Archive for August, 2017

The French Like to Read

Wednesday, August 30th, 2017
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Reading in the Jardin des Plantes
Photograph by Discover Paris!

A man reads a book while walking through the Jardin des Plantes.

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Finding True Love in the City of Light

Tuesday, August 29th, 2017
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Finding True Love in the City of Light
Photograph by Discover Paris!

A couple poses for a selfie on Trocadero Plaza with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.

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Our Book – Dining Out in Paris

Tuesday, August 29th, 2017
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Dining Out in Paris
Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition

Photograph by Discover Paris!

Our book, Dining Out in Paris – What You Need to Know before You Get to the City of Light, will give first- and even second-time travelers the knowledge and confidence that they need to enter into a Parisian restaurant to enjoy a fine meal.

Dining Out in Paris helps prepare the traveler for a wonderful French dining experience.

Click here to learn more or to order! http://amzn.to/219LraJ

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Looking West from Pont Neuf

Sunday, August 27th, 2017
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Pont Neuf

Looking West from Pont Neuf
Photograph by Discover Paris!

Looking west from Pont Neuf with a view of Pont des Arts and Pont du Carrousel (behind Pont des Arts). The Flore Pavilion of the Louvre lies to the right, and the Grand Palais can be seen in the background.

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Place de l’Estrapade

Saturday, August 26th, 2017
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Fountain at place de l’Estrapade
Photograph by Discover Paris!

Place de l’Estrapade is located just two minutes away from the Pantheon. I pass by the square often on my way to the starting point to give our popular “Black History in and around the Luxembourg Garden” walk.

In this photograph, taken four days ago, we can see that the Café de la Nouvelle Mairie has reopened for business. (Many cafés and restaurants close during the month of August.)

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Franprix Noé by Hanna Gressler

Thursday, August 24th, 2017
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Franprix Noé
Photograph by Hanna Gressler

Located in the fashionable rue Mouffetard in the 5th arrondissement, Franprix Noé sets a new standard in grocery shopping. Here, there is a focus on the shopping experience as well as product selection. Unlike the standard, black-and-orange-colored Franprix, this store sells organic products and lesser-known but high quality brands to promote a more responsible manner of consuming food.

The first few steps inside take you to the meat and cheese stand where an employee is ready to explain the different varieties of cheese and let you try a piece. The combination of the smell of cheese and the bread baking in the oven in the corner creates an enticing aroma that is authentic to Paris.

Past the ovens, located to the right of the entrance, there is a small salad bar with pita bread where you can make your own sandwich. In this area, you can also find refrigerated items such as packaged meat, ready-made meals, and yogurt, as well as fresh produce.

Franprix Noé offers a small range of vegetarian and vegan products. Some of these include vegan risotto with vegetables, ravioli with tofu, vegan sandwiches, and soy yogurt.

To the left side of the store, you’ll find all the things that an ordinary grocery store offers, such as potato chips, spaghetti and rice, canned foods, and fruit juices. But you can also find alternative versions to these products, including red quinoa spaghetti, gluten and dairy-free cake mix, and a variety of seeds that add a healthy twist to ordinary grocery fare.

Vegan Sandwiches (l) – Fresh Herbs (r)
Photographs by Hanna Gressler

With its oven cooking quiche and its juice machine pressing oranges, lemons, and grapefruit just inside the entrance, Franprix Noé offers a modern food-shopping experience. Here, everything is a bit more sophisticated than at your usual grocery store, with premium versions of cheese, charcuterie, and wine all around you. On your way out, you can even grab some fresh herbs for free or have a quick coffee in the cozy spot behind the check-out counter.

With its innovative displays of fine-food products, Franprix Noé promotes a more responsible way of shopping and a healthier way of living.

Franprix Noé
82, rue Mouffetard
75005 Paris
Tel: 08.00.35.00.00
Metro: Censier Daubenton (Line 7)

Hanna Gressler is a rising senior at the American University of Paris. She is currently serving as a summer intern for the Wells International Foundation.

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What’s New at Discover Paris!

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2017
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From left to right: Samantha Gilliams, Hanna Gressler, Tatiana Balabanis
Photograph by Wells International Foundation

This summer, three interns working for the Wells International Foundation have contributed to our “Entrée to Black Paris,” “Paris Insights,” and “Les Amis de Beauford Delaney” blogs. Samantha Gilliams and Hanna Gressler are seniors at American University of Paris and Tatiana Balabanis is a junior at Stanford University.

