Baguette

A baguette is a long thin loaf of French bread that is commonly made from basic lean dough. It is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust. A baguette has a diameter of about 5 or 6 centimetres and a usual length of about 65 centimetres, although a baguette can be up to a metre long.

There are a lot of types of baguettes, for example:  corn, white, cheese, and the traditional "parisienne". Everything depends on region where the baguettes are made. Typical baguette is made from flour, water, sourdough and salt. 

Baguettes are generally made as partially free-form loaves, with the loaf formed with a series of folding and rolling motions, raised in cloth-lined baskets or in rows on a flour-impregnated towel, called a couche, and baked either directly on the hearth of a deck oven or in special perforated pans designed to hold the shape of the baguette while allowing heat through the perforations. American-style "French bread" is generally much fatter and is not baked in deck ovens, but in convection ovens.

Nowadays French people eat 58 kilograms of baguettes per year and it's 5 times less than they used to eat 100 years ago. In France, baguettes are eaten often with jam or pâté and should be serve on every meal.  Polish baguettes are different in taste. They're not so much delicate inside as they are in France.

Epiphany

On Epiphany (Three Kings' Day) in France people share a type of king cake. The cake is called a galette des Rois, and is a round, flat, and golden cake made with flake pastry and often filled with frangipane, fruit, or chocolate. It contains a charm, usually a porcelain or plastic figurine, called a fève (bean in French).

The cake is cut by the youngest (and therefore most innocent) person at the table to assure that the founder of the figurine is random. The person who gets the piece of cake with the surprise becomes "king" or "queen" and wears a paper crown provided with the cake. This person has a choice between offering a beverage to everyone around the table (usually a sparkling wine or champagne), or volunteering to host the next king cake at their home. This is really delicious and worth tasting!

Christmas in France

In France, Santa Claus is called Père Noël. In eastern France he is accompanied by Le Pere Fouettard, a man dressed in black. He might be the same person as Zwarte Piet in The Netherlands.

The main Christmas meal, called "Réveillon", is eaten on Christmas Eve after people have returned from the midnight Church Service. Dishes might include roast turkey with chestnuts or roast goose, oysters, foie gras, lobster, venison and cheeses. For dessert, a chocolate sponge cake log called a "bûche de Noël" is normally eaten. It reminds a real log burned in people's homes from Christmas Eve until New Years Day to forget about the past.

Yule Logs made out of Cherry Wood are often burned in French homes. The log is carried into the home on Christmas Eve and is sprinkled with red wine to make the log smell nice when it is burning. There is a custom that the log and candles are left burning all night with some food and drinks left out in case Mary and the baby Jesus come past during the night.

Another celebration, in some parts of France, is that 13 different desserts are eaten! All the desserts are made from different types of fruit, nuts and pastries.

In France it is a time for the whole family to come together at Christmas time to holiday and worship. On the eve of Christmas beautifully lit churches and cathedrals, ring out Christmas carols with the church bells.

French children set out their shoes in hopes that "le petit Jesus" will fill them during the night with small gifts.

Tout est vrai... (ou presque)

I have IT class every week and we had to prepare a small description about three different programs on French. And because of that homework I found something really interesting for all French students: a program "Tout est vrai... (ou presque)".

Everyday at 20:45 pm. on chanel Arte we can watch this. It's a program which shows ironically the life of personalities. I don't know why, but it's designed for people from 7-77 years old.

The principle: it presents original, irony and absurdity of personalities life in shorter time that it takes to boil an egg.

Forme: a white background, toys, everyday objects, a voicover and a good dose of imagination - these are only ingredients used by Nicolas Rendu, aka Udner for making those funny portraits.  With a child's soul, the director mastered the art of stop motion, giving life, frame by frame, to everything that happens in his hands (or so). These tablets bring some freshness by focusing primarily on the story of the great of this world.

The program is recorded in two languages: French and German. I think it's a great opportunity to practise your comprehension and you have a lot of fun with it! I really recommend it!

Here are some of videos:

Wines!

Today's post is going to be about one of the greatest thing in France: Wine!  French wines traces its history to the 6th century BC with many of France's regions dating their wine-making history to Roman times. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world. It is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7-8 billions bottles. Only Italy produces more wine. 

