Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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We shopped at Gap, for the first time ever, I think. Tom had owned a Gap jacket in the past, but I think he’d bought it at Schottenstein’s or some other outlet that specializes in odd lots. He liked that jacket, so now that he needs one again, we decided that Gap be a good place to look for one. While there are over 1,000 Gap stores in the U.S., there are only 39 in France. One of them is in this neighborhood, on the rue du Commerce. Another is in the Marché Saint Germain, in a neighborhood in the 6th arrondissement where we will be moving today. We found a good jacket for him. It is really almost a coat, in a deep, dusty gray-blue that is a good color on The Tome. Judging by the number of shoppers in the store, I’d say that Gap is fairly popular in Paris. The shop certainly features a look that we see increasingly often on the streets of this city, which has become considerably more casual during the 15 years we’ve been spending our summers here. We did other shopping earlier, at “Diabolique,” mainly to pick up items requested by our friends who own this apartment. I’d offered to get them some breakfast/lunch items so they didn’t have to immediately run out to the grocery store in a jet-lagged state right after their arrival tomorrow morning. They’d sent me a list. We managed to get everything on the list except the Poilane bread, which is better purchased today, so it will still be fresh. Good thing I know that one can find Poilane bread in some places other than a Poilane bakery. I don’t think there is a Poilane bakery close to this apartment. But I have seen Poilane bread in the bakery section of Franprix, and it probably is stocked by Monoprix as well. Today is a long day of laundry. It takes forever to do two loads of laundry in these European front-loader washers. Whenever I think about that fact, I smile and remember my friend Nori Ann (former Navy Captain – equivalent of an Army Colonel!) giving a hilarious, sarcastic account of it. I do miss my Zonta Happy Hour friends like Nori Ann, and Gini, who recently asked me on Facebook if Friday night in a Parisian restaurant was as good as Friday night Happy Hour at Traders with them. I do miss that remarkable group of friends, and thought of them last night at the Café du Commerce. Earlier in the day, as we walked by on our way to Gap, I saw that the Café du Commerce had encornets as the lunch special. These are little squids, often served in a sauce made with their ink (encre). I love that dish! So we went to the Café du Commerce last night, and we found that the fish dinner special was different: black mullet! Mullet is found in lots of places, but is particularly abundant in south Florida waters. I ordered the mullet, and Tom had the salmon. Both came with an interesting anchovy tapenade. We’d started by sharing the appetizer special of the day, a “bouquet de crevettes” which was really a shrimp cocktail served with three sauces: tartar, avocado, and a sauce made from pomélo, a citrus fruit from Southeast Asia. My mullet came atop a generous serving of chopped, sautéed mixed vegetables. The entire dish was copious; I couldn’t finish it all. While we were dining, the head waiter for our floor came to our table to ask us what the English was for mulet noir. “Black mullet,” we responded, in unison, with enthusiasm. He returned to the table of some English speakers who’d asked him this question, and told them it was “black mullet.” I’m not sure how familiar non-Floridians are with mullet, so I don’t know how helpful this was to those Americans or Brits. But our answer seemed to satisfy the immediate need for information. Both the salmon and mullet were perfectly cooked: not too much, not too little. No dessert for us last night. We walked around the corner to go home, not far at all, and turned in early to rest up for moving day. |
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Alpha
Romeo parked on the rue du Theatre, in front of a sleek SFR boutique and the
only run-down, abandoned building in the area. The building seems to be tied up in some
kind of legal problems. Years ago, it
was home to a Chinese takeout, and an extended Chinese family ran it. The family’s kids ran wild all around the
immediate vicinity.
Friday
specials at the Café du Commerce included black mullet (below).
This
salmon with anchovy tapenade, roasted bell peppers, and puréed potatoes is a regular
item on the Café du Commerce menu. |
