do this already, hold it like this, do this and flick it this way”.

 then we made “tartes fines aux pommes” and “palmiers”. he rolled out store bought flaky pastry, cut 6” rounds and put them on a baking sheet. then we got to use the really cool apple peeler/corer/slicer which looks similar to an old fashioned pencil sharpener. the apple is lanced onto the rotating cylinder and the handle is turned, which moves the apple towards the coring cylinder and peeling /slicing blades. the kids loved that. arrange apple slices fanned out on each pastry circle, painted with egg, sprinkled with sugar and put a couple of pats of butter on top. they turned out very light and delicious. take leftover pastry, layer them together (not smushing them – keeping them layered) and roll them out into rectangle. then brush on egg and sprinkle sugar and fold sides toward center twice. then slice crosswise to get little double spirals, and lay out on baking pan. when everything was baked they were placed on platters – big piles of pastries – and laid on the table. everyone sat down around them and then (6:00 – just before dinner time) everyone piled into them eating whatever they wanted. we each got a bag to take as many as we wanted home. it was like kid heaven! plus the adults got to have a glass of kirsch – a very sweet cherry liqueur, while the other parents waited on the sidelines and watched.
we signed up immediately for the macaroon class.

strikes

you may have been hearing about the strikes in france. many have checked in on us to make sure we are not suffering. actually, i live in my little ex-pat bubble. since i don’t have a car, the gas shortage doesn’t affect me, and there doesn’t seem to be a food shortage. i’ve learned over the years that strikes are a seasonal happening in france – every fall they happen. however, this one was a big one, and all the news coverage says “not since 1995 has there been as big a strike”. the one in 1995 was protesting the same issue – trying to raise the retirement age. we were here then too. i was pregnant with jj. i wonder if the bad strikes have something to do with jj being in paris? i remember trying to get across town without public transport with terrible traffic jams. they have since instituted laws against total shutdown of public transport, so things do not get that bad. the general understanding here is that people know that things need change, but they just don’t like sarkozy and his methods. the strikes are more a statement against him. i was telling someone that maynard was a bit scared of the little dogs and she said “yes, the little ones are much more vicious. like sarkozy and napolean!” we laughed.

"tasha, the cat" painting

"tasha, the cat" painting took me a very long time. 2 weeks. i have realized (again) that am being too constrained with photos as reference for paintings. too easy to get pulled into the details. need to loosen up and focus more on brushstrokes and rogue colors. need to work faster and from life. will go get some eggplants and red peppers and do still life had planned to do in august. in the past, i have done paintings “en pleine aire” – sitting on the side of a landscape and finishing it in 3 hours. need to go back to the freshness of that.

"le cantine du troquet" restaurant

i had been wanting to try the restaurant called “le cantine du troquet”, since august, when my friend monique came through town and told me about it. weeks went by. finally, we planned to go tonight as a family. the restaurant is in the 14th arrondissement, opens at 7 and doesn’t take reservations. it’s a hot new place, but since the french don’t eat dinner before 8, the plan was to get there at 7:30.
jj came home and said she wanted to go meet her friends for dinner before they all went off on october holiday. ok, that would allow p and i to have a date. so jj went across town on the metro with a friend. (note another step of independance). meanwhile, p was incommunicado – i just could not get through to him. so instead of sitting at home waiting, at 7:15 i headed to the restaurant hoping that he would call me. it was a strange feeling heading to a place not knowing if i would hear from him. felt like long ago days of being on my own. happily everything worked out and p called as i was getting off the bus. he took a tram and then a velib bike to meet me there.
it was a charming, hip, “down home” style restaurant where many tables are big communal ones. it is the 2nd restaurant of the chef Christian Etchebest who owns “le troquet”, a fancier restaurant in the 15th arr.
the menu was written on a big blackboard and was very reasonable. it is billed as a “basque” restaurant, but i’m not sure what that means exactly. it felt very traditional – with kidneys and head of veal, on the menu. i decided to be adventurous and try something old to the world, but new to me. i had the pigs ears for appetizer. they were sliced into shreds, deep fried and served on lettuce. it was sort of like very chewy, slivered bacon. tasty, but the sort of deep fried thing i have been trying to avoid eating in my new low fat stage. that said, for main course, i had lamb. it was tender and tasty, with a nice sauce on it, but just that – a slab of meat on a plate. though a bowl of homemade fries did appear too. p had morille mushrooms with eggs and then a fish called “lieu” (pollack). we walked back along the next road over, which had food shops and restaurants all along. it felt very old fashioned unlike our road with all the new chain clothing stores. we really liked the feeling. meanwhile, jj made her way home with her friend, again on the metro. she got off one stop after her friend and walked home and let herself in. we arrived home just a few minutes after she did.

