On Thursday, March 13, after a fun night at the Moulin Rouge, we started the morning with a cooking class at L’Atelier des Chefs. To be honest, when I first saw the menu on the itinerary, I was a little unsure. Asparagus soup? That didn’t sound great to me. But I ended up being pretty pleasantly surprised!
Prepping and Cooking
In our cooking class, everyone helped prep the ingredients at each step. First, we diced the shallots and sweet potatoes for the main course. Then, we got to work on the asparagus for the starter. We broke off the ends and threw them out, cut off the tops to fry later, and peeled off the little spikes. The middle part was sliced thin to use as the soup base. Watching our instructor demonstrate these steps was really interesting—I wouldn’t have thought to prepare asparagus like that.
After that, the sweet potatoes were boiled for mashing later, while the asparagus tips were fried in a pan and the middle sections were cooked down in a pot. Then, we prepped the shrimp that would go on top of the soup, which was a little tricky since we had to devein them.
The asparagus soup was finished by blending the softened asparagus with some cream.
Next, we started on the main course: crispy chicken with apricot, pistachio, and sweet potato mash. To make it, we peeled back the skin of a chicken thigh and stuffed it with chopped apricots and crushed pistachios before covering it back up. The seasoning for this dish was really unique—we used a maple spice blend called Mélange du Trappeur, which smelled amazing. I never would have guessed that apricots, pistachios, and maple seasoning would go so well together with the chicken, but it worked! The chicken was first pan-fried, then finished in the oven.
Meanwhile, the sweet potatoes, now soft from boiling, were mashed with butter and seasonings. After everything was done, we finished off by plating the chicken and mashed potatoes.
Tasting the Final Dishes
To my surprise, this soup was actually really good! The asparagus flavor was nice, and everything was balanced. My only complaint was that the soup wasn’t very hot because of the cold cream.
This was by far my favorite part of the meal. I don’t think I’ve ever had chicken this good before. It was juicy, perfectly seasoned, and had so much depth of flavor from the apricots and pistachios. I never thought ingredients like that would go so well with chicken! I even bought some of the maple seasoning to bring back to the U.S.
A chef prepared the chocolate fondant for us to finish the meal. It was good, but I’ve definitely had better chocolate this week in Paris.
Street Art Tour
After our cooking class, we took the Metro to start our Parisian street art tour! Our guide, MS BEJA, is a street artist herself, and the first piece we looked at was actually one of her works.
Paris is known for its rich artistic culture, but art in the city isn’t just found in museums like the Louvre. It’s all over the streets! Some of it is commissioned, some is hidden, and some falls into a legal gray area. While street art brings color and creativity to Paris, graffiti is still technically considered vandalism in many places. Artists have to be strategic about where they create their work, navigating local laws and regulations. For instance, walls in Paris above 4 meters aren’t cleaned, so artists will put their artwork up higher so it lasts!
We saw so many different styles of street art, from massive murals to small, tucked-away stencils. At one stop where street art allowed, MS BEJA showed us how to use a stencil to create our own artwork, guiding us through the spray-painting process. She also shared some important tips: (1) Shake the can vigorously before using it to make sure the pigment comes out evenly. (2) Be mindful of distance when spraying. If you hold the can too close or too far, the paint might bleed under the stencil or look uneven.
After layering on the spray paint, we stepped back to see the final piece—complete with MS BEJA’s signature “crowrona” symbol alongside our work. It was such a cool experience to not only learn about street art but actually take part in it!
The Eiffel Tower at Night
To end the night, we headed to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up. It was already incredible to see during the day, but I had heard it was even more breathtaking at night. By the time we arrived, it was past 11 PM, and we had read that the sparkling lights stop at 11 PM, so we figured we had missed it. Even though we were a little disappointed, we decided to stay, take some photos, and enjoy the view.
Then, at midnight, the tower suddenly started sparkling! We were completely caught off guard. It was such a beautiful, surreal moment, and the perfect way to end the day.
