Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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On what might be the last warm evening of this summer in Paris, we went for a walk in the Luxembourg Gardens yesterday. When we reached the far end of it, Tom said, “Let’s walk down to Val de Grace.” Val de Grace is a venerable old military hospital. We like to sit on a park bench, between two fountains, in the small Place Alphonse Laveran and gaze across the street at the stately fence, courtyard, dome, and gracious main entrance of Val de Grace. Val de Grace started as a church, built with funds from Anne of Austria, the wife of Louis XIII, as her way of saying “thank you God” after the birth of her son, Louis XIV. She was grateful, after having been trying to get pregnant through 23 years of marriage. That’s a long time to be trying. And by the standard of the time, especially, that was an old age for being pregnant. So she had this church built on the grounds of a Benedictine convent. Louis XIV, at age 7, helped to lay the cornerstone, in 1645. By that time, Louis XIV, had a brother, Philippe I. Much later, at the time of the Revolution, the church was spared much of the damage inflicted on other churches because the Benedictine nuns cared for injured Revolutionaries. That’s how the convent began to morph into a military hospital. Now the hospital enjoys a great reputation, and very important people have received and continue to receive medical care there. We discussed dinner plans as we gazed at this beautiful place. I suggested Aux Deux Oliviers, on the rue de Vaugirard, across from the Senate. This tiny little restaurant that we’ve enjoyed a few times in recent summers is open seven days a week. After strolling back, alongside the Square de l’Observatoire’s gardens and under the trees Luxembourg Gardens’ east section, we crossed the rue Vaugirard and entered the tiny restaurant at 7:45PM. The server knew we didn’t have a reservation, because he knew he had no reservations made by people with American accents. No problem. He gave us a nice little corner table for two. If we can fault Aux Deux Oliviers for anything, it is that they have squeezed in just one or two tables too many, making the place a tad too crowded. Only one other table was occupied when we entered, but the place filled up quickly as we dined. The menu had changed somewhat, which is always a good sign. I ordered a starter of beignets de calamars, which I shared with Tom These were calamari fried Tempura style, and served with a spicy sweet-and-sour sauce. They were stunningly good: not greasy, crisp on the outside, and the calamari was soft and juicy on the inside. I do like it when my calamari does not have the texture of rubber bands! We were delighted with that appetizer, and didn’t have to wait long at all for the main courses to arrive. Tom’s was a wok-cooked dish of pork and vegetables. Nicely spicy, it came with a side of basmati rice. Its sauce was thyme- and honey-based. I ordered the salmon duo with homemade tagliatelle pasta. The smoked salmon was superb; I shared some with Tom. The brochette of three chunks of grilled salmon was just fine, and the homemade tagliatelles with a small amount of creamy sauce was very good. After I added salt and pepper, it was great. The portions were right-sized. This was a relief, after seeing food go to waste the previous night because the portions were too large. For dessert, Tom ordered the pain perdu, which was made with a brioche bread. It came on a small puddle of caramel sauce, along with a delicious scoop of high-quality caramel ice cream. Caramel sauce seems to be popular this year. We keep seeing it. And the French version is nice because it is not overly sweet. When Tom was finishing his dessert, a couple of women entered the restaurant. One of them was obviously a regular, judging by the greeting she received from the server. But they must not have reserved. He asked them to wait for just a minute or two at a table that had been reserved for four. Having noticed this, we asked for our check, and the server brought it fairly promptly. We paid up, said our goodbyes to the server, and made our way through the tiny, crowded dining room. As we passed by, we smiled and nodded at one of the women who were waiting, and she returned the smile. She clearly knew we were making way for them, and was pleased. That was the best dinner we’ve had yet at Aux Deux Oliviers. A real success! On the way home, we paused at the restaurant La Cuisine de Philippe on the rue Servandoni -- the other possibility that we’d considered for dinner. But as I’d suspected, it was closed on Monday night. Perhaps that’s where we’ll dine tonight. The restaurant on the corner of rue Servandoni and rue du Canivet, Au Bon Pourcain, was fairly busy, in spite of the fact that its lighting is too harsh and that the resto accepts cash only, no credit cards. I think people like it because it is so quaint looking, is located on a quaint, quiet corner, and the menu is so classically French. So very French. That classically French cuisine is taught at a school funded by the Chamber of Commerce that was formerly called the École Superieure de la Cuisine Française Grégoire-Ferrandi. I’ve written about it in prior years’ Paris Journals. This year, I noticed that it has split. The part of the school that is really not about cuisine, where crafts like leatherworking, upholstery, and furniture-making are taught, has split away to become a separate school, called Les Ateliers Grégoire. The French cuisine school is now called Ferrandi, l’École Francaise de Gastronomie. Both schools seem still to be located on the rue de l’Abbaye Grégoire in the 6th arrondissement, but now are administered separately, it seems. (We visited this establishment on Patrimony Days weekend several years ago.) Yet both schools remain among the ten schools of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called the CCIP. The Ferrandi is organized into five areas: cooking, baking, pastry-making, and restaurant management, as well as service et arts de la table. Most importantly, it calls itself the “leading French school of gastronomy.” I wonder what Le Cordon Bleu has to say about that claim? The Ferrandi’s International Programs section offers many intensive summer courses in English, on subjects such as bread baking and snacking, French charcuterie and catering, French regional cuisine, pastry, the French macaroon, wine, and more. We know that the young chefs at many of our favorite restaurants in Paris were trained at the Ferrandi. I wish our Chambers of Commerce would create and run schools like this in the U.S. Maybe someday . . . . |
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The
rue de Férou is attracting many more tourists now
that Rimbaud’s poem, “The Drunken Ship,” is on the wall of the Finance
building that was once a seminary.
Shell
art table pedestal in a shop on the rue Jacob.
Pain perdu, what we call French toast,
is literally “lost bread.”
Traditionally, it was made with stale bread. This one, however, was made with a fine brioche bread, and served on a puddle of caramel
sauce, with caramel ice cream, at Aux Deux Oliviers.
Cocktail
lounge at the Hotel Lenox, with its fascinating inlaid wood jazz scene panels
on the walls.
A
strange view in a shop window on the rue de l’Université. We saw this Sunday evening, as we began our
walk home from Les Ministères. |
