Tom with Bee Hat
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Why, it’s none other than our intrepid reporter on his way to another story. The last time we saw him he was stumbling onto the dock from a boat where he had tasted six wines. Only small sips, mind you!
Tune in tomorrow for more adventure!
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
Emerging onto Dry Land
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
We recently learned that a barge makes bimonthly trips to Paris to sell wine that is produced around L’Yonne, a French administrative département that lies to the southeast of the city. Heedless of the dangers of sipping wine on a rocking boat, our intrepid reporter visited the barge to taste six different wines. Emerging unscathed from the experience, he wrote an article about how it is now possible to purchase wine from this vessel when it docks along the canal in the City of Light. Read about this unique dockside wine cellar in this month’s Paris Insights, our monthly newsletter.
To view a preview of the newsletter, click here.
Our newsletter 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!
We participate in Wanderfood Wednesdays. Head over there to explore food from around the world!
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
Memorial to Django Reinhardt
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
This column, called a Morris column, stands at place Django Reinhardt in the 18th arrondissement. Bearing the name of this famous jazz guitarist, the column and the place were inaugurated on January 21, 2010 in his memory.
In the July edition of our Paris Insights newsletter, I wrote about Reinhardt and the café in the adjoining town of Saint-Ouen that is dedicated to the type of music that he played.
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!
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
Background: tray of dried fruits
Foreground: powdered fruits
Clockwise from upper left: orange, mango, lemon, strawberry
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
Last May we stopped by Nabil Debabha’s shop on Ile Saint-Louis where we tasted an assortment of his delicious dried fruits, nuts, and Oriental sweets. On Sunday, I stopped by again and learned that he has a new product, powdered fruit. It comes in four flavors: strawberry, lemon, orange, and mango. I took home a sample of strawberry to try.
By itself, the powdered strawberry tastes slightly tart. At Nabil’s suggestion, we added it to tea and yoghurt. We brewed a cup of English breakfast tea and added a tablespoon of the powder. It does, indeed, produce a pleasant strawberry-flavored tea. Added to yoghurt, it transforms the product into an agreeable strawberry-flavored dessert. In both cases, we added sweetener, which we found necessary to bring out the flavor.
Display of Dried Fruits including Mango, Sour Cherry, Kiwi, and Pineapple
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
As well as the powdered product, Nabil gave me a sample of his dried fruits. I particularly enjoyed mango, but I also tasted pineapple, kiwi, strawberry, as well as other fruits. All of them are fun to snack on!
Nabil Debabha
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
Nabil’s shop is located on Ile Saint-Louis at 1, rue des Deux Ponts. His telephone number is 07.60.09.85.21. 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!
We participate in Wanderfood Wednesdays. Head over there to explore food from around the world!
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
In February 2011 we were invited to participate in a travel series that will soon be launched by RPP Productions. In exchange for contributing our expertise on Paris, the studio promised to produce a promotional video for us. The filming took place at the famous Café Tournon and the Luxembourg Garden. Click on the image below to view!
We wish to thank Stephen Mann and Amanda Rogers of RPP Productions, as well as Anna Bromwich and Bryan Pirolli for their efforts.
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
Guillaume Bodin, Filmmaker
Photograph courtesy of Guillaume Bodin
Young French filmmaker Guillaume Bodin has produced a video on the world of biodynamic wine. Entitled La Clef des Terroirs, the film is scheduled to be released on DVD for North American audiences at the end of the year under the title Wine: The Green Revolution. Read about Bodin’s passion for this wine and about the biodynamic wine movement in France in this month’s Paris Insights.
To view a preview of the newsletter, click here.
Our newsletter 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!
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
The Temptation of Eve
This striking figure of Eve once graced the north portal of the Saint-Lazare Cathedral in the town of Autun. Dating from the early 12th century, the work is attributed to an artist named Gislebertus. It has been called “the first large-scale nude in European art since antiquity.” This copy on display in the Cité d’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris.
If one looks closely at the right-hand side of the sculpture, one can see three fingers of the devil’s claw holding the branch of the apple tree that he extends to Eve. She seems to be absentmindedly plucking the forbidden fruit.
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
Les Zazous Cheesecake
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
We often read restaurant reviews in which the reviewer states that such and such a dish “wasn’t worth writing home about.” Well, last Thursday we dined at Les Zazous restaurant in Paris and tasted a cheesecake that was so good that it was not only worth writing home about, but was worth writing to the mayor of New York City to tell him about it. Read our letter to him in our review and, better yet, go to Les Zazous and taste their cheesecake. Let us know if you think that this one beats the best cheesecakes in all of New York City!
To gain access to our reviews, all you need to do is to sign up at the following link: http://www.parisinsights.com/restaurants.php.
Bon appétit!
We participate in Wanderfood Wednesdays. Head over there to explore food from around the world!
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
Ice-cream Counter at Mococha
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
Marie at Mococha will close her shop this Sunday and go away for a well-deserved vacation. Before she closes, stop by to try a scoop of Jacques Bellanger* ice cream. It comes in two flavors, Chocolat Macarons and Vanille Bourbon de Madagascar. And that’s not all! Marie tops it off with morsels of Fondant Baulois, a dense chocolate-butter cake. She has recently installed a counter where you can sit to enjoy this special treat.
Mococha
89, rue Mouffetard
75005 Paris
Tél.: 01.47.07.13.66
Tues to Sun from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Ice cream
3.00€ for one scoop
5.00€ for two scoops
The shop will reopen on Tuesday, August 21, 2012.
*Meilleur Ouvrier de France
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
Puyricard – Masse de Cacao
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
According to the company’s Web site, the founders of Puyricard chocolate began their trade in Kinshasa, the capital of the country that is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were a European couple who chose to continue to live there after the country had wrestled free of Belgium control.
While in Kinshasa, Jan Guy and Marie-Anne Roelandts were determined to learn chocolate making, a skill that would be useful if and when they had to return to Europe. When that day finally came in 1967, they left the Congo and settled in Provence, where they set up shop as chocolate makers. That shop grew into a factory, and Puyricard now has fifteen stores in France, most of them in the south. I stopped by the one in Paris located at 6, rue du Pont Louis-Philippe where I purchased a 110 gram tablet of 100% chocolate called Masse de Cacao.
I knew that the chocolate tablet that I had purchased would be bitter, but that was the point. I simply wanted to taste bitter chocolate to see what it was like. Before I purchased the bar, the shopkeeper kindly tried to lead me to one that had only 73% chocolate, hence less bitter, but I didn’t let her sway me.
Taking the chocolate home, I persuaded Monique to join me in the tasting. Here are our notes:
Monique – Grainy, pasty texture. Does not melt smoothly. Bitter flavor with notes of smoke and earth.
Tom – Earthy, burnt flavors, like smoke and ashes. Very bitter, aggressive. Burnt-paper flavor. Grainy, not velvety, texture.
In short, Monique didn’t like the flavor, but, in spite of the bitterness, I did. I let two squares of the chocolate melt slowly in the mouth. The bitterness was intense, but not unpleasant.
Incidentally, the Masse de Cacao tablet produced by Puyricard is not baking chocolate. It is specifically made for tasting. The less a chocolate is sweet, the more its true aromas come through. Try some and see!
We participate in Wanderfood Wednesdays. Head over there to explore food from around the world!
Like our blog? Join us on Facebook!
 | 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. |