Street Performer on Rue Mouffetard
(c) Discover Paris!
Among the picturesque street markets in Paris, rue Mouffetard is one of the most popular. Sunday morning is perhaps the liveliest time of the week, with musicians and street performers providing entertainment while shoppers buy their provisions from the colorful food stalls that line the street.
Jazz on Rue Mouffetard
(c) Discover Paris!
Carpet of Flowers
(c) Discover Paris!
For late Mother’s Day shoppers, here is an added incentive to spring into action and buy your mother a gift before it is too late. Purchase a copy of Paris Insights – An Anthology before May 9th, and Discover Paris! will send you a color-photo-laden document of a promenade through a lesser-known garden destination that your mom will enjoy reading about or visiting when she is in Paris. All you need to do is forward the message that you receive as confirmation of your order to us at
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Lionell Thomas with Painting
Photograph courtesy of Troy Poplous
Shortly before a group of twelve young singers and actors from the McDonogh 35 College Preparatory High School left New Orleans to perform in the musical Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Banlieues Bleues festival in La Courneuve, near Paris, they were invited by the French consul Olivier Brochenin to a reception at his home. It was there that Lionell Thomas, the twin brother of one of the performers, presented a painting that honors the twelve students and their director, Troy Poplous. Thomas’ work will be featured at this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Read about the great performance that the students gave at the Banlieues Bleues Festival in this month’s Paris Insights newsletter. To join our ever growing list of subscribers, click on the “Subscribe” link on the newsletter announcement page, just above the title of the article. (Access to the newsletter is by paid subscription.)
Pietra - A Corsican Beer
(c) Discover Paris!
Our friends Diane and Eric recently invited us to their place for dinner. While Diane was in the kitchen, Eric (who is Belgian), gave us a crash course on beer. When we later took our leave, Eric gave us a bottle of Pietra Corsican beer made with water, malted barley, hops, yeast, and…chestnut flour!
Upon pouring, the beer developed a nice head of foam. Lots of tiny bubbles kept rising from the depths of the glass to sustain the head. To my palate, the amber-colored beer was slightly sweet yet slightly bitter and refreshing. It had a soft, pillowy mouth feel. If we hadn’t known that it was brewed with chestnut flour, which has a mild flavor to begin with, we wouldn’t have tasted it in the beer. I think that the chestnut smooths out the bitterness that is normally found in such brews.
Diane left the corporate world to launch a career as a chef. Her blog, called “Girl Cook in Paris,” can be found at the following link http://girlcookinparis.blogspot.com.
Person on a Horse by Charlie Mercier
Charlie Mercier, an American artist living in Paris, will be auctioning his paintings at the Musée/Gallerie Adzak on Saturday, May 1 at 2:00 p.m. The gallery is located at 3, rue Jonquoy in the 14th arrondissement; Metro Plaisance (line 13).
Bidding starts at 5 euros for the small paintings, 10 euros for the larger ones.
His paintings can be viewed at the following link: http://charliespaintings.wordpress.com.
We purchased two of his paintings recently, one of which is shown here. We like to think that it represents Lady Godiva!
Caffe Latte Made with Coffee from the Chitul-Tirol Plantation in Guatemala
(c) Discover Paris!
Gloria Montenegro at La Caféothèque has an approach to coffee selection and tasting that is similar to the approach that scotch aficionados have toward single-malt whiskys. She believes that single-origin coffees should not be blended with beans of other origins as is so often done at coffee-roasting facilities. Consequently, she sells unblended coffee beans from identifiable plantations from all over the world. At any given time during the day, she sells twenty different estate coffees in her shop. On the day that I stopped in, I ordered a caffe latte, which was made from a coffee grown on a plantation called Chitul-Tirol in Guatemala. Along with the latte, she handed me an information sticker on which the following tasting notes appeared: “Natural aroma of honey; Notes of chocolate and pepper; Full bodied; Lingers long on the palate; Beautiful acidity.” While I must admit that I did not seek to identify these aromas and flavors while I drank the latte, the information did give me pause for thought that maybe I would enjoy learning more about the art of drinking fine estate coffees.
