Montelimar, first impressions

OK, we've been living here a week. Here is our life, so far, in pictures:

Old-timey keys are super awesome. I can't really explain it--they just feel good.

One of the few original city gates that is still intact. This is on the north end of "centre ville," the old walled city that is now "downtown."

Here you can see the gate from the inside. This was actually taken from right outside the Internet cafe I'm sitting at right now!

When not at the cafe, we get free Internet when we sit at this fountain. Not bad, eh?

The streets look like this. See, even puppies love it!

Here is the patisserie where Josh works, right in the middle of a central square. It's been here for 70 years at least.

Here is the outside of our apartment building. Clearly it was, at one time, a storefront. We're on the second floor.

This is the inside of our front door. The landlady said her husband created the mailboxes himself.

 This cool, old lamp hangs in our entryway.

These steps lead to our front door. They look pretty unspectacular, but they're made of actual stone. They've been here a very, very long time.

Inside our studio apartment. Like I said, it's pretty basic. Had to hide some of our suitcases under the shelf in the kitchen--classy! And the shower is, simply put, super lame. Too small to be enjoyable. The couch is actually a futon.

The patio actually makes our little place seem quite big. As you can see I did laundry this morning and hung it up to line dry like a proper Frenchwoman.

That's all for today. I'll try to take more pics while I'm out and about--maybe at the Saturday market!

Part Deux: Montelimar

We are finally here in Montelimar, nougat capital of the world! Ha. Seriously, though, after about a week here, settling in, I'm really beginning to like it here. The city is quite a bit bigger than Yssingeaux, with tons of restaurants, three movie theaters(!), a few different kinds of museums and several nice parks. The apartment we finally found is a studio, "semi-furnished," meaning it came with a futon bed, a coffee table, a very old chest of drawers and a hot plate. The landlady is super nice, though, and understanding our situation she came back with some pots, dishes, a sheet for the bed and a minifridge. The building itself is super cool! It's in the old part of the city, which used to be walled, and she says it was built in the early 1800s. We have those old-fashioned keys that you only see in old-timey movies ... or France.

Josh had his first day at his internship yesterday. I think it's going well, though a film crew came in today from Valhrona, so he spent yesterday cleaning the pastry shop kitchen and today sort of hanging out while the chef was on camera. The shop itself is very nice. It couldn't be any better situated--it's smack in the center of town, in the main market square. And the pastries there are delicious. I've only tried a few so far, but I'm definitely impressed!

Stay tuned for more. This week I plan to take pictures of our apartment and of the town.

Graduation day!

More than five months have passed since we left our cozy world of Northern California and made our way east, over an ocean, and into the heart of France. Yesterday, the students in the French Pastry Arts program gathered for one last time at the chateau to reflect on all the hard work, determination, passion for pastry and creativity that went into completing their course. Several of the students--Josh included--had family in attendance. The school staff offered heartfelt congratulations and even a few tears for the class. And their beloved chef, Kyung-Ran Baccon, prepared personalized speeches for each of them.

Words can't even describe how proud I am right now of Josh--and all of his classmates. The FPA program at ENSP, while it had a few hiccups here and there, was really quite amazing. I'm really excited to see what everyone will do, not just in their internships but after.

Sitting here on the Saturday after graduation in our Yssingeaux apartment, we have said goodbye to almost all of Josh's classmates, who are making their ways now to where their internships will be. Cindy went to Paris; Lizzy to the Alps town of Thonon-les-Bains; Jeneva will be going to Bordeaux after traveling with her parents for a while; Ani went to Lyon; and Yulia to St. Etienne. Tomorrow Josh and I will drop off Clovis in the nearby town of Monistrol. Then we're off to Montelimar first thing Monday. Wish us luck!

One. More. Week.

I can hardly believe that exactly five months ago today, Josh and I were boarding a plane from Chicago to Paris. This whole adventure was ahead of us. The reason for that adventure--and the only part we knew how to prepare for--was five months of pastry school in a little town called Yssingeaux. 

