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| Sunset over the waters of Le Havre. A beautiful time spent with friends and newly made family! |
Your life is a constant adventure where you continuously move with the tides and the winds of the ocean. You realize along the way you are out of control of many factors and the best option is to stay clear of the dangers but ride your ship like a true captain!
And so we ride!
Since our last adventure in Normandy, and the recent trip back which was even better than the last, many events have taken place between us and for what it's all worth it has been nothing short of a learning experience.
Where to start?
After a wonderful trip in Veneto, to visit my relatives for the weekend and watch a concert, we spent a good chunk of time over the month of May and June throwing our resumes all over the city of Paris. Thanks to our newly made friends who proof-read them for us we received some calls back.
Short story is I landed myself with a stage and Katie with a job.
My stage was for one day at 134 r.d.t and the owner and head baker completely threw me into the work with him. It was exciting to get my hands in dough again after some months since leaving my job at Beyond Bread.
"I'm in Paris, mixing and shaping loaves! This is great!"
After some hours spent between baking traditional baguettes, mixing and shaping doughs I started to feel what it's like to be a Parisian baker.
I didn't like it.
Because of how the city is built and how expensive it is, almost all bakers work six feet under. It's hot. I mean HOT. It's an odd feeling to be alone underground yet the comfort comes with the smells of fermenting doughs and loaves baking in the oven.
Dough moulders.
This city goes through so many baguettes that my idea of hand shaping went out the door.
In the end he was very happy with my work but the language barrier is there for his employees. I had to be honest with him though, it wasn't for me.
We sat down and chatted for a bit about the industry here in Paris and back home in Vancouver. It was enlightening.
So after letting go of frustration and talking with Katie I thought of a new plan. Maybe how similar bread baking is here in Paris to back home it would be best not to work in the industry but do something new. Or maybe Just asking around the city to spend a day in the back of house is more than enough to learn a thing or two. Granted I learned a few things in the time I spent at 134 r.d.t.
So I applied at an italian owned gelateria. They didn't need anyone at the moment but they would contact me when they did. I didn't get a call until it was too late because the job was for a month making gelato but it would run into our time spent out of the city in August.
Things work in ways you just can't control.
Katie and I talked again about our time here in Paris and in Europe. What do we want? What will work? Are we enjoying life here?
Katie's job was landed at Rose bakery. They had her in prep for June until sometime in August where a pastry shift or two would be included before full-time in September.
After about three weeks into her job she worked two shifts with Rose herself and she was very happy with Katie's work ethic and skill-set.
I know, we kinda are pretty awesome at what we do! LOL
She sat down with Rose and explained that the two of us have been talking and we realized Paris isn't for us. We've tried to make it our city but the shoe just doesn't fit.
So Katie has but recently left her job but we have been aquatinted with some really great people and we both have learned so much!
So what now? Well we have planned to shorten our stay in Europe by a few months but are not going to settle for anything less than the experience we have had so far. We are going to do our research and have fun doing it because this experience for us both is literally once in a lifetime. Whether it is just looking, tasting, observing production or all at once we are here to bring something to our future bakery and cafe as well as create some of the best memories together.
Trains are booked.
