Two days and Two Nights in... Monaco!

Okay, well I'll have to admit, it wasn't two days and two nights in Monaco. It was two days and one night in Monaco and the other in Montpellier. 

Now, I know how excited you must be to see the beautiful pictures of Monaco, but first I will have to tell you about the wonderful Montpellier.

First of all, we stayed a night in Montpellier because our train to Monaco left Montpellier at 7:05 in the morning, and there was no way that we would be able to make it for that time all the way from Cap d'Agde.

So we decided we would spend the evening in Montpellier. We got there, we found a nice hotel (for the price), we ditched out stuff there and went out to eat and explore the city. 

After a night out on the town, we got back to our hotel room and got all cozy in bed, after all it we had to wake up early the next morning. As my eyes were closing, Pat found a bug in our bed.

I could not believe it. It was probably one of the scariest and most disgusting things, because the more we looked through the sheets the more bugs we found. And not only one kind. There were ticks and bed bugs. I have heard so much about bed bugs and how impossible they are to get rid of, and if they get on your stuff, you're a goner. After a couple minutes of standing there in shock and checking for bugs on myself, my clothes and my baggage, I had to go down and speak with the manager. I told him that there were bugs in my bed. His reply: there are bugs everywhere. I would give you another room, but my hotel is full.

So I marched right back upstairs went bug hunting. I collected three ticks in a glass and we packed up our belongings and went back down to the reception. I handed the glass to him and he looked at me and said: these aren't bugs. I couldn't believe it. I grabbed the glass from his hand, shook it a bit and the bugs started crawling everywhere. So to make a long story shorter, at one in the morning we had to find another hotel. So much for going to sleep early so we can arrive in Monaco fresh faced! 

Now, I think before I do anything in any hotel (from a Hilton to the crappy motel on the side of a highway) I will be stripping the bed completely and do a thorough inspection. 

One of the ticks. Yes, they were on our wall.

To get to Monaco, from Cap d'Agde, we need to take the train from Agde to Montpellier, then Montpellier to Marseilles, Marseilles to Nice, then Nice to Monaco.

This picture was taken at our stop over in Marseilles. Beautiful steps just outside of the train station.

Waiting in Marseilles.

I loved most of the train stations that we stopped over in, they are all so big and nicely designed. Everything about them scream European.

I think what I love most about Europe is the feel it has. The buildings, designs, and the way that the cities function. Everything is so different than what I'm used to. I love the European lifestyle.

Getting on our train to the "Principauté de Monaco"

A view of Monaco.

We arrived in Monaco, not knowing where we were headed, we had no hotel, no destination. We were tired after a sleepless night then a five hour train ride. We were walking around with all our luggage. It was just horrible. 

We researched online before we had left to Monaco, for affordable places to stay in Monaco (because everyone knows how expensive Monaco is). Most of the hotels that we saw were at least 300 euros a night, and there was no way that three pastry students can afford that. There were no hostels or  hotels under 200 euros a night being listed.

But then we stumbled upon Hotel de France.

And man were we happy. It was 90 euros for one night, for three people. We really lucked out. 

It had three separate beds, and a private bathroom! (Unlike the hotels that we stayed at in Montpellier)

We checked the sheets and everything was clear. Hotel had wifi and was very centrally located. 

A dream come true!

Monaco is probably the only country in the world that you will see more Ferraris on the street than any other car. I am a person that doesn't really know much about cars, but I can tell you that I saw maybe five cars that are not luxury cars.

There were Porshes, Ferraris, Lamborghini.

Any man would have been walking around with their mouth open.

The wonderful yachts.

Some of which are bigger than my house.

I can just imagine what the houses of the owners of these things look like.

Tour bus! 

Did you know that Monaco does not charge their citizens any taxes.

There fore they are not allowed to gamble in their own and very famous casino?

Because the citizens are saving money on their taxes, the government does not want them to gamble it away.

The Casino Royal.

I gambled away 5 euros. 

Desiree gambled away 5 euros.

Pat gambled away 20 euros but got 80 in return.

I'm never lucky. :(

(But I guess I'm lucky in the way that I know when to stop, right?)

Every street in Monaco is lined with Orange trees. Too cute!

Although someone told me that the oranges from these trees are the best that they have had, when I tried one, they were so sour!

Beautiful European architecture, that I just can't get enough of.

How could you not love these balconies!

Can you imagine, Louis Vitton,YSL, Dior and Chanel all on the same street!

Beautiful.

We went into Louis, and fell in love with many things.

We also went in Salvatore Ferragamo, and also fell in love with many things.

Then we decided to go to Zara. Didn't fall in love with anything.

I guess that's because it's all so affordable. :(

Walking in the gardens that lead up to the casino. 