On Monday and Tuesday Josh and his class have their final exam. On Thursday, his dad gets into town. And on Friday, he graduates! Well, he won't officially receive his diploma until he finishes his internship. But the ceremony will wrap up five months of hard work in the lab, as well as classes in French, food technology and hygiene. And it will mark the end of phase one in France and the beginning of phase two. Stay tuned ...

Plated desserts, anyone?

By now you've seen the cakes. You've seen wedding cakes! You've seen eclairs, chocolates and breads. But have you seen plated desserts?? Basically these are desserts that you would order in a restaurant rather than in a patisserie or other storefront. Here you go!

 This is a chocolate shell filled with vanilla ice cream.

Here, Cindy demonstrates how you pour the raspberry (framboise in French) sauce on top at the table. Super delicious.

This is another ice cream dish, but it includes pineapple (ananas in French) and the little liquid dropper at the back is filled with rum. So, when you get this at your table, you lift the dropper to spread the rum.

I got one all to myself! (OK, I shared ...)

This deliciousness basically tastes like an Oreo-cookie sundae. 

The dessert of the moment in France is the macaron. Here they have a regular macaron on top of a large macaron filled with cream and rum-dipped cherries.

This is another chocolate ball, filled (I believe) with strawberries or raspberries and covered in a beautiful shiny glaze.

A few of the others included tarts--mango, apple and lime (left to right).

Nice job!!

Delicate flowers

Last week Josh got a compliment he wasn't expecting: He was praised for his delicate flowers. Apparently big guys like him can't usually make the small flowers--but he did! This was all part of wedding-cake week. The class made traditional French wedding cakes--called croquembouche ...

This is Josh's croquembouche from two angles.

And then they made cakes that are more closely tied to American and other cultures, though you'd be hard-pressed to find anything quite like this in the U.S.

 Josh with his masterpiece. They worked for days on these.

Delicate flowers indeed!

The class and the other cakes.

Another view of the cakes.

The next step

We finally have some more to share about Josh's internship! We visited the town, called Montelimar, over the weekend and it is really very cool. Its population is about 60,000, it's located on the Rhone River, and you can still find parts of the medieval wall that once surrounded the city.

In addition, Montelimar is home to some genuine quirkiness. While we were there, we visited the Museum of Miniatures, where many of the exhibits were so small they had to be viewed through magnifying glasses. It's also famous for its nougat--the town's unique nougat recipe including honey and egg whites and was created in the 17th century. You can even visit the Palace of Sweets and Nougat in Montelimar!

The town is easy to navigate and it's full of shopping and restaurants. Definitely more going on there than in Yssingeaux. There was a Renaissance Fair going on the day we were there.

The pastry shop where Josh will be an intern is located smack in the middle of the "centre ville" and was opened in the 1930s. You can see a picture here--they do everything from small cakes and pastries to chocolates, ice creams, jams, syrups and, of course, nougat.

Exciting times ahead, with just a month of school left.

Cakes, beautiful cakes

It's time to post some more dessert pics. You deserve 'em.

(Close-ups are all of the ones Josh made!)

This last one is quite possibly my all-time favorite thing Josh has made. In English, it's just a modern Black Forest cake. It blows the old-fashioned Black Forest out of the water. Inside, there's a layer of brownie at the bottom, which is topped with layers of griotte (like a sour cherry) jam and chocolate mousse. The one girl in the class who says she doesn't like sweets even said she couldn't stop eating the chocolate mousse!

International randomness

Sundays never fail to amaze me here in Yssingeaux. I'm not sure if it's because the town does very little to advertise its events or if I just miss them because they're all in French. But today, for at least the second time in a month, I walked into downtown Yssingeaux thinking I'd find the streets nearly empty only to come upon a massive festival taking place that I had no idea would be there. Clovis, Josh, puppies and I headed downtown this morning for our new weekly ritual: cappuccinos at the corner bar. Almost immediately after passing the annoyance of street construction outside the church near our apartment, we knew something was different about today. Stall after stall of old keepsakes reminded us that someone had told us there would be a flea market in July. This must be it! We browsed a bit and bought a few small things (I found some cool coins from the 17- and 1800s!). They were literally selling everything, including the kitchen sink:

On the way to the cafe for cappuccinos we saw a sign advertising a jazz show at our favorite bar, Cine Lux, starting at 11am. We started calling people to meet us there. The jazz show was outside--it was electric and a lot of fun, especially for a pretty Sunday in July. We only stayed about 45 minutes before heading back. Then we saw the very end of what looked like a really fun steel-drum band's set. They were leaving for lunch but would be back in an hour. So, we would do the same. The Our Boys Steel Orchestra came all the way from Trinidad & Tobago (in the Caribbean) to play for us the country's national instrument, the steel-pan drum. The group was simply amazing, a lot of fun.

