More Croissants, Please!

It’s Monday morning here.  I arrived in Cap d’Agde (pronounced aɡdə according to Wikipedia.  Hard G – I have been pronouncing it wrong the whole time, but was corrected by a ticketing woman at the train station) on Saturday afternoon.  I took the train in from Paris – it should have been a pretty easy 4 hour ride, but when we got to Montpelier, 2 stops before mine, there were a bunch of repeated announcements in French.  I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I kept hearing “finis” and “terminus” and “accidente”.  Most of the people on the train started standing up and getting off – I asked a man towards the back of my car if he spoke English and would he mind translating it for me.  He was so nice – he told me that there had been an accident further down the train tracks and everyone had to get off.  I would have to take a smaller train to Agde.  At the train station, it was mass chaos.  Everyone was pouring into the information booth and most of the agents did not speak English.  I finally figured out which train I would be on, emailed the woman from the school who was to pick me up at the station, and read my book while I waited.  The next train was packed, so I stood the whole 45 minute ride with all of my luggage in tow.

When I got to the train station in Agde, it was easy to find the woman from the school (Stephanie) and there were lots of other students on my train as well.  She drove us all to “the resort” (more on that in a minute) to check in to our apartments.  My roommate had arrived just 30 minutes earlier – her name is Yara, she is from Houston (but originally Lebanon) and she is 22.  She just graduated from college and this is her version of trekking through Europe.  She is really great and we have already planned two of our three weekends together!  Over the last two days, we have met a bunch of students from the school – I think there are about 30 total here.  There are a few different programs – we will all be in classes together, but some of the programs last longer, so as time goes on, those who stay will learn more advanced techniques.  Yara and I along with a handful of others are in the one-month program.  The seven-month program (3 months here + an internship) is the most popular, but there are also a few doing the one-year program (6 months + an internship).  All of the other programs include French so that the students will be fluent by the time their internship comes around.  We have heard if you are not fluent in French, you will not get placed at a Michelin star restaurant.  It’s pretty amazing that some of these people will be working at the best restaurants in the world in a few months!  If you don’t know what a Michelin star restaurant is – I will explain the whole story of how it came to be in another post later this week.

The students are from all over – Belgium, Hungary, France (but originally India), Philippines, Taiwan, Australia, Guyana, Germany, Serbia, and Columbia, but the largest number of students are from the US (maybe 7?).  There are three of us from Colorado, and one of them lives about a mile from me.  We established that we actually shop at the same grocery store (Whole Foods on Washington, anyone?), but of course we had to fly all the way over here to meet.  He is a serious chef like many of the other students, so when he finishes his internship he is planning to open a restaurant in Denver, which I’m pretty excited about.  Yara is the same as me – we are both her to learn, but also for fun, and will go back to non-cooking jobs when we get back to the US; we are pretty sure we’re going to be the worst in the class.  At least we get to eat our mistakes!  If they are edible.

Okay, so the “resort”.  Our school has an agreement with the resort so our apartments are super cheap – like 10 Euro/day.  They have a fully stocked kitchen but in the French way – with a mini fridge, half-size oven, and half-size dishwasher (we were impressed we even had one!).  While taking inventory of our kitchen yesterday, I learned that I have been drinking my coffee out of a soup cup – the coffee mugs are just too small for me.  Everything else is just fine (not super nice, but not the slums) except for the bedrooms.  The beds are SO uncomfortable.  I wake up every morning feeling like I have just done a CrossFit work-out, arms only, throughout the entire night.  The beds are rock hard, and my shoulders get so sore and my arms fall asleep partway through the night.  It gets pretty cold here at night so I have been using the blankets they supplied us.  They must be laced with mildew because I am severely allergic to them.  As soon as I go to bed I start to get really stuffy and sneezy and then my eyes get all red.  In the morning, I feel better once I am out of bed.  On my shopping list for today are new pillows and a new blanket.  Maybe I’ll find something cute that I can bring (or send) home with me!  On the positive side, the resort has three beautiful outdoor pools and is a 5-10 minute walk to the beach.  We are on the Mediterranean, but it feels like we could be on the beach pretty much anywhere in the world.

Yesterday we went through the school check-in process and got our chef outfits.  I had some fun trying on the pants last night – apparently the French do not have curves, so they fit until it got to my hips and then they were skin tight.  I may have almost ripped the pockets.  Luckily, my roommate ordered 3 pairs online in the US and I am going to buy one pair off of her.  They are a little baggy, but much more comfortable and I think I’ll be able to sit down without ripping a hole in the seam.  We also went to the beach and the pool.  We found salads at a beachside bar – vegetables are hard to come by when you are eating out here, so we were VERY excited.  I think it was the first vegetable I ate in three days.  Mangoes – we’ll be back for your salads.  The beach has some great shells – there are so many that are huge and whole; I already brought five home.  Today is an orientation day at school, so we have no cooking or pastry lessons today – those will start tomorrow.  I’ll try to share a recipe tomorrow if we make something good (and it turns out)!

Au revoir!