Bonsoir or bonjour,

For me it is 8:30 at night on 4 January 2007. I got home an hour ago from my first day at Le Cordon Bleu Paris. IT WAS AMAZING! It was everything LCB should be. Take for instance the structure, the building, it was PERFECT. It is a few stories tall, old looking and just perfect. It is definately better than Australia. I walked to school this morning at 8:50, to get to school by 9:30. It was a light drizzle of rain, then pouring, then nothing by the time I got to the school. I looked amazing! You enter the building going up a couple of steps and you are greeted by the admissions director and other various office people. Each speak French, English or another language. It is so cool. We got booklets, tags and were led to our rooms. I went into one of the demo rooms to be briefed on the internal rules and such. It was very informative and actually helpful.
Then we were led into the Winter Room, where it was so cold, and we got our uniform/equipment, lockers and locks, filled out office information and got a tour of the school. By this time it was past 12:30, almost one...I was late for my first class, cuisine, through no fault of my own. I changed quickly and one of the office ladies showed me to my class.
The demo rooms are just like school rooms...the teacher stands at the front writing on the chalk board or in my case cooks and the students look on and write everything down. There are flat screens angled throughout the room to show what the chef is doing and a huge three panel mirror that shadows the chef's every move. It is so much nicer than in Australia. There there were tv monitors that we could never see and the chef had to change them everytime he moved...in the beginning of school, the main tv busted. I was thirty minutes late to the class, so I missed some stuff. Hopefully I can figure that out later. The class went on with the chef speaking french and a translator telling us what he says in english! YEAH for me. At the end of class we are given portioned pieces of food that the chef has made - roasted chicken stuffed with butter and herbs, cherry tomatoes with goat cheese and sauted vegetables and oeufs a la neige with creme anglaise and blueberry sauce. It was fantastic. Then we were free to leave.
However, I did not have much time, I had another demo class at 3:30 for patisserie. This class was just as big, if not bigger and held in the orientation room. The aspects as in cuisine. At the end of the demo we were allowed to sample the almond cake, scottish cake and this other cake made of puff pastry, fro,age blqnc and apricots. It was all fantastic.
By this time it was past 6, I went to change out of my clothes and begin my walk home. I stopped off to buy bread and cheese (my dinner - a fabulous sandwich, really) and I got home by 8, I think. I was so tired. I took a long hot shower, made my kick ass sandwich dinner, popped in a dvd and went to sleep. I have to wake up early for tomorrow`s class at 8:30.
LCB Paris really is great. It is the first school and it shows. However, I did like having demo in patisserie to only those in the group. Also, I have to get to demo earlier to get a good seat. In Australia I sat in front to see everything. Here, I sat in the back...boo. I`ll work on that.
I will have to buy a few more things here. Here they give you three chef jackets and a scale, plus so much more. The people are nicer and more helpful, a huge bonus. I think I am going to like it here! However walking in the rain today will not be great for me.