(The fancy building in the background.)

A view of the port, and basically all of Monaco.

It's teeny tiny.In two days we saw everything, twice.

It is a grand total of 2 km squared.

But it is also the most dense country with 15,142 people per km squared.

It is a small country filled with fabulous people, places, and things. 

I fell in love!

Right behind me is where Prince Albert and his wife live. 

I am sitting on a mountain of cannon balls.

This area had little war monuments and statues of canons and cannon balls.

This one is for Chelsea, I know how much you love seagulls.

But seriously, these seagulls were so pretty. They had yellow beaks and feet. Ours at home are oh so grey. Blah. And they were HUGE, probably twice the size of ours. They were so pretty and majestic.

Special parking lots for electric cars. Too cool. You can plug your car in, let it recharge, then take it for a spin again! I'm loving the little sign that says only electric cars, and the little car is made out of a power cord. So cute!

View of the smaller. This port held the boats that are not "worthy" of the main port, these boats were too small and didn't make the cut.

They still look huge to me!

(By the way, every building that is in the background as a pool on the roof with palm trees.)

A neat little underwater jazz bar. It was nice inside, but unfortunately they were charing 15 euros the drink.

A little outrageous, even for Monaco!

Mallards!I just loved them swimming in the middle of the city in the fountains. So nice!

The restaurant that we ate in. It was along the main port, and its decor was suitable for that. The whole inside looked like a boat. (You can slightly see it from this picture.)

Very good pasta. :)

The Famous Casino by night. 

It's so regal looking. (Especially when valet men park the 200,000$ cars right in front of it)

While in Monaco, I noticed a couple things. 

    -In every shop, restaurant, or any kind of buisness, a picture of Prince Albert and his wife must be exhibited. Every picture is the same, in every shop, and they mostly are in the exact same frame. It was a little bit odd.

    - There was not one homeless person. I think Monaco is the only country where they don't exist.

    - Probably 50% of Monaco's population (roughly 16,000 people) are policemen. Yes, there are that many.  At least 2 or 3 at every corner.

    - Monaco does not accept everyone to live there. You must make a certain amount of money, and having a clean background doesn't hurt. So putting one and two together, Monaco's policemen get paid a ton. So, go to Monaco, and become a police. Awesome job, awesome pay, awesome life.

     - Everything to the Monaco-ians, is about cars, and races, and ferraris. Probably because of that car race they hold. Super cool.

     - They are very "green" people. There are roof top gardens on every roof. Even gardens on every wall of buildings. It was so nice to see!

Anyways. 

My advice visit Monaco, I loved it.

But seriously, you don't  need more than two or three days. (A great little stop over in a Euro trip!)

xoxo

It's Bread Week!

So the way our course works here is that there are four different weeks.

     - Bread and Dough 

     - Cakes and Tarts

     - Chocolate

     - Plate desserts

For one whole week, we work on whatever subject the week is based on. As I am doing a three month course (12 weeks), there are three weeks dedicated to each subject, each time with different recipes and techniques going into the lessons.

As this week was once again bread week, we made lots and lots of different kinds. Our first bread week, we focused more so on the doughs and the proper techniques for mille feuille to be rolled. This week we  touched a greater variety of breads and doughs.

Our pastry class, in the month of February, was nice and small. We were only five students left after all the others left at the end of January. Because we were such a small class, and everyone already had the gist of things we work much more efficiently and produced better things.

This bread here is the "Paysan" loaf. It was made with rye flour and now only all-purpose flour. This rye flour gave it a more wholesome taste (and look.)

Somewhat like a baguette, it was soft and chewy in the inside and crunchy on the outside. 

Here is the unbaked "Pain de Mie Brioche." Slightly sweet, but not so sweet that it is more of a dessert bread. It is just right. It can be enjoyed with sweeter toppings as well as being served as a dinner roll. 

Applying egg-wash to our unbaked brioche.

Baked and bitten! :)

Topping the bread dough is olive oil and big salt.

The bread with big salt. 

I know, that sounds like horrible English. (Well, at least to me.) So I asked the teacher what he meant by bread with big salt. I thought, because he is a French man, and his English is not perfect, that he meant with a lot of salt. I tried to explain to him that in English that we don't say "big" to express large quantities. He just looked at me like I was crazy. And he took out a bucket full of big salt as well as a bucket of table salt, and came to me and said: "This is big salt and this is little salt."

So I got slightly ridiculed, but that's okay, because now I know a number of things.

1. The name of this bread is gramatically correct. 

2. The difference between "big salt" and salt.

3. Not to ask a question that can be interpreted as "I am stupid".

Anyways, here is one of my favorite things we made all week. 

