Food aka Alimentaire

Today for orientation, they told us the subject would be "Dégustation de la Gastronomie Française. In english, this means discussing French food. They failed to mention that we would be eating it as well.

To explain: we walked into the classroom and were greeted by the two interns, wearing aprons that said "Épices" and "Frommage" respectfully. Each held a bottle of wine and gave us a glass. The classroom tables were laden with food! One table was devoted completely to desserts. Yum.... okay anyway, returning to the subject, throughout the 2 hours, the professor explained the differences between marches and supermarches, artisans and mass production.

Artisans are those who specialize in the production of a certain type of food. For example, we were shown two baguettes. One was about 2 feet long and perfectly straight. The other was 2 1/2 feet, curved and slightly browner on one side than the other. Which is better? I thought it would be the perfectly baked one but no. The one that was imperfect made crackly noises when squished, which means that it will taste better. Artisan breads have more personality and though "imperfect" are made by someone that has studied for years to learn how to make bread. Therefore, when looking for the "perfect" bread or cheese, even though it is more expensive, go to the one who specializes in it. This was something I had already known, I do live in SF, but finding people who ONLY specialize in something particular can take time to look for and find. But here, its much easier to find these shops. As I walk from the metro to the apartment, there are soooo many cheese shops, wine shops, chocolate shops(YUM!), and most importantly, pastry shops.

During this program, they continued to give us different types of wine pastries, bread, and cheese, the point being to learn the difference between quality and mass production. I ate SO much.

The next part of the program was wisely thought out. We scavenger hunted through a specific district. The district was Bercy. It's where the National Library is, and where a French television show films. Well, I was watching tv tonight, and I recognized every single spot!! We walked for almost 5 hours, so much fun but barely scratched the surface of the district. Oh and Vincent Cassel was in the one of the advertisements in the district. :) I need to get a picture of this, cause I, once again, forgot my camera.