Stuff I Don't See in Minneapolis - Saturday, 25 September

An afternoon "coffee" break quite like this - in the dappled shade of the terrace outside a lovely café across the street from Hôtel de Ville (City Hall).

Bicycle-riding police stopping what appeared to be random cyclists on a busy Saturday afternoon in the crazy-busy section of rue Saint-Antoine just a few blocks from the Bastille.  I'm not sure what they were looking for - maybe Passe Sanitaire documentation from those who weren't wearing masks?  In any case many passers-by stopped to watch, at least for a minute or so.

OK, I know why the police stopped this guy!  He was crossing a street that was open only to buses, taxis, emergency vehicles, delivery vehicles and bikes/scooters/rollerbladers.  Tsk tsk tsk.  They detained him quite a while.

A big ol' Teddy Bear checking out the ardoise (the slate, or chalkboard menu) at their local café.

OK, OK, the buildings here are centuries old.  Not all of them are in good shape!

A sanglier (wild boar) outside a deli.  True, just a carving of one (bottom left of the photo).  But still....

BTW, I brought home a mini pizza from this deli.  Thin, tart-style crust, braised onions in a Provençal style (with a little garlic, some tomato, thyme, salt, pepper, olive oil) and topped with an anchovy, olives and a tomato slice.  Yummers!

I also ordered one slice of their duck terrine with pistachios.  The proprietress cut off a slice from the loaf, weighed it, and then noticed that part of the crust had fallen off.  So she just gave me the rest of the loaf!  Some deal!!!  And fabulously delicious! 

The gentle curve of so many of the streets, with the buildings following that curve.

Bringing "Accents" Back Into My Life - Wednesday, 22 September

Back in April 2017, I learned about a recently-opened resto called Accents Table Bourse from an article by the critic Emmanuel Rubin of Figaroscope.  He raved.  I just had to check it out.  It quickly became my favorite resto pretty much anywhere even though it has changed chefs once.  Ayumi Sugiyama was originally the pastry and sous chef, now she is Chef de Cuisine.  They received their first Michelin Star in 2019.

The sommelier, Étienne Billard, has been there since they opened.  He also serves as the host along with providing detailed info about the courses and the wine pairings.  After a couple of visits we were on a first-name basis and he always seems genuinely excited to see me when I return every six months.  Especially tonight after a 2-year absence!  I always order the wine pairings with my multi-course meal because Étienne is such a genius at it.

No sooner had I sat down than Étienne brought me a glass of sparkling wine, Domaine Dugois Cremant.  It’s made with the Champagne method, but since it’s from the Jura in far east-central France, it can’t be called Champagne.  It is 70% Chardonnay and 30% Sauvignon.  It had an invigorating sharpness to it and was dry but with some lovely fruit notes – I got the sense of white fruit kernels, something slightly woody (grapevine?), faint tarragon and almost a hint of sea air on the nose.  Deeelightful.  And Étienne topped off my glass a couple times! 

With the four amuse-bouche they served a “Green Bloody Mary.”  A cube of frozen basil purée, garlic, celeriac and something else I didn’t catch was placed into a tulip glass and what I believe was a yellow tomato water vodka was poured over it.  Yikes!

• Bonito (a fish in the tuna family) meringue - crispy, sweet, absolutely ephemeral
• Roasted beet with the tiniest cockles I have ever seen – deeply sweet and fresh/salty at the same time yet elegant, the cocktail made the salt absolutely explode in flavor.
• A square of cantaloupe topped with nigella seeds (black caraway) and sardines – again that amazing sweet-salty combo but a little less subtle this time, and the warmth and sting of the salty sardine on my upper lip was amazing.
• A little square of thickly sliced black bread with honeydew – caramelly and fresh.

With my first first course, a 2019 Manuel Olivier Aligoté Vieilles Vignes Bourgogne (white Burgundy).  This was sharp and crisp with good minerality and slight acidity.  Nice sense of white peach and some gentle floral (maybe gladioli?).   

• A slightly warm, light, seafood broth with tapioca and some nut (hazelnut?) that was chopped about the same size as the tapioca, covered with a cloud of the lightest foam imaginable, and having a sweet herbal essence. 
• A more substantial foam, tasting of shrimp and mild white fish, topped with an unbelievably thin rye crouton – how does she do it???  A couple tablespoons of cucumber water and a splash of Vermouth freshened everything up.  And that Aligoté cuts through or enhances it all.  Genius. 

With the second first course, another wine from Dugois in the Jura, this one 100% chardonnay, Arbois Auréoline.  It’s fresh, with the essence of tart nectarines, almond, white roses and a hint of tarragon, slightly sweet and a bit heavier viscosity.  

