Au revoir, Bruno!

I'm sad to say that my cooking course is over. Friday was our last class of the semester. It went by so fast! This week, we made an avocado tart, fish with lentils, and crepes suzette. 

We started off with the avocado tart. Or rather, what Bruno called a tart. It was actually not a tart at all. It was very pretty, but you can't just make something circular shaped and call it a tart. We mashed avocados and mixed in chopped shrimp, pickles, and capers. Then Bruno did his standard fancy plating, and we topped it with some candy cane beet and olive oil. I was a little nervous I wouldn't like it, but it was actually quite good! It was made even better by the fresh white rolls we had baked which we used to get every last bit.

 Candy cane beet is pretty cool looking

For the main dish, we made fish once again. This time, we used two kinds of fish, of which I do not know the names in English... One was red and one was silver, and we put a piece of each together for every portion. Bruno had made a bisque with some of the shrimp we used in the first dish, and after cooking the fish, we topped it with some of the bisque on a bed of lentils.

Kristen, Megan, and I enjoy our last meal

The biggest achievement of the night was dessert: crepes suzette. Normal crepes become crepes suzette when you flambe the topping. We made orange zest crepes first, and Bruno told us that we each had to try to make at least two. So we all tried; many of us failed. At least one crepe ended up on the floor. But we got them all made in the end! Then, we made a caramel mixture, and when it reached its peak temperature, we added rum, and Bruno set it on fire. It was quite something to watch! Then the caramel mixture got poured over the top of the crepes. They were delicious!! A fantastic grand finale to our course.

 Fire! Not sure why Bruno wanted to hold the pan while it was on fire...

It was sad to say goodbye to the course, and to Bruno, but I am so happy I got to take it. I think it has been one of my favorite parts of studying abroad. I can't wait to come home and try to recreate everything!

La Camargue

Last Saturday, AUCP offered us yet another outing. Though this one required me to leave my house at 7:15 on a Saturday morning, it was worth it. This week's destination: La Camargue.

La Camargue is a region not far from Arles that is maintained as a nature preserve. The official term is "Wetland of International Importance." As the term indicates, it's a wetland. I know, shocker. But it's not just a boring marsh. It is actually quite beautiful. 

This is the symbol of La Camargue: A cross, heart, and anchor

Before we reached the officially protected area though, we went to a little town called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. It's a quaint little village that dates back to at least the 4th century AD and is centered around a church that was built from the 9th to the 12th century (yes, that's from and to, not between - churches take a long time to be built!). The village is also featured in a few works of classic Provencal literature. After a lunch and a short walk along the beach, we all got to walk up on top of the church and look out across the sea. The views were pretty awesome.

 Kristen liked the bull statue

Afterwards, we got back on the bus to go to the actual preserved part of La Camargue. We got to take a little train ride around the marshy parts, and we saw a flock of flamingos, a herd of young bulls, and something that looked rather like a beaver, but apparently was not... Some things get lost in translation!

After the train ride, we walked along a trail and got to see all the horses that live on the preserve. This is something La Camargue is famous for. There were also two very cute ponies! I took lots of pictures, mostly for Sarah.

It's hard to see, but this was some kind of wild boar.

La Camargue is a few hours from Aix, so we had to head back after our trail walk, but it's cool to see areas like this in France. It's not all little villages and big cities like Paris! There are really beautiful little spots in nature too.

Mange la nourriture; vive la France!

Our third of four cooking classes was this past Friday, and as usual, it was fantastic! I think this one was my favorite so far: soft, white bread, mushroom risotto, duck with a Roquefort cream sauce and potatoes, and a tarte tatin to finish it off! I left in a food coma.

All the ingredients laid out to start - the apples were enormous!

We cook everything all at once, and it's always cool how the ingredients manage to work together. While some of us started cutting up the mushrooms for the risotto, others started preparing and grilling the duck. Then, while the mushrooms and risotto started to reduce, we started the duck and saved the juices produced from searing it in a pan, then mixed the juices into the risotto when it needed more liquid. It was the best risotto I have ever eaten. I could eat it everyday.

 Bubbling away!

 Bruno does some fancy plating

YUM.

The potatoes and duck were relatively simple to cook, but la piece de resistance was the sauce. We took a block of Roquefort cheese and melted it down, then added cream to it to make a sauce for the duck. It was strong, but well flavored, and tasted great with the duck! I have taken quite a liking to duck while I am here. We should eat it more often in the states.

The dessert was a tarte tatin, which is a French apple pie. It's actually rather different from an American apple pie, but still very good. This was the process which I was most involved in. We started with a simple butter and sugar mixture in a hot skillet, and we melted it down until it started to brown. Then, just went it became caramel, we pressed apple slices directly into the caramel in the pan, then stuck the whole thing in the oven. While it baked, we made a simple pastry crust, and rolled out one for each tarte. Then, we took the pan out of the oven, laid the pastry crusts across everything, cut a little chimney hole in the top, and stuck it back in the over to cook for a little longer. When we took it out, we flipped it over onto a plate so the crust was on the bottom and the apples were open on the top. It was delicious!

 In the caramel and going into the oven

We made three!

I think I may still prefer good ol' American apple pie with the double crust and syrupy apple filling (I know, crazy!), but it was exciting to try the French version, and I wouldn't pass on either if they were offered to me!

We only have one more cooking class this semester, and it is this Friday. I will be sad to say goodbye to Bruno and all the delicious food, but I can't wait to see what our last meal will be!

