C is for cookie

We have been eating, a lot. Being here for a month means eating at home as well as various cafes, bistros, restaurants. Our biggest home cooking disaster (not so big) was a large amount of stew beef that I got from a butcher and then roasted; it was a little tough. Our dinners have been a protein, salad, and the most delicious potaoes that we boil and have with a little salt or delicious mustard. Our complaints eating out are only when wait staff pushes more beverage than we would like. I guess our accents do not fool them. The quality of the food home or out, cheap or chère, has been high. The potatos have been one of the big surprises. No matter if they come from the marche or supermarket, they have a texture much like the fancy new potatos we get at home but at potato like prices.

An apology: I was not such a food stylist early on so I have not documented as much about these cookies as I would have liked.

If you know me you know my love of cookies. One of my missions in Paris was to taste some of the delicate macaron confections. This plate is from Pierre Hermé:

I had tasted some at Formaggio Kitchen ( www.formaggiokitchen.com) and did some research. There are a lot of macaron obsessed websites. I came prepared with a list of places. On one of our first walks I went to an Eric Kayser bakery (http://www.maison-kayser.com/.) This is a small French chain but offerings vary by location. I had a chocolate and a noisette macaron but didn't really eat them slowly enough. They deserve some time to think about the distinct textures and tastes. Eric Kayser turns out to have written several cookbooks. I had never heard of him before.

I next went to Pierre Herme for the cookies pictured above. I was going there anyway for Christine Ferber jam (another story) and bought the macarons. From the chocolate at 11:00 o'clock we had: chocolat, mosaic(pistachio and teeny caramel), mogadur(passionfruit and chocolate), rose, arabesque(apricot and pistachio), caramel à la Fleur de Sel(the tiny top part of salt), eden (peach and saffron apricot). They were so ridiculously expensive and ornately packaged that it seemed I had to ritualize eating them. We did it in two runs, me trying to get the flavors in a good order, it was pretty nuts. Except that when you ate them slowly they were complicated combos of taste and texture and delicious. It really seemed worth the effort and expense.I have never eaten food that tasted, not smelled, like a rose. (http://www.pierreherme.com/)

I did not remember where Formaggio's macarons came from so I sent them an email."Ladurée", they replied, also on my list. I went. They have three fancy tearooms and are considered one of, if not the best. I ate three from the shop on the Champs Elysées. I had just left Gary waiting for the Tour de France to arrive and was off to a museum. It was really crowded and I didn't do it slowly enough to really think about them so I will go back again before we leave. The nut one was great, sweet and crunchy, I need to investigate.

A new bakery has opened near our apartment. I was excited to see macarons in the case but they were not very good, This new bakery has very good brioche. More sweets later.

Speaking of the Tour de France here is one of Gary's videos.




One of our meals was at L'Astier which is on lots of lists and websites as a typical but changing bistro. It has some "it used to be better" cites an some people questioned the tourist service but is 5 minutes from home and we went on a Tuesday with no reservations. We arrived early, 8:15 or so and sat right down.It was full when we left. Vegetarians might want to skip this .

I have been trying all sorts of fish here and one of the house traditional entrees (appetizers in the US) was a herring dish served with a side of potatos. I was brought out this huge dish of herrings carrots and onions in a vinegary sauce. I wondered if there had been a mistake because there was no way I could eat it all. Maybe a cruel joke. It turns out you serve yourself what you want and they take it off to the next customer. Not a lot of worry about communicable diseases or lawsuits. It was very sharp and fishy. I might have eaten the whole thing. Gary had a pate of salmon and, yikes, oreille du couchon (look it up). It was tasty but the texture was too rubbery.
For plats (entrees here) I had a white fish, maybe turbot, on a bed of onions in Bernaise sauce.It was a very thick piece of poached fish, totally flakey on these dreamy sweet onions.

Gary had a ragout of rabbit complete with the foie. I am not getting into the politics of this but there is nothing in the vegetable world to match this. I am seriously thinking about giving up red meat, (don't eat much anyway) and chicken ,(don't like much anyway) when I get back. The taste of this dish was so basic and organic I know I WILL be giving something up. That's OK, I just don't want to pretend mushrooms or tofu can substitute for everything.

