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How the Hedges in the Luxembourg Garden are Trimmed

April 10th, 2024

The French Senate, which is tasked with the maintenance of the Luxembourg Garden, assigns the mission of trimming its tall hedges to a landscaping company.

The trimming is carried out by a specially-designed machine, mounted on a wheeled vehicle, whose cutter can reach a height of 21 meters. Assisted by a laser guidance system, a circular saw placed at the end of a telescopic arm ensures precise cutting. An operator, sitting in a cabin at the top of the aerial lift, guides the trimming process.

Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

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The Dancing Faun of the Luxembourg Garden

April 1st, 2024

Just inside the Luxembourg Garden at the entrance called Porte Médicis stands a sculpture of a dancing faun, a half-man, half-goat deity from Roman antiquity. Sculpted by French artist Eugène Louis Lequesne (1815 – 1887), the creature dances stark naked, balancing precariously with one foot on an overfilled wineskin and playing a trumpet. A close look at the subject reveals that its only animal-like feature is a short tail.

During Antiquity, fauns represented inebriated gaiety. They were associated with Bacchus, the god of wine. Here, the intoxicated faun demonstrates his prowess at balancing on a wine-filled animal skin, an unstable surface, while playing a musical instrument.

At the base of the sculpture, one can see the following objects around the wineskin: a tambourine, a bunch of grapes, a wine cup, and a thyrsus (a pine-cone tipped staff tied with ribbon that was carried by devotees of Dionysus and Bacchus).

Lequesne started a career as a jurist, but abandoned the trade and entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1840. He gained acceptance into the Villa Médicis in Rome, where he studied classical art for five years. Inspired by an antique dancing faun that was discovered in Pompei in 1830, he created a plaster sculpture depicting his own rendering of the subject. It was cast in bronze in 1850. This metallic sculpture is the one that we admire today.

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Cook’n with Class Relaunches Its Chocolate Class in Paris

November 21st, 2023

Cook’n with Class, a cooking school in Paris’ 18th arrondissement, is relaunching its Chocolate Class in Paris next week. To celebrate, it invited several bloggers to attend a prelaunch workshop to raise anticipation for what awaits the general public.

Chef Christian Labrosse and Chef Sarah Tyler were the dynamic duo that taught the class, which was held in a room gaily decorated with rose-colored walls and a patchwork of mosaic tiles. There was plenty of table space for working the chocolate, lots of cooking utensils and equipment – including an induction cooking plate and a mixer, and a small refrigerator for chilling the chocolate.

Chef Sarah Tyler and Chef Christian Labrosse

More importantly, there were five enthusiastic students in attendance ready to dip their hands into the gooey and sugary ingredients that were essential to creating decadent chocolate confections.

Our own Monique Y. Wells, co-founder of Entrée to Black Paris, happily accepted Cook’n with Class’ invitation and showed up at 9:00 a.m. on November 8 to begin her chocolate adventure. During the following three-and-one-half hours, she and four other bloggers learned how to make bonbons, truffles, tablets (chocolate bars), and chocolate mousse.

The students learned the critical skill of tempering chocolate for creating tablets and bonbon shells and prepared four types of filling for their bonbons: caramel, coffee, passion fruit, and praline. They crafted dark, dense, satisfying truffles laced with a touch of Grand Marnier and learned how to roll them in cocoa power for an extra touch of texture and flavor. And they learned how to whip up a perfect chocolate mousse (without making too much of a mess).

Chef Christian and Chef Sarah explained that they had premeasured and grouped all ingredients for all recipes prior to the students’ arrival for two reasons: 1) to save time during the lesson, and 2) to prevent accidental overcooking of ingredients while searching for the next ingredient to be added to the pot.

The students watched as Chef Christian prepared the base for the chocolate truffles and put it in the refrigerator so that it would be ready for use at the appropriate time during the class.

The first hands-on lesson was the making of chocolate mousse. Chef Christian talked about the importance of creating a French meringue of just the right consistency before preparing the additional ingredients for this classic chocolate dessert – he said that the meringue should form a peak like a bird’s beak at the end of the beater. He even held the bowl of meringue upside down over Chef Sarah’s head to show that it had attained the proper consistency to receive the sugar and egg yolk mixture, followed by the melted chocolate/butter combination that comprised the remainder of the recipe.

Once the ingredients were mixed (by hand) to the appropriate consistency, Chef Christian demonstrated how to put the mousse into a piping bag and fill the clear glass serving bowls in which it would set. These were popped into the fridge and space was made on the table for the next lesson of the day – making ganaches (fillings).

