Nationality, Era, Instruments, Building in Alignment - Wow! - Wednesday, 5 April

it was a full house!

Tonight it was a concert of music by the French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpontier played on period (or period-replica) instruments at the Oratoire du Louvre (145, rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement). Somehow I had never been to this venue before - it’s terrific and in the very center of town (just a block from the Louvre) and beautifully accessible. Its construction began in 1611 and it was made the royal chapel of the Louvre palace by Louis XIII in 1623.

the "upper room" at the
Oratoire du Louvre

Subsequently it became the home of the “Eglise Réformée de l'Oratoire du Louvre” protestant church, and The American Church in Paris used its “upper room” for its worship starting in 1816, before that congregation built its church in the 7th arrondissement (my favorite Sunday haunt!). I must explore the Oratoire some more next trip!

Anyhoo, the performances and program were excellent. There’s something about listening to music composed in the era of the building you’re occupying by a composer of that nation played on instruments he would know that can transport you to another reality! Sorry to say, though, that my reverie was broken a few times by the very uncomfortable and small chairs that filled the sanctuary!

"Écoute"
(aka the big giant head)

Walking back to the apartment, I passed my favorite outdoor sculputre, one that entranced me on my second trip to Paris back in 1989, Henri de Miller's "Écoute" on the plaza outside Saint-Eustache church. It was even more magical in the light of the streetlamps.

Tomorrow morning it’s up early to pack and turn my keys back to Philippe and catch an Uber to Aéroport Charles de Gaulle for my trip back to reality. It’s my least favorite part of the trip! But hopefully it’s “à bientôt” (see you soon), not “au revoir” to my favorite home-away-from-home!

You Can Get Anything you Want ... at Quincaillerie? - Wednesday, 5 April

Every neighborhood has what seems to be a tiny hardware store. But go inside and oh, my goodness, what a treasure trove of “stuff” to be found! I do love the one in my Montorgueil quartier with its typical stock of nuts & bolts & knives & fasteners & mops & switches & pots, but also with its unique selection of amusing decorative tin storage boxes. They really are entertaining, and light, and take no room in your suitcase since you can stuff clothes inside of them!

I had hoped to pick up a couple things there, including some transparent packing tape to secure my shattered iPhone screen (eek! happily the phone still works), but it was closed this morning. Happily, it creeked to life as I was sitting across the street having my afternoon espresso (with a shot of ibuprofen!). And oh, ya, they also have an amazing selection of oilcloth by the meter!

And not to worry, if you haven't found everything you want, the rest is sure to be discovered at the stationery and novelty shop next store!

I'm Shouting WINNER for "Accents" - Best Meal this Trip! - Tuesday, 4 April

One of the biggest and most influential Paris resto critics is Emmanuel Rubin, who writes for Figaroscope. He awards one to five hearts (but almost never five) in his reviews. I read that he had given three hearts on March 8 to “Accents,” a four-month-old resto near the Bourse (and about a half-mile from my apartment). This is huge. I just had to go, and I’m glad I did, as this was the best meal of the trip and the second best food-wine pairing I’ve ever had anywhere (my best meal ever, and best food-wine pairing ever, was at Lucas Carton back in 2001).

Chef Rizet visiting the
table next to me

Sommelier (and my
waiter) Billard

The chef/owner is Jean-Christophe Rizet. He worked at La Truffière in the 5th arrondissement for 15 years, helmed it since 2002, and helped it attain its first Michelin star in 2012.

The sommelier, Etienne Billard, also came from La Truffière. They left sometime last year to open this place.

"Accents" is well on its way to its first Michelin star - here’s hoping that they attain it in the 2018 Guide!  Meanwhile, grab a table there while you can, and encourage your friends to do so too!

My meal:

In the evening all they serve is a six-course “surprise” menu. They ask if you have any allergies or aversions, and if not, they just bring you what Chef Rizet has prepared, explaining each course when they bring it. They have an extensive wine list, or you can go with the pairings - a different wine for each course - always a good idea, and an especially good one here where the sommelier, Mr. Billard, both picked brilliant combinations and described them well (his English is very good).

Pre-1st course "amuse bouche" - a just-warm soft-boiled egg, served in the shell on a bed of hay with a drizzle of caramel enhanced with a little vinegar and a sprinkle of some crispy bits (I didn’t catch what they were, but they tasted like they might have been toasted wheat berries). Deelightful, entertaining and warming.

1. Blanched, warm throughout, yet still toothsome fat green asparagus spears on foamy lemon pillows with lemon sauce, watercress coulis and herbs. A clean, gently floral and citrusy Sancerre (Sauvignon blanc) worked well with the asparagus and lemon, two ingredients that are very difficult to match a wine to.

2. One large beautifully tender and deeply flavored langoustine ravioli in a sweet mirin-enhanced shellfish reduction with tiny broccoli flowerets, whipped cream, and a sprinkle of seaweed powder. A slightly sweeter and more viscous Alsatian white wine with just a hint of vanilla brought out the sweetness of the langoustine. It was a beautiful presentation - sorry that I dove right into it before taking a picture!

