Once a friend who was visiting me said, “If I lived in Paris, I would be taking cooking classes all of the time”. I thought at the time, she’s right, I should be taking advantage of cooking classes. France is known for its food and I should be learning as much as I can. Still, it took a while for me to finally sign up for a class. I waited until the end of December 2008 and most classes were full. I thought it would be fun to take one teaching a Christmas menu but finally had to settle for one on risotto which, since I recently, if not after the rest of the world, discovered risotto, wasn’t a bad thing. The class was in the 11th arrondissement at a place called Atelier des Sens. There were 8 people taking the class and it was taught by an Italian chef with his own restaurant in the 11th. We cooked four recipes of risotto and I can’t wait to try them at home. The best one was of a risotto that was cooled and then cut into rounds and fried. Since then I’ve read of the same recipe in the New York Times.

The chef showing us how it’s done.

Our table at the end of the class where we got to eat what we had prepared. Wine was even provided.

Rice pudding, but made with risotto. He also added creme anglais to it at the end which is a rich sweet cream, not to mention topping it with yummy chocolate.
It was really filling to eat four kinds of risotto but I managed. The class itself was all in French by the way. I’m not sure if they offer classes in English. I’m going to take more classes either here or elsewhere. It is a great way to stimulate trying new dishes and ways of cooking.

January 5th-I woke up this morning and it was snowing. On the meteo, the portion of the news showing the weather, it showed orange all over northern France which means bad weather, dangerous driving. It kept snowing all day long. I was hoping to get out for photos but by the time I made it outside the light was gone.

I took this just inside the Tuleries Gardens.

Across Rue du Rivoli.

If you look closely, you might see the snow falling.

The Orsay Museum is where you will find many of the famous Impressionist Paintings. It is such a thrill to see them in person.

Degas did many of his famous paintings of ballet dancers.

It’s amazing to me to see what these artists did closeup with points or tiny strokes of paint.

I wish my table looked like this when I had tea. I usually just have a mug of tea while sitting at my computer.

Incredible-the color, the technique. So much fun to roam around and look at the creativity of others.

The Orsay Museum has to be one of the most beautiful museums in Paris. It was once a train station so has a wonderfully rounded roof with glass everywhere. Instead of tearing it down, they converted it into a museum which is a very fortunate thing.

One of many sculptures in the center of the museum.

A view from up above. You can see from the shape that it was a train station.

There are several enormous clocks, two of which you can see through to scenes of Paris outside. Usually you can see Sacre Coeur from here but the day was too foggy.

My favorite clock in the Orsay.