Today we went to Champbaran with Lolo, Vero, et cie to look for animals (we saw a couple of stags), walking around, and gathering chestnuts. It was a lovely almost-fall day
I had a late lunch of oysters and 18 month old comté (but not at the same time).
Special Guest Blog by Chloe!!
Thursday was Valrhona Caramel and Chocolate Day-a full day of instruction on working with chocolate and caramel by a Valrhona certified patissier. Originally I had planned on attending the same class a year ago however Alex decided to make an early appearance and nixed that plan (going into labor was a good enough excuse to warrant a full refund at least!).
After an hour and a half drive Franck, Chantal, and I arrived at the Valrhona factory and cooking school. It was a surprisingly discreet looking building-no huge neon signs proclaiming VALRHONA, only a simple logo on the side of the building. We went into the school and were immediatley led to a cafe for espressos and chocolate (Valrhona, of course). Our instructor arrived and after introductions (which I vaguely followed) we went into the laboratory- an incredibly well equipped kitchen with marble countertop, multiple freezers, refrigerators, convection ovens, and a temperature controlled "Chocolaterie" (16 Celcius) for chocolate making, tempering etc.
Sebastien, our instructor, had us introduce ourselves and recount the Valrhona recipes we had made (everyone else was a repeat participant) and whether or not we were successful. I felt out of my league right away as everyone discussed the various entremets, macarons,and other pastries I had never even heard of. My baking chocolate chip cookies sounded rather lame in comparison (although they are pretty good).
We quickly plunged into the caramel making after a quick explanation from Sebastien. Caramel is not hard to do, but requires some nerves-sugar is melted dry in a pot and quickly turns a golden brown color and needs to continue cooking without burning. Cream is then added, bubbling and hissing violently as it comes in contact with the hot sugar (do NOT peer into the pot as the cream is added), afterwards butter is stirred in to achieve the creamy texture for a good caramel cream filling. After tasting our caramel cream it was onto the next caramel concoction-a chocolate caramel ganache filling for macarons. The principle was the same but with the added deliciousness of chocolate stirred into the caramel. Again, the recipe was verified by extensive tasting (including by Sebastien who told us the Valrhona pastry chefs put on about 5 kg a year. This was confirmed by Franck and Chantal who were very surprised to see the Sebastien had put on at least this much weight. A hazard of the job....)
We continued in this way until lunchtime-everyone taking turns making the caramel, using the pastry "poche" to lay out the macarons, tasting the various pastry doughs, chocolate ganaches, and caramel creams. Making pastries is exhausting work and after the combination of caffeine and sugar I was ready for lunch! 
Zoe and I went "hiking" today, which turned out to be a short walk up to the play structure at the MJC.
And then did a little painting
Later, we all went into town in search of things to faciltate the production of future chocolate delicacies today. I was also trying out a new camera - A borrowed D90 with the stabilized 16-85mm lens. We stopped for coffee and tea at Pain et Cie
And then on to the pedestrian bridge over the Isére
I was dropping Zoe off when this pulled into the school lot:
A ride to school in a Ferrari 348 -- not bad.
All we need is for people to show up with Stokke strollers, and it'll be just
like the peninsula!
Chloe is off to caramel school at Valrhona, so I have the kids. When I dropped ZZN off this morning, they had a table with cards bearing all of their names. Other kids were affixing them to a big blue card holder on the wall. I saw Zoe fiddling with what I assumed to be a random namecard and stick it on the wall, but it was indeed hers! I was very surprised that she recognized her name... I wonder if a teacher's aide handed it to her while I wasn't looking.
update: I made cards with lots of random three letter names on it and she really does recognize her name!
We went climbing with Julien and some of his friends at Romeyer: very difficult, but great to be outside.
On the way back, I saw an absolutely stunning orange limestone cliff face. It is the Rocher de Cambau, and is just begging to be climbed!
I went shopping with Zoe to buy clothes for her and alex today, and also made a stop at the Troc place, since I have driven by it many times and never stopped. It is basically a warehouse full of mostly crappy furniture. I did, however see a very nice bonetier and an homme debout. These are sort of smaller, more practical versions of the armoire. I particularly like homme debouts because they have a drawer in between two smaller compartments: very practical. They also had this majestic sculpture of Serge Gainsbourg
I'm not sure if that's a flask or a microphone in his hand.
Next was a visit to the art supply store, where Zoe caught sight of a sticker display and immediately grabbed a packet of stickers, jammed them into her mouth, looked up at me with wide eyes and asked "Dat's Zoe's?". Fine. I started paying for the watercolors, pens, pastels and her stickers, when she realized that there were even more stickers... and those stickers had BEARS on them! Unfortunately, I had just finished paying. I also did not have any cash at all, and couldn't pay for a one euro sticker packet with a card. Zoe had the packet firmly in her hand, and after a brief tussle which rendered the stickers ours, we came to an agreement which involved going out to the car to find change, coming back and paying for the bear stickers. On my way home, I had a the terribly cynical thought that the placement of the children's sticker rack next to the register might not have been an accident.
A short hike with the kids on the Boucle de Sabot. Zoe walked all the way up without even asking to be carried, so she is making a lot of progress on the hiking front.
Very narrow now:
Fuji X100:
+fuji lens
+enough res
-to damn wide!
Nikon 3100:
+light
+decent res
+inexpensive
-can't drive older Nikon lenses, MF a pain
Nikon D90:
-a bit heavy
+can drive older Nikon lenses
Nikon D7000:
+excellent pixel count
+can drive older Nikon lenses
-pricey
-heavy
Canon 550D:
+18 mp!
+not too heavy
+not too expensive
Sony Alpha 55:
+Light
+10 frames/second
+Excellent sensor (same as D7000?)
-Reasonable lenses for alpha mount are overpriced
ok, not narrow at all.
after a long week of shooting 10-20 micron crystals. Too tired for even a lunchtime bouldering session.
At the Proxy mart 100 feet from our house. I heard the gunshot -- it took me back to our East Oaktown days. Actually, not really, since it didn't sound like a handgun.
We were passed like we were standing still by some guy on an electrically assisted bike. I'm amazed by how fast they can go.
The circus was in town, which of course meant that Zoe had to go. It was quite small, but the upside was that the furthest you could get from the ring was about three feet.
It was the usual stuff: animals
juggling
and trapeze.
Dramatic songs accompanied the performers at all their entrances. This backfired a bit before the trapeze show, when the music started thumping, the curtains parted, and a woman appeared with a ... shovel? She then scooped up the poo from the show horse as discretely and ceremoniously as possible before exiting the ring.
Zoe requested a big purple balloon