The passion fruit ganache was the simplest to prepare and was the only one that used white chocolate. The caramel and coffee ganaches were the most challenging because the ingredients required cooking.

When each filling was finished, it was covered with plastic film and allowed to set at room temperature.

Next, the class turned to chocolate tempering – the heating, cooling, and reheating process that produces chocolate that is smooth and shiny, hardens appropriately, and has a longer shelf life. Chef Sarah and Chef Christian explained that precise temperature control is required for this all-important step for making bonbon shells and chocolate tablets.

Chef Sarah illustrates the tempering process

Having been impressed by the critical nature of this task, the students carefully and dutifully watched numbers rise and fall on digital thermometers they inserted into a bowl of dark chocolate and a bowl of milk chocolate that they were stirring in preparation for making the shells and tablets.

Lily checks the temperature of the chocolate

Several students decorated the molds that would hold the bonbons. A red-orange dot of food coloring was chosen for the dark chocolate-passion fruit variety, while white stripes were chosen for the dark chocolate-hazelnut praline variety. Golden sprinkles were selected for the milk chocolate-caramel bonbons. The dark chocolate-coffee bonbons would go proudly undressed.

Once the chocolate was appropriately tempered, Chef Christian showed the students how to ladle it into the molds, tapping the side of the molds to coat each compartment evenly. He then dramatically turned the mold upside down over the bowl of chocolate to allow the excess chocolate to drain. Using a spatula, he scraped the flat surface of the mold tray to remove the last of the excess and turned it upside down on a tray to allow the chocolate to set.

Chef Christian ladles chocolate into a mold

The students then had a turn at doing the same.

The ladling procedure described above was also used to create chocolate tablets, but instead of turning these molds upside down, students were invited to sprinkle the surface of the melted chocolate with one or more toppings. A lovely spread consisting of candied ginger, cranberries, dried lavender flowers, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, golden raisins, and minced cherries provided an embarrassment of riches from which to choose.

Once this task was completed, the tablets were also set aside to harden.

Chef Christian reached for the ganaches and put them into piping bags. Each student tried her hand at piping the ganaches into their pre-prepared chocolate shells. Then, Chef Christian demonstrated how to seal the shells with additional chocolate and gave each student a chance to do the same.

The last lesson of the day was devoted to making truffles.

Chef Christian removed the truffle paste from the refrigerator, placed it into a pastry bag, and demonstrated how to pipe individual truffles onto a sheet of parchment paper. Chef Sarah explained that she prefers to create square truffles cut from a pan.

Each student piped several individual truffles onto the paper and then, wearing latex gloves, had a turn rolling them into balls. To finish, each student coated truffles with cocoa powder using a tiny, three-tined fork.

Chef Christian took the last of the milk chocolate, spread it paper thin, and dusted it with gold powder to create a decoration for the chocolate mousse. Students took turns breaking the “chocolate paper” into irregular shards and placing them into the bowls of mousse.

Decorating the chocolate mousse with shards of chocolate

The chocolate tablets and bonbons were turned out of their molds with no resistance, and the students began organizing the table for the tasting.

Everyone was amazed at the beautiful work produced during the class. Chef Sarah, who has mastered the art of food styling, arranged all the students’ creations on the worktable for a photo op. Then everyone got to eat a bowl of chocolate mousse and take home a box of bonbons and truffles along with their personal, custom-made chocolate tablet.

The class was fast-paced, super informative with lots of opportunities for hands-on experience, and FUN!

Cook’n with Class
6, rue Baudelique
75018 Paris
Website: https://cooknwithclass.com/
Chocolate Class: https://cookinwithclass.com/course/chocolate-class-paris/
Booking Calendar: https://cookinwithclass.com/cooking-class-calendar

Cook’n with Class has been in operation since 2007. It held its last chocolate workshop in 2017. Up to seven participants will be welcome to participate in upcoming workshops.

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Pickpockets Are Back in Business in Paris

June 29th, 2020

by Tom Reeves

The first time
Usually I do not pay much attention when someone stops me on the street to ask for directions: I offer what information I can muster and then I continue on my way. But on this particular day, as I was making my way up Avenue des Gobelins toward Place d’Italie, someone approached me from behind and tapped me on the left forearm. I turned to look, and a young man asked me where the metro was located. I replied that it was back in the direction from which we were walking. He turned to walk in that direction and at that moment I was aware that another young man had been on my right during the encounter. I realized that the second man had probably tried to unzip the bag that I carry, bandolier-style, over my right hip. I thought that he probably failed, and, when I inspected the bag, I was right.