France is the source of many grape varietes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Sauvignon blanc, Syrah) that are now planted throughout the world, as wells as wine-making practices and styles of wine that have been adopted in other producing countries. Some producers have benefited in recent years from rising prices and increased demand for some of the prestige wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux.

There is the Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) system. Appellation rules closly define which grape varietes and winemaking practices are approved for classification in each of France's several hundred geographically difned appellations, wchich can cover entire regions, individual villages or even specific vineyards.

The concpet of Terroir, which refers to the unique combinationof natural factors associated with any particular vineyard, is important to French vignerons (winemakers). It includes such factors as soil, underlying rock, altitude, slope of hill or terrain, orientation toward the sun, andmicroclimate (typical rain, winds, humidity, temperature variations, etc.). Even in the same area, no two vineyards have exactly the same terroir.

French wines are usually made to accompany food. They don't have so much alcohol as Polish drinks do ;)

Massacre in Paris

It's hard and painful to talk about it, but there was another attack in France. It's second attack in this year.
President François Hollande on Saturday blamed the Islamic State for the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday, as the death toll rose to 127 victims, with 300 others hospitalized, 80 of them in critical condition. He declared three days of national mourning, and said that military troops would patrol the capital. France remained under a nationwide state of emergency. ISIS, the islamic group, confess to be an initiatior of those attacks. The identities of the eight attackers, who are all dead, are unknown.
The attacks, and the possibility that the Islamic State was to blame, promised to further traumatize France and other European countries already fearful of violent jihadists radicalized by the conflicts in Syria and elsewhere.
Recently the president Hollande actively stepped up French participation in the military air campaign in Syria at the end of September. Just last week, France attacked oil operations under the Islamic State’s control in Syria. Massacre in Paris is said to be an answer for those actions of France against The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

Paris, stricken by shock and grief, remained in a state of lockdown, with public transportation hobbled and public institutions — schools, museums, libraries, pools, food markets — closed. Charles de Gaulle Airport remained open, but with significant delays because of tighter passport and baggage checks.
President Hollande sais, France will be still fighting and will avenge all victims.

Places where attacks have happened:

 #PrayForParis

Disneyland Resort Paris

This post is going to be about Disneyland Resort Paris. It's something really cool, not only for children, but also for adults. I was lucky and I was there with my friends in 2012.


The complex is located on the suburbs of Paris in Marne-la-Vallée - 30 km east of the French capital. You can play in two theme parks: Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios. 


DISNEYLAND PARK

Disneyland Park is divided into 5 themed lands:

Main Street. U.S.A. is an American street of a small town of the early twentieth century. Dominated by Victorian style and cute colors. This is the first part of the park, just outside the entrance, the main road connecting all the land. This way, the main routes of many parades. 

• Disney Railroad - Main Street Station  - train station,

Frontierland - Borderland - is the land of the Wild West. It is prepared for older children who can find here:

• Phantom Manor - House of fears of the nineteenth century,
• Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing - riverboats on artificial lake,
• Big Thunder Mountain - Mining roller coaster between the red rocky hills on the artificial lake,
• Pocahontas Indian Village.

Adventureland is a land of adventure, travelers and explorers.

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril - rollercoaster,
• Pirates of Caribbean 
  

•   La Cabane des Robinson - house on a tree inhabited by Robinson.

Fantasyland is the most fairy-tale of lands, prepared especially for small children:

• Peter Pan's Flight,
• Mad Hatter's Tea Cups

• Sleeping Beauty Castle,

  

• Alice's Curious Labyrinth

  

Discoveryland it is primarily "space" and the futuristic land:

• BuzzLightyear Laser Blast,
• Star Tours - expedition in spaceship (motion simulator),
• Space Mountain: Mission 2 - rollercoaster,  
• Autopia - ride small cars from the 50s of the twentieth century.

 Walt Disney Studios

 Walt Disney Studios park is divided into 4 zones, illustrating the formation of different types of films.

There are also: Disney Hotels, Disney Village and Golf Dosneyland. 
Of course, I didn't mention all of the atractions, only the most interesting in my opinion. 
If you will go to France, you have to see that and have fun! In there you can find in yourself a child, it's realy great feeling. 

                           (I hope my friends won't be angry because of this picture ;))