• Ribbons of raw cuttlefish (in the squid family) with fish eggs (salmon?), little black seeds and slightly chilled beautifully sweet chicken stock.  Again, earthy, fresh, sweet, salty, a hint of the sea.
• White pudding (pork, pork liver, breadcrumb or grains) topped with burnt eggplant and a white beer foam.  The herb looked like a basil leaf but was much sharper in flavor with a bit of astringency – sort of a cross between tarragon and watercress.  The almond notes of the wine really came out with the white pudding.
• 
  
  I swoon over their bread & butter.  It’s almost worth a trip just to eat it.  The rustic bread has a thick, extremely crisp crust (be careful so you don’t cut your gums on it!) and a tender interior and fabulous naturally-leavened flavor.  I swear they could hear me across the room crunching on it!  The butter is smoked over cherry wood – mind-blowing, I kid you not.

Then with the fish course a 2015 Chateau Valrose Bordeaux, across the river from Saint-Emilion.  Mushroom, honey, woody, slightly sweet, a bit of rosemary – more earthy in general.  And wonderful!   

• The “scales” on the lightly grilled red mullet were, I believe, Panko crumbs.  Crunchy and surprising and very clever.  Some intense seafood demi glace.
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  A mushroom with liver and garlic wrapped in a baby spinach leaf under a cloud of shredded dried salsify, and a telline clam with anchovies.  What a combo!  

For the last wine Étienne likes to play “guess what it is!”  I’m no good at the game, but it’s fun.  I thought this wine had caramelly notes, an undercurrent of acacia honey, a sense of blackberry, a certain zing and an herb/flower that I couldn’t quite figure out.  Étienne gave an appreciative nod and suggested violet for the mystery herb.  Aha!  It was a 2018 Côtes du Rhône Syrah from Domaine de Boisseyt.

• The slice of duck (mallard) breast was as pure and sweet and comforting as any I’ve ever tasted.  Not gamey at all, although there seemed to be some organ meat in the sauce.  

• The gizzards were a bit more earthy, and the thin rounds of ultra crunchy skin that formed the “sandwich” were a bit salty/peppery.  
• The Jerusalem artichoke was firm and just astringent enough.  

• An oyster leaf (a kind of cress) was topped with some fromage frais, crumbs of grilled sausage and dill.  The wine magically married it all together. 

Their plates are heavy handmade crockery, stones (yup, rocks!), slate, etc.  While waiting for my desserts I picked up one of the plates to look at the bottom and immediately dropped it on the table, making quite a loud crash.  A gentleman across the room turned to look at me, clutching his chest in jest as if I’d given him a heart attack.  Good times.  The universal language of laughter!

Before my desserts I had the cheese offering – thin ribbons of Comté over a spoon of slightly sweet miso, with freshly ground pepper.  What a great combo!  I still had some of the Dugois Arbois Auréoline in a glass; it married perfectly with this.  

Then, as a palate cleanser, a small glass of deep pink sparkling water with red shiso and pomegranate.  Brilliant, and so refreshing!  

With the desserts a 2018 Mas Cristine sweet Muscat – beautifully fruity and late-harvest sweet.  

• Coconut foam with a little yogurt, some verbena oil, and a curl of caramelly white chocolate
• An ice cream cone with pumpkin ice cream (don’t worry, just the gourd, no pumpkin spice!) and coffee cream

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  A genius bubble of blown molten sugar, filled with a couple slices of fresh peach, some crumble, a white sake foam, and some blueberry compote.  It was as much fun to eat as it was tasty!

• A slice of chef Ayumi’s lighter-than-air pistachio chiffon cake with cool fig sauce.

Then espresso.  What a night!  I had large quantities of food and wine, but they were consumed over a 4-hour period so I didn’t feel stuffed or sick.  I couldn’t eat like this every day, but hey, is once every 6 months too much to ask?!?

Accents Table Bourse, 24 rue Feydeau in the 2nd arrondissment, just across the street from the Bourse.   https://accents-restaurant.com/

That's One Small Step for a Woman, ... - Wednesday, 22 September

A Paris website/FB/Insta that I follow (Secrets of Paris) reported that there was one location in town that would convert a U.S vaccination card to the French Passe Sanitaire.  It wasn’t a walkable distance, so I took a taxi to & from the Pharmacie on Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire and paid 20 euro for the “permanent” Passe Sanitaire.  I brought my passport and my physical vaccination card – it was quick & easy once I got there.  Now I don’t have to have a Q-tip stuck up my nose for an antigen test every three days at 25 euro a pop!  And I stopped at a café for a San Pellegrino “Aranciata” (like Orangina but less sweet) before heading home - they scanned my Passe and it worked.  Victory!  Phew!

