This Summer I have been preparing myself to leave Paris and
take a new expatriate job.
One important part of this preparation was to see close
friends and share some time with them before I left. I sent out invitations to
all my Parisian friends. Despite the Summer holidays, a good number could come
on different dates so I had many opportunities to cook different recipes with
seasonal produce and host my friends at home for several three-course meals.
Likewise for office colleagues. It is traditional in the
French civil service for officers leaving their duty station to host their
colleagues for a treat. Usually it is champagne, canapés and pastries. During
my two-and-a-half years at the Centre for Studies and Strategic Foresight of
the French Ministry of agriculture I had been used to offer tea to colleagues
during meetings. I would even bake a cake sometimes. So for my departure treat,
I decided to serve tea and home-baked cakes to my colleagues. I chose a few of
my best teas from my collection and spent two evenings baking before each one
of the two parties I organized at two different dates and in two different
locations of the Ministry. This enabled colleagues to attend my tea parties
depending on their office location, and work and holiday commitments. It also
allowed me to organize myself and manage to bake a sufficient number of cakes, tarts
and biscuits for the number of guests expected. Because I knew some colleagues
would prefer a savoury snack for their afternoon tea, I had also purchased
pâtés and red wine from my home region of Landes in the Southwest of France to
go with freshly baked baguette from the local bakery.
All in all, I seem to have spent quite a lot of my time in
the kitchen this Summer, but I enjoy that anyway. My Summer finished on a grand
note with a concert of baroque music with Les Métaboles given in Rouen as part
of one of the many Summer musical festivals in France. Cooking and singing:
what a fitting conclusion to this Parisian chapter of my blog on food and
music.
I can cook too
Original soundtrack of the musical On the town, Warner Bros
Photo: Sciondriver
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