Around The Town..err...Ville

Paris Notes 0809 #6

(For those of you who see this first in your "Inbox", for the FULL experience, click on
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.

And in the middle of this store is an immense, intricate stained glass dome.

People come to gape.

Dan and Wendy
1/31/09

Feet at Musée D'Orsay

Dan & I went to see a couple of special exhibits at Musée D'Orsay today. "Manet/Picasso-Dejeuner sur L'Herbe" and Masques.

One thing that happens after several hours of getting lost in wonder of these things, is feet start to speak to me. So I sat down, let mine rest as I marveled at all the other ones passing by. You can see them here too (you may have to wait for all the feet to load for them to pass by at a quicker pace):

Christmas Time in Paris

Hotel de Ville, Paris City Hall






Paris is in full Christmas bloom.













Tree in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Each of the 20 arrondissements, or districts, of the city identifies several business districts for street lighting. Hovering over the selected boulevards and rues are small, twinkly lights in various shades of red and blue and gold and white. Very subdued and tasteful, almost quaint in some cases. But at several locations scattered around the city there are far more spectacular displays of Holiday lighting.


The most impressive is along the Champs Elysée. The trees lining both sides of this wide boulevard for its two-kilometer length are covered with tiny, blue lights, many of which are twinkling. At the top, the Arc de
Triomphe is bathed in floodlights.











At the bottom, in front of the Tuileries Jardin, a mammoth Ferris wheel covered in white lights is surrounded by Christmas trees also lit up in white.










A more brilliant wall of light is found along the kilometer stretch of Boulevardd Haussmann occupied by the adjacent Printemps and Galeries Lafayette department stores.












It’s a madhouse of Christmas lights and of people that have come to view the clever animated window displays and to shop


Even the news last week of a bomb threat (and the finding of a stash of dynamite, minus any detonator, in Printemps department store) hasn’t seemed to make a dent in the throngs.





Then there are the
smaller scenes that linger. Like seeing Santa Clause driving a big delivery truck this morning. Or watching several people transporting their newly purchased small Christmas trees on their rented Vélib bicycles. Or salivating over the special Bûche de Noël cakes and gourmet foods displayed in the windows of pâtisseries and specialty food shops. Since the last note the weather has been very cooperative. Mostly cloudy with an occasional shower and highs in the low forties. One late morning last week we had a brief, heavy, wet snow shower which melted as soon as it touched the ground. This past week, though, it has warmed up about ten degrees and there have been a number of mostly sunny days.

Earlier this month we made a special four-day side trip to London. It had been over 20 years since we were last there. The Eurostar train by way of the chunnel is the way to go. It takes about 2 ½ hours to go from the center of Paris to the center of London.


Spectacular St. Pancras Railway Station from our Hotel in London



Customs is very simple and you need arrive at the station only a half hour before departure. Although the air travel time is less, the trip by airplane can take twice as long when you add in the transport time to and from the airport and the time to clear airport customs and security. And the price was cheaper by train. It cost us about $80 round trip each.








Heartman check into hotel.














Heartman visits Trafalgar Square.







While there we visited the British Museum (twice) and the National Gallery, both outstanding museums. We were especially impressed with how the paintings in the National Gallery were displayed and how they had been carefully restored to their original vibrancy. We spent far longer in both museums than we normally last. I think being able to easily read the English descriptions helps with this. Several things stood out:

• Meeting with our friend Inda for coffee near museum closing time and chatting away for almost three hours. She was our French teacher in Paris last year but moved to London this summer.
• Striking up a conversation with a host in the National gallery who gave us some insight into several of the paintings. She had complaints as to the arrangements, made by a new “American” curator, of some of the paintings– like two Vermeers that she thought should be side by side as opposed to be hanging in separate rooms.
• A special Babylonian Empire exhibition in the British Museum that was exceptional. Lots of very well preserved items including many cuneiform tablets. It’s the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the Tower of Babel, the Jewish captivity, Daniel and his interpretation of dreams, the lion’s den, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and much, much more. Yet the Empire lasted less that a century.
• Two long “tapestries” of pills representing the 14,000 pills taken on average during a lifetime by each man and woman going through the British Public Health System. They were accompanied by photos and brief descriptions of major health events in the lives of the man and the woman.

