The Baguette Class, The Carnavalat Museum, Friends From Home

Bonjour Everyone!
We started our day at LaFavorite, and ordered the Petit De Jeuner. We found if you ordered a croissant and coffee this way, you would also receive a glass of the most delicious, freshly squeezed orange juice. Ron told the waiter, "the coffee is SO good here!" The waiter replied, "The coffee is good because it eeez French." At LaFavorite, the waiters wear black pants, white shirts with black suspenders, and white aprons. No haphazard looks allowed.
When we left LaFavorite, we walked towards LaCuisine, where I would be taking my baguette and bread making lesson, which was scheduled for 10:00 am. On the way, we saw an open door to Cathedral, so we stopped in at L'eglise Saint-Gervais in the Quartier Historique Du Marais.
We discovered this cathedral was the very first parish built in Paris on the right bank of the river Seine in the 6th century. It was built on a bit of a hill to to escape river flooding. During the French Revolution, it was heavily ransacked and closed for awhile. During the Second World War, the church was bombed and around 100 people were killed.
On that sad note, I arrived at La Cuisine on 80 Quai De l'hotel De Ville at 9:55 am for my class. There was one person ahead of me, a lady from Angola, Africa sitting at a table. Soon two people from New York came in the door, to be followed by four ladies from somewhere in Texas, who were together in Paris celebrating someone's retirement. One of the ladies called herself "Angelique", and told everyone that was the name she used while in Paris.
We gathered around a very large, marble counter with our instructor Justin from Texas, who positioned himself on the other side of the counter, so as to do the demonstrations. Justin told us a bit about himself before class started. He said he had met a French girl, moved to Paris, went to Culinary School here, was employed at different hotels in the city as a Patisserie cook - and then landed a job at L'Cuisine in Paris. As well he teaches voice and piano lessons on the side, became fluent in French - and just for interest sake, he spent four years in Romania, and speaks Romanian.
So we got down to business, and the first thing we did was to remove our jewellery. Next we washed our hands, rolled up our sleeves, and began our three hour class by mixing our flour, water, salt and yeast together, and then we started the hard work of kneading the dough. There were different levels of experience in the room. Some people had made lots of bread in their personal history, and some had never tried to make bread. I attempted to make baguettes twice before. The first time they turned out like tiny baseball bats, (of which I have pictures to prove), and the second time, I was quite happy with the results. I did learn a vital secret - it's important not to kill the yeast. I also learned that steam is an necessary part of baguette baking. While we mixed, kneaded, and waited for the bread to rise three times - Justin talked to us about bread in the French culture. There are actual laws governing the baking of bread in France. He said ,"if you don't follow the regulations here, the baguette police will come after you!" You must follow all the rules in France to call yourself a "Boulanger". All aspects of the bread baking, must be done on the premises of the Boulangerie. You must make the dough, and it must be baked on your premises. Baguette and bread making is serious business in France. If you are caught cheating (buying frozen dough from elsewhere, and baking it on your premises, the government will shut your business down). All baguettes must be certain dimensions - 65 cm long, 5-6 cm wide, 3-4 cm high and should weigh 250 grams. So, Justin did his best to teach us the art of baking baguettes. Fortunately he didn't put our baguettes through rigorous measuring, before the class ended. We had fun in the class, and I felt Justin did his best to teach us this art. I knew I needed to practice at home.
Ron was waiting for me, when the class was over. I said good bye to Justin and all the others, and left the class with my two baguettes, and Fougass (similar to focaccia in Italy). We stopped at a cafe called La Perla, my ate bread and had some rose wine, while I explained how things went at the class to Ron.
When we left the cafe, we stopped at the Le Vert d'Absinthe on 11 Rue Omesson to buy a fancy spoon for absinthe, which I knew a friend of mine would appreciate. After leaving the Absinthe shop, we went back to our apartment to drop a few things off, and freshen up for the evening.
We then went to Carnavalat Museum on 23 Rue De La Sevigne which is just across the street and a down a little ways down from our apartment. This museum specializes in French history, and includes a whole section on the French Revolution, which is really interesting, if you like learning about French history.
After touring the very extensive museum, we left and started walking in the direction of the Latin Quarter, where we planned to meet some friends from our home city for dinner. The walk from the Marais to Hotel St. Jacques in the Latin Quarter took about twenty five minutes.
When we arrived at Hotel St. Jacques, we were happy to see our friends. It's really great to see good friends in a completely different setting in a part of the world that is far from home. We all walked towards Rue Moufettard where we could have a good visit, while we enjoyed chicken curry.
Everyone was tired, after a long day, so we went our ways with plans to meet up tomorrow evening. Ron and I walked across the bridge over the beautiful, sparkling water at night. The Notre Dame was lit up, and a boat drifted quietly down the river Seine...