Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Over the years, I’ve been intrigued by the fact that so many people here in Paris have Spanish last names. I know that the Franco regime was an awful time in Spain, and that must be the reason why so many left the Iberian peninsula to settle in France. Recently finishing a book by Maria Dueñas has intensified my curiosity. In particular, I wanted to know more about Anne Hidalgo, the current mayor of Paris, because her administration oversees so much of what we enjoy about Paris. Another connection is that she came up through the political ranks in the 15th arrondissement, where we’ve lived for 17 summers now. Anne was born in 1959 in the Andalusian part of Spain. When she was just two years old, her family settled in Lyon. She did not become a French citizen until she was a teenager. Life in Lyon wasn’t wonderful; the Hidalgos lived in a bad housing project. The previous generation, her grandparents, had been political refugees who escaped Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. They did so by riding a donkey over the Pyrenees. But they later returned to Spain, and the grandfather was sentenced to life in prison. Anne’s parents were economic refugees when they left. Spain was a difficult place to live in the early 1960s. Anne grew up speaking both French and Spanish. Her family has moved on; her sister lives and works in Los Angeles, in the U.S., and her parents moved back to Spain. College is what drew Anne away from Lyon, to Paris, where she stayed. She had a rather stellar career as a civil servant, and retired from that in 2011. But ten years prior to that retirement, she began a career as an elected official. Even though she’s succeeded in politics, she has refused to go along with the party line a number of times. She was even ostracized by her party’s leadership at one point. She wrote about her experiences. One book, called Une femme dans l’arene (A woman in the arena), came out in 2006, and another, Travail au bord de la crise de nerfs (Working on the verge of a nervous breakdown) came out in 2010. Both were co-written with an author named Jean-Bernard Senon. One of the awards that Anne has received was “in recognition of successful Spanish integration in France.” The title of the award is Commander, Order of Isabella the Catholic. Anne is a Roman Catholic, and she is curiously very anti-Scientology. Other than this morsel of non-tolerance, the rest of Anne’s endeavers are fairly interesting, I think. And so I’m now following her on Facebook. Just the other day, Anne inaugurated an exhibition at the Place de la Republique called “Bring Back Our Girls.” It is in support of the 220 Nigerian students kidnapped more than 100 days ago. She was also on hand when the 101st Tour de France ended on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday. Earlier in the day, the Course feminine, a bicycle race for women, concluded there as well, and Anne was there to honor those female athletes. One of Anne’s major concerns as mayor of Paris is the lack of affordable housing. So social housing (what we Americans call subsidized housing) is a priority for her administration. She has not forgotten her childhood years in the projects. She wants Paris to do better. [Sources: Wikipedia.org, and www.latimes.com] This morning was so stunningly gorgeous that I went out for a walk through the Wednesday morning market at Grenelle and the Champ de Mars. On the Champ, I met an interesting couple from Columbus (Bexley, actually) who originally come from New York. Their son lives and works in Paris, and they have a new grandbaby to visit here. I told them about the market taking place, and they enthusiastically took off to see it. On my way home, I bought a handbag at the market. It is beautiful, soft, supple genuine leather (calf’s skin), made in Italy, with high-quality stitching and hardware. It isn’t large, but will hold my camera and phone, hairbrush, compact, lipstick and more. My wallet will always be kept elsewhere on my person. The vendor knocked off 5 euros from the already reasonable price. I was pleased. I hope the couple from Bexley/New York also had a good shopping experience at the market. Speaking of New York, Tom heard from one of the editors there about yet another project that the publisher wants for him to do. Yipee! This is one I can definitely help him with, and so work goes on. We aren’t dead yet. This sounds like cause for another celebratory dinner in Paris. Last night’s dinner was a good one. We returned to Le Court Bouillon, this time with a lafourchette.com discount of twenty percent. Tom ordered lamb yet again (fifth night in a row!) and I finally ordered a steak. We shared these main courses because Tom really wanted to try the steak, and I just had to have some of that wonderful Court Bouillon lamb. We began the little feast with Bouchées de langoustines, jus réduit à l’orange. I especially wanted to try that orange reduction sauce. These little lobster-stuffed pastries were delicate and flavorful, and the orange sauce was perfect for them. The dessert we shared was the moelleux au chocolat – a homemade specialty of the house. The chocolate used was of the highest quality -- a chocoholic’s dream dessert (Mom, are you listening?). This moelleux is named for “Jeanne,” the name of both Isa’s and Eric’s mothers, who each evidently made a great moelleux au chocolat. Isa was as bubbly and cheerful as the first time we dined there. She spoke with us for a while as we were leaving. She wanted to explain that their vacation would start this weekend, but that the resto would re-open on the 26th of August. I was impressed that she remembered us from Saturday. When we entered the resto, she said “voulez vous votre table?” meaning, did we want the same table we had on Saturday. She even remembered where we sat. Wow. So of course that’s where we sat. How could we not? Or does it mean that she found this journal, because I
wrote on Sunday that we used to sit at that table when the place was called
Le Bayadere?
Is that possible? Who knows. If so,
hello, Isa. Welcome to my world! And thank you and Eric for the lovely two
dinners that we’ve enjoyed there so far.
Bonnes vacances!
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Flowers
in the morning light on the Champ de Mars.
Bouchées
de langoustines, jus réduit à l’orange at Le Court Bouillon.
The
lamb on a latke (above) and the steak with Bearnaise
sauce (below).
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