I spoke to my mother two days ago and she told me Dad and she have lost weight - they were being very careful about what they were eating. And I was immediately very guilty - because I have NOT been careful about what I have been eating here in France at all. But you do not be careful when you're in France for the summer. No?
This January I was at an ashram in India where I met someone who then went onto become a very close friend. We ended up spending more time when she came to live with me in my parents place. She also got me a job with a friend of hers in France - and so here I am in France teaching yoga to rowers and scullers, learning a completely new sport myself and also getting more comfortable being on a bicycle in the middle of traffic and on long rides and up the hill. It has been amazing. It was tough, involved a few tears, it involved facing my fears, it involved learning to be confident in my skills - in sharing them and in speaking about them. I came here for 2 months in May. The two months are coming up and I already feel like I haven't eaten enough croissants!!
The story is completely different when it comes to cheese though. There is a local cheese seller who knows exactly what i like and he sees me, gives a big smile and reaches for the exact kind of goat cheese I love. And baguettes, God I have gone overboard with those. Not many croissants - which I am making up for this week - but loads of other gorgeousness.
I have found the perfect bakery about a 15 min walk and an 8 minute bicycle ride from where I live - crazy that I did not spot it earlier. It's called Boulangerie de la Madeleine, and they do the most flaky and heavenly croissants I have ever eaten. So my breakfast and tea times are going to be dominated by that deliciousness this coming week. The wine has been spectacular - mostly locally grown in Bergerac and sometimes even organic. Now you know why I do have to head back and go on a major diet of some sorts - only after i devour my mother's biryani though ;)
The picture above is my very first attempt at baking a croissant - it did not go very well because looks like I did not take any more pictures of that experience! That book is from my favourite bakery in Sydney and I can vouch for most of their recipes, i am sure I must have messed up the recipe for the croissant.
I titled this post croissants because here is a case of simple ingredients coming up with something so spectacular and so delicious that it's very presence or sight can be uplifting and nourishing without you even having taken a bite of it. The reason every croissant is different is of course technique but it is also the love the baker puts into it. As a baker, I know that many products can be replicated with extreme precision and technique and be wonderful, the additional love of the baker will very rarely stand out as a defining quality of the baked good itself. But in a croissant, I feel like you can tell whether the baker put some soul into it or not. You can tell when it's made with love - such a cliche. But it's true!
That simplicity, that love for your art, that quality & depth of emotion you bring out in people is what matters and I is want i want to do and want to be - basically I want to be a good well baked flaky buttery croissant. I want to stand out with my skills, i want to be able to tell people that there was a lot of hard work and love put into what I am offering. It's a very stupid thought, but most joys of life are simple - I have eaten at some gorgeous restaurants while I have been here - but nothing has touched me like a good croissant or a small homemade ice-cream seller who describes every flavour he makes with passion and claims each one to be as good as the last one- but always has a special corner in his heart for his Pruneaux Almande offering and it's the one I have always had there. Because of the extra love he has for it - and hence the extra love he must be putting in to make it for his clients.
My friend quotes from a book he is reading as I tell him Im writing about croissants "there is a difference between surviving and thriving" - Croissants are all about thriving, with a french accent.
So mis-quoting Bruce Lee here, be like a good croissant my friend.
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