Heartman tries to make a phone call in a London phone booth. (See him pulling on the handle?)

All went well in London with one minor exception. We stayed at the modern Hotel Novotel next to the downtown St. Pancras Station where our train arrived. When we went down for our buffet breakfast our first morning, the lobby was dotted with many buckets catching the dripping from many locations in the ceiling. We were guided away from the hotel restaurant to a temporary location, a conference room, for our meal. A few days earlier someone had stuffed a towel down a toilet. This had precipitated in a cascading series of events that resulted in pipes being popped in numerous locations on the main floor. The buckets did not disappear not did the restaurant open until the morning of our departure. The complexities of a modern, large scale plumbing operation!! Some highlights of our past month:

• November 30 we moved out of our Villa Monceau apartment and temporarily relocated to a comparably sized apartment in the Marais for the month of December. This place, only a few minutes to Hotel de Ville or the Centre Georges Pompidou, is centrally located and much closer the city’s hustle and bustle. Although adequate, it is not nearly as well equipped and the internet access is more limiting. But it is nice to be able to experience a different neighborhood.

Our friend Trish is here in Paris for three weeks and we have connected with her a number of times around meals, walks, and visits to various places around the city. We had a nice dinner with here in our apartment tonight, Christmas Eve, and tomorrow she leaves for Boston.

• There were several thought-provoking exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo. One that stood out was a photo of a handwritten poem in English titled “The Rampton Drip”. The page was covered with the words “drip-drop, drip-drop, drip-drop, . . “ written over and over and over again. At the very bottom of the page the words “will it ever stop” were written. Rampton is a prison in England.
• The Petit Palais was a pleasant surprise. It was closed for a number of years and I thought it was used only for special exhibitions. It turns out it has a permanent collection that covers twenty centuries of art and was well worth the visit. And interspersed with the permanent collection of the objects in the museum, mostly paintings, was a great contemporary photo exhibition. Nice juxtaposition of the old and the new. Since we did not see all of the permanent collection or the special exhibitions that were there, we’ll return for another visit.
• We took a trip out to see Musée Marmotten again. We last saw it about 4 years ago. This small museum, in Paris proper, but off the beaten path, has the world’s largest collection of Monet paintings as well as a number of works by his contemporaries, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Definitely worth a visit.

Enough for now.

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année! Wendy & Dan December 24, 2008

Some Paris Treats

Paris Impressions 08-09 #3

Because of questions from the homeland I am starting with some comments about the weather in Paris this time of year. Most of the leaves have dropped since the start of the month and, although we have yet to have a frost, outdoor displays of flowers are not as plentiful. We still have some bright red geraniums surrounded by vibrant green leaves in our flowerboxes overlooking Villa Monceau. Since our last note about three weeks ago it has been mostly cloudy with an occasional patch of blue or a few drops of rain. Until Sunday the temps have hovered in the mid fifties during the day and low forties at night. But then they dropped 10-15 degrees and I shifted from a fall jacket to my winter coat. I maintained my cool appearance, though, since both are black. The up side is that there has been more sunshine.

A few weeks ago we got out a box of City Walks: Paris cards someone had left in our apartment. There are fifty cards in the box and each card describes a walk though a different neighborhood of Paris. One side of the card contains a description of the walk and the other a map of the route. And the card fits nicely in your pocket or handbag when you are out exploring. We picked the one that went around and through Luxembourg Gardens. These formal gardens cover several blocks and are attached to the Luxembourg Palace.

Luxembourg Palace

The palace was built long ago by Marie de Medici but now serves as the home of the French Senate and of the Luxembourg Museum.

