Eugenie Kitchen

Get Inspired by Cooking Videos! ❤

My Experiences in France (I): My First Year in France

france1

Hi,

I got emails and tweets asking about my experiences in Paris, especially Le Cordon Bleu.

So today I am starting with just the beginning.

I learned French language at université Lille 3 and Paris 4 but I never studied French before arriving in France. In the TGV to Lille, there was a friendly French man sitting next to me. He tried to talk to me but back then I knew only a few expressions such as bonjour, merci, and ‘Je suis desolee‘. And he couldn’t speak English. How sorry I felt about him and myself!

My first year (2004) in France was great enjoying food and music (and snow! a lot of snows in Lille).

As a student, I loved grocery shopping at supermarkets such as Carrefour and Auchant. And also I and my friends really loved afternoon gouter and Sunday lazy brunches at Le Pain au Quotidien. Oh, how happy I was when I discovered their bitter almond tiramisu! I loved this place because of their sunny terrace, everything bio, wooden interior, decent clientele, etc.

This time I started collecting cookbooks and little kitchen gadgets and making chocolate cakes with a rice cooker. There were many Korean students at university dorms, so we used to throw small parties with abundant food during weekends. My friends were art, architecture, and music majors with alternative point of view: they are not NY-centered, you know what I mean.

I also met a Japanese friend who was a voice major. We visited Theatre/Opera Le Colisée regularly. I loved attending Italian operas with French subtitles when I couldn’t understand both languages. We had always the best seats with student discount and I admired the opera singers up-close-and-personal. Tenors and countertenors surtout!, but later I was surprised when my friend told me many countertenors were gays. She explained to me the background of opera singers as well as operas. Theatre Le Colisée was small, so the orchestra members dressed in all balck had to drink coffee with us at the bar during intermissions. I felt privileged. How much I admire classical musicians!!! The venue was small but the performances were superb because they were touring opera productions created by major European opera companies.

– to  be continued

 

Related Posts

My Experiences in France (II): Carla Bruni A Little Bit about Me & Cooking Schools in Paris Palets Bretons – French Butter Cookies from Brittany I collect Lonely Planets.Eat Well, Travel Often

Comments

  1. Love this Eugenie! I love Le Pain au Quotidien! They have many branches in NYC too and that was always my favorite place to eat after my school days at Juilliard. I love getting to know you through this so please continue posting your experience in France! It’s interesting and fun to read as well getting to know you. :)

    • Oh, thanks Annie! After visiting London and Wien, I randomly chose France to study (because it’s more romantic^o^) and everything started from there. My fantasy(!)’s gone now but I have memories. And since you are a superb classical musician, I will admire 예준 more hehe :)

    • You are so well traveled! I believe we grow not only intellectually but emotionally from places we have visited. :) I love traveling so much and I hope one day our travels are the same so we can meet. :)

      I’m sure once 예준이 is born, I’ll be posting pictures and videos (under protected, I’ll send you the password if you want!) and you’ll get to meet him virtually. :)

      I hope you had a wonderful Easter! XO

    • Hi Annie! I can say people get what they are looking for through travels (and life) if that’s intellectual and emotional growth, they certainly will. :)

      And yeah, the pw to 예준’s would be appreciated a lot.. I am happy to see your going through this amazing phase of life. :) Wish you good health till the delivery, you are almost there! <3

  2. Hello Eugenie! I’m a new follower! =)

    You have so many wonderful stories about France! ^__^

    By the way, you mentioned the Rice cooker chocolate cake. I’ve been meaning to try this since we don’t have an oven. I want to impress my husband’s family with it. =D

    Can you make a video about it? Please, please, pretty please… =)

    It would really be great if you could help me. =)

    Love,
    Angel

    • Hi Angel! Thank you for following me everywhere <3 And I used just a normal recipe for rice cooker baking. In fact if you use a rice cooker, the texture of cake feels like rice cake. So I don't really recommend. It tastes not too bad though. =) Happy cooking, hon!

    • I see. I haven’t tried baking in a rice cooker yet… will a regular chocolate cake recipe work? =)

    • I used dense chocolate cake recipes, not sponge cake. But it depends on you, after all it is experimental :)

  3. Hi Eugenie,

    I wanted to tell you how happy I am to found your blog! Your blog/Youtube are fresh and charming.

    You should continue to post your personal experiences in Europe, particularly from ‘Le Cordon Bleu in Paris’ for your subscribers because it is one of the privileged and unique life experience that not many people can dreamed of and have experiences that easily . Your stories connects with me because I have a very same identical interests in European culture and French culinary and arts and I am sure that it is to the others as well so keep up the posting with some photos would be so wonderful!
    I am very happy and proud of your accomplishments!!
    Best,
    Alex

    • Hi Alex, thank you for your kind words. And happy to see another person who loves European cultures so much, esp. French one! I was thinking about it and I realised this would be a good way to document my experiences, which I didn’t do before. And so many things to talk, I have to pick up issues which can make good stories. =) Happy cooking, bon weekend!

CHOCOLATE