August 1, 2006
Planning? Overrated. Patience? I’m working on it.
Happy Swiss National Day! It’s 1:30 p.m….and though it’s raining, the band is playing and firecrackers are well…..cracking. This is a day that’s something like our 4th of July-- but with more cowbells. Later this afternoon there is a parade and other general festivity in the street.
We have just returned from Paris. I love Paris, and I had a great time in spite of the fact that almost everything I planned to do didn’t happen. The group of 29 students and 2 chefs arrived in Paris on Thursday evening. Celine, our guide for the weekend, greeted us at the airport (she was holding a sign for us and everything). We went to the hotel, dropped our bags and were off to dinner. The tour company had made reservations for us at a little restaurant that they must have bribed to take such a big group. Generally, restaurants there tend to frown on large parties. We had made our selections for dinner before we got there, so we basically just had to go in and wait for them to start bringing food. The first course was a nice smoked salmon on some field greens with balsamic vinaigrette. It was good, and we were hopeful for things to come. Most of the people at my table had chosen the fish with spinach and pasta. We start to dig in, when Kong (another student) immediately puts his fork down and asks us to smell the fish. Hmmm….smells like Windex. But no one is doing windows. Fish should really never smell like ammonia, just so you know. We confirmed it with Chef Pam, and waited patiently for dessert. Vanilla ice cream and chocolate mousse—but the mousse was a cross between ice cream, Jell-O pudding, and Duncan Hines frosting in a can. For real. We recognized it because the hotel in Engelberg had served something similar two nights before. We weren’t off to a great start, but it was getting late. The decision was made to head back to the hotel, get some sleep and start over the next day.
On Friday morning, we started with a bus tour of the city. We saw the major landmarks and ended up at the Louvre around lunchtime. During the almost three hour(!) bus ride, Gina and I were already making plans on how to ditch the group. Both of us have done the “Highlights of the Louvre” tour that they had planned, so we thought we could make better use of our time strolling around some markets, eating crepes and trying to be French. After promising them that we would meet the group at the next activity, the chefs gave us permission to go (they actually wanted to leave with us but couldn’t because they were in charge). We had a great time, learning our way on the Metro, strolling through a couple of street markets, and having Croque Monsieur for lunch. Yummy. Later we thought we should have a crepe. We stopped in at a café and ordered what we thought was a chocolate crepe. Imagine our surprise when we served a molten chocolate cake. Crepe….Gateau. Apparently something was lost in translation and our French accents aren’t very authentic. The good news is that the cake was still tasty. As planned, we met the group at Fauchon, a high end food store. It’s pretty huge with a pastry counter, ready to eat counter, fruit, smoked fish and cheese counters and a restaurant. Across the street is the wine and chocolate store. They also carry quite a few old bottles of brandy, cognac, and other liqueurs. There was a bottle from 1840 that was over 7000 Euros. The people there were very informative, and the woman who gave us the tour offered to get one of the chefs to talk to us for a few minutes. Out comes Jean-Pierre (I think—it might have been Paul)—anyway, he was very kind, and as he spoke I realized that he wasn’t just a random chef. He was the man responsible for everything there. He chooses all of the products, comes up with recipes, and is currently planning Christmas. I had a question about one of the pastries, but he didn’t know the answer. Before I realized what was happening, someone handed him a phone, and he called the pastry chef. Did I mention the pastry chef was on holiday?! Anyway, I did get the answer to my question about the topping on one of the pastries. It looked like raspberry powder, and I wondered how they did it.
Before dinner, Gina and I ditched the group again (really—we’re sort of like the unruly 14 year olds who always want to do other stuff—however, we’re more mature and people trust us) and go to Pierre Herme, a famous food shop. Because both locations were closed for a month for renovations, we obviously couldn’t go in. However, we stared sadly in the window and bonded with a couple of older French ladies who seemed as surprised as we were to find them closed.