 3. Seared St. Pierre (John Dory), a white meaty fish, with white asparagus, scallions, fennel stalks, lemon gel, parsnip purée and parsley sauce. It was brilliantly paired with a 2014 Mas Christine Rousillon from the Pyrénées-Orientales region - fabulous deep flavor that elevated all of the components of the dish while still having enough freshness to not overpower anything. It’s a blend of Macabeu, Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris, with a touch of Roussanne and Vermentino. The region is in the far south of France, on the Mediterranean, and Mr. Billard explained that these grapes have a very long growing season and lots of sun, contributing to the deep flavor, while the Mediterranean breezes keep it fresh.

4. Roasted leg of lamb with artichokes, spring onions and well-seasoned lamb stock was deep, sweet, just fatty enough and warming. A limited-production Spanish red wine from Tinto Fino grapes grown on very old vines was dry and full-flavored (tasting of red and black fruits) and just a tiny bit jammy - when sipped with the lamb it became sweet - absolutely brilliant!

5. Palate Cleanser #1 - goat cheese ice cream with pine nuts soaked in whisky and toasted dark breadcrumbs, served with a white Port. Really fun! I’m going to have to try to duplicate the goat cheese ice cream and see if my friends can identify what's in it!

5. Palate Cleanser #2 - pineapple sorbet and white chocolate mousse with apple purée and cardamom crumble. It was served with a fresh, elegant Vouvray, but I thought that the white Port I still had in my other glass paired with it a little better!

6. Dessert #1 - a disc of bittersweet chocolate capped a quenelle of zingy passionfruit sorbet like a jaunty beret; it sat on top of an airy/crispy chocolate croustillant and was sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts & dried fruits and dabbed with some apple purée. It was served with Banyuls, a fortified dessert wine cultivated on old vines, which exhibited some oxidation and beautifully amplified the varied elements of this dessert.

6. Dessert #2 – a light, airy green tea angelfood cake was the most tender I’ve ever eaten, and not too sweet – it was served with a wonderful chestnut cream. You might have thought that by this time you could not eat another bite, but this stuff went down pretty easy and slid into the few remaining crevices in my stomach!

Like many restos these days, Accents has a water filtering system and will serve you a bottle of their quite decent still or sparkling water - they don’t even have traditional bottled waters on the menu. I went for the sparkling. Not quite Badoit, but hey, it was free and it’s ecologically sensible.

Although I didn't really "discover" this place, it is pretty fun being one of its early patrons, especially if (as I believe) it will become a truly hot table in the Parisian dining scene soon! Some day I might need to remind them that "way back when" I was one of their early customers who helped spread the word.

My only regret? That I did not add the risotto with black truffles to my order. Researching Chef Rizet afterwards, I discovered that he had written a book on truffles in 2011 (and, of course, his previous resto featured them heavily). Oh, well. Now I MUST go back there, and soon!

Dinner menu

At lunchtime you have choices!

The gorgeous knife with
which I at my lamb

The exterior, as I was leaving at midnight!

Cute coffee cups!

Hard at work in the tiny kitchen

Canard and Construction Temptations - Failed! - Tuesday, 4 April

I had been planning to eat a light lunch today in anticipation of my fanciest meal of the trip at “Accents” (hooo boy! … all about that in my next post), but as I was heading down towards Les Halles on a few errands, I saw that a relatively new, well-regarded spot, Les Artizans, had confit de canard on their ardoise (sidewalk chalkboard menu). If you know me at all, you know that I can’t resist a good confit de canard, so I succumbed.  (Read about my current favorite here: http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2016/05/doing-few-things-brilliantly-canard.html )

This one was quite decent, not the best I’ve had, but hey it was only a couple blocks from “home” and the accompanying salad and potatoes roasted with duck fat, herbs & a little garlic were fabulous.

With your coffee they usually serve a little piece of chocolate or a small cookie. Here, they served a small financier - a type of cake made with ground almonds, a little flour, egg whites and butter, and baked or cut to resemble a gold coin or ingot (hence the name financier!) - yummy!

Here’s a view from my table. A guy with a bucket and ladder was making the rounds of all of the establishments on the street – he must have a regular gig washing all of the windows and glass doors. His multi-step process made them sparkle indeed – I need someone like him at my house!

Then it was on to my must-do-every-trip pilgrimage for a drink at the little bar/café on rue Saint-Honoré where a waiter called me “mademoiselle” on my 40th birthday, my visit with my favorite salesman anywhere, Franck at E.Dehillerin (where I also lightened my pocketbook considerably…read all about the place here: http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2009/06/chefs-shangri-la-e-dehillerin-saturday.html ), and a few other errands – enough tromping around to digest my biggish lunch and wear off at least some of those calories!

the latest story, with yours truly reflected in it!

how it will look "eventually"

Of course, I just had to take some photos of the never-ending Les Halles reconstruction project. I could swear that when it started the signs said it would be completed in 2012! Now they say 2018. I sure hope it's worth all of the work and wait!

looking east toward la Canopée

looking west toward the former Bourse

When a facade is being renovated, they
put up a scrim containing an image of
what's behind it. This is the first time I've
seen advertising on it as well!
This is Saint-Eustache,
on the north side of Les Halles

that was some wet cement or one heavy pigeon!