"Pain au Chocolate", which is basically a croissant (though rolled and cut differently) stuffed with chocolate. 

mmm

Plate-full 

Inside the chocolate!

Though this one does look like a regular croissant, it is not. I guess the day that we were making these, the chef decided to get a little creative and go slightly off course. So well filled and rolled six with chocolate, and the remaining six with a good centimeter thick slab of butter. Now if butter oozing out of a croissant, sounds good, you won't believe what we added. Sugar! And lots of it. Then we rolled them up and baked them.

 Everyone that knows me, knows my love for butter. And everyone that knows butter, knows that butter and sugar fit perfectly together.

A match made in heaven, YUM.

This here is a little side project that we experimented with, using the left over brioche dough that we had.

First we rolled them into little balls.

Deep fried them.

Rolled them in sugar.

And filled them with orange marmalade.

Oh how I love our side projects!

This bread is a "Baguette Viennoise," our chef said any pastry or bread that has the word (or has something to do with the word) viennoiserie is sweet.

So basically, this baguette, is a sweeter version of the French baguette.

Above, were mini ones that we made.

(To practice our rolling and forming of the dough,because believe it or not, getting the perfect shape for a loaf of bread, but especially a baguette, takes a lot of time and even more pratice.)

 Our large ones.

(Mines one the left!)

Oh the carbs we had at the end of the week!

We gave probably 90% of it away.

(And the other 10% is what fed us on our trip to the ever so expensive Monaco.)

Although this is more of a cake than a bread or a dough, we added it into this week.

This my friends is one of the best things that I have ever tasted.

It is a chocolate and pistachio marble cake.

Normal sounding, I know. But oh so delicious.

(Desiree and I froze a one of our cakes so we can re-enjoy it!)

Silly chef and I!

A la prochaine!

xoxo

A Day at the Cape

Cap d'Agde in the winter is dead. There is nobody. You go for a walk, and will not encounter a soul. 

But! On days that reach 17degrees, my lovely little town is bustling. (Well, compared to when it's dead. It still isn't like anything I'm used to).

So on this particular afternoon, a walk along the beach seemed like a must. A couple other students and I played soccer (or shall I say football!) on the beach. As I am the worst soccer player out of us all, I was the one running the most after the ball (funny how that works out, isn't it?)

We decided to scrap the idea of playing soccer and just wandered along the beach. 

Being a Canadian, 17 degrees is quite a nice temperature for a February afternoon, I went out in  simply a light sweater (and everyone who knows me well, knows that I am constantly freezing.) While everyone else on the beach were wearing full out winter parkas. I even saw a little girl running around in a snowsuit. (I would have loved to post a picture, so you could have laughed along with me at the sight of a little girl running along the beach in her snowsuit, but I didn't even think to try a stealthy snap a shot. I wouldn't make a very good paparazzi.)

Anyways, here are a few pictures from that lovely weekend at the beach.

This is the beach that I run along when I go for a run, its absolutely beautiful at the hour that I go (usually around 5:00 or 5:30 in the afternoon.) As you can imagine, the sun is just staring to set, and there is a nice breeze. I'll never be able to run down the street or in a gym at home after experiencing this!

And the boats are out! 

(In the distance is the Naturist village, AKA the nudist beach. Luckily the bathing suit beach and the non bathing suit beach is separated by a little river. 

OH LOOK I FOUND ONE!

A NATURIST!

This is what I thought was my first sighting of a nudist. He is on the nudist side of the river, and he does look nude, but in fact (and luckily), he was wearing a nice little speedo, as he was hunting for oysters. 

But I can bet that come summer time, his very small bathing suit will be even  less existent.

Beautiful!

I just loved how the sun made the sand shine!

Cute little bird feet in the sand/

I saw some scuba divers, retiring from a hard day's dive.

(But seriously, how cool is that. Walking to the beach in your scuba gear and just going for a "swim"!)

At one part of the beach, for about half a kilometer, sand is inexistent. It is completely covered in seashells! Beautiful, but every time I run along it I feel bad, because I hear them all breaking under me!

For supper we went to the restaurant at the residence that we are living in. This restaurant is owned by the French cuisine teacher at the school. We had very yummy steaks and "pomme frites." The chef even offered us a slice of truffle. I know most of you are thinking a chocolate truffle, or at least that's what I thought when I was offered. (But that's probably because I am more of a pastry girl than a fine French cuisine girl.) Truffle is in fact, an extremely expensive mushroom. ( I think the chef said that he got two kilograms for a thousand euros, but my memory is questionable.)

Everyone at the restaurant for the "Last Supper"

(Our classmates were leaving the next day. :( )

Until next time!

xox