The dinner included a cheese course. Again a huge platter of a variety of cheeses was brought to your table, you chose and ate off it for a bit, then the waiter took it to someone else.The cheeses were not labeled so I am not certain of anything. There was brie, époisses, several chèvres, and hard cheeses, the only one I am certain of was a comté (boring but I like them). One of the chevres was really nice, very fresh but dry, unlike any I've eaten at home. There was a very ripe munster, one of my favorite cheeses so I felt lucky. French munster is a very strong cheese. The lingering taste influenced my dessert choice. Gary opted for a baba au rhum. It was a very nice cake but I am not a liqueur- flavored dessert person. I have been loving the apricots here so I went for the financier au abricot. It was served warm in a little round dish full of baked apricots and was really lovely. Financier is an all purpose, flourless, almondy teacake I baked once. I am going to try bake this a lot when I get back.

Diversion 1- Today (Aug 3rd) the NY Times Magazine had a piece on cooking with apricots.Apricot-Brown Butter-Upside-Down Cake which uses a financier batter. How timely.

Just the recipe I would like.Check it out http://www.nytimes.com/

Diversion 2- I like having this French keyboard so I can easily get the accents right. Sometimes when I am downloading pictures I am back on our laptop so don't do the accents. I apologize.

Diversion 3-Here is a very touristy picture of Gary and our waiter.

Back to cookies. We live 2 minutes from a Algerian bakery called La Bague de Kenza. It is a beautiful shop with savory but mostly sweet Algerian pastries. Larry, our apartment man, said that during Ramadan the lines are out the door with people breaking their fast. These were a variety of my first purchase there, mostly pistachio, almond and date. They are much less sweet than some of the North African desserts I have had here. We have learned that baked goods make it through customs so we will be filling up a tin. (http://www.labaguedekenza.com/)

Finally Monoprix Chococerise, a house brand variation on Lu Pim's that is the best boxed cookie I have ever had. I love Pim's because they have a cakey cookie bottom, fruit and chocolate. This has (from the label) a genoise base filled with cherry , covered with white and dark chocolate.

A box costs 1euro,7 which is about $1.75. Everything else I have written about costs more than that per piece. Can I import a case ?

Diversion 4- Since I started this we have also eaten some Tunisian brik and had a great Brazillian meal at a bar/café around the corner. We did not even have to cross a street for this one. My kind of city.

The un-Accidental Tourist

Unlike M. Obama who had a whirlwind 5 hr stay we have had a pretty leisurely time here. Now more than half way home I am getting a bit panicked. So... we did 3 " big" touristy events in 3 days (now 4 in 4 days). Gary has never been to the Louvre. I have very mixed memories of my 30- something years ago visit but he wanted my company so off we went. There was not much of a line which I took as a good omen, but once we got in there were crowds. We headed off to the Denon wing to see you know who. I am not much intrigued by classic painting or religious art. (shallow me) Do I think all the people tramping through the museum are ? No I do not. Their faces reminded me of people at the mall a few days before Christmas; man ,they were on a mission. As for Mona herself I probably could have gotten closer to Brad and Angie's twins. This is what it looked like from the sidelines. I waited for Gary under a nice picture of Venus. I saw some nice small oils from Italy by Pierre Henri de Valenciennes which were my favorite work there.We pushed through the Italian section looking for paintings by Canaletto a favorite of Gary's. We didn't find them until we went upstairs to the Richelieu wing to see some drawings and there they were. I left Gary looking at them and took off; it was complicated and mazelike to get out. I am not embarrassed to say I felt like I had been sprung from a bad class at school.

Our next trip was to the Tour Eiffel and I thought this was a great way to spend time. It too was very crowded but everyone seemed happy and anticipating fun in spite of the Disneyesque lines. You need to go up on 2 elevators. I took a video looking up through the top of the elevator.

