A year of Macaroons! by Sarah Horner

 

So, a year on, it turns out that the scary/exciting year abroad experience isn’t just for improving your language skills! The obvious additional education attached to throwing a twenty something into continental Europe on their own would be a sense of independence, self-confidence, and learning how to deal with foreign bureaucracy. I did acquire all of these (emphasis on the bureaucracy) but luckily, I learnt a little something extra. In my quaint and typical small French town of Chaumont, in Champagne-Ardenne I scored the opportunity of my dreams, and all it took was a little confidence in my language skills. The best patisserie in town ‘Maison Pigeon’ were displaying some particularly delectable delights in their window that day, pastries adorned with swirls of chocolate, macaroons of every imaginable colour, and the whole place was oozing with the aroma of freshly baked croissants. So I went in and started to make conversation with the lady behind the counter. I left with the offer to teach me the skills of a pâtissière. And so it came to be that this beautiful patisserie in rural France adopted me and I spent the duration of my assistantship learning their trade. Once or twice a week I would arrive at the patisserie at 5am, lured in by the wonderful smell of bread baking, at finish and midday, with something delicious in a cardboard box to take home for my lunch. I learnt how to make the perfect éclair, pipe macaroons, manipulate hot nougatine into the shape of espresso cups, roll croissants, make the regional speciality ‘Idéal’, and create all manner of beautiful cakes layered with ganache and fruit and doused in a healthy measure of Kirsch or Rum. I learnt how to make the delights that were eaten in France at Christmas, Epiphany, le poisson d’avril and Easter. It was an experienced which thoroughly enhanced my year abroad, and one that I will never forget. I will go back to that rural town again one day, even if it is only for a fresh baguette from the oven.