Fearless Blogger Prepares to Enter
Construction Site in Saint-Denis
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Who is this stalwart blogger? And what danger could he possibly be facing that requires him to wear this silly-looking safety helmet? Come back tomorrow to find out!
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Confiseries à la Figue from Première Pression Provence
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
During our last visit to Première Pression Provence, manager Jenna Thornton offered us a package of confiseries à la figue that are made in Provence. We took them home, tasted them, and found that we liked them very much!
These round, three-layered sweets measure 7/8″ in diameter and are 1/2″ thick. The top layer consists of hard-sugar frosting, the middle layer a pasty confection of fig, almond, and melon, and the bottom layer a paper-thin azyme made from potato starch and sunflower oil. Small enough to pop into the mouth, they are sweet and chewy. The immediate and lasting flavor that I experienced was, strangely enough, cinnamon, which is not even an ingredient. It must have been the fig that I tasted, which, for me, has a cinnamon-like flavor. Monique declared that almond was the predominant flavor.
Première Pression Provence
51, rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Ile
75004 Paris
Telephone: 09.66.98.23.48
Open Sunday to Friday 10:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m
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La Réprise
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Travelers to Paris who use the metro to get around the city will, sooner or later, come upon any of the 300 musicians who perform in its passageways. In April, we had the opportunity to attend an audition held by Espace Métro Accords, where we participated on a jury to help determine which of the competing musicians should be granted a license to play there. Read about how the selection process is made in this month’s Paris Insights.
To view a preview of the newsletter, click here.
Paris Insights is published monthly as a downloadable PDF file. It is available only to paid subscribers for an annual subscription fee of $30.
If you are not a paid subscriber and would like to download the newsletter, please click here. Enter promotional code 11473309154 to receive a $5 discount off the price of an annual subscription.
Bonne lecture!
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Daniel Ungaro, Olive Oil Producer
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Daniel Ungaro grows olives in the Vaucluse, a French administrative département in southeastern France. He recently paid a visit to the Première Pression Provence shop on Ile Saint-Louis in Paris, where we asked him some questions about olive growing.
He told us that most of his annual production of 2,000 liters comes from olive trees that are twelve years old. During harvest season, he watches the olives carefully and when they are ready, he spreads netting under the trees and shakes the trunks with a machine. The olives drop from the tree limbs into the nets; none that reach the ground can be used for pressing. He once hired workers to harvest his olives by hand, but the cost of labor now makes this method prohibitively expensive.
One of the surprising facts that he told us about olive trees is that they do not have natural pollinators (such as bees or other insects). Instead, it is the Mistral, a strong wind from the north that blows down to the Mediterranean, that pollinates the trees.
We tasted one of Daniel’s oils, “La Cavalerie,” produced from olives that have just started to ripen. It has a powerful, peppery flavor. Not for the timid! Jenna Thornton, manager of the store, served a number of hors d’oœvres, including chunks of country bread drizzled with the oil and sprinkled with tomato powder, goat cheese with garlic marinated in the oil and served on slices of baguette, and thinly-sliced raw zucchini flavored with fresh, crushed mint and drizzled with his oil. All were appetizing dishes!
La Cavalerie Olive Oil by Daniel Ungaro
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
For more information about Daniel Ungaro, click here.
Première Pression Provence
51, rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Ile
75004 Paris
Telephone: 09.66.98.23.48
Open Sunday to Friday 10:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m
We participate in Wanderfood Wednesdays. Head over there to explore food from around the world!
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David McCullough Autographs His Book The Greater Journey for Monique Y. Wells, Co-founder of Discover Paris!
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
David McCullough, award-winning author and historian, was guest of honor at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Paris last night. His most recent book, The Greater Journey, is about Americans who lived in Paris from the 1830s to the 1900s.
In his speech, McCullough talked about the importance of the Franco-American relationship, asserting that the United States would not have gained its independence without the financial, military, and intellectual support of France. In reference to France’s intellectual influence, he stated the the founding fathers who came to Paris felt at home here because the ideals of freedom were being discussed in intellectual circles at that time.
A speaker on hundreds of college campuses, McCullough spoke of his dismay that students today are historically illiterate. He talked about the importance of studying history and stated that history is more than just political and military narrative. History covers all human activity, including art, architecture, music, and poetry.
