Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Like many Parisians, I worked at my computer almost all day. Unlike many Parisians, I was putting together a newsletter in English, for American women back in my hometown in Florida. This one wasn’t just any newsletter, though. It was the newsletter immediately after several of the women had just been to an international conference in Torino, Italy. There were many photos from the conference sent to me to use in this issue. As any newsletter editor can tell you, lots of photos means lots of work. There were a dozen or so articles, too, and other pieces like calendar information. Each edition is a puzzle to be put together in some way that seems to make sense. The best part of the day was when I was finishing up, between 5 and 6PM, when it was just before noon in Florida. I started to have some almost-real-time discussion via email with a few of the women. I miss them! I miss my Zonta sisters. It wasn’t just a busy newsletter day – it was a hot day, too, in Paris. I took advantage of it by doing laundry, hanging it here and there in the apartment, with fans blowing on the damp fabric. This evapotranspiration effect created a sort of air conditioning. And it worked fairly well. When I finally left the apartment to walk up to the Carmine restaurant/brasserie to meet Tom, Dan and the girls for dinner, I got the full effect of the heat of the day, and it was fairly intense. The air quality was not good, either. Bad ozone (O3) is particularly elevated.
I stood as still as possible on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, waiting for the family, trying not to swelter. At last they appeared. We were seated inside, but the inside is all very close to the outside at Carmine, which had all of its terrasse doors open wide. The restaurant probably has air conditioning, but like most places, it isn’t used until the situation is dire. I took each girl by the hand and we went inside to ask for a table. I think the small woman who seated us thought the girls would be trouble, but she was wrong. The girls were great, and the male waiter who decided to serve us was entertained by all of us, and we by him. The girls ordered the pizza kids’ menu, and the “small” pizzas they each received were big. The crust was especially good, and most certainly made there at the resto. Carmine specializes in meat (beef, in particular) in addition to pizza. Dan and I ordered the lamb shank daily special, which was served on a bed of very interesting taboulé that included bits of vegetables and fruit – like apple pieces. That was a nice touch for a hot summer day. Tom was intrigued by the “BBQ ribs” specialty on the regular menu, and so he ordered it. “American” influences are supposed to be part of Carmine’s unique character. The ribs were very good, and were like American barbequed ribs, but the way the ribs are cut is different from the way they’re cut in the U.S. That’s okay – it is just different. The menu has something printed in the graphic design on its cover that refers to the “strange story of Carmine.” I’m not sure what that is about, unless it refers to the strange story of the mob character, Carmine DiBiase, who was part of the Columbo organized crime family. Why someone would want to name a restaurant after him, I do not know. I prefer to think that the restaurant is named for Carmine Formisano, who has, with his co-author Luigi Smine, published an attractive book in French about pizza. But why would the menu refer to the “strange story of Carmine,” if that were the case? Pizza is not strange. It is rather universal. What is a little strange is how the French refer to a microchip as a flea. That’s right. A chip is called a “puce,” which means flea. A flea market is a Marché aux Puces. When I use my credit card here in France, I am sure to tell the cashier that “c’est une carte classique” or “pas de puce” (an old-fashioned card without a chip) before I swipe it in the machine. Sometimes, there is a key on the cash register that must be tapped first in order for the chip-less card to be read by the machine. Christian asked if there was any progress on the effort to get American banks to start issuing credit cards with chips in them. European credit cards have these chips, but American cards do not, and so American cards do not work in certain places in Europe – such as gas stations, and many ticket machines. The reasons for this are several, and they are not simple. There are, for example, differences in security. Many would argue that the chip system is more secure; but there is a one-day delay in the availability of transaction information in the chip system, and that makes it less secure. Surely that problem with the chip system could be corrected, I would think. There is no question that the cards with chips are much more difficult to counterfeit. Anyway, the answer is yes, Christian. American Express is going to start issuing cards with the European-style chip embedded. That sounds insignificant because many places do not accept American Express in Europe. But it is significant, because to do this, the American Express cards will have to use the EMV system. EMV is eurocard-mastercard-visa, so that means that the American Express cards will work like mastercard/visa. That means that the other banks that issue mastercard/visa will probably follow suit. A couple American banks, like Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, offer the chip-and-PIN type credit card to a select group of jet-setter customers. My guess is that Bank of America will be the first big American bank to issue credit cards with embedded chips. The time is coming . . . . In fact, here’s an article from just a couple days ago that says Bank of America “will” be issuing cards with chips. But it still is written in the future tense. The article also claims that the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve credit card currently comes with both magnetic stripe and chip. And, like the Capital One Venture card that we use now, it has no foreign transaction fees. I’m going to check that one out this Fall, for sure. A significant part of this change is that American Express will require its retail customers to purchase and use new credit card machines that will work with the new cards. When you see this happening in stores near you, get ready: the fleas are marching into the credit cards that you will use. |
Friday, July 27, 2012
The
very attractive interior of the Carmine restaurant and pizzeria on the avenue
Suffren.
The
blackboard of daily specials listed “souris
d’agneau,” or lamb shank, served with taboule, for only 13 euros. It was delicious.
We
enjoyed trying to pronounce “boson de
higgs” in French as we strolled home, past one of the ubiquitous news
stands. |
