Learn French in Paris

Historic, lovely and delicious Parisian Bread and Pastry

The idea of Parisian Bread and Pastry is obvious, but these are exceptional and historical. Important for their history and longevity, these Bread and Pastry places, that one must visit, also have invented their special iconic pastry, loaf or decor.

Nicolas Stohrer, as the story goes, learned his trade as pastry chef in the kitchens of King Stanislas I of Poland who was in exile in the East of France. When the King’s daughter, Marie Leszczynska, married King Louis XV of France, she brought her favorite pâtissier with her to Versailles. Five years later, in 1730, Stohrer opened his own Parisian Bread and Pastry shop on rue Montorgueil where it still is today. The creations at Stohrer are classic, reflecting centuries of French tradition. One of its most celebrated is the Puit d’Amour, or Well of Love, where a base of puff pastry gets topped with bourbon vanilla pastry cream and caramel glaze. “It’…

How do you know you’re Becoming French?! 20 more ways

How do you know you're Becoming French?! 20 more ways

When you...

have an Opinel or three know that seeing and hearing a rumbling mass of military planes and helicopters in the Paris sky around July 11 is not an invasion but a rehearsal for the Bastille Day parade... that Bastille Day not only is not the name of the holiday in France but are words that mean absolutely nothing to a French personfind creative, inspiring solutions to any problem…but only at the last minuteknow what Système D is (and what the D stands for!)have at least two pairs of espadrilles in your closetknow what PSG stands for, the full name of the SG in question, what OM has to do with PSG, and what OM stands foriron your plain white t-shirts and jeans-then wear them with outrageously expensive perfumemake the last item on your grocery list a gigantic bouquet of flowershave underwear items that match not only each other but also what you’re sporting on top of themdrink your morning c…

ICS Paris is a unique international school in Paris

Formerly known as EIB – The Victor Hugo School, ICS Paris is an international school in Paris hosting students from Nursery to Grade 12 in the heart of the 15th district. A member of ICS, Leading International Baccalaureat (IB) School Group in Europe, ICS Paris fosters all the values at the heart of an IB education from Primary to High School leading our students towards the IB Diploma.

With a small-class policy, ICS Paris welcomes over 600 students from 70 different nationalities and educational backgrounds. With more than 30 years of experience in education, ICS Paris is a well-known international institution in Paris, unique because of its tailored English-speaking curriculum, enhanced by compulsory French lessons from the age of three. Our international and rich curriculum follows the IB Diploma for our High School, IGCSE for the Middle School (currently also MYP candidate) and Cambridge and IPC for our Primary School.

Students at ICS Paris…

Why is it called? Part 1: Pastries and desserts

Why is it called … Part 1: PASTRIES and DESSERTS Have you ever asked yourself why something is called by a particular name? Why are croissants, pain aux raisins and pains au chocolats called viennoiseries for example? How do things get named? Here is a short list of French pastries and desserts and how they got their names. We invite readers to add their own favorite pastries and dessert to the comments. Viennoiserie A pastry was created in Vienna in celebration of the end of the Turkish siege of 1683 in the shape of the Turkish crescent (croissant). An Austrian army officer named August Zang and his associate Ernest Schwarzer, a nobleman from Vienna opened the Boulangerie Viennoise at 92 rue de Richelieu in Paris in 1838. They were the first to make the pastries which were to become known as viennoiserie. Ironically even though the French name viennoiserie makes a reference to Vienna which is the origin of the pasrties, in English these baked delights are called Danish pastri…

Why do you call it a canicule?

Word etymologies are great fun. Here's a few pertinent ones.

Canicule

Usually this French word is translated to English as heatwave, but a more picturesque and almost literal translation would be "the dog days of summer". Basically it means that it is very hot, hotter than it usually is. But why this reference both in the French "cani" and English to dogs? What do dogs have to do with heat? It goes back to astronomy. The Dog Star, or Sirius, rises and sets with the sun during the summer. Thus the most sultry time of the year became associated with the Dog Star, called canicula in Latin. The word canicule dates from about 1500, but the Romans and Greeks had already been refering to the dog days and associating them with the star Sirius.

Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky; On summer nights, star of stars, Orion's Dog they call it, brightest Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat And fevers to suffering humanity.

