Friday, August 13, 2010

Kathryn had an all-day meeting and I signed up for a market tour and cooking demonstration at the Cordon Bleu Culinary School. The breakfast at Le Meridian was great – meats, cheeses, fresh breads, fresh fruit, juices and the regular breakfast fare with a French twist.


I took a cab to the Cordon Bleu through narrow winding streets with beautiful buildings. Some streets were one way, others so narrow that two cars could barely fit that criss-crossed the city.

I was the first to arrive and was directed to the gathering room. Soon the room filled with for a total of 10 students. Crystal was from San Francisco, an attorney whose husband was off golfing at the Old Course at St. Andrews. Crystal had taken two classes at a pastry school the day before, had one scheduled after our class, and two for the next day. She was also a marathon runner – needless to say – I was impressed. They have no kids yet, but they were in her future plans. Another couple was from Toronto, another from North Carolina, another from Chicago, and two women from San Francisco. All English-speaking so we meshed easily.

Our chef for the day. Patrick Callas, arrived and greeted us in broken English. He told us his interpreter would arrive shortly. Patrick was a thin, handsome Frenchman who was very charming. Chloe, his interpreter, arrived and told us she was from Toronto, going to school at the Cordon Bleu, and her mother was French. We were served juice, coffee and fresh croissants that melted in your mouth.

Chef Patrick and Translator Chloe

As a group, we walked down to the French market that was about 15 minutes from the school. Patrick explained about the market – what was for sale – and what we should look for. He warned us that many of the fresh produce vendors did not like their “fruit” touched, and many did not like their pictures taken. Kind of makes you wonder what “the rest of the story is” ha.

The market was about two full blocks long, on both sides of the street. There were small food, wine and cheese shops permanently located in the buildings along the streets also. The booths were set up on the sidewalks and this particular market operated two days a week. We shopped for an hour or so, pretty much staying as a group so we could listen and watch Patrick. He bought several cheeses, some fresh fish, produce and bread which we would sample later for lunch and were to be used in the cooking demonstration.

We walked back to the Cordon Bleu as a group and were served a wonderful lunch.

Tourines, cheeses, fruits, one item that Chloe refused to tell us what it was, blood sausages, and veal snout (noses I presume). I tried the noses; they were pickled and actually quite tasty. I tried it all, including the mystery meat. I have not grown any extra extremities over the following days so I guess it was ok to eat!

Patrick did a cooking demonstration after lunch – red mullet, a fancy crab salad and a fresh fruit parfait for dessert. Each course would have taken about two hours prep time, but he worked on them all at the same time. Patrick explained things well through Chloe and we had a great afternoon being able to taste each course at the end of the demonstration. Beautiful presentations and tasty too! I would recommend the Le Cordon Bleu day to anyone who has the time to do it.

I decided to try to walk back to the hotel. Le Meridian was located near the tallest building in Paris. In simple terms, this very modern – very tall building sticks out like a sore thumb among all of the other historic looking buildings in the city. I had a good landmark to head towards. Just as I was about to give up, I looked up again and there was the Le Meridian.

Kathryn greeted me in the lobby. As I sat describing my day to her, she kept getting these horrible looks on her face. She then told me that the girl sitting behind me was picking her nose and eating her findings (about a 10 year old). Each time she would go for the nose, I would let out a loud disgusting noise, but it didn’t slow her down in the least. Even with comments like “how much could be in one nose?” and “hopefully that was dessert” she continued. When her mother came to gather her up, she spoke to the girl in English… what the?

Kathryn and I took off on foot towards the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides. We went inside Les Invalides – this is where Napoleon tomb is… such a large crypt for such a small man!

We tried to find the garden where Rodin's "the Thinker” statute is located but the garden was closed for the day.

We walked over to the Eiffel Tower –very impressive. It was very crowded and the lines to ride the elevator were really long. We wandered over to a group of people that had gathered and watched some street actors and dancers perform for a while.

Hoping we might go up in the Eiffel Tower on Saturday, we then headed towards the boat landing where we had prepaid for a river cruise. We came across an exact replica of the torch from the Statute of Liberty. (the next day on the boat cruise, as the guide pointed out the “torch” she said “Since Princess Diana died in France, the “torch” has been re-dedicated in memory of her! What? Did Bill O’Reilly know and report on this?)

We were both getting tired of all the walking and decided on dinner. We found a nice little sidewalk café near the “torch” and dedicated our desserts in memory of Diana! We both had a great dinner!

It was now dark and we decided to call it a day! There was that tall building guiding us home again!

We came across the most “unique” public restroom. It was out on the sidewalk – and had an automatic door. There was a line so we could really study this thing. After someone exited, the door closed and you could hear it going through some automatic cleaning cycle. When it was my turn, I could see where the toilet and the sink would retreat into the wall, into some sort of cleaning area, where it washed, sanitized and dried! Kathryn told me that she read somewhere that they wanted to install something similar in New York City but it never happened because they weren't handicapped-friendly.  It is so much better that our “porta-johns”.

A couple who was also standing in line told us that in 10 minutes (at 10 p.m.) that half-way up the street was a great viewing area to see the Eiffel Tower light show. It was beautiful.