I put the incident out of my mind.

The second time
The second time occurred a day or two later as I was making my way up Passage des Postes, a walkway that links two parallel streets. Just as I reached the end of the passageway, a man approached me from behind on my left and asked me where the metro was. I turned to him and replied that it was in the direction from which he came. He thanked me and turned to walk in that direction. This time, there was no one with him, so I imagined that his inquiry was sincere, although I began wondering if there was some new phenomenon occurring that was inciting people to begin asking for directions so frequently.

The third time
The third time occurred just one or two days later when my wife and I were making our way up a narrow stairway that leads from one platform to another in the Ecole Militaire metro station. This time a young man tapped me on the left forearm and asked me if I could tell him the time. I thought that it should have been obvious to him that I was not wearing a watch, and replied that I did not know. When my wife and I arrived at the upper platform, I realized that another young man, who was associated with the one who asked the question, had been behind us and to our right. For some reason I did not attribute any malicious intent to this encounter.

The fourth time
The fourth time occurred the same day as we were making our way up Passage des Postes. Just as we got to the end of the walkway, a young man, approaching from behind, tapped me on the left forearm and asked me where the metro was located. I turned to him and indicated that it was in the direction from which he was walking. Then he asked again, and my wife repeated what I had said. At that point I saw that there was a second young man who had been following us on our right. We watched them walk away.

Just five minutes later, arriving in our apartment, my wife realized that her wallet was missing from her small, zipped purse, which she was carrying over her shoulder along with a second, larger bag. We concluded that it must have been the man on the right who stole the wallet while we were distracted by the first man in the Passage des Postes.

My wife quickly called all her credit card companies to alert them to the theft.

About an hour later, a woman who lives in the Passage des Postes contacted my wife to tell her that she found the wallet in front of her door. My wife rushed to retrieve it and found that the small amount of cash in the wallet had been stolen as well as two local credit cards.

The conclusions that I draw from this
I think that a group of thieves has swept into Paris and will pull this stunt for as long as they can get away with it. And then they will move on to another town.

Whether I am right or not, I write this to alert people about what is happening on the streets of Paris. It is not sufficient to carry a zipped purse or zipped bag to prevent pick pocketing. The bag that I carry also has a clasp, which, until now, I never used, because it requires so much fumbling to secure it to the pull of the zipper. But that is now the point: if is difficult for me to secure, then it will be difficult for a pickpocket to open quickly while his partner tries to engage me in brief conversation.

Be aware and alert!

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Paris Jazz Repertory Septet Performs Concert Climat in Paris

December 30th, 2019

By Monique Y. Wells

On 17 December 2019, the Café de la Danse theater in Paris’s Bastille district was transformed into a magical space where the Paris Jazz Repertory Septet (PJR7) and singer Joseph Langley invited the public to focus on climate change through the lens of jazz.

Pianist/trombonist Joe Makholm of PJR7 is the composer of Concert Climat, a musical trilogy dedicated to this environmental crisis. After reading three books on the topic – This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, Eaarth by Bill McKibben, and Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen – Makholm set about adapting them into music. Read his account of how he approached this by clicking HER E.

Joe Makholm at Café de la Danse
© Entrée to Black Paris

After Makholm finished the first two parts of the trilogy, the septet performed them at the Sunside/Sunset jazz club in Paris on December 1, 2015. Makholm completed the third part of the trilogy a few months later and PJR7 performed the entire trilogy on May 29, 2016 in a 4-hour concert at the 45° Jazz Club in Paris’ 10^th arrondissement.

For the December 17 concert, the septet regaled a practically full house by performing This Changes Everything, the second suite of the trilogy, in its entirety for the first time since a January 2017 rendition at the Sunside. It is composed of five sections: “The Extractivists: Hot Money – Laughing at the Science”; “Blocadia”; “In the Sacrifice Zones”; “Magical Thinking”; and “Extraction to Renewal.”

After the intermission, the septet performed excerpts from Eaarth, the first suite, and Storms of My Grandchildren, the third suite.

Makholm conducted the group from the piano bench as he played, just as Duke Ellington used to direct his orchestra.

Each member of the group had the opportunity to showcase his unique talent.

Upper left: Detail of Concert Climat flier
From lower left to upper right: Joe Makholm (conductor and pianist), Philippe Nadaud (alto and soprano saxophone), Pascal Baselli (drums), Stéphane Renard (bass), Claudio Pallaro (tenor and soprano saxophone), Jean-Christophe Vilain (trombone), and Franck Delpeut (trumpet)
Photos © Entrée to Black Paris

Vocalist Joseph Langley closed each set with a song – “Breaking the Rules” for This Changes Everything and “Leave It in the Ground” for Storms of My Grandchildren.

