Oh la la la...pain au chocolat.

I have a thing about France.  That thing is that I'd move there.  As in, yesterday.  You know, I think some people go to France not wanting to like it as much as everyone who has been there thinks they should like it.  People make generalizations about the French, and their opinions about us.  Those people haven't been to France.

When I was a a seven-year-old kid, on a trip to Disney World, my family visited Epcot.  I will never forget standing in this little "French" shop in "France", listening the clerk speak with her French accent.  My parents had since walked out the door, but I stood there, mesmerized.  I had a little yellow "Learn to Speak French" book in my hands, and I simply wouldn't, nay, couldn't leave.  I remember my mom came back in to get me, she smiled that, "Oh, Kimmi, you've found something you want me buy" look, and bought me the book.  I still have that little yellow book on my shelf, and this began a love affair as serious as the one I've started with the big blue pot, - also French.

Attempts to visit France have been thwarted by credit transfer issues with study abroad and contracting mono in London, - get your head out of the gutter, I know what you're thinking.  There are no romantic stories of Brits from that trip.  Even my favorite PCV and travel partner can tell you that.

But this past summer, while living in Barcelona, Spain, I finally got to the City of Lights.  My expectations could not have been higher, and Paris had to fill the shoes of my dreams the size of the Tour Eiffel itself.  Gratefully, because I'm not sure what would've happened if it hadn't, my cup runneth over with the magic of Paris.  

My first glimpse of Tour Eiffel

It was all crêpes aux chocolats and meandering in boutiques and watching the fountains at Versailles and pain au chocolat and the most wonderful, magical moment of all...the boat ride down the Seine.

(You see, as I guess you could gather from a gal who packs a single bag and heads off to Spain by herself one day, on a whim, putting the ocean between myself and here was not unprompted.  And, I was looking for a thing or two of sorts.)

And, it was on that boat ride, that hour right after dusk from 11-12am at night, through the city, listening to Juliette Greco sing Sous le ciel de Paris, that I found one or two of those things for which I was looking.  Did I lasso them and bottle them up to have forever?  No, it isn't like that.  You see, what I learned on this adventure was that you look for it, and maybe you find it here or there, maybe you don't, but you don't get to keep it.  You get to have it for small fleeting moments, and then you get to keep looking for those moments.  

So, in hopes of finding one of those moments, I whipped up a batch of pain au chocolat (#32).  

 

Voila! Simple as that!

Yes, sadly, I used frozen pastry dough.  But, I know that homemade creation will be in my future.  I just didn't have the time.  I brought this tupperware of deliciousness to the first meeting of my team of students participating in this year's Nicaragua Project.  And, let me tell you, this team is fabulous.  And, not just because they loved my treats.

268 to go...