And apparently they weren't the only ones in Yssingeaux today representing other countries. There is a folk festival going on in nearby Le Puy en Velay and some of the folk groups came to our town today. There were groups from the Canary Islands:

And from Slovakia:

And from Kazakhstan:

All in all, super random fun on a Sunday. What did you do today?

Happy Bastille Day (almost)!

I was doing a little research on Bastille Day because, well, I honestly didn't remember much about it from my seventh-grade European history class. It's coming up on Saturday and it's a huge deal around here, so I figured I should know more.


La Fête Nationale, aka the 14th of July, aka Bastille Day, aka le quatorze juillet celebrates the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a large prison in Paris and it represented the absolute power of the monarchy, at that time ruled by Louis XVI (his queen was Marie Antoinette). The country was in a state of economic crisis and after the king fired the royal accountant, a man beloved by the peasants, those peasants rose up. Riots broke out in Paris and elsewhere and eventually—on the morning of July 14, 1789, to be exact—sights were set on the Bastille and its weapons cache. The rioters were successful, proving for the first time that peasants could defeat the government. The French Revolution eventually led to the birth of the Republic, which we know today.
Some interesting facts about the French Revolution:


Some interesting facts about the French Revolution:

* The Revolution’s three ideals were, “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” a motto that the French still live by.

* Those three ideals were expressed through a tri-color flag—red, white and blue—which is now the French flag.

* There were only seven prisoners in the Bastille when it was attacked.
Napoleon Bonaparte took charge of the French army at the end of the Revolution. Did you know … it illegal to name a pig Napoleon in France??

* Out of the French Revolution came the metric system!

* The guillotine was perfected during the French Revolution (many claim it was invented during this time, though this fact has been disputed). During the Revolution, more than 15,000 people were executed by guillotine.

Gettin' legal

Unless you've gone through the process, you really have no idea how difficult it is to stay in France--or any other country in the EU, for that matter--for longer than three months. I say three months because that's the length of time foreigners (most, if not all) can stay here without a visa. For those of us wanting to stay longer, we have a whole list of things to do, documents to prepare and processes to go through for a few lousy--but priceless--stickers.

I think I outlined the process Josh and I went through when we were still in the States to get our visas. Because Josh is a student, he was applying for a student visa. That was a feat in itself. To obtain one of these coveted visas, one must first register with an agency called Campus France. For this you need your official acceptance letter to school you plan to attend, you must create a user profile on the agency's website, complete with photograph and resume, and then you fork over $120 and get an email certifying your registration in return. This is one of the many documents you must show to the consulate when you show up for your visa appointment.

Here's what Josh had to show:

1. Copy of the official acceptance from ENSP
2. Copy of the Campus France emails confirming registration and payment
3. Application form
4. Photo
5. Passport plus a copy of ID page
6. Processing fee (50 euro)
7. Proof that he had sufficient funds to live in France
8. Airline reservation info
9. Proof of residence while in France
10. French immigration (OFII) form filled out
11. A self-addressed, stamped express envelope

Here's what I had to show to apply for a long-stay visitor visa:

1. Application form, filled out
2. ID photo
3. Passport plus copy of ID page
4. Copy of my drivers license to prove U.S. address
5. Notarized letter promising not to seek employment while in France
6. Proof of income or available funds to support me while in France
7. Proof of medical insurance
8. Marriage certificate
9. Proof of residence while in France
10. Processing fee (99 euros)
11. French immigration (OFII) form, filled out
12. Airline reservation
13. Self-addressed, stamped express envelope

Oh, and note that we were required to prepare each document plus a photocopy, in the order specified. Then we made an appointment at the French Consulate of San Francisco (the closest to us) and show up early so as not to miss the appointment. The appointment can't be more than two months before you plan to leave, but the visas can take up to 21 days to be approved or denied.