Homer's Illiad Once …

14th of July in Paris: La Marseillaise and where to watch the fireworks

Did you know the French call their national holiday, the 14th of July, NOT Bastille Day?

La Cérémonie

The year's ceremony that will take place at Concorde in lieu of the Military Parade will NOT be open to the public. It will certainly be televised and that is in any case the best way to watch it. There will be hommage to the healthcare workers. The air parade of planes and helicopters seems to be on the schedule also.

La Marseillaise

The French national anthem sung on the 14th of July and many other occasions is La Marseillaise. Following France’s declaration of war on Austria and Prussia, the mayor of Strasbourg, Baron de Dietrich, asked army engineer Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle to write a marching song. On the night of April 25th 1792, Rouget de Lisle penned the Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin - War song for the Rhine Army, named in honour of the garrison to which he belonged. The song was meant to inspire t…

PARIS/FRANCE and…the Five Food Groups

Per our December 2, 2019, post, “Paris/France and…” is a series wherein “and” leads us to categories whose subcategories link to the city/country we know and love. Having explored Paris/France and Body Parts, Paris/France and Colors and Paris/France and the Classical Elements, we move on to Paris/France and the Five Food Groups. Bon appétit!

#1 VEGETABLES – A story

On a roadtrip through France in the early 1970s, a friend and her husband came upon a restaurant in a litttttle litttttle square in a litttttle litttttle village in the deep center of the nation. Having decided several months earlier to give up meat, they ordered plates of vegetables then chatted away about the next stop on their itinerary as they waited for their meals. Suddenly, their waiter reappeared, a grim look on his face. He told them they had to order meat. They told him they didn’t eat meat. He told them they had to order it. Their faces l…

Horse puzzles – horse play

Here are 2 horse puzzles, games based on Horses that we put together for the kids next door to whom we were "teaching" English over the garden wall during confinement. I stood up on a ladder to see over the top and they were in their front court. It was pretty funny to see. They enjoyed having some authentic conversation although they had trouble with my "odd" US accent as opposed to the British one they hear in school. It was a welcome distraction for us all. It was tricky to select a "program" as there are 3 girls ages 10 to 17 to entertain and challenge. They have such different levels of English amongst themselves and of course there is the age difference between them and me in terms of knowledge and pop culture. But I figured out that they like to ride horses. So one lesson was centered on horses and their "homework", sent by paper airplane over the wall, was these two puzzles and this nicely done worksheet which includes word searches and lots of horse vocabulary that…

A Quatre-quarts is a Pound cake

The French use the word "cake" or quatre-quarts (four quarters) or sometimes even fondant for what English speakers call a pound cake. It can be either savory or sweet. The sweet version is in fact four ingredients (eggs, flour, butter and sugar) in equal quantities measured by weight (the French cook using weight not volume), so each is a quarter of the total, hence the name quatre-quarts. It is best to start with the eggs because you can't use just part of an egg! So whisk and weigh your eggs (4 - there's that number again - will make an average loaf) then weigh out the same amount of each of the other ingredients as you have eggs. Whisk the sugar into the eggs for 4 (!) minutes, then gently mix in the flour and lastly the melted but cooled butter. Some people like to add a sachet of levure chimique as well for a fluffier loaf. Add a bit of vanilla, rum, lemon peel, orange flower water to the batter... for extra style! Put in a loaf pan and the oven at 180° C for about …

Strawberry Shortcake, a classic

The first strawberry shortcake recipe appeared in an English cookbook as early as 1588, according to Driscoll's berry growers (Did you know the original Mr Driscoll was a butcher from Alsace who emigrated to California?). By 1850, strawberry shortcake was a well-known biscuit and fruit dessert served hot with butter and sweetened cream. In the United States, strawberry shortcake parties were celebrations of the summer fruit harvest. This tradition continues in some parts of the United States on June 14, which is Strawberry Shortcake Day. It wasn't until 1910 that French pastry chefs changed the topping to heavy whipped cream. Many commercial strawberry shortcakes in the US today are made with a sponge cake base. The recipe, which is very easy, below uses the more traditional American shortcake recipe (similar to a scone) and yogurt, because I like to eat it for breakfast! It is also delicious with blueberries or sliced peaches and once I even added oats and nuts to the batt…