Day 20 - A Day of Laughter

Bonjour!

The mornings are so enjoyable here. We three Ohio girls decided last night that we'd have coffee in the apartment and then take a morning walk (15 minutes)to the Poncelet Open Market. We stopped by the stalls of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, cheese and dropped into a bakery for a box of Paris' famous macaroons and then managed to find a wine shop where we bought four bottles of red wine. The owner spoke excellent English so we had a short course on wines AND lots of fun kidding around!

The pictures are of Marti and Darlene at the Open Market wine shop, exterior of Pompidou Centre, Picasso painting, functional art (chairs)and finally the chef and me last week at the Ritz Paris (holding my certificate of completion for puffed pastry class).

The plan was to go back to the apartment to prepare food for a late breakfast and then "metro" to the Pompidou Centre. It was a wonderful afternoon. We particularly enjoyed the Lucien Freud exhibit of oil paintings, mostly of the human body. We also saw some of the permanent collection which was fabulous--such artists as Picasso, Henri Matisse, Kandinsky and others.










Tonight was my first cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu (LCB). All three of us attended along with about 20 others. I didn't get to write much about my puff pastry class at the Ritz Paris last week, so I'll try to summarize both. The Ritz Paris class was hands on and LCB was a demonstation only of souffles. I enjoyed the Ritz class much more but I'll be able to give a fairer evaluation of LCB after my next class (Taste of Italy: Risotto) on Friday. I'd give the Ritz, so far, an A+ and LCB a "C." Why you ask? The chef was more professional and produced a better product at the Ritz. And LCB did not give directions with their recipes, only the ingredients. LCB was in a classroom/lecture setting which, of course, was not hands-on. Friday will be and I'll check back in and let you know if my impression changes.





Just in case you're wondering, we estimated that we walked about five miles today. We are all holding up well--all of us belong to the gym and work out regularly and it really does show.

Tomorrow we see the French impressionists at Musee d'Orsay, take a boat ride in the evening on the Seine and find a jazz club after that.

Again, it's almost 2:00 am so I must say good night and bon nuit to my French speaking friends!

Love, Judy