The Seine was shiny and green, it was very clear.People and cars predictably looked like ants but I could pick out so many of the places I had been looking at from the ground. I love the way cities look from up high. I will always do the tourist thing and take the elevator up. One of my favorite children's books is called "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
about Philippe Petit, the Frenchman who walked on a tightrope betzeen the World Trade Center buildings in 1974. It was written and illustrated by Mordecai Gerstein who also wrote and illustrated "Arnold of the Ducks" somewhere in a 5 or 6 waytie for favorite kids book ever. Sorry for dragging out this digression but I just read a review online of a movie called "Man on Wire" directed by James Marsh. It tells the story of Petit's feat as a mystery/crime plot. It sounds wonderful and opens in Cambridge two days after I return home.
I had such a good time.

Day 3 was the Modern Art Museum at the Pompidou Centre. The Pompidou is called the Beaubourg around here.( http://www.centrepompidou.fr/) The building looks as if has been turned inside out. All the infra -structure, heating,plumbing, etc. is on the outside, letting the whole floor be surrounded by light. It was everything the Louvre was not; spacious, quiet, filled with people who seemed, at least, to be looking at the art. I saw works by several artists I had never heard of,Kupka, Michel Larionov, and Nicodème. I just liked what I saw.
There also were many paintings by Leger who I really like as well as this big red rhino.

All this rushing around made me think how lucky I am to spend a month in one place. I can go back after I think about things, look at them again, buy them, or eat another serving.

Today we went to Pere Lachaise. I think I have written more than enough about Paris cemeteries but we went on to Charrone a village-y part of the 20th . It has a 13th century church with its own graveyard. It was lovely. We ate a delicious lunch (I had anchovies) on a quiet lovely streetWe then walked to see this iguana sculpture I had read about. It is perched high on the side of a nondescript building.

We left this quiet spot for a crowded Metro and big Parisian department stores. We poked around in Au Printemps and went on to Galleries Lafayette. This section of Paris was the only place we'd been that was more crowded than the Louvre. There were people in costumes singing show-tuney stuff as we made our purchases. We then went up to the food section.

It is a very gourmet place in the middle of a Saks kind of store. They have very fancy pastries, all kind of cheese, tea and spices, foods of many countries. They even have a supermarket style wall with regular yogurt and Tropicana juice as well as Lu cookies. They sold eggs !!! The cheese we bought there was some of the best we have had so far. We then went to the Femmes part so Gary could see the stained glass dome. It is beautiful and was built just for the store. I cannot imagine anywhere in America a business that would give over this much retail floor space to art.

Coming soon: Tour de France

Stay safe.


Digression: I like my camera way more than I ever expected. Sorry if I bore you; I can even show you pictures of my sardine lunch.

More from Paris

It hasn't been all frou frou during our trip. We have visited some museums and cemeteries along with seeing the siteseeing highlights. This has me thinking about death and art.

Although Cimitière Père Lachaise is less than a 10 minute walk from our home we have not yet visited it. We have visited Cimitière du Montmartre and Cimitière du Montparnasse as we visited those neighborhoods. They are crammed with biers and headstones, floral tributes, works of art, and small gardens. In an odd way they feel very vital, like a way less manicured Mt. Auburn Cemetery. (If you believe in heaven, hell, reincarnation, etc, you might want to skip ahead) I have always thought that when you die, that is it. Your afterlife is in what people remember of you so if you have been a good parent, friend, citizen, you remain a positive force. When I read Kevin Brockmeier's "The Brief History of the Dead with my book group, I felt as if someone else could express these strong feelings for me.It is partly about a city (The City) that is inhabited by folks who have recently died. They stay there until there is no one left on earth who remembers them. It is a lovely read.

All this aside we were eager to see the resting places of some favorites.At Montmarte we saw Berlioz,Degas Nijinsky and Francois Truffaut. Truffaut.s movies are among my favorites. I love the Antoine Doinel films, especially "Stolen Kisses" "Jules et Jim" was the first French movie I saw.I loved the character Truffaut played in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The hand signals that he gives to the aliens had the end is such a hopeful image. It always cheers me up. This is a picture of his grave. Classy.

At Montparnasse we could not find Man Ray;we did see the graves of Sartre and de Beauvoir, Beckett. There was a giant bird covered in mirrors that was a tribute to a friend. It is a work by Niki de Saint-Phalle; she was the creator of this wild Tarot card sculpture park in Tuscany that I hope to see someday.

