Paris Journal 2010 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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I did so much reading that my eyes were stinging by the time we went to dinner last night. Much of my reading was in French, of course, and I was indulging in the magazines published by Le Figaro over the weekend. The main section of Le Figaro is more difficult to read. The magazines are easy enough, and the financial section, “Economie,” is easy, too. Economie made something of a splash this past weekend, and I noticed there was commentary on it in the New York Times. Le Figaro had clearly planned this special feature in advance. It basically glosses over the economic crisis and says that things are oh so much better now. It focuses on the “increase in profits” of companies in the CAC 40, which is like France’s version of the Dow Jones index. What they don’t say is that in fact, while these companies may be a little more profitable, that gain has not resulted in more jobs. The same thing is happening in the U.S., of course. After three pages of this irrational optimism, on the fourth page is an article about the worrisome drop in numbers of jobs in the U.S. Finally, on the second-to-last page of Economie, there is a more up-to-date and indisputably accurate article about the fact that the CAC 40 just dropped by 1.28 percent. And so now I note that the euro has dropped back down to $1.29, when it had been above $1.32 last week. Touchée. No matter where the dollar/euro are, we continue to go out to eat. Last night we walked up the avenue de la Motte Picquet. While it was tempting to go to La Gauloise again because they are still offering that volaille jaune with its rich, delicious sauce made with the yellow wine of the Jura, we went on and checked out the specials at La Gitane. The specials looked good, so we made a reservation and then continued our walk up the avenue Suffren, and then down the avenue Charles Floquet. On the avenue Suffren, I noticed another restaurant that meets my initial screening criteria and that we must try soon: the Chamade Café, at 42 bis avenue Suffren, www.chamadecafe.fr. Stay tuned. Back at La Gitane, Madame la Patronne (who I think is named Corinne Mayeras, and if so, she and her husband Olivier are former “press barons” who have “fallen into the soup pot,” according to L’Express) gave us a nice table and asked if we wanted the menus in French or English. When we responded “Français, s’il vous plait,” Tom added (in French) that the taste of the food is better in French. Madame replied, “You’re right, sir!” (Vous avez raison, monsieur!) That’s generally true because 1) most menus translated into English from French are badly translated and 2) some things are better off in French, and the translation doesn’t really help (for example, escargots); in fact, it hurts (for example, “snails” don’t sound appetizing). However, I must say that from the portion of the English menu that I can see posted in front of La Gitane, someone has done a very good job of translating it. We each ordered one of the daily specials, the onglet de veau (veal steak) that came with giant shallots, good ratatouille, and a crispy round pinwheel of potato slices called pommes Anna. With the veal was a delicious little puddle of veal stock, in which the giant shallots had been cooked to soft perfection. Tom had the café gourmand for dessert, which came with a little baba rhum, a tiny fondant au chocolat, some red fruits, and a small scoop of delicious raspberry sorbet that was almost certainly made in house. The dinner took what seemed like forever because the restaurant was grossly understaffed. Down the street, La Gauloise was doing a similar amount of business with more than twice the staff. But La Gitane had only Madame and one server working the dining rooms and the terrace. The only bad thing about dinner was that we felt uncomfortable having to watch their agony at trying to keep up. It made for a slightly tense atmosphere, not a relaxed one. Not relaxing for us, anyway, because we have the habit of closely observing how a restaurant works. Olivier Mayeras was nowhere to be seen last night. He must be on vacation. I did catch a glimpse of the chef, Yves Pellion, a couple times as he came out of the kitchen to go downstairs to get more of whatever. He didn’t seem as pressed, so I guess he had enough help in the kitchen. And the food was superb. Good going, Chef Pellion! (Note that L’Express misspelled the chef’s last name.) Back in the glory days of the 1980s, La Gauloise and La Gitane were owned by the same people, according to L’Express. La Gauloise was more the brasserie/restaurant/bistrot, and La Gitane was more of a bar/tabac/café. This explains why each are named after old French cigarette brands. In those glory days, politicos like Mitterand used to frequent these two places. I’m not sure when the split occurred, but it did, and then La Gitane, as a restaurant, went downhill slowly. Then the Mayeras couple saved it in 2007. We enjoy both of these restaurants very much. We went home and listened to more jazz CDs. Tom had just purchased more from the shop down by the church. They’re three for 10 euros, and now we have nine of them to add to the two we had from last year. The apartment also has quite a number of CDs, but only a few are jazz. Tonight we dine with Stanley, a powerful politico from Tennessee, and his beautiful wife Pat. Sign
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Thursday, August 12, 2010
Earlier
this summer, it would still be very light and we’d sit on the balcony after
dinner. Now, however, the days are
shortening very quickly and it is dark when we walk home from dinner.
A
big, juicy, tender veal steak in two pieces is hiding under these giant
shallots which were cooked to softness in the veal juice, attaining an almost
sweet taste. Hiding under the crispy
pinwheel of potato slices is a nice serving of ratatouille. |
