http://yumarama.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/I_Love_Paris.mp3
“I Love Paris” performed by Les Negresses Verte
(Album: Red Hot and Blue: An AIDS Benefit, 1990)

I love Paris in the springtime
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles
- Cole Porter 

Ah, Paris. It’s a beautiful city and home of world renown bakeries.

When I was a young lad back in the 80′s, I had the opportunity to go to Paris and stayed there for about 8 months. It is, without a doubt, one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had.

Here I am in the window of the apartment we rented, sipping genuine Champagne, back in 1985. Although I have hundreds of photos from this trip, this is the only one where I’m in front of the camera. (If you want to see this exact spot today, check out this Google link.) I was much more into theatre back then, and decidedly blonder that day. So I was pretty stoked about the fact the Moulin Rouge, where my ex’s brother worked, was just a short walk west of here, my ex was working at the Lido and everything generally revolved around the Arts. Paris overflows with art, of course and I even spent a full 8 days in the amazing Musée d’Orsay – much nicer than the Louvre, IMHO.

But that was a couple of lifetimes ago.

Back then, I hadn’t gotten into bread and although a trip to the nearby shops for excellent fresh baguette and old Camembert were pretty much a daily occurrence – shopping for the day’s meals is pretty standard for Parisians – I kick myself now for not having been bit by the bread bug and taking a leap in that direction when I had the golden opportunity in Bread Mecca and when I had years ahead of me.

Regardless, here we are some 25 years or so later and the opportunity strikes again. This time, however, it is with a definite focus and purpose.

Our Professional Baking class is setting to fly off to Paris in March 2012 to attend the Europain International Bakery Exhibition as well as planned visits to famous bakeries throughout Paris.

With over 650 exhibitors from 126 countries around the world, the Bakery World Cup, International Confectionary Arts Competition, and of course countless demonstrations of techniques, equipment and just a complete soaking in bread and pastry enthusiasm, this is expected to be beyond amazing.

We will be there from March 2nd to 15th and to that end, have been as a class trying to raise funds to help defray some of the costs of the trip. This was the reason for the Paris theme to the Bites of Nanaimo even we did a few weeks back, the Paris theme for the gingerbread houses and I expect more Paris theme goodies are in the near future. We have been having bake sales at the school, at a local craft show and so forth with other possible venues for selling our goodies in the near future.

As of this writing (Nov. 20, 2011) we’ve raised just a hair under $1000 in actual sales as well as gotten donations from the school, food supplied by Thrifty’s, a local grocery chain (which lowers the costs of making the baked goods we sell) and few more small sources of income. Any sales made from the gingerbread house auctions will go into that pot. Ah, now we see what the recurring “Paris theme” is about.

However, at about $3000 per student for flight and accommodations, never mind costs of food and so on while there, we can always do with a little more in the funding department. Some of us were originally set on not going because the costs were too far out of our living budgets. That would include me; with school running anywhere from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., there’s little chance of getting a part time job that would be so flexible. And with no student loan to dip into, I was pretty much resolved with the idea of not going. But then, I thought, do it. Slam the credit cards if I must, this isn’t something I can pass up.

To this end, I’m going to try something here on the blog. I’m going to set up a Paris Fundraising  Effort and see what I can personally do to help defrays a few of the costs associated with the trip. I’m hoping that a few of the thousands of visitors who pop into the Yumarama Bread Blog each month enjoy it enough to toss a couple of bucks into the pot and help out in a small way to not only get me to Paris but eventually see even better breads and more interesting and well learned info.

So what do you think? Is this something you’d be up to helping out on? $5, $10 whatever you think is a good level, any and all donations would be hugely appreciated. At the very least, I’ll be posting a list of donors at the end to show who’s helped out (you get a bit of fame out of it!). I will come up with a couple of other “thank you” gifts in return for your generous assistance. Right at this moment, I’m not sure what those would be – I’m just flying by the seat of my pants here so bear with me as I flesh out this idea. I’ll want to make it Paris related of course, some sort of digital download seems most appropriate, like an eBook travelogue of the trip perhaps. Maybe throw in a few bread recipes… I’ll come up with something clever and post more details as we go along.

I’ve added a Fundraising button on the sidebar for anyone interested in helping out. Just select the level you would like to donate or click the “Other” option to input your own amount, then click the graphic. You will be taken to PayPal and can complete the donation securely there.

A big “Merçi!” to all who can help out, your assistance is greatly appreciated by this bread student!

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