Chocolate rum quinoa pudding and a visit to Nantes

A trip to France always needs some time to get assimilated, especially when you come back with more than 1000 shots to edit.
I often rethink at the great weekend I spent in Nantes few weeks ago under a summery sun and in great company. Aside from exploring the objective beauty of a city, I find that getting in touch with its soul is a much more rewarding feat. People watching is great fun especially when you can sport an anthropological motive for your nosiness.
Being a tourist for me means being a citizen of leisure, living the city as close as its citizens would normally do but without the hanging pain of daily chores. I love to stroll among the frenchies, discovering their cities and their daily secret pleasures.
Having a camera on your shoulder though does single you out as an inquisitive foreigner ready to invade people's privacy for the mere pleasure of recording.

Salmon-Eggplant-Cardamom cakes and a French prize

After a long week of holidays of sort, nothing better than a blog post to put the schedule back on tracks.
Almost 10 days ago I started my trip to France to present (and defend) my creations (#1 and #2) at the 2012 Science et Cuisine competition.
This being my main goal, I headed directly to Nantes where the competition final was held. The trip was uneventful, but not much so were the few days that preceded it. Stressed out for the presentation I had to hold, I spent the 3 days preceding the departure in a sleepless walking coma. I did manage to test my speech though, being it in French I couldn't just rely on my admirable qualities of orator, could I? I was rather happy to notice that despite all the "Ahem...", the "Mmmm...", the "Alors..." the speech was still within the 10 minutes I had at my disposal.