La Caféothèque is located at 52, rue de l’Hôtel-de-Ville and is open seven days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Patrick Jouin in the Plaza Athénée Bar
(c) Discover Paris!
For the final stage of the promenade, we stopped at the posh Hôtel Plaza Athénée, where Patrick Jouin has remodeled elements of the bar, the lounge, and the restaurant. The bar now has a futuristic look, as it is made out of hand-crafted Mureno glass. Gentle illumination at its base casts an eerie sea-green glow into the room. At the far end of the lounge, an immense ceiling fixture that looks like a giant oblong bunion pad adds another futuristic touch.
For the most part, the classic look of the restaurant escaped his radical tampering. The main change there was to the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Here, the crystal elements have been “exploded,” each pendant suspended by a separate wire, rather than clustered together in a spray. The result gives an appearance of expansiveness, which, to my eye, is disturbing, as I prefer the complex hanging pattern of the crystal to be bunched together, where I can readily identify its arrangement.
To end the promenade, we returned to the bar, where Mr. Jouin made final comments and answered questions as we sipped fruit juice served by an elegantly dressed young waiter. For all of us, the day had been quite an enjoyable, educational experience in the world of design!
This is the last post in the series entitled “Promenade with Patrick Jouin.”
Patrick Jouin under Chandelier
(c) Discover Paris!
Franck and Karine Marchesi-Grandi
Chef and Proprietors of L'Agrume
(c) Discover Paris!
On the first of each month, we publish a restaurant review, which we call “Le Bon Goût,” for the readers of our Paris Insights newsletter. In it, we not only describe our dining experience, but also write about the chef or the proprietor, and illustrate the review with a photograph of him or her.
We have been reviewing restaurants for many years, and have met many chefs and proprietors who are passionate about the art of preparing great cuisine. By writing about them, we hope that we can communicate their passion to you, their customer.
In this month’s Le Bon Goût, we review a restaurant called L’Agrume. Operated by husband and wife team Franck and Karine Marchesi-Grandi, their small restaurant serves up great food at modest prices.
Access to the review is available to paid subscribers of our newsletter. To enter a subscription, click here.
Second Floor Dining Room of Sombath Restaurant
(c) Discover Paris!
Patrick Jouin met us at two restaurants that he redesigned. The first, called Sombath, is a Thai restaurant whose cultural references he rendered so abstractly that it could pass for any type of expensive restaurant serving any kind of cuisine. Colors in scintillating gold, bold orange, and soft creams are supposed to call to mind temple treasures, women’s dresses and rice paddies. To the designer perhaps! But for me, entering into the restaurant was like entering into a kind of Starship Enterprise equipped with padded walls and gentle curves to protect the diners in the event of a sudden stop.
The restaurant seems to have been deliberately designed to force the diner to set aside any preconceived notions that he may have held about Thailand. It is an intellectual exercise that I would not want to be obliged to engage in when sitting down to enjoy a good Thai meal. Give me a Thai restaurant that looks like a Thai restaurant!
McDonogh 35 College Preparatory High School Students of New Orleans
Photograph courtesy of Banlieues Bleues
Twelve students from McDonogh 35 College Preparatory High School in New Orleans, their director, and a supporting cast of student musicians, singers, and dancers from conservatories and colleges of Paris and the Parisian suburbs gave a spectacular performance of Ain’t Misbehavin’ last weekend at the Banlieues Bleues festival in La Courneuve, a commune in the administrative département of Seine-Saint-Denis. Xavier Lemettre, director of the festival, wanted the musical—the first performed in Banlieues Bleues’ 27 years of existence—to inject new, artistic energy into the multi-week celebration. Based on what I saw at the performance, he greatly succeeded!
Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a tribute to song writer, musician, and composer Fats Waller and other musicians of the Harlem Renaissance. The show’s director, Troy Poplous, has extensive experience in directing stage plays and musical productions, including Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun, as well as the musical version of this play. Among his current activities, he teaches Theatre Arts and Fine Arts at the McDonogh 35 High School. Funding for the American students’ trip to Paris was provided by the Consulate General of France of New Orleans.
 | 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. |