One Year Anniversary in France!!

Well...today marks two very important events in my life.  First and foremost, November 12th marks my one year anniversary of living in France!  Exactly one year ago I was stepping off the plane at Charles de Gaulle Airport to a new and strange country with a different language and welcomed into a family with a ponytail hating Marie-Césare.  Things certainly have turned around (Marie-Césare no longer cries when she sees women with ponytails) and I cannot even express in words my gratitude to the Lachaize family and to all the people who have helped me along the way.  I wouldn't trade this past year for anything.  I am thankful for every single person I have met along the way, every beautiful nook and cranny of the world that I now have in my pocket,  every new experience I have opened my mind and my heart to, and of course, every delicious pastry that I have gobbled up here and there.  

Today also marks 8 years that have passed since my dear friend, Hayley Porter, passed away in a terrible car accident.  She was one of those people like myself who were going to "conquer the world" and I cannot believe how fast time has flown.  Kim and Courtney McCune, Hayley, and I were inseparable and spent practically every waking minute together in high school.  I think of her often, and can't wait until I get to see her again one day!  

Yesterday was spent wandering the streets of Montmartre, along the way visiting the Salvador Dali exhibition in one of the local museums.  

Probably his most famous "dripping clock"

I seriously wanted to hop on this escargot and ride away into the sunset.  

His famous mustache.  "Dali, what makes you tick?  My hairspring of course."

We sauntered down the 200-some-odd stairs in the brisk, cold fog to a charming delight in the nooks and crannies of Montmartre for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.  Miss Cupcake is a salon de thé et cupcakes.  You can also pick up a slice of New York cheesecake, but the cupcakes looked too delightful to pass up.  Cupcakes are a fairly new trend here in France, and every so often you pass a boulangerie with a muffin in the window...but almost never a full on cupcake with icing and sprinkles.  

They had your basic chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, and coffee, but they also had carrot cake (still very foreign here in France) and green tea.  I chose dark chocolate with mascarpone in the middle.  

I'll have to say it wasn't the most moist, delicious cupcake I've ever had in my life, but it was certainly one of those things that hit the spot.  They could use a tutorial in deepening the flavor of the cupcake, and buttercream.  Buttercream is meant to be very flavorful and in America, Gigi's piles it 5 inches high on top of that little cake...often leaving you with more icing than cupcake.  It can be fluffy or dense, but its meant to melt in your mouth.  I get the "homemade look" they were going for, but a few lessons in technique would probably boost business.    

If you're looking to cure a sweet tooth, its definitely worth trying.  At 3 euros a pop, its fairly inexpensive, and you don't even have to dirty up your kitchen!  

So what am I doing today in celebration of my one year anniversary in France?  Endlessly searching for the spider/bug that has been camping out in my sheets the past couple of nights, laundry, balancing the few centimes in my French bank account, and babysitting.  

C'est la vie.....