History, he said, shows that individuals cannot achieve great things alone, that they must work with others in a community. An historian, he said, is forcibly a short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist.
McCullough came to Paris for the first time in 1961. He loves the city and the research that he performs here. He was particularly proud to announce that his granddaughter, who attended the event, is currently studying French in Paris.
A film crew from the Public Broadcasting System filmed McCullough’s presentation. Journalist Morley Safer and stage and screen star Olivia de Havilland (who played the roll of Melanie Hamilton in the movie Gone with the Wind) were among the guests.
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Nabil Debabha
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Returning home Thursday afternoon after watching a jazz concert on the Saint Louis bridge, I passed by a small shop on Ile Saint-Louis located at the intersection of rue des Deux Ponts and quai d’Orléans. The shop window displays baskets of dried fruits, large glass jars of nuts, and trays of Oriental sweets that look like colorful flowers. The shop keeper, whose name I later learned is Nabil Debabha, called out from inside the boutique that he sells a wide variety of these delicacies. Intrigued, I stepped inside to learn more.
Nabil offered samples of his dried fruits to taste, including dried kiwi, melon, mango, cranberry, blueberry, raisin, peach, orange, gooseberry, goji berry, and even…white blackberry. Some of the fruits, such as blueberry and cranberry, have been re-hydrated in pomegranate molasses, which gives them a delicious, sweet flavor. He told me that some of the nuts have been grilled with saffron and lemon, and offered me a sample of blanched almonds grilled in rapeseed oil, Brazil nuts, Macadamia nuts, and cashews. He grills some of the nuts in argan oil, which, I learned later, is produced in Morocco.
As for the flower-like Oriental sweets, these are made from 80% almond or pistachio paste and are flavored with cinnamon, rose water, orange-flower water, or almond kernels. Nabil showed me his baklava bourgoise, a three-layered baklava consisting of a layer each of pine nut, pistachio, and almond. I tasted this, and it is fabulous!
Goji Berries
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
At Nabil’s suggestion, I purchased 100 grams of goji, a berry cultivated in China. Dried goji are small and shriveled. When I popped a few in my mouth they first tasted slightly salty. As I began chewing, a sweet, mild flavor came through. I can’t think of any berry that has a similar flavor. It is a product that one has to try for oneself to appreciate!
Travelers to Paris will surely be as intrigued as I was to see and sample Nabil’s wide variety of nuts and dried fruits, some of which are quite exotic.
Nabil’s shop is located at 1, rue des Deux Ponts, on Ile Saint-Louis in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. He is open seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. There is no name on the store front. Just look for the display of fruits, nuts, and sweets in the window!
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Tales of Storms and Other Encounters is a stimulating book of short stories by Michele S. Kurlander. Kurlander is a Francophile like few others I’ve met. She frequently writes articles about her experiences in Paris and has included two stories about the city in Tales of Storms, which is her first book.
In “Notre Dame,” the young protagonist Angela seeks redemption within the cathedral whose “two muscular arms reached up into the sky” and whose “faceted circle of stone rested in its forehead like a third eye.” All the helplessness and confusion that Angela feels are evoked in Kurlander’s description of the cold, wet city that she encounters as she searches for the church and again when she is caught in a downpour after running from it with money that she has stolen from a coin box. Derek, the cause of her distress, has brought her to the City of Light and she thinks that she has escaped him. But fate has something different in mind…
“The Bridge” is the story of a married woman who was caught in a rainstorm and “saved” from an old beggar woman on the Pont des Arts by a handsome Frenchman. We find her writing a letter to her husband Bill about her experience of that day – without mention of the Frenchman, of course. Her narrative includes many common threads in American observations about Paris – the small size of her very expensive hotel room, the propensity for the sky to cloud over at a moment’s notice, the feeling of being a “real world traveler…”
Kurlander paints the scene at the bridge so vividly that those who know Paris will be able to see it unfold as though they were watching it on television or at the cinema. The city’s role in the story is as intimate as the romantic encounter between the woman and the Frenchman. His name is Jean-Pierre. We never learn the identity of the woman.
There are eight additional stories in Tales of Storms and Other Encounters, many of which are set in Kurlander’s home town of Chicago. I enjoyed them all! As the press release about the book states, “Not everything goes as you expect it to. You may be surprised – or shocked. You won’t be bored.”