What Goes In Must Come Out - Monday, 3 April

So when I was out this afternoon I picked up a millefeuille (shatteringly crisp feuilletés (puff pastry) layered with vanilla pastry cream) from Patisserie Boutique on rue Montorgueil, a place that sells pasties from several of the best of patisseries in town - what a great service - you don’t have to slog to all of those places yourself! I figured that I could have it at home after supper tonight if I wasn’t too excited about what might be on the menu at my resto of choice. Or eat it in the morning for breakfast (hey, why not?).

my amuse bouche - creamy
celery soup with olive oil,
hazelnuts, chervil 

I’ve eaten at l’Apibo on rue Tiquetonne a few times, and had some great foie gras there, and they always have it on the menu, so I reserved a table for tonight. Just a few tables were occupied when I arrived, and they were mostly loud Americans, so I chose to sit outside at a sidewalk table.

Sadly, the foie gras was a bit chilly (it should be served cellar temperature) and not quite up to their former standards, but a La Clos de la Bergeron Chenin Blanc by Yves Guegniard (a terrific moderately sweet white wine with hints of apricot, lemon zest and parsley and a smooth medium viscosity) paired nicely and the “drunken cherries” were great with it.

The beef was some of the best I've had here - tender, moist, sweet - served with parsnips, boiled fingerlings, a chunk of fat, and reduced veal stock. My Château Chanteloiseau (Bordeaux Graves) gave a bit of dryness, cleansing, bite, and good digestif quality to the course.

And, in one of those “only in Paris” moments, as I was sitting there enjoying some fine cuisine, the garbage trucks rolled down the street in two waves – green trucks for the general garbage, then beige trucks for the recycles. Gotta say it was entertaining! Garbage is picked up every day in this ‘hood, so it wasn’t stinky (except for the diesel of the trucks), but the crash crash clang clang ding ding clink clink added a nice aural element to the event!

And by the way, the meal was pretty filling so I had my millefeuille for breakfast Tuesday morning.  I knew that you’d want to know!

Juxtaposing Jardins and Joyaux - Monday, 3 April

The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées was built for the 1900 Universal Exposition (World’s Fair), as was the Eiffel Tower. It’s that imposing building with a stone façade and huge iron and glass barrel-vaulted roof on the right bank at the spectacular Pont Alexandre III.

Astonishingly, I haven’t been inside before. So today was the day to see two exhibitions there. It’s an interesting juxtaposition - “Jardins” featuring diverse artists’ reactions to and study of what comes up from the earth and how to organize it, and “Joyaux” featuring some spectacular gems that come from deep down in the earth. The exhibits are both on the north end of the building, at the entrance at 3, avenue du Général Eisenhower, so it’s easy to see them both.

The exhibits’ structures are beautifully matched to their subject matter.

“Jardins” takes you on a meander through several small galleries, so it’s almost as if the visitors are walking single-file down a garden path! You see 15th century botanical studies, collages of dried grasses & flowers, paintings, films, sculptures, botanical-themed settings of diamonds, rubies, sapphires & emeralds by Cartier, 19th century photographs (actually cyanotype impressions) of algae (background on the artist and history here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Atkins ), collages, formal garden plans, garden tools, color charts that include the names of plants of that color, patches of earth, a huge collaged/painted work by Matisse, you name it! It’s on through July 24.

loved these 19th cent algae photos!

papier-mâché sculpture

Cartier garden-inspired jewels

sea daffodil collage from 1778

Matisse

Then on the other end of the same floor you find a whole different kind of an exhibit for “Joyaux.” A huge open space is very dark (watch your step!) and is interspersed with circular raised platforms that contain individual glass-enclosed and brightly-lit exhibits of the largest and most beautifully wrought diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls, gold and platinum that I’ve ever seen.  Many of them are from India's 16th century Moguls through its current Maharajas - necklaces, turban ornaments, rings, earrings, brooches, sword decorations, etc. I am at a loss for words.

A little further in, some exhibit areas are works of art themselves, for example this one enclosed by black cords hanging from the ceiling with teardrop-shaped pieces of aluminum, sparkly on one side, tied on every 8 inches or so - when grouped together and lit “just so” they formed a gorgeous penetrable wall around the exhibit area.  (Grown-up “love beads,” perhaps?!?)

Or this exhibit, enclosed by gold wires arranged in a pinched-oval shape, giving off an ethereal luminous affect.

Sorry, but photography wasn’t allowed in many of the exhibit areas, so along with a couple of my photos I'll include some (better!) images I found online. You can also see some in this trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U2H3OlcmXc  But you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself to get the full experience! It’s on through June 5.

So whether you’re curious about how we shape and organize what comes up on the surface of Mother Earth or what is created in her depths, there’s something for you at the Grand Palais right now!