Mes Vacances, Partie 3: Le Retour

And last but not least, part 3 of the vacation adventures! Friday morning, Atticus and I took a train back to Paris to spend our last weekend there. The Louvre is free for everyone under 26 on Friday evenings (woo, free stuff!), so we headed over there. We soon realized we were out of our depths and that the museum is completely massive. They aren't kidding when they say you would need years to see everything. We decided just to see some of the major attractions, and even that was quite the task. We walked a ton and got lost at least twice. I also made Atticus watch The DaVinci Code with me that night because I was thinking about it the whole time we were in the museum.

 Winged Victory

 The grand gallery

 The Mona Lisa!

Code of Hammurabi

Saturday morning we got up early and took the train out of the city to spend the day at Versailles. The weather was beautiful, so it was great! The palace itself was pretty cool, but I have to say, I think the gardens are more impressive. I'm still stunned anyone would ever need this much land. It would take you half the day just to walk from one end to the other!

 That's some fancy napkin folding

 We had to take a selfie! Sorry world...

As Saturday was our last evening, we decided to wander out and find a nice place to have dinner. After wandering around aimlessly for a while, we happened to come across this great place called Le Balto. If you ever go to Paris, I highly recommend it! Our server was quite a character and gave us great suggestions. After a yummy starter salad with duck on top, Atticus had steak tartare and I had the best steak I have ever eaten in my life. It was so delicious. We finished of the meal with Nutella tiramisu which was also to die for. Everything tastes better with Nutella!

Sadly, the vacation had to come to an end, and we both flew home early Sunday morning. It was a great week and lovely, relaxing vacation!

Mes Vacances, Partie 2: Saint-Briac-sur-Mer

And on to Part 2! Tuesday morning, Atticus and I took the TGV to up to Saint-Malo on the northern coast of France in Bretagne (that's Brittany for you English-speaking scrubs). You know that episode of The Big Bang Theory when the guys take a train to a conference and Sheldon is overcome with excitement about the train? Well, I wasn't quite as weird as him, but I was pretty excited. I really like trains. They're fun! Here was the silly train selfie I made Atticus take with me:

Why were we going to the north of France where it is cold and often rains, you ask? Well, brief history of the life of Meghan for those who are just joining in: our family friend Michele lives in a little town called Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, and when I was 16, I spent a few weeks living with her family there. And it was awesome. So of course I wanted to go back! Michele was at the station when we arrived, and we drove the few minutes on to Saint-Briac-sur-Mer. Driving into town was exciting for me because it was like a step back in time to four years ago. I have all of these images in my head, and the place still looks so much the same! It's really beautiful. All old stone houses with ivy crawling up the sides, fleets of boats on the sea - it's the perfect little seaside village!

We only stopped at her house to drop off our bags though, because it was a beautiful day, and we had to take advantage of it! I mentioned that we came in to Saint-Malo. Well, the old city of Saint-Malo is a walled island with a pretty interesting history. The island was the home of the French corsairs, privateers who were authorized to raid the ships of nations French was at war with. Translation: they were pirates paid by the king. Jacques Cartier lived in and sailed from Saint-Malo as well. It has been through a lot of wars and had to be almost completely rebuilt after World War II, but it still retains a lot of historical architecture and the wall that protected it from enemies.

There is a boat shuttle that takes tourists over to the island, and we hopped on one and headed over for the afternoon. We walked along the wall and ate a picnic lunch while watching the tide go out. Another cool thing about this region: the tides are insane. The difference between high tide and low tide is enough that what an island at high tide is completely connected to the mainland at low tide. This was Atticus' first view of the region's tides, and he was pretty impressed! We walked out onto the nearest "would-be island" and enjoyed the sun.

 This island was connected at low tide, and we walked to it. Also cool, the pool on the left is filled at high tide by sea water and stands as a pool in the middle of the beach as low tide.

Afterwards, we headed into the town of Saint-Malo. It's mostly just tourist shops today, but the old church still stands at the center of town. The stained-glass is so beautiful and intricate!

The one other thing that must be done in Saint-Malo is a stop at a creperie! Atticus was really excited for this part. He actually wouldn't shut up about it. Of course, he was mostly excited for the hard cider for which this region is famous. After listening to him complain for an hour about wanting crepes, (even though we had just had lunch!) we finally stopped at one of the creperies that are every few feet along the street, and he had his first real crepe. Though I do miss American pancakes, the crepes really are delicious.

Our next two days were not quite as eventful as the first, but they were very nice and relaxing. We biked around Saint-Briac, walked along the beach, hopped around tide pools, had picnics on the sand, and played Scrabble by the fire at night. Atticus continued to be impressed by the tides, particularly by the boats that are left to sit on the sand as the water they were in recedes with the tides. It is a pretty cool difference.

Boats on the water at high tide and...

...Low tide! The difference is pretty cool. (Click on the pictures to see them up close). I was also very excited to discover I can do panoramas on my phone.

Atticus was bragging that he always wins at Scrabble, so I decided we had to play. I won and was very proud of myself.

Michele and I also had a good time looking through old pictures she has of my family. We even found one of my parents from when my dad visited my mom during her time abroad in France 28 years ago! Please excuse the haphazard taking pictures of printed pictures...

Nice hair, Mom.

 This life-size cardboard cutout lived in our basement for most of my childhood. It terrified me every time I walked downstairs in the dark. And apparently, it was also at my parents' wedding. That's Michele kissing him.

 Michele and my grandmother when my grandparents visited decades ago.

My cousin Andy - so cute :)

This part of the vacation was filled with lots of delicious food thanks to Michele, relaxation, and a lucky amount of nice weather! Pretty close to the ideal vacation in my book! But we couldn't stay forever, and on Friday morning, we had to take the train back... Which will be shared in part 3 of this little series! It's fun writing these - like reliving my vacation!