Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
Find me on Facebook 2013
Paris Journal ← Previous Next
→ << Back to the beginning
|
As I approached the church, many people seemed to be leaving it. Attendance must be up at Saint Sulpice, I thought. The church’s recent outreach efforts must be effective. Those were just the people who were leaving mass early, I discovered, as I entered through the big wooden doors and heard the sound of a male soloist singing a prayer. I stood at the back of the sanctuary and silently prayed on my own. As the postlude began, I walked along the outer edge as others were leaving, until I reached the front rows. Then I took a seat just off the center aisle. The grand organ thundered marvelously. I meditated during most of the audition, which is what the church calls this 45 minutes of music following mass. The music flowed around me, and in my meditations, I felt at one with it. Jean-Guy Proulx (the organist for the Cathédrale Saint-Germain in Rimouski, Québec, Canada) was performing on the grand Cavaillé-Coll organ on this beautiful Autumn Sunday. During the last several minutes of the audition, I took some photos. I wish I could have captured the sound, but there was no way to do that faithfully. The awesomeness would be difficult to record well; it would take some mighty fine sound equipment. As I returned to the apartment, I marveled at the large number of people who now walk down the rue Férou, guidebooks in hand. Having that Rimbaud poem (Le Bateau Ivre) on the wall there has turned the little street into a tourist attraction. Later in the afternoon, I went out again, this time to the Luxembourg Gardens bandstand where a 6-piece jazz combo was playing. Two of the six musicians (keyboard and one sax) were women; that is a bit unusual in jazz, I’m afraid. It should be more common. The group was really good, especially after they warmed up. The guitarist was outstanding. Like Tom’s band, Island Jazz, the group played for about an hour and a half. I tried to message Tom to tell him the music was good, and to come quickly. But he read the message too late. Oh well. In the evening, we had a reservation at the beautiful Vagenende on the boulevard Saint Germain. The Vagenende is a Sunday-family-dinner kind of place, so we weren’t so surrounded by American tourists. Plenty of tables were occupied by French people, and one huge table was occupied by a group that appeared to be Swedish diplomats; they looked very handsomely Scandanavian – such fine bone structure. They were central-castings kind of Swedes. We started by sharing a tasty crab-and-avocado millefeuille appetizer. It was easy to decide on main courses. We have fond memories of the seafood quenelles at the Vagenende, and so that’s what Tom ordered: quenelles de brochet soufflées, sauce Nantua --
souffléed pike
quenelles, floating in a bisque-like
crawfish sauce. The daily special on Sunday is rognons de veau flambés au porto (calf’s kidneys flambés in port wine sauce). I’d been reading about rognons de veau, a classic French dish, and thought this would be a good place to try them. I didn’t remember having rognons de veau before, but I guess I did, exactly two years ago, at Le Caveau du Palais, according to this Journal. Hmmm. I mentioned two years ago that I liked the sauce, but I wrote nothing about the kidneys. Usually that means I did not like them, or they made no impression on me. You see, I hate to dwell on the negative when I write. Last night’s rognons de veau were delicious – especially the sauce, which had an interesting, almost fruity quality. The kidneys were perfectly cooked: neither grossly underdone, nor rubbery overdone. I had been surprised that the server asked me “quel cuisson” (how do you want it cooked) because my research indicated that there is only one cuisson, and that is just right (so the kidneys are not gross and not rubbery). The server saw the look of surprise on my face, and suggested “medium?” And so I said “oui.” What else could I say? Evidently, that was the right choice. But it makes me wonder, would anyone order kidneys saignante (bloody rare)? Would anyone want them bien cuit (like tough rubber)? Tom’s quenelles were rich and smooth, and the bisque-like sauce was a savory velvet. He tried the kidneys, and especially liked the sauce and the puréed potatoes that came with the dish. He gave me half a quenelle, too. Both dishes – the quenelles and the kidneys – arrived in covered copper pots and both were too copious. I was given one and a half kidneys. Even just one would have been more than enough. Do these little French people who dine at Vagenende really eat so much? It seems that I have many questions after that dinner. But I know we enjoyed it, and particularly liked our back corner table where I could see the entire, glorious dining room. Well, almost the entire dining room. For some reason, the part of the room with the stained glass ceiling as curtained off. I hope the ceiling hasn’t been damaged. But if it has, I am fairly certain that the Egurreguy family who owns the Vagenende will restore it. They have done a fine job with the place so far; they obviously treasure and preserve it. Generally this is true of the French (with some notable exceptions): they treasure the fine old things from the splendorous past. Comme il faut.
|
Monday, September 15, 2014
Église Saint Sulpice.
The jazz combo named Jazzific performing on the bandstand
of the Luxembourg Gardens.
The Vagenende dining room.
Behind the blue velvet curtains is a section of dining room that has a
stained glass ceiling. The Vagenende
has a lovingly restored interior, keeping the painted glass tiles on the
walls. The one below was damaged in
the past, but has been repaired as much as possible, and retained in
place. The artist Pivain signed most
of these nautical paintings on glass.
The crab-and-avocado millefeuille
appetizer.
|
