Originally posted to Posterous on 30 April 2011
Originally posted to Posterous on 30 April 2011
OK ... it's somewhat self-evident to suggest that the French take food seriously, but Lordy do the French take food seriously. I have been amazed at the sheer beauty of food displays, from the street market at Place Maubert to the food hall at department store Le Bon Marche to kosher butchers and delis in Le Marais to neighborhood patisseries and rotisseries everywhere, and finally even the baguette served as part of our hotel breakfast. The colour and fragrance are vibrant - for example, strawberries smell like, well, strawberries, but more so than any strawberry I have smelt before.
Yesterday, we had lunch at a cafe next to the Musee d'Orsay - lamb cutlets with green beans for me, entrecôte steak with fries for Tova. The food was good, but the best part was watching and admiring the theatre of the maitre d' and waiters go about their business of seating customers, making coffees, serving drinks and food, putting up with less-than-perfect attempts at ordering in French, and generally working in a space smaller than most Australian lounge rooms.
Today, we shopped at department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, and had lunch in the cafeteria of Galeries Lafayette. This cafeteria has a panoramic view of Paris, and the cafeteria had a grill bar where the cooks would cook your steak to order, or give you a cutlet of salmon, or a piece of roast chicken. Then to drink, alongside soft drinks and water, there were serve-yourself dispenser taps for wine and beer.
I have been reading Julia Child's "My Life in France" (
) whilst here, and some things must have changed since she lived here in the 50's and 60's (e.g. McDonalds and KFC have arrived), but the underlying attitude to food must remain largely intact.
 | My Life in FranceProduct by Knopf ~ Alex Prud'Homme (author) More about this product
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One disappointment though, I haven't found a steak au poivre to equal or beat the one I had in Noumea in 1983. Eh bien ...
Originally posted to Posterous on 28 April 2011
The last couple of days have been hectic. Yesterday we went to an open air market and bought scarves to look more Parisian. The food was gorgeous-looking - great big bunches of radishes, enormous stalks of white asparagus, fragrant strawberries and plump raspberries. Next to the market were small shops selling cheese, pate, smallgoods, fresh meat, fish and, of course, bread. Afterwards, we went to a department store - Le Bon Marche - whose food hall was simply incredible. More raspberries and asparagus, smoked salmon from Scotland, Ireland and the Baltic, caviar, foie gras, and of course, bread.
Today we ventured out onto the buses to get to Pere Lachaise cemetery. This was less successful - the buses were perfectly fine, but the cemetery was very difficult to navigate, with lots of cobblestones and steps. We found Oscar Wilde's tomb though, but gave up on trying to get to Edith Piaf unfortunately - it was simply too steep and tricky. We returned to our hotel in the afternoon for a trip to the laundromat - always a feature of our travels. I had scoped out a laundromat via Google Maps Street View from Australia in le Marais near a renowned kosher falafel joint (see review in New York Times at http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/travel/31bite.html). So we had the tastiest, crunchy, spicy falafel whilst waiting for our clothes to go through a washing machine and drier. Yummy! And now clean.
Some new photos have been posted to http://gallery.me.com/honningbi67.
Originally posted to Posterous on 26 April 2011
Tova and I arrived safely on Saturday morning in Paris, after a long and tiring flight from Singapore. Singapore Airlines looked after us well enough, but a 13 hour flight in economy is still hellish. The mini-stopover in Singapore at the transit hotel helped a lot though - $76 well spent, as was a dinner of Hainan chicken and rice in the airport before boarding our flight.
Charles de Gaulle airport was somewhat of a shock after Singapore airport's efficiency - old, disorganised, grotty and somewhat overwhelmed by our A380 coming in. We had our own personal guides in Singapore airport, as we did in Hong Kong airport five years ago - porters whose job seems to be to get people with disabilities from A to B as fast as humanly possible. I have learnt that resistance is futile, to sit back and enjoy the ride, and to tip these guys well (or at least I hoped we tipped them well) to ensure my wheelchair comes out at the other end.
Anyhow, it was early Saturday morning when we arrived at our hotel, and our room was not yet ready, so we wandered to a nearby cafe and had a French breakfast - orange juice, coffee, toasted baguette with jam and butter, plus the lightest, most buttery croissants I have had in a long time. Only 9 Euros each.
Yesterday, we woke early due to jet lag (and having slept since about 4pm the day before), so headed out to see Notre Dame, and the Memorial of the Deportation (of Jews from Paris). There were people everywhere, half of Europe seemed to be here for a long weekend ... and scouts, French scouts, even some scouts smoking (Baden Powell would have been turning over in his grave). The Memorial of the Deportation is behind Notre Dame, but before we could say "the French have a complicated relationship to the Holocaust", we were told to leave the park where the memorial is, as it was being closed for Easter celebrations and the mayor's procession. We walked into the old Jewish part of Paris (le Marais), browsed the kosher butchers and delis, and could not help but notice memorials to Jewish children deported to death camps between 1942 and 1944. We also bought a cookie from Sacha Finkelsztajn http://finkelsztajn.com.
Paris is all I imagined it would be and the shops are full of beautiful food - too much to eat in one trip, but at least all the walking will help us stave off obesity.
Originally posted to Posterous on 28 April 2011
Originally posted to Posterous on 21 April 2011
It has been great fun refreshing/reviving my high school French with podcasts from Coffee Break French http://radiolingua.com/shows/french/coffee-break-french. I can fit in two lessons on the drive to/from work, which has been both productive and relaxing (makes me think about something other than work). I'm looking forward to finding out how good/bad my French is after all these years, with a bit of immersion language learning in Paris.
Originally posted to Posterous on 21 April 2011
Tomorrow, Tova and I leave for our first overseas trip in five years. Last time, we went to the USA and Canada. This time, we're off to France, Germany, Norway and Denmark. I'll finally get to see Paris and it's fair to say that we are pretty excited. We have been packing for days, and have managed to get enough stuff into one big suitcase, plus an overnight bag and backpacks.
I have had enormous enjoyment planning our itinerary, booking hotels and land travel, and it will be interesting to see what access is like, particularly on inter-country train and ferry trips. It's also twenty years since I was last in Denmark (or thereabouts), and it will be similarly interesting to see what has changed.
Finally, I'm hoping to get a new pair of shoes. My last pair of work shoes were bought five years ago in Chicago and it's time for a new pair.
More to come ....