The garden is edged on one side by a 12-foot metal pole fence painted black with gilded pointy tops. Temporarily attached to the fence were over a hundred large poster-sized photographs of the Artic and Antarctic. Compelling shots of scenery, polar bases, wild life, and, in the case of the Artic, small villages and towns accompanied by great photos of the people living there. One was of a boy playing with his dog outside of a hut in the snow. He lived with his parents alone at a remote weather station in the Russian Artic. He was always required to keep the dog with him when outside because polar bears are ranging farther a field to feed because of the melting ice.

One shot that was particularly moving to me was a photo of a group of Emperor penguins huddled together on a small ice floe surround by a vast expanse of ocean.


At the entrance to the gardens an older woman wearing an apron blackened with soot was roasting chestnuts over an open fire.

Fresh Roasted Chestnuts, ummm

She turned each of the roasting chestnuts with her coarse, blackened fingers with their heat resistant skin. We bought a bag and found them to be warm and soft inside and tasty.

The park was jammed with people of all ages;

families, dog walkers, couples, singles sitting on a bench reading a book or a paper, kids playing with their remote controlled boats on a large pond, joggers, tennis and petanque (bocce) players, and, just before closing time, a number of policemen. At 5:00 several dozen seemed to appear out of nowhere loudly tooting their shrill whistles and ushering us all out of the park. They were polite but efficient. Probably they didn’t get to go home until the park was cleared.

We have recently made several trips to the upscale area around L’Église de la Madeleine, the massive church built like a Grecian temple over 150 years ago, and the much older nearby Place Vendôme (with its six digit priced jewel encrusted necklaces).

Place Vendôme

Most of the higher price gourmet food, jewelry, fine art, and clothing stores (minus some devoted to high couture) have locations here.

Caviar at more than 200 euros for a small tin was on display in several windows along with small inlaid pearl caviar spoons. Sorry, but we weren’t Christmas shopping.

Caviar for your Sweetie

Lots of Choices of Caviar (for a price)

We stopped at Ladurée, a very nice patisserie and salon de thé.

It’s an old and almost over-the-top place with its mirrors and fancy molding and murals on both walls and ceiling.


It is famous for its macarons but we opted for a fancier sweet that was topped with gold leaf (!) and some out of this world hot chocolate.


And best of all the prices were reasonable. Speaking of macarons, Wendy and I have developed a liking for these delicious treats.


They should not be confused with the American macaroon, a confection of coconut, sugar and sweetened condensed milk. The original French macaron started out in the 17th century as a baked dome shaped mixture of sugar, egg whites, icing sugar, and ground up almonds. Over time they have morphed into a thick delicate cookie sandwich with various flavors and fillings between the two halves. For instance, today we purchased two from a nearby chocolate shop, one violet (color and flavor from the flower according to the clerk) and one chestnut. We passed on the licorice, the chocolate, and the lime. They vary in size from quarter to slightly larger than a silver dollar with the larger size being the most popular. And in price as well with the more expensive usually having a more tasty filling (like a good ganache for the chocolate ones) and the top and bottom crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

And they can appear in shop windows in creative displays, like arranged on a cone sticking out from a frosted cake in Christmas tree fashion


or covering a ball that dangles from the ceiling or is balanced on a thin stem or,

more commonly, arranged in a colorful assortment of flavors in an attractive box.

From what I have read on the Internet they are labor intensive to make and aren’t the easiest thing to make properly. The best place in the world to get them is Paris. Although you can buy them in the U.S. they are not common and, in many cases, are only average in taste. This is likely to change, as they are fast becoming an “in” thing. Once you taste a few well-made ones, you will understand why.

Starting two weeks ago Christmas decorations began to make their appearance. Each day a few more seem to go up. Compared to when we were here in December four years ago there are many more of them.


Usually understated with small lights and not with the traditional deep red and green you see in the U.S. Various shades of pink with white are the most popular colors.


No Christmas music heard so far. Good!

