Friday, March 19, 2010

French Stuff II

This Easter will be spent in Salt Lake City with my husband's family. I was besides myself when I saw a clip of Les Madeleines Patisserie on Food Network located........where else? Salt Lake City! They were featured for their Kouing Aman (pictured below) which is "a rich buttery pastry from Brittany. Try it once and you'll find yourself craving it again and again."

(photo from the Les Madeleines website)

Doesn't it look so flaky and crunchy and airy and beautiful! I can barely contain myself.

In addition, they sell Madeleines (hence the name) and macaroons. I have been drooling over macaroons on the Paris Breakfasts blog for months now....this will be an opportunity of a lifetime for me....well at least until I get to Paris.

I am also reading a book by Patricia Wells and her husband Walter called We've Always Had Paris....And Provence. I am three chapters into it at the moment. They met at the New York Times in NYC and moved to Paris on a whim for Walter's job. My favorite chapter thus far is called Rules, Rules and More Rules. It's referring to all the rules that the French live and breath by. Here are a few from the book:

1) The Orange Juice Trick: when the large crystal and silver pitcher filled with chilled orange juice would appear, it was time to go home. The host and hostess did not have to say a word.

As a side note, the Vitamin C helps counteract the alcohol and may even prevent hangovers, for it speeds up the metabolism of alcohol by the liver.

2) Parisian women do not wear bleu marine or Armani.

3) Do not have second servings of the cheese platter, because you are insulting the host's cooking. You may only have seconds of the first course and main course.

4) Women never pour their own wine.

5) And who gets served first? In this order: the women, then the guests of honor, the hostess, the men in order of descending age, the host, and finally, the children.

6) A woman's rank at the table: widows first, followed by a married woman, a divorced woman, a single woman. And single hostesses must never seat a man, either married or single, directly across from her. Single hosts must never sit across from a married woman if her husband is absent.

There it is folks. I gazed at my husband and asked him if it was even remotely possible to remember so many rules along with the language before our trip. He confidently assured me that we can........but......he cannot even aim him dirty clothes in the laundry basket, so I have my doubts.

(picture of Patricia Wells' cooking class in Paris...from the Patricia Wells site)

If I had $5000 to take a cooking class with Patricia Wells, I would in a heartbeat. She is booked solid a year in advance. Life turned out pretty sweet in Paris after all.

I have taken the next step into my "Francophilia" and subscribed to France the magazine. They claim it's the next best thing to living there....we'll have to see about that. All the research is tempting my husband and I into retiring somewhere in Europe........

Apres Vous is about Antoine saving Louis from committing suicide and ends up "adopting" him. Antoine gives him shelter, a job, and the spirit to go on even though Louis has been dumped by the love of his life, Blanche. In the process, Antoine falls in love with Blanche, while trying to convince her to go back to Louis.

A cheesy (no punt intended) romantic comedy that made me giggle at times. My favorite part was getting glimpses of Paris and the French countryside, along with the scrumptious dishes served in between scenes.

I wish you all a Bon Weekend!

7 comments:

PeterParis said...

You shouldn't worry too much about all these "rules"! They are a bit outdated I believe (well I have to check about the blue and the Armani). :-)

Punctuation Mark said...

Rules are good to when you learn how to break them! have a great week!

Karin B (Looking for Ballast) said...

Cute comments so far (agreement from me, too!), and my two cents about the rules is that I wonder when and where Patricia traveled and who she was staying with! I can imagine, much like in the UK, that if one is staying with a well-moneyed member of an aristocratic family that there would be certain protocol to follow, especially if the family were a very formal one, but I think most of the actual French people I know would laugh at those rules! I suppose what Americans could compare this to is saying that every American family is like the Kennedys, and follow certain rules like these. It's just not really real life for most people here, I don't think. 'Course, sounds like maybe Patricia Wells is being a bit tongue-in-cheek, eh? I hope so!! :)

I'm so glad that you will be able to try baked goods at Les Madeleines, and HEY! That reminds me: there was a great little bakery that opened in 2007-2008 on Leetsdale Drive run by the cutest, nicest Parisian woman. I don't know if it is still open or not, but I got a wonderful Galette du Roi there. Lemme check online...

YES! It is still there. Here it is: Les Delices de Paris, 5303 Leetsdale Drive, Denver 303-320-7596

I used to live just near there at Parker and Iliff, but spent more years right there at Leetsdale and Monaco. The owner also served cappuccino and croissants, and other baked goodies. You should go!

Here's their web site: http://lesdelicesdenver.com/index.html

It is a fun little place. I hope you can go. I'd totally forgotten about it until just now, so I am really glad to have my memory triggered by your post. :)

Sounds like you have been having lots of fun with your explorations, Corine. Thank you, too, for all your nice comments on my blog & I will send you an email, soon, re: food!

Take care.
Karin

Karin B (Looking for Ballast) said...

P.S. I just saw on their site, the bakery is run by Christelle and Gerard -- I met Christelle a couple of times. My mouth was watering looking at their site and it is *very* authentic stuff. Just like the bakery 'round the corner from my place. :) GO! ;-)

Unknown said...

Such an interesting post! I really enjoyed reading it! :-))) I have to admit, I love the rules and I am a great believer in ethiquete too. Some of the rules did make me smile and even puzzled me a bit. No Armani!? Why? :-))) Just wondering...

Sara Louise said...

I'm happy to say I knew that OJ/ Vitamin C trick, not about hostesses putting it out but about it's cures :-)
Let us know how that magazine is. I saw it at Borders last week during my trip home but was in a rush so didn't have time to flip through.
Enjoy your Easter away :-)

Fabulously French said...

Merci beaucoup for leaving the comment on my blog. The rules are a little outdated and the French just wear what THEY like :-) which is sometimes different to other nationalities.

Have plan planning your trip,

Leeann x