Paris Impressions: Around The Town..err...Ville

Paris Notes 0809 #6

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http://www.parisimpressions.blogspot.com) and read it there.
Comments welcome!

Barack Obama’s inauguration was a big deal in Paris. The mayor of the city sponsored a major shindig at the ornate Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, that accommodated only 800 hundred lucky people. Demand far exceeded space available. In addition to private residences about a dozen bars and cafés with giant screens also sponsored gatherings, the feature being the large TVs and just being in a crowd of people sharing similar ideals. We opted for Carr’s Irish Pub on rue Mont Thabor not too far from the Louvre.

We reached the pub more than an hour before swearing in time and managed to get the last available table in the place. A few minutes later Steve and Sue (www.parishomeshares.com ) joined us. As 6:00 p.m. approached (Paris is 6 hours ahead of Washington) the place was crammed with people standing elbow to elbow in the aisles to get a glimpse of one of the four giant screens showing CNN International.

Those of us seated had to stand for a decent view.

The crowd was reasonably young with the average age probably in the thirties and from all over the world.

In our immediate area Steve and Sue were from the Denver area, two men next to us were from California. A guy behind us was from Louisiana while the two women he was with were from Bosnia and Turkey. To my right was a man from New York City, two from England, and one from Australia. Not to mention that this is an Irish bar in a French city. And it was a partisan crowd. When Obama first appeared the crowd cheered. Bush was booed and Cheney even more so. A few people booed Rick Warren when he began his invocation.

When Obama started to speak the place fell silent. Tears flowed freely. I peeked outside and noticed a crowd three deep peering through the pub’s windows to see the action on the screens. Wendy and I were very moved.

And the Guinness on tap was great.

Some of you probably have heard about the big strike, or grève, in France this past Thursday. People here are referring to it as Black Thursday. One to two million French workers mainly from the public sector were on strike. We didn’t use public transportation that day and felt no impact. We only learned of the massive demonstrations in other areas of Paris later. The only thing that inconvenienced me personally was the newsstands were closed the following day as a consequence of the strike and I couldn’t get my favorite paper for two days. People who were dependent on the metro, buses or trains to get into the city had more problems, as did those traveling by air.

In the last note I mentioned the biannual sales, or soldes, which are currently being held all over Paris. As the end of the month approached we noticed more and more signs posted in storefronts advertising the dernier démarque, or final reduction.

Because prices are so much more reasonable, I can understand why many stores seem to be as busy or more so than before Christmas. We also are noticing the dark colors of winter fashions

fading into the brighter hues of spring as the storefronts undergo their seasonal turnover.

Some impressions (with some emphasis on food as requested):

We went to the restaurant Le Soufflé with Steve and Sue after experiencing the inauguration. Wendy and I both had a special three-course meal consisting of three very light and fluffy soufflés washed down with an excellent wine. Imagine working through a tasty cheese soufflé only to find your empty dish replaced with one overflowing with the fluffy mixture floating on a succulent meat sauce. And following that was an intense citrus flavored Grand Marnier soufflé. Delicious even for one who isn’t addicted to soufflés?
Le Soufflé is "dining on a cloud."

Le Soufflé-Restaurants Paris 75001 - France5
Le Soufflé-Restaurants Paris 75001 Situé entre les places Vendôme, Madeleine et Concorde, le restaurant Le Soufflé est fidèle à sa cuisine française traditionnelle, complétée et est teintée d'originalité par ses nombreux soufflés.

The atmosphere and service matched the food.

We invited Fréderic and Véronique to our apartment for tea and they brought a bottle of champagne. Rosé champagne! I had never heard of it. They buy it by the case at the Bigard winery in the Champagne district. It was brut and very easy to drink. We spent a pleasant time chatting away the afternoon with our French friends.

To get to the Bibliothèque Nationale to see a photo exhibition we took the Metro to the Bourse stop.

Upon exiting the station we found ourselves facing that old stock market with its massive pillars

We found ourselves standing in a small street market in the square in front of the building.

Wendy was hungry and bought some kind of Middle Eastern sandwich I had never heard of from one of the stalls. The bread was similar to thick pita dough and the filling was veggie mixed with a spicey chicken mixture in some kind of sauce. We waited a few minutes while the man behind the counter grilled it. Very, very tasty.

Embedded in a corner of the Louvre is the separate Musée des Arts Décoratifs. We went there to see a special exhibition devoted to the fashion designer Sonia Rykeil. She is famous for innovations such as ready-to-wear, horizontal stripes, and the wide use of knits in high fashion. Interesting show. Afterwards, we crossed the rue de Rivoli and had a light lunch at Angelina’s. This place is renown for its hot chocolate and we soon discovered why. We each were served our own pot of chocolat chaud along with separate bowls of slightly sweetened whipped cream for us to mix in as desired.

This thick dark chocolate beverage came close to moving out of the liquid category to syrup. But not quite. And it was supremely delicious, even to those of us who aren’t quite chocoholics.

We had a delightful luncheon with Colette, Inda's aunt, at our apartment one afternoon. It was enjoyable to connect with her once again and engage in our free-flowing conversations ranging from her travels in Bhutan to a discussion of the use of the Celtic language that is enjoying resurgence in Brittany.

After going to the Highlander Pub near Pont Neuf for a political discussion on the economic crisis we stopped at a Mexican restaurant called Fajitas just down the street. I occasionally like to eat Mexican and after more than four months it was time. We had a decent plate of nachos and a good conversation with our waitress. She is from Western Massachusetts and owns the place along with her Mexican husband. She came here for college over ten years ago and liked the city so much she stayed. The place is not upscale at all but the food was good and we very much enjoyed our meal.

Duck is very popular in Paris, appearing in some form on most French restaurant menus in the city. One of the more common forms is as confit de carnard. This is duck that is cured in salt then poached, sealed and stored in duck or goose fat. There is an art to preparing it just right, frying it lightly until the outside reaches the right degree of crispness. At Peter and Duffy’s apartment near Place de la Republic for dinner one night Duffy had the duck preparation down to perfection. Excellent meal and conversation with these two men we met at Carr’s Pub while watching the inauguration. We are awakened to the fact that not everyone flies on an airplane to get to Paris. Duffy and Peter often enjoy the leisure of traveling on the Queen Mary when crossing the Atlantic.

Wednesday we went to a panel discussion on US/Russian relations at the American University of Paris (or AUP) sponsored by Democrats Abroad and the AUP. It was a very engrossing and educational discussion moderated by a professor in the Russian Department. The panel consisted of a Counselor from the Russian Embassy, a political science professor specializing in Russian relations, and a homeland security specialist who had worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and later Obama’s. I left with a deeper understanding of some of the problems and the feeling that with time and intelligent diplomacy most of them can be resolved adequately. OK, I can’t leave out the food. Later, we ate at a very nice Thai restaurant near our apartment. It was a tasty meal in a cozy atmosphere. Most notable was the three-tiered tower of various appetizers we shared.

Yesterday we went over to where the side-by-side department stores Printemps and
Galeries Lafayette are located.

It was the last day of the January sales and we wanted to check out the scene. And it was just as crowded as before Christmas, both inside and out. Inside Galeries Lafayette is a humongous upscale food gallery – from chocolates to cheeses to fresh cherries.