Acts of Love
Acts of Love:
How two French Sisters have made a life and a difference in Coeur d'Alene
BY ALEX BARROUK
PHOTO BY CAILI HARTMANPeople often ask me if I miss France. I don’t.
France was never really for me but I do miss specific things from France - in random order: baguette and butter, good espresso everywhere, the waiters’ attitude although he actually likes you, walking and eating your way through history, public display of affection), cheese, intensity, cheese intensity, laser focus directness often interpreted as rudeness, cassoulet, and goose-fat sauteed potatoes.
But more than anything else, I miss the French adventurous spirit of a people always ready for acts of pure romanticism. The kind of people who always have their passport ready, the kind that do not stay on the tarmac, watching the planes take off while fear turns them into spectators of their own dreams.
Close your eyes for a minute and picture a Normandy farmer’s market. The early morning crisp air fills the agitation of a terroir where the land and its people have been melting into each other for centuries. The people are the soil and this soil has bred them through conquests, wars, cultures meshing, and, most importantly, through exceptional cuisine and traditions that are both the purest expression of simplicity and the essence of a culinary voice refined by centuries. In my experience, no ingredient encapsulates the heart and soul of Normandy better than its creme fraiche. The cows of that land are so happy that you can catch them smiling and creme fraiche - their daily gift that makes the world a better place - is so rich that it’s literally yellow.
I can’t count or recall how many times I woke up early to meet the farmers, before any tourist showed up, just to order a container of that yellow treasure, then sat on a bench in a Normandy’s market - its beating heart - to enjoy plain creme fraiche with a spoon. Oh, how I wish I could extend my taste buds and cherished memories to yours - you would have the same smile I have on my face when I recall the delicious creaminess blended with sweet, sour, hazelnut notes that turn the simplest ingredient into pure bliss.
Not too far from there, a different story takes place. Nested in a little Normandy bourg (French tiny towns on the outskirts of medieval metro areas), there is a house. A house with an untold history of neglect, poverty, violence and abuse. A house ruled by the fist, turning four daughters’ encounters with destiny into hardships that one should ever have to deal with. That house is where Patricia and Pascale grew up.
Photo Credit - Jordan Wertman
If you ever meet Pascale and Patricia, you won’t just meet two fun French sisters, you will meet everything I miss about France, not unlike facing an overwhelming wave of extra everything! And I’m begging you, when it happens, just ride it, be tumbled by it, experience everything there is to experience about it because, as my fellow French people would ponder, why wouldn’t you? As a French native, having Pascale and Patricia in our beautiful PNW is a reminder that French unexpectedness, intensity and deliciousness can be experienced anywhere - I would like to invite the most adventurous among you to experience them with me.
Pascale Cafferty currently lives in Coeur d'Alene with her husband John. She is the co-owner and founder of A Developing Mind Academy and the Circle of Care Montessori preschool. Throughout her professional life, Pascale has strived to make a difference in the life of children diagnosed with disabilities and to provide caring environments where all children can achieve their full potential.
Patricia Hebert, born and educated in France, has brought to Coeur d’Alene her passions for French culinary arts and pâtisserie. She shares her passions through teaching, hosting pop-up dinners, through being a chef catering small private gatherings in clients' homes.
There is a mystery - a true miracle should I say - that sometimes turns raw violence into art, abuse into beauty, and infinite injustice into pure expressions of love. It is not enough to see the beauty, you have to see the possibility. It takes immense courage to step out of the darkness to embrace grace, and even more so to contribute to it, when everything gives you the right to sit in anger.
I still don’t know how this miracle of resilience happened, but a hint resides in Pascale’s eyes. Eyes that tell a story of resilience. Eyes that tell a story of fierceness, and remind everyone that no one will ever touch her older sister again. Eyes that tell you that she will take over any fight to protect her loved ones and that normal rules don’t apply to her - challenging her would be a lost cause. Eyes that turned violence into a soul-felt desire to protect every kid and provide them with an environment in which they could blossom. Eyes that created a world in which her sister Patricia would be able to explore unexpected culinary gifts she has been offering to the world and, luckily, to our magnificent Pacific Northwest.
Patricia’s cuisine reflects the beating heart and soul of Normandy. It is rooted in what French fellows call cuisine bourgeoise - an approach to terroir ingredients, inspired by ancestral know-how, sprinkled with touches of uncomplicated sophistication. Patricia’s classic training and skills showcase everything French cuisine is about: using contrasts in flavors and textures, and just enough transformation steps to deliver magic most of us could never reach on our own, while celebrating the very nature of the best ingredients Normandy’s terroir - or the PNW terroir for this matter - has to offer. Patricia’s alchemy celebrates the land, the best flavors it has to offer, and centuries of traditions that refine and celebrate seemingly simple ingredients. She reminds us that every land is a terroir, if we’re willing to see the beauty of its fruits. That is Patricia’s gift to us - her cuisine reminds us, each one of us, of who we are and the soil we’re all coming from.
“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” Harriet Van Horne
How do you turn a mined land of broken promises and toughen hearts into a field of wildflowers? The only answer I can find is pure, crystalline, incandescent love. A love that doesn’t tremble, hesitate or negotiate. A love that could never lie or cheat. A love that just is.
Some people have the ability to miraculously turn hardships, wounds and nightmares into grandiose, untamed, almost ridiculous love. Others just negotiate love moments. Pascale and Patricia have turned their respective crafts - education and cuisine - into the purest expressions of love I have had the privilege to encounter. Just like our national hero Cyrano de Bergerac, their love knows no calculation, no fear and no lies. It is intense, spectacular and it is a true privilege to be in their presence. Education, culinary arts and love intersect in a place where beauty is transparent and where it knows no filters, no masks, no lies. Patricia’s and Pascale’s crafts remind us everyday that, for a heart that is ready to abandon itself to love, cuisine and educating our kids, there is only one risk: and that is the lack of passion, the lack of truth, the lack of eloquence. These two women remind us that a noble love exists.
France owns one of my favorite sayings: L’amour n’existe pas. Seules les preuves d’amour existent. In English, it translates to: Love doesn’t exist. Only acts of love exist.
Pascale’s and Patricia’s hearts beat so hard through their crafts that you can taste it in every bite, and experience it with every kids’ smile. They are a constant reminder that acts of love do exist, for the greater good they share with each one of us and their community.
One of my dear friends recently shared a beautiful art exhibition metaphor, to reflect on the three types of women that exist. The first woman is the art, the subject of the art or the painter - she represents an incandescent fantasy that finds its root and power in a deep wound that will break your heart in return. The second woman is the curator - she can talk about the art and put together an incredible show, but it will only go as far as words go. And the third one is the woman you experience the art with - she is the one with whom you will see all the beauty in the world and every moment in between. I will challenge my friend’s metaphor with a fourth woman: the one who can simultaneously embody all three factions.
Pascale and Patricia are the art, the curator and the lifelong friend you will love to experience everything with.
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If you need spectacular cuisine or stellar education for your kids in the PNW, both can undoubtedly be found in closeness to the French sisters. Go meet them for the love - a love so strong that it fills every pore of your skin with a sense of wholeness, and reminds you that epic love does exist and it is now up to you to let it in and become its vehicle for the greater good.
https://adevelopingmindacademy.org/
facebook.com/afrenchwomaninidaho
