Paris Journal 2009 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

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Oh mercy, mercy me. The weather has cooled down and the bad ozone has gone away to wherever it is that bad ozone goes. Paris is heavenly today. We were at the computers again until 6PM or so yesterday, so we just had a nice, long evening stroll, and dinner at Le Petit Mabillon. This restaurant is one that was recommended to us by Jim Hanlon. It is on the rue Mabillon, near our favorite nearby bistro, Bistrot de la Grille St. Germain. It is much smaller than the bistro, and it serves Italian food, not French. I think, based on the music I heard being played in the kitchen, that the family that runs this place is really North African. It is almost inexpensive. Veal main courses are 13 euros, and pasta dishes are 10 or 11 euros. There is a three-course fixed price menu that allows you to choose from about 3 or 4 appetizers, any pasta dish, and a couple desserts, including their homemade apple pie. The restaurant calls it ‘tarte aux pommes,’ but it is really more like a thick American apple pie, without the top crust. The thick chunks of cooked apple are great – not much sugar has been added, so you can still taste the fruit. The ante pasta vegetables were good, but needed salt and pepper to be added. So then I was surprised at the light saltiness of my pasta sauce that accompanied the veal I ordered. But there was lots of garlic in it, and super-intense tomato sauce, so I was pleased. I think the saltiness came just from the olives that were part of the sauce. Tom had a carbonara pasta that had some tasty, thinly sliced ham in it. He ordered the fixed price menu at 15.80 euros, and I just had the veal (13 euros) and the pie (4.5 euros). Wine was only 7 euros for a 50 cl pitcher, and it was good --- I’d say mine had to be a chianti classico. Part of our evening entertainment was getting on the phone with security staff at the Bank of America to convince them that it was really us using our ATM card in France. This is after I went to all the trouble to call them in advance to let them know we’d be here (and in England, and in Germany). I’d just gone through a similar thing earlier in the day with American Express as a result of trying to buy our return tickets for the end of September. So, this was Bank Security Friday. Thank goodness it is over. After chatting with all the bank security people, we went out for a late evening stroll. The boulevard Saint Germain was alive and buzzing with human activity. At the boulevard Raspail, we turned and headed into the darker, quieter streets of the left bank, returning to our neighborhood in relatively short order. The newspapers here say that restaurant business in France has fallen off by a whopping 30 percent. Most blame the economy, and some say it is because the French aren’t drinking as much as they used to. Those two factors make sense to me. But some try to say it is because of the ban on smoking. I think that claim is ridiculous. For one thing, smoking is more prevalent among those who have less money. Don’t ask me why, but that is the case in western culture. People with more money tend to smoke less and want to eat where there is no cigarette smoke. Of course there are many, many exceptions to this. But I firmly believe that not having smoke in a restaurant makes it a more desirable place to be for those who a restauranteur would want to be there. Come on, there is nothing appetizing about smelling someone else’s cigarette smoke when you are trying to enjoy a fine meal, or a fine glass of wine. No smoke in a restaurant is a definite plus. If anyone should understand this, the French should. Food and wine are VERY important, after all! Of course there are smokers who won’t go out to a restaurant now because they cannot smoke there. But I believe that there are more people who WILL go out more often now that they don’t have to contend with the smoke. Tom and I used to love going out to hear live jazz performed in many fine places in Columbus, Ohio (believe it or not, that city is a jazz hot spot, due to the good music schools there). But at that time, those places allowed smoking (e.g., the bar at Bexley’s Monk, the bar at the Hyde Park Grill). We’d order a nice late dinner, and enjoy watching and hearing the musicians. But I would often be disgusted by how smoky my clothes smelled when I got home. And I often was annoyed during dinner when someone’s smoke interfered with the taste of my food. We eventually just stopped going, because of the smoke. So, it’s the economy, stupid. In spite of the economy, some overpriced hotels are remaining overpriced. I spotted a charming looking little one not far from our neighborhood so we went over to its window to check the rates. This was the Hotel Saint Vincent at 5 rue du Pré aux Clercs, in the 7^th arrondissement. It looks cute, and is probably comfortable, but it is not a luxury hotel. The rates were a startling 240 euros per night for a regular room (which is quite small), double occupancy. A suite costs 450 euros per night, and a continental breakfast is 13 euros. At an exchange rate of $1.40 for a euro, this is enough to make any American think twice. I mean, if you want real luxury, why not get an ordinary room at the five-star Hotel Meurice, which, at 320 square feet, is really like a suite, and costs 540 euros per night. I know that’s more, but you are really getting some certifiable luxury for the money there. We prefer renting apartments, of course, and staying much, much longer than a few nights. Oh, I forgot. Another reason given for the huge drop in the restaurant business is that the “international clientele are gone.” Well, well, well. That’s no surprise, is it? International Clientele were willing to put up with the artificially propped up value of the euro for a year or two, but we all have our limits, don’t we? Tom and I are still here, but we understand how Ms. International Clientele could choose a European vacation once or twice in spite of the inflated euro, but Ms. International Clientele isn’t going to keep doing it over and over again. When the British pound has dropped as far as it has in the past year, and the euro has not, you know something is kinky. As much as I might disagree with Sarkozy about some things, about the dangers of having an artificially propped-up euro, I agree with him completely. So, in the meantime, we buy nothing in Europe except restaurant meals (and some hotel accommodations in Germany). Buy from American retailers, I say. Happy Fourth of July! ← Previous Next → Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook.

Saturday, July 4, 2009 Chinese restaurant on the boulevard St. Germain. The Hotel Saint Vincent in the ritzy 7^th arrondissement.