She also did the scupture fountain near the Pompidou center on

Here is a video of the fountain:







I have not yet been in the Pompideau (Beaubourg)to the Museé National d'Art Moderne. I love museums when they are showing and teaching me something brand new. This doesn't have to mean a current artist, I have plenty to learn about most art. That said, it doesn't really get me excited if something seems only like an art book come to life. The size and color always amaze but ... This trip has been wonderful in opening my eyes. In the Air France flight magazine on the trip here I read about Peter Doig who has a big exhibit at the musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Though I had never heard of him ( I said I was pretty ignorant) he is very well known. I saw mostly landscapes that were very layered. They had dreamlike images and symbols floating through them. I spent a very long time looking .

Another trip was by train to Giverny, to see Monet's gardens. The first time I saw Monet's waterlillies in the Orangerie I was 20 years old. All the Monet I have seen since then has felt less important then that first experience.

I was really going to see the gardens because I love how important they were to his painting and sense of place. They were magnificent,much less formal then the gardens around Paris. They are filled with familiar annuals.

We went to his house too, which has been lovingly and correctly refurbished. (The stove was a beauty) The surprising discovery was the art on his walls. They were totally covered with his extensive collection of Japanese woodblock prints. He owned over 200; he had all the masters, Hokusai,Hiroshige and Utamaro. They are beautiful in a way that is so different from the art he created; I am anxious to read and learn what he felt about them. At the Guimet Museum , which is a large Asian art museum here in Paris there is currently a Hokusai exhibit which I am going to go to.

We also went to the Musée Picasso. France got this collection of work from his heirs. He died without a will and this was the deal. I loved this because it had work that I was not familiar with.

There was a lot of collage, sculptures with the accompaning drawings, and many studies for paintings that are displayed. Much of the work seemed playful. I hadn't known much about his African period and he had a great collection of African art.

More museums coming, fashion observation and of course food.

I realize I have not said much about the food recently. Do not worry; we are eating and drinking well. I am going off on some food missions this week as well as exploring the Plages de Paris.

Stay cool.

Digression 1- My understanding of written French has allowed me to get a lot of information if I am careful and not rushed. My spoken French, with horrible accent, has been adequate in tourist situations but in the few social things we have done with friends of friends my vocabulary flies out of my head and I quickly get lost . Unless people speak very slowly I cannot have any kind of real conversation. In spite of this every person we have met has been kind as I try to struggle and speak.

Digression 2- I love the Metro

Vive la revolution

On Bastille Day we plotted our way to watch the fireworks. We made our way to the Metro; we were prepared to be jammed in but I was not expecting some fellow passenger to push me against the wall till I felt as if I couldn't breathe. I survived and we decided to watch from the Trocadèro, across the river from the Eiffel tower. It is a high vantage point but has some tree blockage. After debating back and forth " should we stay or should we go", we remained. I found out afterward that there was a French pop concert at the Champ de Mars and I am glad we missed that. (James Blunt was the token Americain I guess). The fireworks were lovely; the colors were softer and paler than the ones I am used to in Boston. They did have a sharp citron color firework that I had never seen before. At the staging area for the shooting there was what seemed to be the skeleton of a ferris wheel. It actually was a huge stand for lights that they used for special effects and to hold rings of colored flames. At one point the flames were bright orange and "Ring of Fire" was stuck in my head. I thought of Johnny Cash and June Carter and felt happy.

Digression 1- I read online that Reese Witherspoon who played June in "I Walk the Line" was in Paris watching the very same fireworks.

Digression2-I am not paying an internet cafe to read about Reese Witherspoon; we have internet in the apartment but no TV

The music they boomed to accompany the display was classical not Johnny Cash; something from Carmen, a Mozart piece I think. There was Luciano Pavarotti. Gary made the point that classical music has such drama and makes a perfect accompaniment, building up to a major crescendo

When the display was over, everyone applauded, the lights on the Tower came back and a half-million people needed to get home. We were not planning on getting back on the Metro right away. We knew in which direction we should be walking but could not find our way through the crowd. We walked with the masses up a street that was going in the total opposite direction. I was getting a little cranky but we ended up at the Arc de Triomphe which is a fine detour on Bastille Day. It was 1:00 am and the Champs Elysee was mobbed and hopping. Don't any of these people have to go to work ?

