Cooking Class and Shopping Fun -- July 11

On my walk over to our Cooking Class today, I stopped in at Starbucks for an iced chai -- mainly, for the ice.  Like so many other places in France, sustainability is a big deal in Starbucks, too -- check out the cup (it's paper!) and lid.  No plastic at this Starbucks! I also think it's smaller than the US "tall" equivalent -- yet the price was the same or more. HA. 

Understanding health is so much more than what happens in the hospital or doctor's office, so we've been trying to focus on some other elements of a healthy lifestyle in the class.  Cooking...and cooking fresh food...is one such example.  We had a lot of fun at L'atelier des Chefs (https://www.atelierdeschefs.fr/). After a quick welcome and morning pastries, they put us into teams for a "Chopped" style competition. The team I was on, the Blue Team, was responsible for the "Amuse-bouche" or one bite appetizer.  In our basket, we had mushrooms, endive, green onions, garlic, ginger, lemon, and lime.  They had a small pantry we could add items from (like the tomatoes you see on top of the finished product).  The other groups made a bigger appetizer (salmon dish with a beet mousse -- say what?!), main course (chicken and homemade gnocchi), and dessert (apricot tart).  There were lots of laughs and it was a great team building exercise-- and the meal we had at the end was delicious.  I heard some of the students comment that they wanted to try what they made at home -- mission accomplished!

From there, I decided to head over to the Galeries Lafeyette (https://www.galerieslafayette.com/). This place is a cross between a really big mall (7 FLOORS!) and a department store. All the stores are under one big roof, but they are in their individual little cubbyholes.  

I don't love to shop, so while it was cool to see Gucci and Cartier and Jimmy Choo in real life, it wasn't really my thing. I did see a couple of fun pairs of shoes though. And a graphic novel series called "Adele" that I wish had been translated into English because I think Kiersten would have really liked it. 

The 6th and 7th floors were really cool -- souvenirs of all varieties on the 6th floor and the famous "terrace" on the 7th floor! 

 

While it's still a year away, Olympic Fever is starting to hit Paris.  There is merchandise everywhere...and today, I saw the Olympic rings outside of a building on my walk back from the Metro. 

A great day overall....

Until tomorrow