Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Change is in the air. Tom moved ahead so much with his work on 8th edition of The Norton Sampler that we can safely say Paris is ahead of New York, once again. Some actual humidity has taken over the atmosphere in northern France, and my hair is curling again. Now the Assumption holiday week is over for good; starting today, restaurants and stores that were on vacation are beginning to open up for the rentrée, as the French call this time that we normally refer to as “back-to-school.” Post-vacation. The Parisians are coming back. Look out! The pace of life will pick up. It is picking up. Restaurant le Cristal de Sel reopens today. It has been on my mind, because these two young men, Karil Lopez and Damien Crepu, do such an exceptionally good job running this fine resto. One of our other favorites, La Gitane, never completely closed this month, except that it did close for Saturday and Sunday for the month of August only. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision as far as the weather went this past weekend; Saturday and Sunday were the only true days of canicule in Paris. In the south of France, the canicule is lasting for several days, however. Last night, when we ventured out, the weather wasn’t bad at all: just another pleasantly warm summer evening. We strolled up to La Gitane, pausing first to see what the specials were at the Café du Commerce, because something that kitchen had been cooking in the afternoon smelled wonderfully good. However, there was nothing unusual or new on the menu there, and we’ve dined there twice in the past week. So we went on, to La Gitane. There we asked for an inside table. The air conditioning was turned on. The terrasse doors were wide open. But with evening temperatures falling, soon it would be the same temperature outside as inside. If the restaurant had closed the terrasse doors, it would have been a major hassle to open them again during the dinner hours, because to do so would have disrupted several tables of diners. So, air conditioning was running, and terrasse doors were wide open. Oh well. The owners were present and tanned, from vacation. We were given a nice table in an uncrowded spot along the side. We knew that the regular Monday night special was lamb chops, and that’s what we each ordered. They were absolutely delicious. They came with yummy green beans, a few roasted zucchini and carrot pieces, and thin slices of slightly crispy, sautéed potatoes. We each ordered the dessert special of the day, crème brûlée. It was also delicious, and absolutely “correct.” Tomorrow, the weather will change once again, veering more to the cooler and drier. With that, and the fact that Paris is ahead of New York, we will probably go out on some adventure in the city. I’m thinking, maybe the Musée Marmottan. We haven’t been there in a while, and in fact, we haven’t been over to the right bank much at all this summer. So that’s a possibility. I see that the museum now calls itself the Musée Marmottan Monet. And that it will be closed from September 2 to 12 for the installation of two new exhibitions. So while we’re over here on this western side of town, I guess we should go. If we love it enough, we can go back after September 12 to see the special exhibitions, “Henri Rouart, the painted work” and “Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens and others - Flemish Baroque Paintings at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.” Pretty interesting, eh? Pretty interesting breakfast today, too: toasted organic baguette, sweet butter, a bit of freshly ground salt from the Camargue, fig preserves, and very ripe figs. All of the fruit at “Diabolique” was very ripe yesterday. Tom went wild: he bought a cantaloupe, a melon, a watermelon, two bananas, a peach, two pears, and figs. The watermelons here are small, compared to the ones we have in the U.S. And the seeds are tiny, soft, and numerous. The pears must be eaten soon. This will be a fruity kind of day. This summer, I’ve been buying Badoit sparkling water at “Diabolique,” because that’s what they have. It isn’t my favorite sparkling water; I prefer San Pellegrino. But at this discount grocery, which is the closest grocery, you get what they have, and they don’t have everything. But I noticed that the Badoit was particularly good for clearing up the digestive difficulty that I had earlier this summer. Something about the slight saltiness of it perhaps? Or perhaps my genes go back thousands of years to the primitive people who lived near what is now Saint Galmier, where the naturally carbonated water of Badoit comes out of a spring. It is possible -- the ancestral name “Thurner” is probably Austrian, and Switzerland and Austria are right in line with that region around Lyon, where the springs of Saint Galmier can be found. A man named Auguste Badoit started bottling the naturally carbonated water of Saint Galmier in 1838, but it was only available in pharmacies until 1954, the year before I was born. Funny that I was joking about it being medicinal for me; evidently, it was considered to be only medicinal, until 1954. Typical of what happens to brands these days, Badoit was acquired by Evian in 1971; Evian was acquired by Boussois Souchon Neuvesel, and now Badoit is a brand owned by Danone (which we call Dannon). The spring at Saint Galmier is a thermal one, and the Gallo-Romans knew about it. It is in the Rhone-Alpes region of France. The French originally called the water, and the spring, Fontfort, and the town used to be called Fontfortville before it became known as Saint Galmier. Even before Auguste Badoit came along to commercialize, bottle and sell Saint Galmier’s water to pharmacies, one of King Louis XVI’s physicians, Richard Marin de Laprade, in 1778 reportedly described the water of Saint Galmier as having virtues that were “aperitives, digestives, et ‘exilarantes,’” and said that the water simulated the “humor of the spirit.” The community of Saint Galmier hired Auguste Badoit to help them market their water in 1837. An expert in marketing, August sought the endorsement of physicians, and then sold the bottled water initially only to the most serious of pharmacists. By the time Auguste Badoit died in 1858, the company was selling 1,500,000 bottles per year -- more than any other vendor of spring water at that time, according to Badoit.fr’s web site. In 1897, the French Academy of Medicine recognized Badoit as a “public interest,” touting its “hygeiniques, aperitives, et digestives” properties, as “verified” by the research of several doctors. Between World War I and World War II, the company pushed the “medicinal” aspect of Badoit even farther, with the use of “Docteur Bien-Vivre” in its advertising, and claiming that the water incarnates the values of “gaieté et de joie de vivre.” After the acquisition by Evian, Badoit made extensive use of humor in its video advertising. You can see some of these ads in the history section of their web site; but you must understand both French and the French sense of humor to fully appreciate them. Conviviality and joie de vivre are continuing themes. We were here in Paris in 2000, when for the new millennium celebrations, Badoit organized an enormous picnic, 600 kilometers long, crossing several departments of France. It went right through Paris – red and white checked tablecloths spread out in long rows. That was quite the publicity stunt! Badoit has changed the look of its bottles many times through its history. Another change is being made this year, and that’s probably why we kept finding Badoit in the discount grocery. The old bottles must be sold! But yesterday, the only Badoit in “Diabolique” was that which had lemon and lime flavoring added. So we bought Perrier instead. I like the taste of Perrier better, but maybe there is something to the medicinal ability of Badoit to restore digestive order and joie de vivre. |
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Flowers
on the Champ de Mars.
Beautiful
old caddy parked between the Grand Palais and the
Petit Palais.
The
Monday night special at La Gitane: lamb chops!
Crème
brûlée at La Gitane.
Bagpipes on
the Île aux Cygnes.
Gallery
sign on the rue de Bourgogne.
An
attractive, relatively new townhouse just off of the avenue Emile Zola on the
Villa Jean-Baptiste Luquet. We remember when there was a large Indian
restaurant at this location; it burned down in a fire.
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