A day for Mike with a little Pat thrown in!

Mariendorf We awoke to a beautiful day, at 9:15 when I left the apartment the temperature was still in the upper thirties.  I was headed for la cuisine paris for a cooking class entitled http://thevintry.com.au/wp-json/wp/v2/product/499 Le Croissants and Traditional Breakfast Pastry.  I walked down rue Saint Denis past our old 3-bedroom apartment from  two years ago while traveling with Shoe, Carol, Lou, Sandy and of course Pat.  Its a pretty straight shot along the pedestrian street to the Seine and a left when reaching the river.  The street changes names several time, but just past the Hotel de Ville it become Quai de Hotel de Ville, I walked on to #80 where I was to meet up with other students for the class.  A couple from California, a couple from Slovenia, a young girl from Russia, a girl from Atlanta and the final student from Texas named Stephanie who was to become my partner for the class.

The Pastry Chef instructor, originally from Ohio, now lives in Paris with her French husband and aside from teaching several classes at la cuisine paris works as a pastry chef in two boulangeries, her name is Jenn.

The Class

The basis of the class is/was to learn to make the basic Croissant dough, which become the foundation for many other pastries, like Chocolate Croissant, Almond Croissant, Apple Croissant, etc.  I think you can see where we are headed.

The process starts with the Détrempe or basic dough (this rests for 6-hours).  This is followed by the fun step, called the barrage, or incorporating the butter in to the dough, in steps, it best to have a glass or wine in between each step, which takes about 20-minutes.

Next we cut to croissants into their recognizable shape and roll them up. Then they proof for about 2-hours are 75-80 degrees.

Ready for the proof box

Now comes the hard part, you have to bake for 20-minutes, you can imagine baking a two ovens full of croissants, and the aroma of the melting butter.  If you were a serial killer you would have to cut someone up!Now they are ready, oh wait that have to cool!  Well not that long especially if you have an asbestos mouth.

The bottom line YUM!

Croissant-more

Our Croissants

Chocolate Croissant and Almond Croissant

We all said our good byes, for Pat was meeting me outside. I had a Chocolate Croissant for her that I put extra chocolate in and I wanted to get it to here while it was warm. I’m scheduled for the macaron class next!

The classic Notre Dame

Now, it’s Pat’s turn. I took my time getting ready this morning, since I didn’t have to meet Mike until after his class. I went a little early, walked by Notre Dame, visited the ice rink near Hotel de Ville, where I saw a gentleman who reminded me of the saying “dance like no one is watching” only he was skating like no one was watching. He was grooving along, doing his best to try some ice skating championship worthy moves – but much less gracefully.  Yes, there were early good skaters making beautiful turns and jumps, but this guy just doing his thing and caught my attention. I tried to get several photos but they’re all out of focus – you’ll just had ego take my word for it.

I waited for Mike on the Quai de Hotel de Ville, standing in the sunshine and watching the bouquinistes open up their booths along the Seine.  When Mike appeared, he had a beautiful chocolate croissant for me – still warm from the oven. Yum, it made skipping breakfast worthwhile.

A dovecote on the walk to Chateau de Malmaison

We hopped aboard the Metro, heading for La Defense, that super contemporary business city on the outskirts of Paris – actually our zone 1 and zone 2 Navigo pass ended there.  We circled around following ambiguous signs to locate the bus station that is built beneath La Defense.  Once we located bus route 258  for St-Germaine-en-Laye, we waited for the bus, used a separate ticket  (one t+ ticket or 1.90€) and headed for Le Chateau de Malmaison, the 17th century chateau renovated by Napoleon for Josephine, which became her residence after their divorce. It was about a 20-minute bus ride – but was it worth it!

This part of the suburbs is not very pretty, lots of big blocky buildings full of apartments, but at one time, this was a country estate for Josephine, where she would go to escape the duties of the Empress at Tuileries. She lived here permanently after her divorce in 1809. She died here in 1814 from a cold or infection at the age of 51.

the entrance to Chateau de Malmaison	The entry hall - Josephine's time it was filled with aviaries and birds of all kinds	The ground floor billiard room off the entry hall
The sitting room with its set of 12 chairs	The music room....	The ground floor council chamber, where Napoleon ran his government, is draped to look like a tent
Everyone should have a library like this one	Napoleon's bedroom	Josephine's sitting room - do you think Maymont copied them?
I want a bedroom like Josephine's!	Josephine's bed - more swans	Adieu, Chateau de Malmaison - a real treat!

The ground floor rooms have been restored to their original grandeur including original furnishings located through a detailed inventory taken at the time of Josephine’s death.  The chateau is filled with gold/gilt, furnishings by the most prominent of France’s craftsmen, decorative painting, and accessories that evoke a time of extravagance. There were even two tapestries by Gobelins depicting Josephine.

The French 1st floor, our second floor, included both Napoleon’s and Josephine’s apartments, as well as a collection of art and furnishings. The second floor, our third floor, included portions of Josephine’s wardrobe and beautiful porcelain from Sevres.  After our visit, we headed down to the bus stop, back to La Defense and the metro into Paris in the middle of rush hour.

After a quick refresh in the apartment, we headed out into the neighborhood for dinner: I had filet of bar with lentils, Mike had entrecôte. Another day in Paris!