Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Two buildings
share our courtyard. The one that we
do not live in is owned, either in whole or in part, by an entrepreneurial
young man from New Zealand. He used to own
Kiwi, a New Zealand cuisine restaurant where La Cuisine de Philippe now
resides on the rue Servandoni near the rue Vaugirard. He also owned a travel agency that had been
in the street level of the building next to us. He has a number of ventures, and I think a
few of them are over on the right bank. Now he wants to
do something different with the street level and the basement of the building
next to us. Unfortunately, the
basement runs underneath the courtyard that we all share. I say “unfortunately,” because the basement
has a water problem that must be solved before the New Zealander can use it
for new purposes. To find and
solve the problem, two men with jackhammers have been working away at
removing the old cobblestones and digging two sizeable holes in the little
courtyard. This makes noise that is
difficult to shut out, even with the new windows. The major work
went all day yesterday. Today, it has
been joined by an incessant hammering on the other side of the apartment,
where we share a wall with the Hotel Recamier. It is crazy for
us to try to be working/writing here, in this noisy environment, when we
could be home in the peace and quiet of hurricane season in south
Florida. I broached the subject of
going home early with Tom this morning.
But he seems to think the noisy part of the work is almost done. We shall see. Such is life in the city. At least the
noise stops at the end of the day, and the literary critic continues to keep
the volume on his TV down very low all night. So at least we are able to sleep. Thanks for small blessings. When work was
done yesterday, we went out walking in the drizzle. Because it had been raining all day, we
didn’t go to the park where the dirt paths would be muddy. We stayed on the sidewalks, and even did a
little shopping. I’d made a
reservation for dinner at Coté Bergamote.
The food was very good, and service was really nice. We shared a crawfish salad, and then Tom
had a skirt steak and I had skate. The
skate (aile de raie) came with a
beautifully presented round of zucchini cooked with garlic and minced
shallots. Tom ordered a homemade
chocolate cake with a little scoop of ice cream for dessert, which the server
said he’d like to share with Tom.
A “bergamote,”
in case you’re wondering, is an orange that looks like a lemon. Coté Bergamote’s specialty is the use of
fresh herbs. For example, the crawfish
salad (above) was graced by a generous amount of freshly, coarsely chopped
mint. The skate had a smattering of
finely chopped chives. Tom’s steak,
too, was nicely seasoned with herbs. I
still needed to add some freshly ground sea salt and pepper to the fish and
vegetables, however. But that’s
typical for a Floridian in France, I think.
We’re used to more spice in our food.
Every year when
we come to Paris, I make sure to order skate a couple of times. I don’t understand at all why this isn’t
served often in Florida restaurants, because skate is plentiful in Gulf Coast
waters. It is a mild and pleasant
tasting fish – nothing at all is strange about it. And the bones are easier to avoid than they
are in other fish. Why, oh why, can’t
we have this more often in Florida? It
should be on every seafood menu in the state. At least Coté
Bergamote gave me a generous serving of raie
last night. The food there is simple,
a bit rustic, and good. The décor is that
of a country cottage, which seems warm in cold weather, and refreshing in hot
weather. Yesterday, because of the
rain and slight chill, the clear plastic curtains had been lowered around the
outdoor terrace tables. We don’t sit
there anyway because of smokers. But I
wonder if smoking is allowed on the terrace when these impervious curtains
are down? Nobody wanted
to sit out there last night, it seemed.
By the time we walked home, the rain had stopped completely, and the
sky was beginning to clear. The church
was lit up inside, which made for some lovely nighttime scenes. Working during
the day has been a bit tough lately, but the evenings are still magical. I guess we’ll stick around here for a while
longer. |
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
The
Saint-Sulpice church at night.
The
rue Servandoni at the intersection with the rue du Canivet.
Tom’s
excellent skirt steak and potatoes, which were topped with a pesto and
cilantro. |