Update Tuesday, 28 September:  The Passe Sanitaire for which I submitted an online request on the 2nd arrived today.  So that was 26 days rather than the 14 days they projected.  The good news is the system works.  They just need plenty of time.  With more and more people scheduling trips now it's likely to get worse.  Again, the site for requesting yours is:

https://www.demarches-simplifiees.fr/commencer/passe-sanitaire-etrangers?locale=en

Locked in a Staircase - EEK! - Tuesday, 21 September

For many years I dreamt of owning a Paris apartment and renting it out when I wasn’t using it, but of course it was just a dream - not really practical or justifiable, especially when the city started clamping down on these kinds of arrangements a few years ago.  But for the past couple years I’ve been watching various “fractional ownership” schemes In Paris - these are like timeshares, but you actually own a share of an apartment and can sell it anytime to anyone you want, or bequeath it.  Generally you get four weeks a year to use it (the usage schemes differ by developer).  You can trade residency weeks with other share owners of the same apartment, or let personal friends use your weeks, you just can’t offer to rent out your weeks on any online or other such public market.

This summer I took the plunge and bought a share of La Lanterne du Marais.  

https://adrianleeds.com/explore-properties-for-sale/fractional-ownership/shared-property/la-lanterne-du-marais/

I was a little nervous because the apartment is one flight up with no elevator in this 17th century building, but I had the developer, Adrian Leeds Group, take a photo of the staircase for me to hopefully make a good decision about whether climbing those stairs would be do-able.  I decided in the affirmative.

Today the developer gave me the 6-character code that one enters on a keypad to unlock the external door of the building so that I could let myself in to try the stairs.  (The apartment is in the demolition stage - the photos you see on the property’s webpage are mockups - so I couldn’t see the apartment itself.)

Well, the news wasn’t good.  “Objects appear larger” in photos, and I could get a good toehold on the first couple stairs but where the staircase took a tight turn, the stairs would be just too dangerously shallow for me, even with its good solid railing and my cane (especially if I was tired, or if my legs were weak/painful, or if I was hauling a bunch of shopping, or if I’d had too much wine with dinner!).  So I backed down the couple stairs I had climbed and turned to leave.

This is where it got scary.  Normally external doors open inward (which this one did) and there’s a handle on the inside of the door that you can grab to pull the door open after you’ve pushed a button that unlocks it.  The problem: no such handle.  There was a stub for a doorknob but it was too small for me to get a good grip to pull open the heavy door after pushing the unlock button.  EEK!  It was like adding insult to injury.  What to do?  If only I was carrying a big pair of pliers in my purse (sadly, I wasn’t!).  No other residents were arriving or leaving.  After several attempts to open the door, I managed to sit down on one of the stairs and email the developer.  I also texted the owner of the Airbnb I’m renting to see if he could come and help me.  Crickets.  (They both did respond later in the evening.)

Happily, after a few seemingly interminable minutes, the door opened as the marvelous interior designer Martine de Matteo arrived with a colleague to work on the apartment!  (She has overseen amazing redesigns and transformations of almost all of the apartments that the real estate agent and developer, Adrian Leeds, finds for people - if you have watched House Hunters International you have probably seen Martine and her work.)  I told them my story and departed.  Hopefully they had the necessary wrenches or doorknobs to open the door when they left!

So I’ll be selling my share of the apartment.  Per the bylaws, I have to offer it first to the 12 other share-owners, but if none of them are interested I can sell it to anyone else I want.  It will be fine for able-bodied people like y’all, so let me know if you want to talk!

The story gets a little longer.  Last week I saw that one of the owners of another of Adrian’s fractional ownership properties, a studio with an elevator, was selling their share to buy the one remaining share of La Lanterne du Marais.  I wrote to see if I could get in to view the property and maybe buy a share of it instead.  Unfortunately (for me), that one available share sold today.  

So the search goes on.  

Beauty and Generosity - Bakeries, Horses, Frenchmen - Tuesday, 21 September

A beautiful and historic bakery, Au Petit Versailles du Marais at 1, rue Tiron, sits just 1/2 block from the apartment.  It dates back to 1860.  Its paintings-on-glass and chandeliers and racks are stunning, as are its breads, sweet pasties and dishes such as quiche (so far I’ve had just the salmon & leek version - wow!).  Its proprietor, Christian Vabret, is a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF), Best Craftsman of France, a title awarded to the highest craftspeople in a variety of professions.  This is a huge honor which comes only to the winners of competitions that are held every 3-4 years in their area of expertise.  Mr. Vabret won the honor in 1986 and built a school of bakery and pastry in the city of Aurillac in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-central France.  He also bought this property and opened his bakery.  I get to eat his handiwork every day.  How lucky am I?  

