Entremets and Raclette Party!

Hello Everyone. 

I've been quite behind on blogging lately. Mostly because i'm behind on other things that come before blogging... such as sleep, laundry, schoolwork, and taxes. Wooh. Speaking of sleep, It's far too late for me to be up. So, Unfortunately I will tell you about half my weekend now, and half tomorrow! Paris is part 2... Sorry for making everyone wait even longer to see those snazzy Eiffel Tower Pics! :P

This past Friday I finished my entremets class! I made these entremets:

The top left is "Granny Noisette" which was an apple and hazelnut entremets. The one on the right is a fruit-rouge entremets with almond crunch, the bottom left is an exotic fruit entremets with coconut and passion fruit, and the bottom left is pistachio-caramel-brownie. I also made a coffee cremeaux entremets that youcan see in the buffet picture to the far left. 

This class was organized a lot different from my entremets classes in America, but I like the change.We build them upside-down here compared to at JWU. It's quite interesting. 

After class was over I took a solid nap. 

Then, all 20 of us packed into the apartment common room with our "mom" Anne-Marie for a Raclette Party. Anne-Marie is CRAZY. She is so friendly and fits into the stereotypical rough-around-the-edges french woman mold. We all had a fantastic time with our raclette. For those of you who have never heard of a raclette... its a dish where you melt slices of cheese in a special pan, and eat it over plain boiled potatoes. It was actually really good! I love being able to partake in classic French Cuisine and traditions. I filled myself with plenty of cheese potato and sangria that night then hung out with my friend Mallory until we were falling asleep sitting up. The next day... we woke up to begin our travels to Paris! I'll tell you all about that tomorrow!

Until then!

My Accidental Tour de France

Before I get into the adventurous aspects of my weekend... A quick educational update:

I finished breads class last week! Here was my final buffet:

Today I started Entremets class, and I am halfway through my french classes.

Now to the fun stuff!

For this weekend, I guess you could say I went on the Tour de France... with the initial plan to go from Yssingeaux to Retournac to Lyon to Toulouse I felt confident that my weekend travels would go perfectly and peacefully according to plan... In reality, here's what happened.

SATURDAY:

Unfortunately my day of 4 hours of travel to Toulouse suddenly changed to 10 hours when I arrived at my train in Lyon to discover it was COMPETELY packed. Thus, the official adventure began when my friend Mallory and I were given very broken English instructions to sprint to a train that was leaving in 2 minutes. This is not an over-exaggeration. It was not until we dove head-first through the already closing train door that we decided to read the piece of paper the woman at the Lyon station gave us... It gave the transfer trains we would need to catch. There were 4. With 2 hour layovers between each. We were quite taken aback... But, excited to visit the Sugar Museum that inspired the entire trip. We stayed on the train to our first connection: Avignon.

It ended up being a GORGEOUS train ride and we had 2 hours to explore the city before getting on our next train. We went to a few shops, ate a quick lunch in a nearby park and headed back to the Avignon Station to continue our travels to Montpellier- Narbonne- and finally Toulouse!

When we arrived in Toulouse it was about 8pm and pouring and the elegant "Garden Hotel" we had booked for a very cheap price suddenly seemed like less of a nice idea. Thinking we'd arrive at 1:30pm by a fast train, a 45 minute walk through Toulouse to our hotel from the station seemed like a great way to scope out the city... As we trekked through rainy sketchville exhausted from travel and weighed down by backpacks we continued with fortitude (checking our map every few steps) and over an hour later... we successfully found our hotel! We got our room and were very pleased to see it was quite nice! We immediately tested the wi-fi which of course was not connecting... so we began to unpack. Suddenly, the fire alarm started blaring (which for a pair of American girls with little French-Speaking abilities is quite frightening) we ran downstairs where the man at the desk announced that everything would be fine once the alarm was turned off (all of which I picked up through hand gestures since he was speaking French). Mallory and I decided to escape the crazy and headed to a nearby McDonalds to snack on (French) French-Fries and use the free wi-fi. There we planned our Sunday (Easter) Journey for the next day to visit the Sugar Museum! We fell asleep to American Movies dubbed in French... which is how most of the movies and shows are here... I find it to be hilarious. And thus, Saturday is over. Yes. I've only written about one day so far. 

