C'est fini

This morning was my last at PH...
I guess I'm not realizing that it's over. We had a drink after work for my departure. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to M. Hermé, but I,ll go by the boutique before I leave the country, Colette said he really wanted to say goodbye.

I'm going to miss it. Really.
This was a wonderful experience. The hard times are when I learned the most. I feel so accomplished, and what is great is that I want to learn and do many more things, and that's the best feeling.

blooming

Gardens here never close. Even in the winter, you can go in the Jardin du Luxembourg and sit in one of those famous green chairs or even go on a terrace and have a coffee with outdoor heating to toast you up. The first sign of spring here is not defined by the opening of the first terraces like on St-Denis, but by the blooming of trees and flowers which to my memory is way earlier than back home. Trees were already blooming last week in the Jardin du Palais Royal near the Louvre. Lovely sunny day off.

Falafel please!

The Marais, also known as the 4th arrondissement, is one of my favorite areas to walk in. I've been many times and there's just so many little streets that you can't help but discover new things everytime. It's a hip quarter with a large gay community, many bars,restaurants and trendy shops. I used to spend more time in the Beaubourg area but never really got a chance to explore the Jewish area. Needless to say, that changed today. La Rue des Rosiers is where it's at. Jewish bakeries and restaurants everywhere. This(what I'm eating on the picture)was the best fallafel I have had in Paris, but I have to admit, it doesn't beat the place on St-Laurent corner des Pins at 2am! Although, I was told the best falafel and shawarma is in Ramat Gan, which is about 10 min outside of Tel-Aviv. I guess I'll have to verify that myself one day...

no KK

this is no Krispy Kreme donut. This is from la pâtisserie Julien in the 15th and it was DE-Lish! It was so moist and just coated with sugar. really good!

Besides that, I've been going to pastry shops to check out what they have for Easter this year. Nothing exciting anywhere I must say... I was kind of disapointed. Fauchon has a really taky looking diamond shaped egg(but I must say it is presented in a beautiful box...), La Durée has a lot of eggs, chickens and rabbits, but they also have 3 special macarons with chocolate chips on them. Red, green and orange. As for where I work, there's nothing special, and I'm quite disapointed... Eggs made with swirls of chocolate(all too thick) and traditional chicken and bells molds. I mean where do the chocolate bells come from anyway? so PH on this one is disapointing me... but the Montebello(my personal favorite cake,pistachio dacquoise, filled with pistachio mousseline(buttercream with crème pâtissière) topped with strawberries) is back for the season, and new macarons are comming up. More on that later this week.


There was a staff night on tuesday. We went bowling. It was fun. I got to chat, I mean really chat with M. Hermé. it was weired, he gave me compliments, it was sureal...! anwyay, but I'm comming back home, but I'll definetly keep in touch with these people. Here's just a few guys with whom I work with, Julien(macarons), Lucas(chocolaterie) and Fabien(tarts at Bonaparte, he took my place).