painting & pot luck

i have been working on a painting of a friend’s dear departed cat. it is a from a beautiful photo, but i’m finding it very difficult. the first problem i had was that i bought a new tube of white acrylic and was frustrated with it’s lack of opacity. after working with it for several days, i was complaining to a friend about it, and then realized that i should check the label to make sure i had the right thing. sure enough, i did not – it was a translucent white for mixing into colors. but on top of that problem, the photo was very low resolution and i couldn’t see the details of the cat itself.

the parents of jj’s grade got together for a pot luck dinner. it was very enjoyable to get to know people more. they were, of course, an international bunch. the hosts were french/american couple from new orleans, here for a year. there were 3 korean moms, an english couple, a korean american mom, an english/french couple and others. the food was excellent as well. (my favorite was the pork baked with prunes and also the korean noodles).  i was having such a nice time, i didn’t want to leave, but had left jj on her own, so felt i should get back.

belleville tour

went on a mom-organized guided tour of the belleville area of paris. our tour guide spoke only in french (good practice for me). belleville started out as a separate town in the countryside, and of course was eventually swallowed up by paris. it has had a history of different immigrant groups- eastern european, jewish, north african and finally chinese. after the chinese, came the artists, though, it’s still a sort of chinatown. some parts still feel very much like a small village. it is up on a hill, so had wonderful views of paris.
afterwards, we went out for chinese food. it was ok, but not fab.

school adaptation

we had been told by the other parents that there would be tears in the first part of the year as the kids adapted to “adaptation”. jj had been weathering fairly well, though she wasn't fond of the ambiance in the school. today, the teacher was collecting a homework assignment that jj had missed hearing about. she was terrified of the yelling that she was sure she would receive for not having it. however, the teacher kindly told her to bring it in the next day. jj said the teacher must have been in a good mood. she was relieved but that evening the pent up fear came out in tears. she was very upset in general with the approach of the teachers. she railed again about the boy who was wrongly punished. she said “you can’t even smile. they don’t want you to be happy”

conversation group

the mom group at the school has organized conversation groups. this is a language exchange gathering between french and english speakers with 1 hour of french conversation and then 1 hour of english. there are actually 6 french/english groups and one spanish/french group. my group meets on tuesday morning and this was our first session. we met in a cafe where it was a bit noisy and difficult to hear. we were a group of 16 or so and mostly english speakers. there were only 3 native french speakers.  it was a nice way to meet some more people and i look forward to our next meetings.

school meeting / doggy passport

went to school meeting. got to see who the principal was (the woman with whom jj had had the crisis) and various other teachers. the principal was a very proper french lady. the english teacher seemed to speak french fluently, but had the most amazing twangy american accent. i really enjoyed listening to her. it was entertaining.

later, i brought maynard to the vet to get his doggy passport, for traveling in europe.  plus he had to have a rabies test to get into england.  then, six months after the negative test results (ie. he DOESN'T have rabies), he is allowed in.  this is the second time we have done this.  we had had it done back in march '09, in boston, but the clinic messed up with some typos on his microchip number and it was invalidated.  we found this out only in july when we were coming over.  so now, he will be allowed into england in april.

brunch

we finally got the 2 maries, marie d and marie m, to come over for brunch. there had been many back and forths and falling through of dates, but finally they made it over. i made quiche provencale (store bought crust, layer of swiss cheese, sauteed chopped zucchini, egg mix (3 eggs, 1.5 cups milk, salt), topped with tomato slices and sprinkled with herbs de provence) accompanied by smoked salmon and bayonne ham (sort of like prosciutto) and an avocado endive salad. we hadn’t seen marie m. since july when she went on her adventure in uzbekistan and we had gone south. she was very adventurous going off there on her own, with her backpack and head scarf. she’s not your typical ceo... it was also great to see marie d. who is also so helpful to us in organizing our life in france. we told them about jj’s plight at school and our views on the french school culture so far. interestingly, they said that it was the culture specifically at OUR school. they said that in france the current problem in the schools is opposite to our problem it’s too LITTLE discipline.