SUNDAY:

We wake up and head to a different, closer-to-the-hotel Train Station. Our phones read 8am but we questioned their accuracy because France's "Daylight Savings" occurs at 2am on Easter and we didn't know if they changed automatically. Luckily, they were correct. Unluckily, we got a little turned around on the walk over and arrived 2 minutes late. Only two. But that was just long enough to miss our train. So, we cancelled our next night hotel reservation, and walked to the far train station to catch a train. After this, our day started to look brighter! The sun came out and on our walk over we found a great market where I finally found some affordable walking shoes! We stopped at a nearby cafe for tea and internet, and then we hopped on a train to Cordes-Vindrac. Upon arrival we were offered a ride by a French man transporting 2 other students who happened to be Venezuelan. They spoke a very small amount of English a didn't ask for any cab fare. They helped explain to the VERY French man where we needed to go, and as we pulled closer to Cordes-sur-Ciel I realized that through all the struggles to get there... It was worth it. I was Mindblown.

This beautiful historic town was built on the top of a steep mountain. It was like walking into a real-life renaissance fair. There were gorgeous land marks, artsy shops, and smiley people that were all quite eager to talk to us about America. I walked through town with my mouth WIDE open in awe and was greeted by a local artist who spoke to me in French and gave me a postcard of some of his art. We reached the top of town to be taken aback- AGAIN- by the town's beauty. At the top was a large panoramic view of the nearby cities below us. 

It was so pretty I could've cried. It was so breathtaking and with the brilliant view and adorable town, I felt happily surrounded by French culture. Since the reason for the trip was to go to the Yves Thuries sugar museum... We continued on. The man at the ticket counter was so nice to us! We got discounts for being students at ENSP! It was fantastic! 

All these sculptures are made of 100% Sugar

I think you can see for yourself that it was AWESOME! And this is only a few of the many sculptures I saw.  After the museum we spent a whole day in the town. We got the sweetest taxi driver to return us to the station where we played with cats until our train arrived. There are cats everywhere in France. I named the train station cat Fluffycat. 

We got back to Toulouse and found a much closer hotel to the station to avoid another long walk. Which leads to...

MONDAY:

I woke up at 7am, jumped into my clothes, threw everything into my backpack and went to the train station to catch a train. Unfortunately the only way to be back in time for class was to get on a reservation-only train that was already booked with reservations. We made the terrible decision to get on without a reservation... Really we had no other choice, but it resulted in a fine and a TON of embarrassment. Luckily, It got us home in 4 hours instead of 12! Still... never going to do that again! Lesson learned! 

This trip was quite an adventure and I learned a lot about traveling, culture, and myself. Saturday may have been a bit of a trainwreck, but Sunday made it all worthwhile. The sugar sculptures were better than I thought possible. The skies were legitimately bluer than I've ever seen, and the trip ended with a feeling of success, not defeat. These memories will remain engraved in my head for a lifetime.

I Couldn't Have Known

There are many things that happen in life that seem insignificant at the time but end up changing your course significantly in the long run. Since this weekend in Lyon, three days have gone by. Being back in Yssingeaux, I was thinking that my life was pretty boring for these 3 days and was debating even posting at all... then, something pretty cool happened. Monday I went to class for my first day of breads. I was so tired that I came home and napped and then handwashed a TON of laundry because it costs almost 9 dollars to do a load here. Its crazy. But Tuesday, I met Alain Ducasse... which was cool, but suddenly became significant when...

BAM!

Yes. The above photograph is today's newspaper. In French. Cause I live in France. and...That is me on the front page. With ALAIN DUCASSE. Standing in the breads lab during class. It just doesn't quite feel real... For those of you who don't know who Alain Ducasse is, you should google him. You will see his many restaurants and you will see that these restaurants are very well respected... some even have Michelin Stars which is a HUGE deal in the culinary industry. Over Ducasse's career, his establishments have earned 21 stars. Only 2 chefs have done this. And I got to spend time with him! (He happens to be a co-founder of my pastry school in France.) We had a question and answer session with him and afterwards, many of us ambushed him for pictures! Including myself... I was SUPER cheesing...

Then he came to our lab and hung out for a bit... it was pretty fantastic! So, today when all the excitement had died down and I was having a pretty lousy day  (I cut the heck out of my hand on the sharp edge of a cabinet... How the heck that even happens... I don't know) It was a VERY cool surprise to get word that I was in the newspaper! I promptly went and picked up 4 copies cause I was so excited. That part is a little embarrassing...