Friday evening, after dinner, Celine said that the museum of modern art was open until midnight. She was meeting some friends there, and asked if we wanted to come. About 6 of us went with her….it was completely cool. They have an outdoor café with lights strung above, lots of groovy, round, lighted globes, and long tables with benches. There’s also a DJ. It’s all kind of primitive/industrial with big, bright plastic furniture thrown around randomly. After the café, we went back to her apartment that she shares with her domestic partner, Fred. In France they have domestic partnerships, but they’re different from what we think of. It’s all the legality of marriage without the religious part. And you just have to sign a piece of paper to end it. However, you get the tax breaks and other things that go along with being legally married. Anyway, we were there until around 2, which was interesting because we had to be up around 6:30 the next morning.
Saturday morning we went to a couple of street markets. A few of us decided check out neighborhood that we hadn’t been to. This neighborhood is the home of Guy Savoy’s casual bistro so we thought we’d go check it out. Like many restaurants, it wasn’t open for lunch, so we planned to go there for dinner on Sunday night when we got back from Versailles. Meanwhile, we entertained ourselves on the Champs d’Elysses and ate steak frites.
Versailles is the home of Louis XIV’s “chalet” where he entertained friends and threw huge parties. When you see all the opulence, and you realize how poor the people were in the village, it’s really no wonder that there was some revolution. We ran into Chef Oechsner in the courtyard while trying to find the café for some coffee. A couple of us wandered into town with him, and he showed us the apartment that he and his wife had stayed in for a couple of weeks last year. Better than that, we bought strawberries from the market to eat while we looked for the creperie that he wanted to go to. I haven’t ever had strawberries this fresh. I didn’t know they could taste so good. Light and fresh and sweet, but not too sweet. Perfection. We eventually found the creperie where we had a savory crepe…it was buckwheat with egg, cheese and sausage, then dessert crepes. I had an almond and chocolate crepe for dessert. Gina had almond flambé and Chef had apple with calvados flambé. At his insistence (not that we needed that much convincing) we washed it all down with a bottle of hard apple cider. It had been sprinkling a little bit, but the day was hot, and we welcomed the cool down. Until it rained for real. In the 20-minute walk back to the train station, we were all completely soaked. The umbrella I had made no difference whatsoever. My shoes were squishing, I was freezing, and we were all leaving big wet circles wherever we sat down. Back at the hotel, we dried out, and got ready for dinner. Because many restaurants close during August, we were sure to check to see that Guy Savoy’s place was open. 365 days a year. That’s what the website said. The website lied. That’s ok. We got rid of the taxi driver who totally took advantage of us and drove us all over town to jack up the price. It’s so frustrating not to be able to argue in French. Sarah was ready with Spanish, but he didn’t speak Spanish—so oh, well. We sent him on his way, and made plan B. L’Epi Dupin. I had been there a few years ago, and Celine had also mentioned that she liked to go there. Guess what? It’s closed in August too. Please note, that while there are great sales in the shops right now, many places are also closed for vacation. Which I kind of appreciate. They just close. You can come back in a month when they do. Oh well. We found a café, had good food and then, for dessert, the best ice cream ever from Glaces Berthillon. I was told it was the best I would ever try. And that was absolutely true. We had wild strawberry—my tongue was so happy. We also tried the coffee, which tasted just like a cup of good coffee—and, of course, vanilla and chocolate. Basic, but not.
Sunday we visited Poilane, the original location opened in 1932. This bakery has 3 locations in Paris, as well as a manufacturing facility. We were able to go downstairs into the very hot kitchen and see the wood-burning oven that they use to bake their sourdough breads along with a few rustic tarts. It was a tiny little operation that produces between 500 and 700 loaves of bread daily. I made a quick stop by Oliviers & Co. for some oils and balsamic, and then we were off to the airport.
Overall, I learned a lot about patience with large groups and things not going quite as planned on this trip. Restaurants were closed, Pierre Herme was closed, I ran out of time to go to some of the shops I was looking forward to visiting, and sometimes a crepe turned out to be a gateau, etc. However, I also experienced some nice surprises—the creperie and cider with Chef O in Versailles, the market in Versailles (I was supposed to be touring the castle at the time), the lounge at the museum of modern art, Celine’s friends, really good ice cream.
Now, however, it’s back to work. I’m making a duck dish in class tomorrow. The ducks came in today. They still have their heads and feet. In fact, there are still feathers on their necks. Hmm…planning, patience, now I guess it’s about perseverance.