The center of the mass-shopping universe in Paris is the two long blocks along Blvd Haussmann occupied by the side-by-side storefronts of the large department stores Printemps and Galeries Lafayette.


The weeknight we were there the entire two block length of sidewalk in front was mobbed with shoppers and the curious.


Crowds were huddled around each window looking at the animated displays. There were platforms in front of each window where small kids could step up and get a better look.


The outside of both buildings and some across the street as well were brightly lit with changing patterns of colored lights.


We spent some time looking at the window displays but decided not to go in. Instead, about 15 minutes later we were eating dinner in a small and plain Vietnamese restaurant called Pâtes Vivants located on a nearby narrow side street, rue du Montmartre. At this place, the window display was a cook making noodles for the various dishes served in the restaurant.


The food was quite good and very reasonably priced and we would go back again if in the area.

There are several special exhibitions we have seen since the last note:

• The major special show in Paris right now is “Picasso and the Masters” at the Grand Palais with minor offshoots on the same theme at the Louvre and the Musée D’Orsay. We braved the lines at the Grand Palais just off the Champs Elysée late one morning and were well rewarded. Picasso is famous for lifting segments or themes or techniques from the masters (like a face or a lighting situation or the draping of a dress) and incorporating these elements into his own paintings. But no way can these paintings be thought of as copies. It was very special to see the original of a Rembrandt self-portrait or a Goya nude or Degas’ painting of a woman drinking absinthe adjacent to one of Picasso’s showing his borrowing. Even if you weren’t excited by Picasso’s work, most people would find this exhibition informative and illuminating.

• This is Photography month in Paris and there are a number of special photo exhibitions throughout the city. We went to the Jeu de Paume exhibition space in the Tuileries Gardens to see one of the more heavily promoted ones. Lee Miller, an American originally from Poughkeepsie, NY, started as a model and was on the cover of Vogue magazine by the time she was 20 (1927). Later she went to Paris, interned with Man Ray, and later opened her own studio in New York City. She lived in Cairo for several years while married to an Egyptian businessman, and then moved to London. Her photography is categorized as surreal, carefully composed photos where the real is contrasted with the absurd. By far the most moving part of the exhibition to me was the section devoted to her experiences as a photojournalist for Vogue magazine in France and Germany during WWII. Seeing her well-written text and excellent shots side-by-side was very moving. Her description of her early arrival at a concentration camp, her anger expressed in her writings from Germany, and her description of Hitler’s Alpine retreat, Bergestgarten, and one of the photos showing her bathing in Hitler’s bath tub were especially powerful. An interesting woman.
  

• At the Musée Moderne de la ville de Paris we struggled through two rather large exhibitions, the first being of the Dusseldorf school of photography. Interesting, but because of the massive number of photos the exhibition registers of my brain soon became overloaded. After a well-needed lunch break we entered the Rauol Dufy section. Dufy painted in the first half of the 20th century and is know today mostly for his simple watercolors with colorful shapes partially outlined with black lines. The paintings are generally light and happy and easily accessible. Very commercial but enjoyable to see.

One of the more interesting restaurants we visited recently was one off rue Poncelet specializing in dishes from the Savoy region of France called Le Relais du Cha. Our intent was to go there for fondue. It took us only a few seconds of looking at the menu to realize that our stomachs weren’t large enough for both the cheese fondue and a chocolate fondue for desert. We opted instead to reserved the desert fondue for later and ordered a cheese raclette with salad. Our past experience led us to believe we would be served a dish of sliced potatoes covered with a thick, tasty raclette cheese sauce. To our surprise we were served a bowl of bubbling cheese on a warm stone and a bowl containing four ample sized, whole boiled potatoes. We each put a potato on our plate, cut it up, and scooped some of the melted cheese over it. More scooping followed. When our reservoir of cheese began to lower the waiter came over with a bubbling pot and refilled it. And when the potatoes vanished, four more appeared. Needless to say, we did not make it to the chocolate fondue.

Maybe the next time.

Dan and Wendy 11/25/08