But, back to my original plan for this post: 

I couldn't have known when I started this trip that I was going to see Alain Ducasse while I was in France. I definitely didn't think I'd be able to talk to him. I REALLLY REALLY didn't think I'd ever be in a French newspaper either. 

I also didn't know that cutting my hand would lead me on a band-aid hunt to another lab... full of French pastry students! Turns out they had been pretending to not know any English, but when they saw me bleeding everywhere they were nice and I met my goal of finding a french friend! They were really nice and I'm hoping I can talk to them some other time in less bloody, gross circumstances.

So, here I sit... attempting to read a French Newspaper, sipping on fancy apple cider, type-ity typing up my blog. And All I can think of is how everything is awesome here. Even if it starts out as lousy... it turns into something worthwhile! There are plenty of things that I cannot predict are going to come out of my experiences here... So, I'm going to sit back and live it. 

Au Revoir, Friends. Until next time...

Laughter is the Universal Language

I don't want anyone to think for a second that I'm not having the time of my life, because I am! But, at the same time, being in a new place isn't easy. It's overwhelming! It gets difficult to communicate when someone doesn't speak your language. It is hard to not only meet new people in France, but new fellow American students here as well. Travel and planning is exhausting, let alone the MILES of city, hills, mountains, and trails we walk each day. It is all worth it of course, but the only thing that gets me through the day here is laughter. When I cannot communicate with someone in the city, they laugh that I speak no French, and I laugh that they speak no English, we laugh at our frustration, and it makes the struggle easier to acknowledge that we are both human through our laughter. When we can't find our train in the middle of a busy train station full of no one who can help us find our way, we laugh because crying over it would be silly. We laugh when we fall because we simply cannot walk any longer. We laugh when we cant read the menus at restaurants. We laugh when we have no clue how to eat the food that we order. Through the short time I've been here I've learned that Laughter is such a universal language; I think it's beautiful.

This weekend, I traveled to Lyon with 4 other students: 3 from JWU Charlotte, and 1 from JWU Providence.

Clearly, we had a GREAT time! We saw it ALL! It was a big change from being in Yssingeaux because Lyon is like 10x bigger. When I try to think of an American city to compare it to, I cannot come up with one that does it justice but I suppose that Paris is to New York as Lyon is to Chicago. Lyon is also the gastronomic capitol of France (that's a fancy way to say that they have the best food) and I can't say that I disagree. The food was fantastic! In our short 48 hours of time in Lyon we:

 -ate at a quaint crepe shop that a man ran out of his home where I had the BEST crepes I have ever had. 

- We shopped literally until we dropped

-We saw the Rhone river along with MANY other landmarks

-We ate sorbet

-We ate pastries

-We ate icecream

-We ate macaroons

-We ate cheese

-We ate honey

-We ate blood oranges

-We ate Seafood

-We ate creme brulee

-We ate Chocolate that was inside a real egg-shell

-We worked all the calories off by hiking to the top of Old City Lyon

- We were given roses by a hot french florist man

-We were offered free drinks and churros by a restaurant owner (yes there are churros in France)

-We got yelled at in a mystery language by a flock of gypsies because we accidentally roamed into their territory of secrets

-We came by complete accident across a huge parade of children dressed as funny characters from Pixar movies and lots of drumming bands.

-We saw many beautiful churches

-We adored grafitti

-We "awed" over many french children

-We ate a picnic of fresh market foods in a park

-We played on a playground

-We drank fancy drinks

-We hiked through the ruins of an old theater

- We took lots of pictures

-We rode on trains and in taxis

-We watched French Music videos in our hotel

-We learned that some McDonalds have "Walk-Thrus"

-We took silly pictures on honorable statues

-We had a blast.

Here are a few pictures of these things:

I'm sure i'm forgetting some things... but basically, I had an exhausting, fantastic, beautiful weekend with some great people! Tomorrow I begin Breads Class.

Have a great Monday, Everyone. Remember to laugh. 

Parlez-vous français?

Bonjour! Je m'appelle Kelcey! Je suis e'tudiante un patisserie. J'ai deux tortue et ils sont petit! J'adore arc-en-ciel gateau et jongier. Je'suis dix-neuf, presque vingt! Voila!

Okay, Okay... enough showing off my new found ability to speak French... 

