Paris Journal 2011 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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It is worthwhile to note where Parisians like to go out to eat on Sundays and Mondays, the days when the wholesale produce, meat and dairy market at Rungis is closed, and therefore, many restaurants are closed. The restaurants that are closed include most of the best ones, although a notable smaller number of excellent and very good restaurants are open on those two days; Parisians know about them. The Café du Commerce, around the corner from us, is one of those places. In fact, on Sundays, one really should make a reservation, or arrive very early – like 7PM. It is open not only 7 days a week, but literally 365 days a year – even on the most important holidays. Originally, the building it is in was a haberdashery supply house – providing tailors and dressmakers with fabrics and notions. In 1921, it became a restaurant serving those who worked in the automobile and other factories in the Grenelle and Javel neighborhoods. It was one of the legendary “bouillons” of Paris – restaurants of some size that catered to workers and their families. But these are not casual or rough in décor. Au contraire. The original bouillons are Art Deco and Art Nouveau treasures. When the restaurant opened, it was called the restaurant “Aux Mille Couverts.” Did it really have a thousand seats? I don’t know. It has been through a series of owners, some good at the restaurant business, and some not so good. When we first arrived on scene in 1998, I think it was going through a not-so-good phase. But the Café du Commerce was purchased in 2003 by Marie and Etienne Guerraud, a couple of foodies who are also decent entrepreneurs. The menu has variety, yet it is fairly traditional. We’ve found it is best to order the southern/Provençal/Basque fare, and to avoid the Alsacian/northern fare. But whatever you do, do not miss the Baba au Rhum at this resto. Last night, we visited another one of these Art Nouveau wonders, the Montparnasse 1900. This place is so gorgeous that lots of people have photographed it. Although it had been a restaurant since 1858, this place really took on its décor and character after Edouard Chartier, of “bouillon” renown, bought it in 1903 and renovated it in 1906. (There were about 250 bouillons in Paris in 1900.) It claims to be yet another one of the places that the intelligentsia of the past would frequent: Picasso, Modigliani, Cocteau, Fitzgerald, Trotsky, etc. Being so near the big Montparnasse train station, the staff expects an international clientele. Even though we went in speaking French, we were initially given English menus and had to ask for the French ones. Dorade (also spelled “daurade”) was the daily special. Some English speaker out on the terrace asked what kind of fish dorade is. This sent the server scurrying inside to consult with six of his colleagues. I watched the conversation with interest, but refrained from telling them that dorade is sea bream. The staff wracked their brains, but it was the Asian-French hostess who came up with “sea bream.” Bravo! I smiled at her. She noticed my approval and beamed. Of course, if the customer out there was an American, “sea bream” still might not mean too much to them. And when the waiter returned a couple minutes later, I think he was saying that was the case. Dorade, or more specifically, gilt-head sea bream, lives in the Mediterranean sea and the eastern coastal regions of the north Atlantic. In other words, dorade is un-American. In Florida, I think I’d use pompano in place of gilt-head sea bream. And that would be even better than dorade. For a starter course, I ordered the salade de lentilles vertes du Puy aux lardons (salad made of small, round green lentils and ham bits). Even though this is classic French country fare, I’m not sure I have ever had it before. Anyway, it was excellent. There was too much of it, so I had to leave some in the dish. It would have been enough for an entire meal, just about. I shared some of the lentil salad with Tom, but he’d ordered the big, 300-gram onglet de boeuf (flank steak), which he loved. I had the magret de canard, and was surprised to receive the entire duck breast as a roast, not sliced, and the portion was large! This was unusual. The sauce for the duck was honey based, and it was light. Both dishes came with crispy, thin fries, which were excellent. I noticed the sole meunière was expensive, as it often is, but absolutely gorgeous. I think I will go back there for the sole meunière, but I will remove it from the bones myself. The server I watched did a decent job of this, but she wasted a lot of fish in her haste. Another eye-catcher was the profiterole. It was big, and came with a separate dish of warm chocolate sauce. Both of these “bouillon” restaurants are great examples of French entrepreneurship. They blossomed and grew at the same time that the grande école de commerce blossomed and grew. The “commerce” school started and run by the Paris Chamber of Commerce (CCIP) is called Advancia. It was started in 1863, and one of its original campuses is on the rue Armand-Moisant, in that corner of the 15th that I often think of as being in the 14th. It is not far from the Tour Montparnasse, the skyscraper that many Parisians and others love to hate. The commerce school building on rue Armand-Moisant was built in 1908. Now, as I wrote on September 3, there is a new building for the school right next to this older one. It is glass, colorful, and controversial. But I think it will be better loved than the Tour Montparnasse. In case anyone is interested, the Advancia school does have programs for international students. These even include summer study programs. Or, English-speaking students can take the final year (or one semester) of the Bachelor’s program in English, or certain courses in the Masters program that are taught in English. We walked down to the rue Armand-Moisant last night to see this place. It is difficult to accommodate big buildings in an area with small, narrow streets, but that has been a curse of this neighborhood for a long time, because of big hospitals and other institutions. Somehow, though, I think the new Advancia building will work out. The tall, narrow panels of colored glass that open and close somehow break up the scale of the place, and give it a bit of rhythm with its neighboring structures. It certainly injects color into the immediate environment. It was easy to wander from there past the ugly Tour Montparnasse and Galeries Lafayette to reach the boulevard Montparnasse, where the Montparnasse 1900 restaurant stood right before us. I’d wanted to try this restaurant especially since reading a review of it last year. Its décor is eye candy, and evidently lots of French people think so, too. By the time we left for our walk home, the place was filling up. Another classic Sunday/Monday night dinner place in Paris – we fell into it naturally. Sign
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Tuesday, September 6, 2011
New
building for the Advancia school of
entrepreneurship, on the rue Armand-Moisant in the
15th. I admire the Paris
Chamber of Commerce for establishing its great schools that take students up
to the Masters level.
The
original commerce school building on the rue Armand-Moisant, built in 1908.
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