semaine onze.

     I spent the evening before my exam cleaning and ironing my uniform so that it would be spotless for inspection. On Thursday I woke up early to go over all of the recipes again to make sure that I was prepared regardless of what cake they threw at me. I had my favorites and my "not so excited if I have to make that dish" picks, but I wanted to be ready and optimistic. I packed up all of my things and walked to campus so I could clear my head and calm my nerves before the exam. The final counts for 45% of our grade for the term, so this one cake and technical dish was the equivalent of the previous 19...oh the pressure.


My Final exam dishes

     Hopeful and expectant for our dishes and our favorite Chef, my group made our way to the 2nd floor and anxiously waiting to enter the kitchen. Thankfully, we had our choice of kitchen, and two cakes that we were fully prepared for (for the majority at least). Half of our kitchen would make the Moka, and the other half (myself included) would make the Dacquoise. It's not extremely difficult from a technical standpoint, but since the cake has a meringue-y component to it and a buttercream frosting, it's insanely labor intensive due to the lack of machines. I would whisk my life away, but it was nothing I hadn't already done or could not handle. Once the initial nerves of the first 5 minutes passed, I had my technical dish together and the cake came together nicely. At the end of the day, I didn't love my decoration (piping wasn't perfect and I had made a better flower at home) but Chef gave me a side hug, said it was good, and I exhaled feeling confident that I had at least passed.
     We all left the kitchen, changed, I emptied my locker, and a group of us decided to head to the student bar for a couple of beers to celebrate. We had a really phenomenal group for our kitchen so it was fitting to cheers and celebrate a little together all that we had accomplished; phase one complete! Joana still had her Cuisine exam, so after a couple of drinks we left the bar and walked home together chatting and enjoying the stroll.
     I spent the next day helping a friend who'd had some troubles with her apartment and then worked on laundry and such after the exam. That evening, I met up with Nora and her friend visiting from Finland to bike over to a fellow student's apartment for a lovely, relaxed evening with a potluck and a little champagne to unwind. Cuisine and Pastry for Basic were complete so we could all breathe a sigh of relief, swap stories, and bond over our shared love, food. We said our goodnights and biked home before our adventures the next day.


Tagine from the Marais market

     I spent Saturday with Nora and her friend Mimi wandering the city. We went to the Marais and discovered a food market that had been closed in our previous visits. It has a bunch of restaurant stands; overwhelming and wonderful all at once. After settling on Moroccan, we ordered our food and settled in at a table to enjoy our meal. Needless to say it was amazing, and just the fuel we needed for the day ahead. We walked all over, shopping, window shopping, stopping for the obligatory eclairs so that Mimi could try them, and eventually parted ways for the evening.


Éclair Genie, round 2. Still worth it.

     On Sunday, Goni wanted us all to try an Israeli restaurant in the Marais with the fluffiest pitas I have ever tried. A large group of us feasted and enjoyed everyone's company with a few extra visitors from out of town. It was nice to not have to fret or stress over school at all. We all were in the mood for ice cream after our meal, so we slowly made our way to Berthillon for some cones (best in the city). Afterwards, Mimi Nora and I broke off from the group, wandered along the Seine a bit, and then I finally got to explore Shakespeare and Co. I had done a good job avoiding spending money in the previous days shopping, but books are impossible to resist. I have no shame in that. After fully appreciating and taking in the charm and history of the shop, I settled on three books and we all checked out with our purchases. (I'm not the only one unable to resist the draw of a good book).
     We continued to wander and window shopping a bit (a complete French favorite, they call it lèche-vitrine, or "licking the windows") before realizing we were wanting a warm beverage and treat, and we had landed ourselves back in Saint-Germain des Pres. Of course, our first thought was to head to Les Deux Magot for some Chocolat Chaud. Also quite famed and revered, the creamy delicious concoction was exactly what I needed and wanted. While Angelina is still my favorite, Les Deux Magots is up there for a close second.


Finnish cinnamon rolls

      We all went home for a couple of hours before everyone was coming to my place for a nice dinner in. Joana also had a friend in town from Portugal, so that evening the Joana's, Nora, and Mimi arrived and we had a salad, garlic bread, and Finnish cinnamon and vanilla rolls (we ate so many!). The meal was awesome, but mainly because of the company; it was lovely to host and have my friends over for a low key night together.


Love me some Laduree

     The next day, I slept in and lazily got ready at my place before I headed to the 6th to meet up with the girls. The four of them were wrapping up lunch at Cosi, and we decided to head to the nearby Laduree tea room for coffee. It was fun showing the visiting friends the charm of the area and the beauty of Paris...eating your way through the city one fabulous place to the next. Mimi had to leave to catch her flight, so she and Nora headed home but I stuck with the Joana's and wandered to the Luxembourg Gardens. We then spent the next couple of hours window shopping and slowly making our way to the Eiffel Tower because the girls had tickets to go to the top at 5:30.

Sooo much ramennn

     When we got to the base of the tower, Nora arrived at the exact same moment, so the two of us said our goodbyes to the Joana's and decided to head to Alex's to hang out for a bit before we all got together for dinner later in the evening. After a couple of hours catching up with Alex and making plans for a movie night the next day, we grabbed the metro to the 1st to meet up with Albert and the Joana's to try out a Japanese ramen restaurant that Albert wanted to show us. There was a pretty big queue to get into the restaurant (good sign for the food!) so Albert very sweetly went and bought all of us bubble tea to drink while we waited. The others had never had it before, so it was fun watching them enjoy their tea. Once we finally got inside, we enjoyed our massive portions of ramen. It was so good, and I was so sad that getting a doggy-bag was not an option, I definitely over ate to take in as much as possible but it was totally worth it. We'd be back, but next time we'd be smarter and split our meals. Sufficiently stuffed, we decided to walk to the Seine to enjoy the evening and digest our meal a little more. Once we crossed the river and got back to the Latin quarter, we said our goodbyes and called it a night.


Cemitiere Pere Lachaise

     Tuesday was a beautiful, sunny, crisp fall day and so I met up with the Joana's and we explored the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. It perhaps most famously has Jim Morrison's grave, but it also is the final resting place for Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Proust, Chopin, and countless others including some haunting WWII memorials. It's extremely large and can be tricky to navigate, but it was well worth the visit. While it can seem morbid, in an odd way it humanized these great people and it was a great way to honor their memory, especially since it was a holiday here in France and Veteran's Day at home. It seemed fitting and lovely as we wandered the cobblestones in the fall light. After about 3 hours of meandering, we hopped on the metro and made our way to Canal Saint Martin.


Pizza pizza!

     We showed Joana the charm of the neighborhood before heading to an Italian place where we each enjoyed our own personal Nora joined in and was so enticed, she ordered a pie for herself as well. We chatted and hung out awhile longer and then Nora and I stopped at a grocery store to pick up some supplies for our movie night at Alex's.
     I went home to prep the salad I was bringing for our dinner and then biked up to join the team for some wine cheese and charcuterie to go with our meal. We devoured our salads while laughing along to the Producer's (Alex's favorite) only taking a brief intermission for some chocolate bananas courtesy of Nora for dessert. When the movie ended, we cleaned up, chatted, and said our goodbyes with plans for more movie nights in the future.
     I spent most of today at home relaxing and reading after a busy few days. Tomorrow is the graduation ceremony for Basic, and then it's all free time until January! With so much in just these last few days of break, who knows what the next two months will bring. Madness.