If you didn't quite catch that, I said: "Hello! My name is Kelcey! I am a student of pastry. I have two turtles and they are tiny! I like rainbow cake and juggling. I am 19, almost 20! There you are!"

In case you can't already tell... I had my first French class today! Unfortunately, funfetti cake doesn't exist here, so the best translation I could get my teacher to come up with was "Rainbow Cake." Works for me!

I have been pretty slack about my blogging lately, but now that I am in both pastry and French classes, I have a lot less time than I thought to spend telling everyone what I'm doing, because it cuts down on my adventure time! So, here's what I've been up to!

Yesterday:

4:30am- Wake up, put on many layers of clothes, tread up 2 mountains in the snow... Arrive at school and change into chef uniform.

6:00am- Start Petit Fours Class! We made macaroons! Teeny Tiny ones! We also made some other tiny, adorable desserts that I will post once complete! I learned a lot of French techniques and what to call all my tools in French! Un maryse is a rubber spatula!

1:00pm- Labs end and Lunch Begins. It was delicious as usual and Carmen, the dining room manager was sweet as ever today when she came to check if we enjoyed our lunch in very broken English. 

2:00pm- Change back into street clothes, and begin trek back home. We took a "shortcut" but got distracted by dogs, donkeys, and roosters so the walk took a while! then I took a 20min nap and a group of us left on a hike! It was REALLY steep. Like over 900 meters steep. My butt is going to look great. Here we are taking silly timer photos on our hike!

After the hike we walked through town and I bought delicious fresh bread, fresh jam, and a few other tasty treats at a random market set up in the center of town. The food here is still the best I've ever had. Ever. And the vendors at the marked included the very dirty, nice man that sold me my bread and an adorable woman not much older than me that spoke pretty decent English that she remembered from high school! She had awesome dreads! I bought her plum jam and have been spreading it on everything because it is too tasty. 

After getting home, I began planning the Paris trip... which took till 11pm. Which leads to today!

Today was much the same as yesterday but I had a French class from 2-4 after Petit Fours. Then I came home and passed outttt since last nights planning kept me up far too late. I then took a much enjoyed shower and the students in night labs came by on their walk home to chat more about Paris... which I cut short to finish this post, talk to Craig, and sleep.

A few interesting things I learned about France today:

There is no Easter Bunny here: a BELL hides the eggs. That is not a typo. I know it doesn't make sense... but this is France...

I learned what blood sausage is because I unintentionally ate it... and thought it was delicious until I was told it was some form of blood and organ meat from an animal ground into a paste and cooked... Who thinks of these things?!

That's all for now! Goodnight!

Class has Begun!

Bonjour again!

Although my original intention was to post every day... I have been overtaken by a case of Jet Lag that I thought I had already completely recovered from by the first day. I am currently running on 2 hours of sleep because I didn't want to nap in an effort to get on the correct sleep schedule. Don't worry, the second I hit "Post" it's bedtime for me! Today was my first day of class which consisted of waking up at 4:30am to a surprise snowstorm after finally falling asleep at 2:30. I then trudged 20 minutes to the labs through the snow. It was a little rough. lol. But, It helps that when I get to the top of the multiple hills and mountains I climb to get to school, I look out to see this beautiful town I live in. Yssingeaux. I took this photo when I first arrived. Isn't this a magical place to get to wake up to every morning?!

Once I got to class I woke right up and dove into production! I was surprised by the way some things are done here, but it was a good, simple day. My current chef is Australian and all the girls in my class are completely infatuated with him which is hilarious to watch. We didn't finish any petit fours, but as soon I do... pictures will be posted. I have tons of pictures but am going to let everyone's anticipation keep building before I post them. Plus, IM GOING TO PARIS THIS WEEKEND! WOOH! 

Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me!

Until then...

I'm tired.

Today was fantastic! (Again) It was filled with adventures into town. Confusion at the grocery store... Again. And a giant dinner potluck style with all us Americans! Then we went on an interesting adventure to a bowling alley, and a few of us planned a hiking trip for tomorrow. It's been great, and I can't believe I've only been here 3 days. But, now I must admit something... I'm exhausted. I've been too excited and curious and happy and allll that to sleep! So, I have to cut this blog short and go take care of that... Because soon I may just stop functioning. Sleeping In tomorrow for sure. Even though its only 8pm in America... It is 1am here, and that is just too late for someone who needs to adjust enough to be in class at 6am Monday!

Goodnight all!