When planning out our time in Paris, I thought it would be fun to do a cooking class. 
We'd had such a fun time doing our cheese tasting with Le Cheese Geek during a previous visit. Now I think I'm a decent cook, but baking, well, it's really not my thing. And yet, baguettes and croissants have become such a big part of our eating lives that I thought perhaps taking a cooking class would be fun. After doing a bit of research, I settled on La Cuisine Paris and thought that the Missus and I would have fun learning to make baguettes. However, when I was in the process of booking our class the Missus decided that I should go ahead and take the class myself and She would go shopping and enjoy a cafe.
So I bade the Missus farewell at the rather discreet doorway right off the Seine on Quai de l'Hotel de Ville.
Our instructor was Segolene, she was in one word, amazing! She helped us organize things, explained each step, answered all questions, and had a great sense of humor.
And because she had worked as a pastry chef in LA, she could explain the differences between French style baguettes and what we have in America. It was ash content and protein (i.e. gluten content). Which is why many people who are gluten intolerant can actually eat bread in France!
We went thru the basic "petrissage", the kneading and working of the dough by hand and "falconnage" which is forming and molding the bread.
Along with the scarification…creating the "scars" on the bread. I'm not going to go into much more detail, other than the one trick I learned…..basically when making your baguette, and this holds true for reheating in the oven, place a pan or lipped tray in the bottom of your oven. When you reach the desired temp place the bread in a rack in the oven and pour water into the tray in the bottom of the oven to create steam. This is what I currently use when reheating my baguette and it works perfectly.
As for how my baguette turned out. Well, this isn't it, it was just a demo of how to make a baguette en épi.
These are my baguettes.
And, I even made a fougasses, the French style focaccia. Segolene said mine looked "très bon". Segolene brought ingredients from her mom's garden to use in making our fougasses, which I used along with cheese, leek, and garlic.
It was a great time and Segolene was the best! This is highly recommended, it was fun and even though I'm not quite sure I'll make baguettes at home, I sure learned a lot.
And we got to take the stuff we made with us.
La Cuisine Paris
80 Quai de l'Hôtel de ville
75004 Paris, France
The Missus wants me to take the croissant class next!
The Missus seeing that I had two baguette and the fougasse said that we wouldn't need to go out for dinner this evening. Instead we headed right over the Seine to Île Saint-Louis, that island in the Seine east of Île de la Cité to La Ferme Saint-Aubin where we bought some fromage for dinner.
La Ferme Saint-Aubin
76 Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île
75004 Paris, France
On the way back to the apartment, we made a detour at Nicholas, then a revisit to Fou de Pâtisserie, that shop which sells various curated pastries from some of Paris's most well known pastry chefs.
Where in spite of the challenges presented to Her, the Missus managed to make a decision on one!
Fou de Pâtisserie
45 Rue Montorgueil
75002 Paris, France
When we got back to the apartment, we relaxed, then got ready for our dinner.
The Missus enjoyed the fougasse, great acidity and sweetness from the tomatoes, but said my baguettes were too doughy and the crust too thick and hard. Still, not bad for a rookie, eh?
And before all of this we had our own little apero moment.
Where we sat at the window and watch the sun set in the horizon as Paris slowly turned into the city of lights……
It had been over 2 years since I'd last 
So, how was this? First off, the rice isn't as well coated as before, though it still has a decent spiciness and some nice chunks of Portuguese Sausage. The burger has always been lean and without filler, which makes it nice and beefy if a bit more chewy than others.
This was a not so good bowl, the best item was probably the boiled eggs which had been decently marinated, nicely cooked, and not overly salty. The broth was mediocre, the beefiness was achieved using the "wave" method….that would be that it tasted like a piece of beef was waved over the bowl to give it flavor. It needed more anise tones and complexity. There was a light spice and a hint of Sichuan Peppercorns, but was super salty.
The "knife cut noodles" seemed of the mass produced variety. It was too brittle, lacking in any doughy "pull" and stretch.
There were two things I noticed right off; look at that puddle of oil the beef roll is lying in. Also, check out all that cucumber…..I thought that this was a beef roll, not a cucumber roll. I really think they're going for something massive here instead of thinking about proportion. The beef was basically the same cut as what's used for the NRM, but with the addition of the fatty parts which are chopped. There was a ton of hoisin sauce. The bread was thin, short on green onions, but fairly crisp…at least what wasn't a greasy mess was.
And though we had passed the Cathedral several times a day, and even 
Indeed St Giles has quite a tumultuous history. It was established as a Catholic Church and then came the 
The lean deer loin had a nice, moist toothsomeness, had been seared and seasoned nicely. It wasn't overly gamy, but you could tell it was venison. The jus was wonderful, not overly rich, and went well with the delicious potato pave. Loved the celeriac puree, but that round ball of venison haggis was super mild in flavor. It did have quite the gritty-grainy texture though.
Much like 
I wish I took notes on the cheeses. That bleu was fabulous! And like I mentioned earlier the Sommelier was fabulous. When I asked for a "Spot of Port" to go with the cheeses, he selected an amazing Tawny that was perfect with the bleu!
The eggs were decently cooked, much better than the over-cooked boiled eggs I'd had last time. The sauce was nicely flavored, not overly sweet, good anise-soy sauce tones.
much fat for my taste, it wasn't bad at all. At least I didn't go hungry. Overall, it was better than what I'd had the last time, the price wasn't too bad, and I'll take that.