Tales of Storms and Other Encounters is available at:
Shakespeare and Company, 37 rue Bûcherie, 75005 Paris, telephone: 01.43.25.40.93
Sandmeyer’s Bookstore, 714 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60605, telephone:
(312) 922-2104
From the author: lawmichele [at] aol [dot] com.
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Three Single-origin Chocolates by Fabrice Gillotte
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Fabrice Gillotte creates fine chocolates at his factory in Burgundy. He has been honored with a number of awards for his work, including Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 1990.
We stopped by Mococha on rue Mouffetard where Marie-Hélène Gantois sells a selection of fine chocolates from French chocolate makers, including single-origin chocolates by Fabrice Gillote.
We purchased a 70g tablet each of Equateur, Sâo Thomé, and Papouasie – Nouvelle Guinée, and took them home to taste.
We found the Equateur (72% chocolate) to be quite bitter. Firm to the bite, smooth on the tongue, it did not melt rapidly nor reveal many flavors.
The Sâo Thomé (75% chocolate) had a firm, smooth texture and tasted earthy. It expressed animal notes and a “welcome to the farm” flavor. This chocolate is not for the timorous! We liked this one the best.
The Papouasie – Nouvelle Guinée (72% chocolate) was the mildest of the three, with notes of fruit and spice.
Mococha
89, rue Mouffetard
75005 Paris
Telephone: 01.47.07.13.66
Bonne dégustation!
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Three Olive Oils from Première Pression Provence
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
To research information about olive oil for this month’s Paris Insights newsletter, we purchased three types of the product from Première Pression Provence, a shop on rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Ile. The company sells oils supplied by roughly 35 small producers in Provence, a region in southern France.
There are three basic types of olive oil sold in the shop: green fruité (from olives harvested prematurely), ripe fruité (from olives picked at maturity), and black fruité (from ripe-harvested olives that have been stored under controlled conditions). We chose one of each category, each from a different producer. We took them home and tasted the oils from a spoon or drizzled on a slice of fresh baguette.
We found the green fruité from Daniel Ungaro to taste like unripened banana. It was sweet and had a sharp peppery finish.
The ripe fruité from Oliver Roux was slightly sweet with a mild peppery finish.
The black fruité from Pierre-Guy Desrousseaux was quite aromatic and slightly sweet with a peppery finish.
Each oil had a distinctive taste, with the green being sharp and the ripe and black being rounded and smooth with full-fruit flavor.
If you, the reader, have always thought that all olive oils taste the same, it is probably because you have been purchasing oils destined for mass consumption at supermarkets. Try an artisanal oil when you get the chance! They are more expensive than mass-produced oils, but you will taste the difference.
Première Pression Provence
51, rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Ile
75004 Paris
Telephone: 09.66.98.23.48
Open Sunday to Friday 10:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Our Paris Insights newsletter is published monthly as a downloadable PDF file. It is available only to paid subscribers for an annual subscription fee of $30.
To view a preview of the newsletter, click here.
If you are not a paid subscriber and would like to download the newsletter, please click here. Enter promotional code 11473309154 to receive a $5 discount off the price of an annual subscription.
Bonne Lecture!
We participate in Wanderfood Wednesdays. Head over there to explore food from around the world!
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
Robyn Blaber
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Robyn Blaber, better known as Sir Robyn to his friends, participated in a fencing tournament today. Called Tournois des Quais de Seine, Robyn preferred to call it “The Slaughter on the Water.” The event took place at Stade Pierre de Courbertin in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
A Courteous Salute
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
During a courteous salute before the bloodletting began, Robyn stared down his opponent.
Robyn Takes a Hit
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Robyn, who started fencing for the first time only six months ago, was pleased with his performance in the competition. He said that he “took one good hit in the chest,” and brushed aside concern that it must have felt quite painful, saying “If you don’t have a few bruises [after the competition], then you’re not doing it right.”
Robyn Counterattacks
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Robyn gave back as good as he got!
More Fighting
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Lunging, parrying, fighting…he battled to the bitter end! In the photo (above), a frightened young photographer runs by to avoid being massacred.
Alas! His valiant efforts were not enough. His team did not qualify for the second round. But there will be a next time!
Robyn Blaber in Classic Pose
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
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 | Tom Reeves - author of Paris Insights - An Anthology and Dining Out in Paris - What You Need to Know before You Get to the City of Light. |