Au revoir. Art and death coming soon.

Eve de la Bastille

It is hard to believe I have been in Paris for 6 days. For many reasons it has been hard to get focused. I was more jet-lagged than I expected. This was not at all the fault of Air France. One positive effect of the euro:dollar exchange rate was a 3/4 empty flight to Paris. You could sleep across a row of seats which was wonderful. I have gotten back on a schedule where I don't fall asleep the moment I return to the apartment.

Our great apartment hosts, Larry and Anna have left for Normandy. They are encouraging us to visit there for a few days but I find it difficult to imagine leaving Paris. While I am as awed as I imagined I would be by the streets, le Tour Eiffel, le Musée d'Orsay (the only museum we have visited so far; did I know that "Whistler's Mother " was here ?), the clouds in the sky, the shoes, I cannot get past the food. What I have eaten and what I would like to eat is filling my head.

On our first walk by ourselves we heqded toward the trendy Marais, about a 15 minute walk. The first turn put us on Rue Oberkampf which runs southwest from Menilmontant, filled with bars and shops toward the Place des Vosgues, the Musée Picasso, etc, etc.In the first three blocks we passed :

fruit at :

dried fruit at

We bought dried papaya,ginger,strawberries,apples and cherries here. All lovely.

and pain and pastry at Epi.

( note bene:In less than 24 hours we had alreqdy had several delicious baquettes from Larry and Anna's favorite bakery which I am still trying to find again)

At Epi my purchase of choice was a Paris Brest. It is a pate a choix dough (think cream puff) ring, filled with a nutty pastry cream with powdered sugar and almonds on top. My only previous tastes of this were at the old Turtle Cafe in Inman Square 30 years ago. The Paris Brest there was filled with whipped cream and had chocolate on top, sort of a giant eclair. That is what I believed they were until this week, what an unfortunate mistake. From Dessert First, a passion for pastry (http://dessertfirst.typepad.com) I learned " The Paris-Brest was created by a baker in 1891 in honor of the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race which was a precursor of the Tour de France. The pastry is made of a ring of pàte a choux filled with praline buttercream and topped with almonds and powdered sugar. The ring shape, of course, is meant to resemble a bicycle wheel-a delicious one at that" As I ate it it moved quickly behind a Lakota lemon macaroon (http://www.lakotabakery.com/), my favorite small treat. Gary thought it was delicious and appreciated the bike reference.

Here is a picture of the second, but not the last one, we have purchased.

Digressions:

Another pastry reason that I love Paris, is that the Monoprix, a supermarket chain has a generic version of Lu Pims cookies one of my favorites.

We are off to a dance party at Place de la Bastille, a 10 or 15 minute walk from our place. I always loved " A Tale of Two Cities".

More soon, this already seems long ago.

In the bag

My thoughts about the comings and going of this trip are getting mashed up. I am taking clothes for what I intend to do, I am thinking horrible exchange rate for what I intend to eat and pay admission to.



I am trying to be linear about the tasks I need to finish. Make sure Gracie's (the dog) schedule is in place, weed out the garden furiously, get the house info ready for our house sitter. Who is OUR electrician ? Names and numbers to get, decisions about clothes, books. Which pens ??




I think this will be one of the most diary like posts I do. I have not much to be specific about except my bag. Gary is trying to decide which and what kind of bag to take. Not moi. Although demographically I feel I am expected to have something with a brand name and definitely on wheels I am taking my Courierware Travel Bag ( http://courierbags.com). It is (surprise) a messenger style bag with many compartments. I have both carried it on and checked it. In spite of the fact that it has no zippers I have never lost anything or had anything stolen from it.
I know people love their wheely bags and the one time I used one it was great in the airport but totally unmanageable in the world. I had a tennis match neck ache from looking back at my bag to guide it and turning around to watch my step. Even though the Courierware bag is all black the shape makes it easy to spot on a luggage carousel if I have checked it. The bags are made in Randolph Vt which has had some horrible news happenings this week.
That makes me remember that worlds collide at the oddest times.


Unless we have a transportation fiasco I will be in another time zone for my next post. We leave at 11pm and are promised two meals. Midnight snack and breakfast?