As I was having afternoon tea across the street from Au Petit Versailles du Marais, groups of two or three mounted police officers clipped-clopped by.  Gorgeous horses, all apparently the same breed, carrying their no-nonsense gendarmes, both men and women.  I don’t think there were any demonstrations in the area - hopefully they were just out to monitor the arrondissement and add their unique touch of beauty and calm.

If anyone tells you that the French are unfriendly or discourteous or uncharitable, send them my way so I can set them straight!  As I was returning home from my wanderings this evening and approached the elevator, a young man came down the stairs and asked me to wait just a minute since he needed to get something out of the elevator.  (My perplexed response told him that my French was, um, rusty, so our conversation continued in English!)  His partner was just behind him, and she held the elevator door open for him while he grabbed several boxes that they had sent down.  One of them was a case of wine.  I said “ooh, party!” and he said “no, we’re moving, would you like a bottle?”  I demurred, but he said “really, take this one, I think it’s pretty good” and handed me a bottle.  It is pretty good indeed, a 2019 Domaine Faiveley Mercurey "Les Mauvarennes" Nuits-Saint-Georges (Pinot Noir)!  It goes beautifully with pretty much all of the cheese, meat, bread, sweets, etc. I have in the apartment, including the aforementioned salmon & leek quiche!  Per an online search, the average price of this vintage is 29 euro per bottle.  Nice guy (and his partner), lucky me (again!).   https://www.domaine-faiveley.com/en/wines/50/mercurey-les-mauvarennes

Bicyclists and Christmas - Monday, 20 September

In the Marais, where I’m staying, almost all of the small shops and cafés are closed on Mondays.  They are typically closed on Saturday for the Sabbath, and then mostly open on Sunday with lots of business and browsing (since small shops are pretty much closed elsewhere in town), and then closed again on Monday to rest up!  One exception today: the Christmas Store just a block from the apartment!  OK, it’s not exclusively Christmas stuff - also lots of games, action figures, fantasy hero attire, etc.  But still….

And then something I haven’t seen before!  A bicyclist (a guy probably in his 60s, fairly well-dressed) with a sound system in a specially-outfitted basket of his personal bike pedaled past me on rue de Rivoli.  It wasn’t just a boom box.  Nope.  It was a large decent speaker enclosed in a wooden case.  Not sure if it was connected via Bluetooth to a mobile device music player or if he went old school with a small CD player, but it was cool.  I couldn’t identify the music - it was a soft jazz style, loud enough to be heard by the rest of us, but not blaring.  Sorry that I wasn’t fast enough to snap a photo!  I did appreciate his contribution to the street scene and the aural environment!  

Speaking of bicyclists, there sure are a lot of them around, more than I remember from prior trips.  I remember a taxi driver telling me a few years ago, as we drove past an accident involving a bicyclist and a delivery van, that these accidents between bicyclists (who don’t always obey the rules of the road) and other vehicles were fairly prevalent. I’m not thrilled that a bunch of the main arteries in town have been narrowed to allow for dedicated bicycle lanes, but hopefully the accident rates have fallen.  I can tell you that those lanes are sure being used!

Intimidating? Incapable? Incapacitated? Me??? - Sunday, 19 September

So what’s the deal?  Do I look exceptionally intimidating or incapable or incapacitated? Why do restos not ask for my Passe Sanitaire?  It happened again this afternoon.

Pizza Momo beckoned me.  They had my favorite ‘za on the menu, the Quatre Saisons (just a bit of crushed tomatoes spread on the crust, then topped with ham, mushrooms, artichokes, olives and cheese, with some capers thrown in for good measure).  

So I sat down on one of their sturdy, wide-enough-for-my-butt, cushioned chairs.  The table didn’t wobble.  The host immediately brought me little bowls containing green olives and peanuts and a menu.  I’m not a complainer when the circumstances are otherwise, but I do like my comfort!  

Lots of other good-lookin’ stuff on the menu too.  This place could become habit-forming, and it's just a few blocks from the apartment.  But why didn’t they want to see if I was Covid-safe?  The mystery deepens.

Pizza Momo, 105 rue Saint-Antoine 75004, just steps from the Saint-Paul Metro.  https://pizzamomo.fr/en

And BTW, this sweet carousel is at the Metro exit!