Paris Journal 2015 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Hot. Yesterday afternoon was hot. Very hot. 94 degrees F. I knew it would be, so we implemented heat abatement procedures in the apartment. Inside the apartment, my feet were actually cold in the afternoon. We’d gone for a walk in the morning, through the neighborhoods on either side of the Champ de Mars. Other than when we crossed the Champ, we saw few other people. The Champ de Mars is always a busy place, however. I was tickled to see one of those antique Citroën trucks all decked out as an ice cream vendor, parked on the avenue Suffren. Something about funky old Citroëns makes them so cute. By the end of our walk, the air was getting heavier, and we could feel the heat starting to close in. We left our cool building again in the evening. The heat felt like a warm blanket, almost smothering us. We walked slowly down the shady avenue Emile Zola. We stopped in the nice pharmacy at the Place Charles Michel because Tom needed something there. The shop was well air-conditioned. We were very warm again by the time we reached our goal, the restaurant Le Pari --, a lovely, well-capitalized and well-air-conditioned establishment. The food at Le Pario is creative and beautifully presented. We were given a mis en bouche of a cool fennel cream soup topped with slivers of cashews. Delicious. Our starter course was a fricassé de girolles et artichauts violets, oeuf poule cuit mollet, emulsion aux morilles – a fricasee of girolle mushrooms and violet artichokes, with a softly cooked egg and an emulsion made from morel mushrooms (below). The egg was encrusted with breadcrumbs. Very interesting and good.
My main course was ballotine de poulet jaune fermier, legumes de printemps nacrés au jus caramelisé – medallions of top-grade chicken, with spring vegetables and a caramelized juice sauce. Very nice. The chicken was flavorful, juicy and tender.
Tom ordered the fish this time: pave de haut bar grille sur la peau, coquillages et legumes braisés. This sea bass arrived with a few mussels – all extraordinarily good.
Tom was planning to order the profiteroles again for dessert, but I talked him into sharing a cherry tart with me instead. Its crust was a sablé – a cookie-like disk – and the marinated cherries sat on a bed of vanilla cream pudding. A heavenly dessert. Cherries have been particularly good this season in Europe.
The service at Le Pario is very professional, and the décor is casual yet luxurious. We lingered for a while, having enjoyed just the right amount of food – exceptionally good food – and then we were ready to walk home. The air had cooled only a little; more relief came later in the night when a light rain fell. |
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
A
couple buildings we adore in the neighborhoods on either side of the Champ de
Mars.
Often,
picturesque old things like this sewing machine are placed in shop windows,
just to show them off, not to sell anything in particular. |