crepes

jj had a good late teenager saturday morning. i was bugging her to get up and have breakfast to get going with her day.  instead of just eating something quickly, she went and made crepes from scratch, for herself. she made fresh raspberry/chocolate crepes. they were really good. she is definitely a person who just dives into projects. she decides to do something and just does them. i am amazed at how she has evolved into the person she is.

school crisis 2

jj said that the girls were talking in the hallway and they didn’t think they were being too loud (though, i have to say, the girls get very loud without realizing it).  an adult came out of the office and yelled at them – “i am sick of you lot. get out of here before i put a warning on your records”. jj was shocked that he was so furious with them. they were unaware and would’ve been quieter or left if they had known. anyway, just at that moment another boy in the adaptation program was coming down the stairs. jj said that he was smiling because he always smiles and plus, it was his birthday.
he wasn’t reacting to the girls' situation. the adult saw him smiling and said “you think it’s funny, come here right now “ and the boy got an official warning on his record. jj was very upset at the injustice of it.

double booked

i had invited this new author friend to go to the talk through the alumnae association of my college, but had forgotten that the family had also bought tickets to a rock concert. jj heard that this american band was playing in paris and we had agreed to take her and a friend. the talk was at 7:00 and the concert was at 8:00, but we figured that with the warm up band and the way they draw out concerts, the main act probably wouldn’t go on until 10:00.

so i went to the talk first, waiting for p’s texts telling me the status of the concert.
the talk was at someone’s house in a lively neighborhood– the area around the corner of boulevard montparnasse and boulevard raspail. it is one of my favorite areas. some old time big brasseries are there – le coupole and le dome. we got there early so we went to have a drink at “le dome” which is famous for its (pricey) seafood menu. our waiter looked just like robin williams dressed up as a serious waiter. for a moment i thought i was in a surreal real-life comic movie and i almost burst out laughing. i couldn’t help smiling every time we interacted with him. we had a nice aperitif and chat and then went to the talk.

the talk was in an alumnae’s apartment which was loft-like with a double height wall of windows and a mezzanine with ancient exposed beams. the journalist had wonderful stories of how she started out in the business and her views on its current state. she actually specialized in following the media and said that even she had trouble keeping up with all the amazing changes. we were an hour into the talk, when i got the text and a call from p saying that the warm up band had just finished. since the concert was across town, i had to go right away to make it on time. i was very sorry to leave.

however, the concert was quite amazing. i haven’t been to a rock concert in a lonnnng time. i haven’t wanted to go to a rock concert, but this band had a hit song that i knew and liked and jj was hot to go. i thought it might be fun, especially because it was in an old concert hall which is more like a club and NOT a stadium. the band was “train” who has the hit “hey, soul sister” and the venue was “bataclan” inside paris. bataclan dates from the 1860’s but was rebuilt in the 1950’s. it is a small venue that can hold around 1300 people. i arrived a few minutes after they started playing. the lead singer, patrick monahan was a real performer. he didn’t just stand there and sing. he moved and interacted with the audience. jj was most impressed with him when he asked if he could sing a song without the mike. he has a very good voice and it was very personal to hear him sing that way. the venue is really small, the center floor was for standing, and it was not totally packed, so one could get right up to the stage. he also did a tour through the audience while singing a soft song. it was amazing to be able to get so close to a fairly famous performer.

i did feel a little old there, but i wasn’t the only one. there were many middle aged people. funny, our generation, the rock and roll listeners are old now and seem out of place at a concert.  the lead singer seemed a bit older, himself. since i thought it was a new band, i thought he would be a kid. i hadn’t realized that they have been successful since their first album in 1998. i guess that would explain the slightly older people in the audience. i figured he’d be maybe, 28, maybe 35. turns out he is 41 so he’s practically old too! but he’s in very good shape.

i really enjoyed this concert in such an intimate setting and will keep an eye out now, for upcoming events at bataclan.

is it a dog? no, it’s a dog.

after the library talk, i came home and we all went down the street to jj’s favorite ice cream store, amorino. it is a chain of stores that shapes the ice cream in the cone to look like a flower. we had brought maynard and on our way home we encountered a lady whose dog began inspecting him. the conversation was in french.