On the day of our appointment, we woke up early, drove the 3 1/2 hours to SF, waited around for about an hour for our appointment, and signed in. We went through a metal detector, they checked my purse, and let us in to a room with a bunch of chairs and a couple of cashier-type windows. We were greeted almost immediately and the guy called us up together. We handed him the documents he asked for (about half of what we prepared), answered his questions and were sent on our way in less than half an hour.

We received our passports, complete with visas, and stamped OFII applications that same week. Phew!

If that wasn't enough, we were instructed that upon arriving in France we would have to follow up with OFII within three months. Luckily the school helped out a lot for this step--if they hadn't we'd have been stressed. They photocopied our passports, with visa pages and entry stamps. They also took our OFII forms and sent it all to OFII and set up appointments for us at our local office, which is in Clermont-Ferrand, two hours from Yssingeaux. But before those appointments we needed to gather a few more things, including buying stamps--from the local tabac--to pay our processing fees. For a student visa, the cost is 58 euros; for visitors, it's 349 euros.

The school arranged a minibus for the group a few weeks ago to go to Clermont-Ferrand. A friendly chef's assistant from ENSP agreed to accompany us as our French translator.

We first went to a clinic where we got chest X-rays. Let's just say the French are not as modest as Americans--no robes were provided--but they did bring us in each individually.

Then we brought those X-rays to another clinic, where we had health exams. Height, weight, vision, breathing, etc. We peed in cups--plastic cups like you'd drink from, no lids, very strange. Those of us who couldn't remember when we had our last inoculations were given boosters for tetanus and Hepatitis. After a short physical we were issued official documents affirming our health.


Next we stopped for lunch, then we were off to the OFII office. One by one, we stepped up to the window and presented our passports, stamps, an ID photo, the health certificate and OFII forms. We were supposed to have proof of residency but the school ended up having to send that later. Then one by one they affixed stickers to our passports affirming our legal status. Unfortunately one of the girls in the group grabbed her old, expired passport and instead of leaving with her sticker ended up leaving in tears. She had to go back on her own a few days later, missing class, to get her visa finalized.


So .... I won't even get into the process of getting the dogs here. Maybe in another post. Until then, we're all legal! At least until the end of the year. Woohoo!

Ice cream, you scream!

Last week was ice cream week at school. Considering what a big fan I am of the cold, sweet treat--and how hot it's been!--I had to go to the buffet. This is what I was greeted with:

Here's the class with their frozen cake and pop creations.

 

Josh made this just for me. It was Bailey's ice cream dipped in chocolate and nuts, in the shape of a doggy footprint. Yummmm!

 

Here's a cake, beautifully decorated by Clovis, and half a pineapple filled with pineapple sorbet and topped with fine strands of caramel (by Josh).

I'm not sure who made this one, but it's an ice cream cake topped with scoops of all the flavors--ice cream and sorbet--the class made: chocolate, pineapple and basil, strawberry, cherry, apricot and vanilla. At left you can see a meringue-coated cake. Yum.

So long absent

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up this blog as well as I had hoped. I guess June has been a bit on the slow side. Plus our Internet is spotty at best (grr). So, here are a few updates if anyone's interested:

Yesterday was Music Day! It was kind of funny because all the music I heard in the hour or so I attended was traditional French folk music--like, hand organs and accordions. And the dancing was very folky. But it's part of how they keep their culture alive, which is cool, and I have to say everyone seemed to be having a great time. I met up with some of Josh's classmates there, where we also ran into their chef, her husband (who's also a chef and works at the school) and their daughter. We saw a few other people who work at the school and a host of local business owners I recognized from daily interactions, like the guy who works at the tabac/papier store where I bought the insanely expensive stamps for Josh and my final visa appointment next week; the woman who owns the boulangerie near our house; the woman who runs the counter at the chocolate shop downtown; and the poissonerie owner, who cooked up some amazing-looking paella for the festivities. What's really cool is that, in seeing these people again and again they've begun to recognize me and now we have conversations beyond, "Bonjour, je voudrais ..." (hello, I would like ...). I'm starting to feel like part of the community!

