French Market

I will be back at the New Lenox French Market this Saturday. I took last week off to make my first wedding cake and groom's cake. This week I will have brownies, cookies, scones, cupcakes and granola. I am also working on a gluten free recipe.

Farmer's Market

In the year and a half since my last post, I returned to New Lenox and began working at a luxury hotel in Chicago's Gold Coast. A few weeks ago I left the hotel to start Colleen's Pastry Lab. The farmer's market, this Saturday in New Lenox, will be the first official appearance of Colleen's Pastry Lab pastries. Come and check them out.

Short Update

I am getting worse and worse at keeping up with this.  I have so much to talk about.  I think it might have to wait until I get back home.  I just finished day two of my three days working at the Yves Thuries Chocolate Factory.  So far it has been truly amazing.  I just went to Paris last Saturday through Tuesday and sampled more chocolate and pastries than I ever thought possible.  I am squeezing in as much as possible during my last few days in Europe.  I will update fully about Madrid, Ibiza, Paris and the Chocolate Factory as soon as I stop running around.  I have one more day at the Chocolate factory and then a few more days at the Musee du Sucre.  We are going to Perpignan on Thursday to see a pastry school.  My parents. arrive in Toulouse next Saturday and then we are traveling back to Cordes then Paris and Dublin.  I will be back in Chicago on Friday October 9th. 

 This is a photo of the box of Macarons we bought at Pierre Hermes shop.  They were delicious.

London and Reading

Saturday evening, I took the train to Toulouse and flew to Gatwick Airport.  I took the Gatwick Express Train to the London city center.  Then I took the underground to the International Students House.  ISH is campus housing so my room was  a single dormroom.  It had a shared bathroom down the hall.  I went straight to bed because I was going to the Reading Festival the next day.  I took the train to Reading at ten a.m.  

I got the festival grounds and entered the gates at around 11:15.  Then I walked around a little before the first band went on at noon.  I stayed at the main stage all day.  The lineup was Kids in Glass Houses, The View, The Living End, Noah and the Whale, Brand New, Vampire Weekend, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party and finally Radiohead.  It was a really great day. I stayed in the front row until a few songs into Radiohead.  The people around me were singing too loudly so I walked further away.  It was a really great show.  Radiohead opened with Creep.  They hardly ever play Creep live.  I wasn't expecting it at all.  They played almost every song I would have wanted to hear.  It was totally worth the trip.  It was good to see Bloc Party in England because they had a completely different attitude.  They said they met at the Reading Festival 10 years ago.  Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came out in a crazy outfit and kept changing her accessories the whole set.  It was great.  Their performance was fantastic too.  They played a truly beautiful acoustic version of Maps.  

Vampire Weekend was a lot of fun.  I had never seen them before, I'm glad I got a chance to see them.  Brand New were fantastic as usual.  They played mostly songs from their last cd, 2 new songs and one each from their first two cds.  Noah and the Whale were really great.  I think their new cd is going to be fantastic.  The Living Edge were very entertaining.  The View was unintelligible and Kids in Glass Houses were Welsh Emo.  Overall I am really happy that I got to experience a European Music Festival.  It was very different from the festivals I've been to in the U.S. in one major aspect.  The crowd surfing was insane.  There were so many people crowd surfing.  They had 200 security guards at the main stage.  They rotated after each act and were all at the stage for the final two performances.  There was a line of burly men near the crowd and then about 10 feet behind them was a line of women.  The women were there to run the people away from the stage after they came out of the crowd.  It was really entertaining to watch.  The head of security said that 1500 people went over the barrier the night before during The Prodigy.  

Radiohead played for two wonderful hours and then I walked back to the train station and went back to London.  It was 1:30 in the morning by the time I got back so I took a cab back to the ISH.  

long time since a posting

I have been spending all of my free time planning trips for my remaining time in France.  I am going to London on August 29th for three days.  Next is Madrid September 6th and Paris September 19th.  I am also planning my trip back home with my parents.  As soon as I have all of the accommodations and transportation booked I will do a more detailed update on my time in Barcelona with my sisters and what's been going on in Cordes.

Sisters in Spain

Last Saturday I took the last train to Toulouse to meet Kelly and Michelle on Sunday morning.  The earliest train the next day wouldn't have gotten me there until 9am and there flight got in at 8:15.  It was really important that I met them at the airport because none of us have cell phones.  I took advantage of my extra time in Toulouse and saw the new Harry Potter.  It's quite fun to watch films with French subtitles.  I'm so glad I got to see it.  I stayed in the same hotel as my first visit to Toulouse in April.  Everything was fine there and I walked to the bus station the next morning.  The bus to the airport is 4 Euros and leaves every twenty minutes.  It is very convenient.  I arrived at the airport with time to spare, and a sign that said, "Brennan Girls."  There flight arrived on time and then we headed to the car rental desk.  Kelly had booked a car in advance online.  The desk didn't open until 9 am so we had time to get some pastries and Michelle's first French Espresso.  She thoroughly enjoyed it.  Our rental car was a little diesel Citroen.  It felt kind of like a remote control car.  