she asked, “is it a dog?”
i was confused so i answered “it is a labrador”.
she asked again, “but is it a dog?”
at this point, my mind was scrambling. i didn’t understand the simplicity of her question. i didn’t know what to say. it wouldn’t be polite to say “no, it’s a rabbit. what do you think? of course, it’s a dog.”
but jj, who hit the inflection point at that moment when her french was better than mine said: “no, it’s a dog”. this seemed to satisfy the lady who said “oh, in that case we should go, because mine is a dog.”
as jj began explaining it, i realized what had happened.

since the french language has gender built into it, the question correctly translated would’ve been: “is it a female dog?” “c’est une chienne?”. jj figured this out and answered correctly: “no, it’s a male dog.” “no, c’est un chien.” i was very proud of her.

the lady pulled her male dog away because she was afraid they would fight. but maynard is a fixed dog and not prone to fight. i have been told that the french view neutering dogs as barbaric and inhumane, so their dogs are not fixed. perhaps this would explain why they are always pulling their dogs away from maynard, for fear of doggy conflict.

dogs & kids

of course, having dogs and/or kids helps to meet people. jj has already created a social life for us. we were hoping maynard would introduce us to many french dog owners. however, the area we live in, near the eiffel tower, for whatever reason, has a lot of americans. i have already met many american dogs and their owners.

it’s easy to make friends with expats here. they have the commonality of being a foreigner and having made the conscious effort to live in paris. “paris is a filter” for a certain kind of person. in addition, they don’t have the time demands of family and longtime friends that has filled the day to day life of locals. expats have more open slots for new people in their lives.

one lady i met at the champs de mars on the first day walking maynard, is a journalist and author who has written 13 books. her latest book explores the relationship to the peripheral people in your life and their impact on you. in fact, they do matter and can change your life. it is an interesting study. she doesn’t actually live in paris, but comes for extended periods to visit. she wanted to meet more english speakers here, since her french is not too good. she is a new yorker living in northampton, mass, home of my alma mater, so i told her about a college alumnae association meeting that i was going to, with a lecture given by a journalist who follows the media.

she told me she was giving a talk on her book, at the american library. the american library is private english language library. to borrow books, you have to buy a membership. it is nearby, on the other side of the champs du mars and eiffel tower. so, i took a velib bike and went to her talk, which was very enjoyable. when i left, it was around 9pm and a clear, crisp evening. i got another bike and was riding across the champs du mars past the eiffel tower which was sparkling with its hourly special light show. it was another conscious moment of “i’m in paris!”.

oysters & pink champagne

october is the time of year when oysters come to paris. just back from boston, i looked out the window and noticed that the brasserie across the street had oysters displayed. i got excited! p. went down and came back with a platter. oysters to go! all opened and arranged on a bed of ice in a styrofoam plate. we pulled out a bottle of pink champagne that had been left in our fridge by either the landlord or the previous tenants. this was a paris moment. it made me very happy.

maynard in paris

if you recall, maynard, the dog was not able to come to paris on our flight because the weather had been too hot that day (airline regulations). he had been living happily and comfortably with some friends in the boston countryside. in fact, he was having a great doggy life there, running in the woods, freely chasing squirrels and hanging out with his doggy buddy, jarvis, the yellow lab. the family said they would love him to stay with them, but we missed him and felt that he should join the rest of the family.

i was planning to go back in september but hurricane earl came through, and i rescheduled. there were plenty of volunteers who were willing to bring him to us, but in the end, i decided to go back and visit my mom and pick up some more luggage. i spent the 2 days in new hampshire with my family, then 3 days around boston. i had to do some official doggy things to allow him to come, including a trip to the vet and then a trip to the usda office to bring paperwork for them to stamp. the drive out took 45 minutes, they stamped to docs in about 5 minutes and then 45 minutes back. i didn’t really want to go back so soon, but when i got there, i was happy to see everyone.

anyway, it turned out to be a smooth trip and a smooth flight back. maynard did very well – he flew in his crate with the luggage. he is adapting well from country to city life, though a little nervous on our walks. it is much more noisy here! interestingly, it seems that people are a little hesitant with dogs here. they clearly move to the side to avoid him (maybe it’s that black dog thing) and people with dogs clearly pull their dogs away. some dogs seem to be more hostile. maynard is hesitant with the other dogs too. i wondered if there was a variation in doggy culture here. it could be that because the people are different culturally, that they have conditioned their dogs to be different too.