This week is ice cream week for Josh's class. I've heard about chocolate, caramel, various fruit flavors, Bailey's ... Can't wait for the buffet today when I can taste some of them!

Tonight Josh, Clovis and I are hosting a dinner party in our apartment for the class, chef and some others from school. Should be a fun night! Josh is making Indian tacos (Native American tacos, for which he'll hand make and fry bread). And ice cream for dessert. Yum!

And, tomorrow we head to Lyon. Everyone from Josh's class except one is coming, and we'll stay the night before returning to Yssingeaux Sunday with Lizzie's boyfriend, who's flying in from South Africa to visit for a few weeks.

Next week brings a few notable highlights as well: Monday the class goes to the Valhrona chocolate factory(!) and I get to go along(!!!). And later next week I go with them again when we finalize our long-stay visas. Mine's a little different because it's a visitor visa, not a student visa, but the school has been very helpful in setting up everything for me as well as Josh and the rest of his class.

Shopping

OK, it's time for me to write about grocery shopping in France. Like most everything else here, it's just different enough to remind me I'm not in Kansas anymore.

There are four main stores here for groceries. One of them sucks and, after our first week here I have yet to go back. One of them, Super U, is far--probably about a mile away--but it's the cheapest. Josh, Clovis and I went in together on a rolling bag so we can go to Super U (pronounced, of course, soop-air ooh) and not kill our arms. When we're not feeling up to the walk we go to Intermarche or Lidl and, when super lazy, Petite Casino, which is downtown but small and a bit pricey.

Here are Super U and Intermarche for your viewing delight:

OK, so the differences pretty much start with the shopping carts. Seems like they'd be the same, right? Well ... they are but they aren't. First of all, they have a pretty fool-proof system for making sure you return your cart to the corral--they make you pay a deposit for it.

 Insert a 1 euro coin to release the cart. Get it back when you return it! Genius!

As far as the choices on the inside are concerned, you have a pretty average store. Both Super U and Intermarche offer food as well as other stuff--school supplies, garden stuff, housewares, personal-care items, etc. I liken Super U to Walmart and Intermarche to Target, as far as how nice they are and their prices. They both have big produce sections, a fish department and a large butcher area. The biggest difference in meats is that there is a TON of veal. Like, there's as much veal as beef. But by far pork is the most popular meat. They also regularly have lamb, duck and rabbit. Sometimes you'll even see pigeon. There is no deli department, though they do sell sliced meat, in packages of two to six (weird). Sliced cheese is even harder to find, though Super U especially has a HUGE cheese counter. They also have charcuterie, which is kind of like bologna but infused with stuff like duck liver and olives. Oh, and they sell sliced bread with or without the crust--funny!

One thing I cannot get over is the flavors of chips they enjoy. Apparently among their favorites are chicken and thyme, mustard, smoked ham, bacon, rosemary and olive oil, bolognaise, paprika.

  

   

The other thing that is really weird is that they regularly stock milk on the shelves--not in the refrigerated section. They call this kind of milk "UHT," which stands for ultra-high temperature. It lasts longer and doesn't need to be cold, but once you open it you need to consume it within a few days. It also tastes a little different. They do the same thing with cream. 

Oh, and they sell goat's milk!

(It's funny, a lot of places where they sell cheese, milk or meat, they show pictures of the animal so you know what you're eating/drinking. This is quite helpful actually!)

Fruit juices are very popular and very good. They offer some unique flavors, too!

Here you can see cranberry and currant, cranberry, mango, tomato, raspberry, strawberry and cherry.

That's pretty much the gist of the shopping experience in Yssingeaux. The other main difference is that stores do not offer bags, plastic or paper, for free at the checkout. You can often buy heavy-duty reusable bags and sometimes regular-old plastics. Needless to say, our ChicoBags are coming in handy!