First Goodbyes

I doubt anyone was expecting how quickly that month of class would pass. But while I’ll be here for another 9 months (at least), others have already left to go back to their families and professional lives. There’s no way I could adequately sum up just how much I’ve enjoyed these last few weeks, but a lot of it has to do with the pleasure of meeting and befriending such a diverse and talented group of people.



These last few days, then, have been dedicated to last dinners, drinks, shopping excursions, etc. before everyone heads off. After the picnic on Sunday, we spent an idyllic afternoon biking along the Seine from the Eiffel Tower toward the city center, where we dismounted and strolled around the Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle area.

It still feels a little sad now, but I’m looking forward to the day when I might be able to visit these new friends in their home countries.

Honoring the Dead and Famous at Père Lachaise

A tourist site I’ve always been fascinated by is the famous Père Lachaise cemetery, mostly because it features prominently in a segment of one of my all-time favorite films, Paris je t’aime. Spanning 116 acres in the 20th arrondissement, it’s almost like a ghost town with its designated streets and elaborate tombs that resemble houses. I think it’s cool, but it took me a month of being here to find a group of people who also wanted to visit.

Established in 1804, Père Lachaise holds the remains of some of France’s most famous citizens. The cemetery is so large that you kind of have to plan out ahead of time which graves you want to see lest you want to be wandering aimlessly for hours.

My top 4 were:
- Georges Méliès (pioneer filmmaker; inspiration for the movie Hugo)
- Frédéric Chopin
- Édith Piaf
- Oscar Wilde

As depicted in Paris je t’aime, it’s tradition for female fans of Wilde’s work to bestow lipsticked kisses upon the gravestone. But at some point in the recent past I guess someone decided this wasn’t a good thing and erected a barrier around the tomb. As you can see, though, that didn’t really stop the fangirls.

While it was moving to pay my respects to some of the artists that have had such a strong influence in my life, it was even more poignant to see evidence of their lasting legacies - from fresh flowers and burning candles to handwritten notes. See the rest of my photos on Flickr.

 

Fun Facts About Champagne That I Learned While Visiting Champagne

The day between final exams and graduation we took a day trip to the Champagne-Ardenne region to visit G.H. Mumm in Reims and Moët & Chandon in Épernay for tours and tastings. Unfortunately both tours presented pretty much identical information, but here’s a recap of interesting things I learned.

1. Champagne in Champagne is only made from three grape varieties (either alone or together in varying proportions): chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier.

2. After fermentation there are sediments that are ultimately expelled through a long process of gradually turning the bottle until the particles collect in the neck, which is then dipped in a -20 degree solution, freezing it. The bottle is then quickly inverted, and the pressure expels the sediment-containing ice cube.

3. There are people whose job it is to turn the bottles by hand for the first part of the process. They can turn up to 50,000 bottles in a single day. I wish I had asked how much these people get paid for this.

4. Standard champagnes are stored in the cellar for a minimum of 2-3 years (maybe it was months…by this point I was too focused on getting to the tasting to pay much attention to the guide) before being sold. Vintages can stay much longer. At Moët & Chandon they had two bottles of ‘69 left, which can be purchased for just over 2000 euros!

5. Tastings in Champagne are much stingier and less efficient than in Napa. We went with an organized tour, but generally you have to call ahead and make appointments at each winery/champagne house. Additionally (though maybe because we were with such a large group) they only give you one glass of one product. Having been tasting in Napa I was expecting 4-5. I mean, how do you know what to buy afterwards unless you’ve tried them all?

Eating in the Dark

As a post final exam celebration, a group of us embarked on what I can only describe as the extreme of sensory experiences and adventurous eating: we had dinner at Dans le Noir.

A trendy restaurant with branches in Paris, London, Barcelona, New York and Saint Petersburg, Dans le Noir attempts to turn haute cuisine on its head by having patrons eat, well, in the dark. But it’s not just any kind of darkness; it’s the sort of pitch black that exists only in nightmares; the kind that even eyes with 20/20 vision cannot adjust to.

They say that you eat with your eyes first. Well, at Dans le Noir you end up eating with pretty much everything else. Adaptive plasticity is what enables blind people’s other senses to become heightened, and so too after being seated, it’s up to your nose, mouth and fingers to try to discern what’s on the plate in front of you. Because having a blind meal is only part of the fun - the other part is that you’re only told what you’re served after you’ve eaten it. So course by course you’re left guessing what the chef prepared. In theory this kind of literal blind tasting should make you appreciate food for more than its aesthetics - the odors, the textures, etc. In practice, though, it’s a much less dignified experience. Eating without being able to see poses a number of challenges, like getting the food from the plate into your mouth and not onto your face.

Our server, despite her best efforts, managed to spill some wine on my lap and clip the back of my head with a plate. But this was nothing compared to poor George, one half of the British couple seated somewhere to my left, whose dessert sampler somehow got shoved right into his nose.

While the eating part of the meal was tricky, talking to people when you can’t see them was possibly even more disconcerting. I suppose we must have been speaking at an elevated volume to compensate, for our server kept urging us not to shout. So while I can’t ultimately recommend the food, I can say that the experience produces a lot of conversational gems, like the following.

“I just ate a lemon.”

“What is this shit?!”

“Ow! That was my nose!”

“I keep picking up my fork, and then it’s empty.”

“Who’s touching my leg?!”

“I hope this wine is going into my glass…”

“OH MY GOD! WAS THAT SQUID??”

“You’re talking right into my face. Are you trying to kiss me?”

“Alright, screw it. I’m using my fingers.”

So, if you’re ever in need of a creative first date…

 

A Basic Pâtisserie Retrospective

Things I made in my first month of cooking school, as I study for my final exam tomorrow.

Monet's Gardens at Giverny

Despite having bought tickets to Monet’s house and gardens weeks ago, we’ve been holding out for good weather. Our patience finally paid off, and on Saturday we set out for Giverny, a small rustic kind of town (about 45 minutes away from Paris by train) that vaguely reminded me of Avebury, England (near Stone Henge).

Yes, those water lilies.

Monet’s estate was quite crowded, but luckily we got to skip the queue because we bought and printed our tickets ahead of time. Despite all the visitors, the grounds were still very serene and peaceful - enough so to make me, a lifelong city girl, begin to entertain the idea of someday owning a country home. After wandering the gardens (I’m afraid my photos really don’t do them justice), Monet’s house and the gift shop, we stopped at a quaint café for lunch before heading back to the train station.

This whole experience of living abroad is really the first time I haven’t felt like I’m rushing toward an imminent finish line (in high school everything was motivated toward getting into a good college, and then in college it was graduating with a degree), so being in the country away from the hustle and bustle of Paris was a nice reminder that sometimes you just need to relax and enjoy the simpler things in life, like flowers. Seemed to work pretty well for Monet, right?

 

The Best Falafel Outside of Israel?

Yesterday M and I met up in the Marais area for lunch at what is generally regarded by foodies as the best falafel in Paris. Located on the trendy Rue des Rosiers (see previous post), just the queue outside L’As du Fallafel at midday should be an indication that the restaurant is better than all the rest.

If you don’t feel like awkwardly eating on the street trying not to be a a slob in public (a challenge, given how much they pack into each pita), skip the takeout window and head inside to grab a table.