Kelly drove, I navigated and Michelle was the official Photographer.  The route to Barcelona was only two toll-roads so navigating wasn't too difficult.  I had gotten directions from google as well as maps of France and Spain.  The ride was fairly easy and the countryside was beautiful.  There is a more scenic route that you can take, but we really just wanted to get to Barcelona.  If we had more time, it would have been very cool to stop at Carcassone and see the castle that we saw from the road.  Once we reached Narbonne, we headed south.  The border between France and Spain had a security checkpoint but everyone just drove right through.  The border patrol did stop a Ferrari on our way back into France, but otherwise travel within the E.U. is very easy.  

We parked  in a parking lot near the north bus station in Barcelona.  It was right near the Arc de Triomf metro stop.  We took the metro to Linsey and Michael's Flat.

Medieval Festival

Well it's been two weeks since I have posted anything here and I have been pretty busy.  I have passed the halfway point for my stay in France.  It is quite bittersweet.  I feel like I just got here, but at the same time I miss everyone at home.  There is still so much I need to see and do and learn.  

The day after my last post, Lisa and I attempted to take the train to Toulouse.  When we arrived at the train station, the ticket agent informed us that there is a greve for Mondays for the rest of the year.  Greve is French for strike.  The ticket agent was kind enough to call the taxi to come back and get us and take us back to Cordes.  Now we have to rethink some travel plans.  We went home and watched episodes from the second season of The Office on my computer.  The Office never fails to lift my spirits.  The rest of the week went by really fast.  We spent most of the time preparing for the Medieval Festival. 

Saturday the 11th was Lisa's Birthday so our boss gave us the day off to celebrate.  We successfully took the train to Toulouse for a movie, lunch and shopping.  We saw "The Hangover" which is called "Very Bad Trip" here.  It is a strange title change because it is very similar to another film "Very Bad Things which was also about a Vegas Bachelor party trip gone wrong.  It was in English with French subtitles.  There was one other person in the theater and she did not laugh once.  It was a little strange since I ended up in the fetal position laughing so hard that I was crying.  It is possible that she spoke neither French nor English.  I had popcorn and a Coke.  You can choose between sweet or salty popcorn and from the size of the containers, it appears sweet is more popular here.  I chose salty.  Everything here is super buttery except the movie theater popcorn.  Coca Cola is made with sugar here instead of high fructose corn syrup.  I think it tastes a little different, but not much.  After the movie we headed to lunch at an Italian place then wandered around for the rest of the day.  We both worked Sunday and Monday and then I had Tuesday off.  

The Medieval Festival Took place on July 13th and 14th.  The 14th is Bastille Day, like our 4th of July.  Cordes was transformed into a festival ground.  There was an admission cost for the city.  Adults had to pay 8 euros to enter the upper part of the town, where I live.  My name was on a list so I could travel freely.  Those who chose to dress in medieval attire were admitted free of charge.  There were banners hanging over the streets for days before the event.  They are still up now.  The weather was absolutely beautiful both days.  It was a little hot to be dressed in medieval garb but those of us in modern clothes were pretty comfortable.  There was entertainment throughout town.  There was a stage set up for theatrical performances as well as random street performances.  There were musical groups that walked through the streets playing and dancing.  I didn't get to see much on Monday during the day, but I got to see the parade Monday evening.  The parade was very interesting.  It was led by two men on horseback in complete medieval costume including chain mail and metal helmets.  Then there was a group of men with spears followed by music groups and people in costume holding candles.  The highlight, for me, was the group of fire wielders.  They had many different tools for spinning fire around there bodies.  There were also fire breathers.  The parade lasted about 25 minutes.  I was off the next day so I wandered around to take in all that the festival had to offer.  The pavilion had venders selling medieval souvenirs and a bar.  There were two blacksmiths shaping metal on the street.  There were also impromptu duels by people in costume.  At one point a boy about 1o years old came at me with a spiked club and said something that I didn't understand.  I just smiled and told him I didn't speak French.  The courtyard across from the Museum was full of tents with medieval games for children.  It was a very surreal experience.  There was a parade again at 3:30pm on Tuesday.  It was basically the same, it just headed the opposite direction.  There were costumed stilt walkers and less fire.  The festival went on for the rest of the evening. 

The rest of the week has gone by very fast.  We had a wedding cake and two croquembouches to make for this weekend along with appetizers.  I made bechamel for the first time for gougeres which are like cream puffs but with a cheese filling.  I also made olive cakes and tuna sandwiches on brioche.  It was quite a change of pace.  I have tomorrow off and will probably try to do some more Rosetta Stone and wander around a little.  Kelly and Michelle will be in Toulouse next Sunday.  I am meeting them there and we are driving to Barcelona in a rental car.  I can not wait.  The attached photos are from the Medieval Festival.