Rain, more rain…and some cakes! May 12, 2009

Well I’m not impressed because it’s now chucking it down and it’s forecast for rain and even thunderstorms in Amiens and Paris for the entire week. I was planning to go to Paris tomorrow, which had been the only sunny day forecast, but I’m not keen on the idea of going in the rain. Although half of my trip will be indoors or underground (in the metro and the Catacombs), much of it is also outdoors seeing various interesting and unusual architecture and monuments off the usual tourist trail. All I need is one sunny, or at the very least dry day!

I didn’t go to the AG yesterday as I needed to get laundry done that had been put off from Friday, and as the AG is bang in the middle of the day it was too awkward to do both. I haven’t heard the results of the vote but I don’t think it’s any different. To be honest I really don’t care at this point either; even if the blockades came down I wouldn’t go to class for just one week.

On Saturday the internet went down which was rather irritating and left me with little to do. I went to town, wandered around a bit and browsed a 2nd hand bookshop where I bought a 1940’s french travel guide to Great Britain. Should be an interesting read, not only from the point of view of the era in which it was written but also because of it’s French perspective! It even contains a chapter on Cornwall. I also indulged myself and bought some macarons (little round confections somewhere between a meringue and a cake that come in all sorts of flavours) from one of the best confectioners in town, near the cathedral. On my last trip home I bought some from the airport after having read much about them on a foodie/travel blog I read; MyKugelhopf (link in the list on the right). These are Parisian macarons I’m talking about; very different from macarons d’Amiens.

Macarons de Paris

Macarons d'Amiens

Macarons d’Amiens are more like the coconut macaroon cakes familiar in the UK, except they don’t contain coconut but are based on almonds, honey and fruit. They have been described as a “soft biscuit” and the taste compared to Italien amarreti. In contrast, the Macarons de Paris are based on meringue and are what most French people would think of if you just said “macaron”; it is the traditional form whereas the Amiens macaron is a speciality of the Picardie region. The Parisian macaron is much lighter, and consists of two meringue shells sandwiching a layer of cream. The curious thing about them is that although the outer shell is crunchy like sugar meringue, the inside is softer and more like a cake; I’m not quite sure how they engineer that! What I love about them is that they come in any flavour you can think of; the patisseries usually do a run of a few different flavours and change some each time, and there seems to be an unwritten competition among the most renowned names to create the most bizarre flavour! My favourite is caramel au beurre salé; caramel made with salted butter. It’s simply amazing, and I bought three of that flavour! To make up the half dozen I picked one each of fruits rouge balsamique, rose pétale and mirabelle. That would be red fruits with balsamic vinegar (amazing flavour, definitely a close favourite to the caramel one!); rose flavour, which was nice but too perfumy and I probably wouldn’t have it again; and plum brandy, which I haven’t eaten yet. They had about 5 or 6 other flavours on offer; some the usual vanilla, chocolate etc, and they had some other fruit flavours like lemon but I can’t remember the rest. When I eventually get to Paris, part of tour will be to some patisserie addresses highly praised on MyKugelhopf, so next week I shall probably have more macarons as well as some other delights!

It’s still raining heavily so I don’t think I will get to the supermarket today. I can last until Thursday before I really need to go so it’s not disastrous. Today I might do a bit of cleaning and tidying up, not sure what else. Indoor activities anyway! There isn’t much left for me to do until it gets to next Monday really; Monday and Tuesday I will start packing, do my last load of laundry, and give my room a deep clean so I only have to give it a quick wipe on Friday morning. On Wednesday we’ll go for a day out somewhere, probably Rouen, and on Thursday I imagine mum will want to do a bit of shopping in Amiens. My plan is to pack at least half of my stuff before they arrive late Tuesday, so that I don’t have to spend all of Thursday packing instead, just a few hours. In just 10 days I shall be leaving French soil!