I Graduated!!!

For those of you that don't know I did in fact graduate from Le Cordon Bleu on June 3 with a Diplome de Patisserie.  My graduation ceremony was held in a mansion in the middle of Paris and it was a lovely setting except that it was about 85 degrees outside and there was no air conditioning!  Typical in Paris.  Beth was in town for graduation so she attended along with two of her friends from her George Mason MBA program and my friend Lydia from school.  They took great pictures and even a video of my graduation!

Beth and me before graduation standing in front of my boat.

The graduation room before the ceremony began.

A tapestry on the wall in the mansion.

Lydia, Me, Beth at the cocktail reception following graduation.

Lydia, Chef Cotte, and me at the cocktail reception.

The view out the window of the mansion.
Hard to believe we were in the middle of Paris!

Me, Katerina, Charlotte, and Lydia.  We all started Basic Pastry together in November.

Reenacting graduation after a few glasses of Champagne.

A close up of my medal.  It's not Vancouver 2010 folks, it's Paris 2011!

And there you have it...finally!  I came, I learned, I graduated.  For those of you that don't know, I decided to attend a 5 week intensive session of Basic Cuisine.  It started on June 20 and finishes July 22.  I may add a few more posts to my blog before the summer is up because I've already had some crazy experiences cooking as opposed to baking.  I've seen more whole dead animals in the past two weeks then can possibly be healthy.  Vegetarianism here I come!  Stay tuned!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!