Click here to see the names of the articles (and their links): http://discoverparis.net/whatsnew.html

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The Eternal Quest for Beautiful Fesses – Our Fesses of the Month

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017
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Flore by Marcel Gimond
Photograph by Discover Paris!

This gilded bronze statue called Flore was realized by French sculptor Marcel Gimond and placed with seven other statues in 1937 on Trocadero Plaza. The beguiling fanny of this subject is only visible as a reflection in the window behind her on bright sunny days.

Click here for a close-up view!
https://fr.pinterest.com/pin/411586853436814317/

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“Le Marché du Soleil” — An Afro-Caribbean Market by Samantha Gilliams

Monday, August 21st, 2017
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Outside of Bao
Photograph by Samantha Gilliams

Bao Marché “Le Marché du Soleil,” an Afro-Caribbean market located in Bobigny, just outside of Paris, sells ingredients for the preparation of African and Caribbean cuisine. Sona and Kossi Muluana, a Franco-Congolais brother–and-sister team living in the Île de France, opened the store in 2012. Because they know that African and Caribbean people living in the suburbs often have to travel into Paris and visit multiple locations to find the ingredients for authentic home-cooked cuisine, the Muluanas wanted to provide them with a one-stop shopping experience on the outskirts of the city.

Bao is situated in the Centre Commercial Bobigny, an indoor shopping center with clothing stores, restaurants, and other small markets. Even though Bobigny is a suburb of Paris, it is very simple to get to via line 5 on the metro.

Inside the Centre Commercial de Bobigny
Photograph by Samantha Gilliams

I found the area around the metro stop (the buildings, roads, etc.) to be a bit run down, and the shopping center to be quite vacant (perhaps because it is August, when most locals are away on vacation). However, upon entering the center, I could hear upbeat Caribbean music coming from one of the stores. The beats were coming from Bao!

When I entered, I received a kind smile from the cashier. I then began to take a look around. As I was unfamiliar with Afro-Caribbean cuisine, this experience was a moment of discovery for me.

Façade of Bao
Photograph by Samantha Gilliams

A variety of fresh, frozen, and canned tropical fruits, root vegetables, spices, halal meat, and fruit juices are for sale here. One foreign fruit I recognized was plantains ̶ big, banana-like fruits. Starchy and savory, they are a delicious side dish when cooked to caramelized perfection.

Fresh Tropical Fruits and Peanut Butters
Photographs by Samantha Gilliams

Numerous jars of peanut butter and peanut pastes on the shelves immediately caught my attention! American expats know quite well that peanut butter is not an easy food to find in Paris, so to see the wide assortment available at Bao left me in awe.

I was also interested in all of the different types of bouillons and arômes that lined one of the shelves. These are dehydrated vegetable and/or meat flavorings that come in the form of cubes or concentrated liquids. In many parts of the world, they are used as a base for soups and stews or to enhance flavor.

Bouillons and Arômes
Photograph by Samantha Gilliams

I was surprised to see such a wide array, so I decided to look into their use in Afro-Caribbean food. It turns out that they are also a common base in West African cuisine. In fact, these arômes are used to replace the homemade fermented, roasted, milled seeds and/or beans that were originally used in the traditional recipes (to learn more, check out: http://eatyourworld.com/blog/african_cooking_whats_with_the_maggi_cubes).

Bao is the third “foreign” (non-French) market that I’ve visited in the past several weeks (Tang Frères [Chinese] and Velan [Indian] are the other two). I found that all have the ingredients needed for the preparation of authentic dishes and the discovery of taste sensations from around the world, right in the tiny kitchen of my Paris apartment!

BAO
Address: Centre Commercial Bobigny
2, boulevard Maurice Thorez
93000 Bobigny
Phone: 01.41.50.15.29
http://www.bao-marche.com/

Samantha Gilliams is a rising senior at the American University of Paris. She is currently serving as a summer intern for the Wells International Foundation.

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Is This the Narrowest Entryway in Paris?

Saturday, August 19th, 2017
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Twenty-seven-and-one-quarter-inches-wide Door
Photograph by Discover Paris!

This door, located at 133, rue Mouffetard, is only 27-1/4″ wide (69.22 cm). Can it be the narrowest in all of Paris?

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