Saturday July 21 in Paris

Two more "Patriot" activities today--I finally got to spend some time at  the Jardin des Plantes. Originally, it was called the Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants, and was created for Louis XIII.  His personal physician, Guy de la Brosse, planned it to provide a source for the medicines needed for the king and court.  Over the years it was expanded to its present size, 68 acres,  Thomas Jefferson often walked here and of course made friends with the director,  Comte de Buffon.  They both shared an intense interest in growing things and carried on a friendship long after Jefferson returned to the U.S.  I read one account of their yearly exchange of seeds. in which Jefferson grew pots of plants in a window sill in hopes of  finding products that would improve the life of Americans.  I could imagine Jefferson walking the allees of this place with ideas swirling through his head. A later addition to the Jardin that Jefferson would have loved is the Alpine Garden.  Created in the 1930's, it is the gardeners' attempt to create an environment where plants from different mountain regions could thrive and be studied.  What a success!  There is a male pistachio planted in the 1700's, and male and female kiwis planted in 1900,  The gardeners take credit for introducing the kiwi fruit to Europe. 

A tine water lily pool graces this garden also.

This is a sunken garden so there are many steps and stairs to view the plants.

Aconit Napel  flowers from the Carpathian mountains

I believe this is schist rock, an environment for Himalayan flora. 

Next on the agenda was cooking class!  All of the Patriots, but especially Thomas Jefferson commented on the food they discovered in France.   Franklin suffered from gout while in Paris, ( a condition we believe today comes from a diet concentrating on meat, seafood and alcohol), so we know he was a gourmand.  Writings from all the others make mention of what wonderful discoveries they make on the culinary front.  Of course Jefferson took those discoveries and translated them into his lifestyle.  He brought his slave, James Hemmings, to France to learn the art of French cooking, made sure he grew plants that would support the cuisine, and even developed what some call a Franco-Virginian style of cooking and eating.  

We arrived a the Ecole Conviviale de Cuisine and Art de Vivre with plenty of time to look at the cooking products in the front.  Behind were the instruction kitchens.  We washed our hands, put on our aprons and got started! The chef was enthusiastic and we participated in all aspects of the process.  Along the way, he sprinkled his commentary with information about history, technique, and shopping. 

Let's get started!

Fresh everything from the market earlier in the day.   Chef says that the menu must always be determined by what looks best at the market that day.

Preparing the creme de romain for the fish.  This is a combination of carrots, onions, shallots, garlic rosemary, tomato paste, wine and hot sauce from Louisiana! 

Here's an Indiana connection.  The young lady on the left is the cousin of some of my former students.

Chef called these vegetable flans.  They seemed a bit more like a souffle to me.  No matter, they were delicious.  

Here is our whole class.  Chef only allowed the wine drinking after the chopping  of the food.  

What a great idea to cook the fish.  Cut in strips, make an attractive arrangement, then back.

Beautiful outcome--fish, vegetable, sauce.

Now we eat our work.

Delicious!

Preparing dessert

Presentation is everything

Melting chocolate cake with creme anglais.

Thanks to the Patriots for inspiring this type of learning!