Joseph Langley (vocals)
© Entrée to Black Paris

It was an extraordinary evening!

The recording of the full Concert Climat trilogy is available in a 3-CD box set. For information, contact Joe Makholm at contact@concertclimat.com.

Listen to Makholm’s World Radio Paris interview about the December 17 concert HERE.

Tags: Concert Climat
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Making Gumbo the Easy Way

December 27th, 2019

**Gumbo on Rice**
Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

Gumbo is a soul-satisfying, deeply flavorful dish that originates from southern Louisiana. It is a cross between a soup and a stew, and Creole and Cajun varieties abound. Monique included her family’s Creole recipe for it in her cookbook, Food for the Soul.

I knew that making gumbo requires great effort because of the time-consuming process of making the roux (stirring flour in fat until it gets the right color). But that was before I met Monique’s cousin, Rozetta Kaufman, who invented a gumbo mix that makes “almost instant gumbo with perfect homemade flavor every time.”

Here’s how you do it: boil water, add the seasoning mix, meat, and okra, and voilà! Easy-peasy.

To make it even easier for me, I asked my wife Monique to make it while I sat back and watched. Here’s how she proceeded:

**Gumbo Ingredients**
Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

First, she sat the ingredients out on the kitchen table. From left to right: okra, chicken wings, gumbo seasoning, Morteau (a smoked sausage from the Franche-Comté region of France), and okra.

Making the roux — **Making the Roux**
Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

Then, she made the roux by simply adding Rozetta Kaufman’s magic gumbo seasoning to a pitcher of cold water and stirring. Easy-peasy!

Adding roux to boiling water — **Adding Roux to Boiling Water**
Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

Then, she added the mix to boiling water.

**Sliced Sausage and Chicken Wings in Roux**
Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

Then, she added the chicken wings and sliced sausage to the roux.

**Gumbo and Okra**
Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

Then, she added sliced okra to the chicken, sausage, and roux mix.

Ladeling Roux into Bowl — **Ladling Roux into Bowl**
Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

Then, she took a chicken wing and two slices of sausage from the pot, placed them into a bowl containing cooked white rice and ladled roux onto it. And voilà! A delicious bowl of gumbo.

**Rozetta Kaufman with her Gumbo Mix**
Photograph by Entrée to Black Paris

We thank Rozetta Kaufman for bringing her wonderful Gumbo Everyday Seasoning Mix to our attention. Information about her product can be found at the following link: gumboeveryday.com.

Tags: gumbo
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A Day at One Nation

September 9th, 2019

The Greater Paris Region has several outlet shopping malls within its perimeter. We reported on our visit to La Vallée Village in August and, today, are writing about our expedition to One Nation, a two-level outlet mall located about 30 km (19 miles) to the west of the French capital.

One Nation offers year-round discounts of 30% off top-brand clothing from last season’s fashions. During promotional periods the discount can be as great as 70%. It is important to keep in mind that the discounts are offered on last season’s fashions, not the current season. (The English-language version of the One Nation website doesn’t make this distinction clear.)

The mall is open Sunday to Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The outlet offers a round-trip shuttle service from Paris six days a week for 24€. The departure point is located on the embankment of the Seine River (Port de la Bourdonnais) in front of the Eiffel Tower.

We were initially interested in taking this shuttle, but we decided to go to the mall on a Monday and learned that the service does not run on that day. So, we did some research and found that there is a train (Line N) from the Montparnasse station in Paris that stops in Villepreux – Les Clayes, a town within walking distance of the mall.

We departed from Montparnasse station at 9:50 a.m. and arrived at Villepreux – Les Clayes at 10:29 a.m. It was an uneventful journey. Alighting from the train, we were somewhat perplexed about the route to take to get to the mall. We learned later that there is a gare routière (bus station) near the train station and that we could have taken either the number 8 or the number 45 bus to get to our destination. We didn’t have a smart phone, however, so finding the bus station would have been problematic.

Because it was a beautiful day, we decided to set out for the mall on foot. With the help and direction of residents of the town whom we met along the way, we arrived at the mall without too much difficulty after about a 20-minute walk.

The mall opens at 11:00 a.m. and we arrived precisely at opening time. This is the best time to shop, as we observed that many shoppers began arriving at around noon.

My goal for this shopping excursion was the same as it was for the excursion that we made to La Vallée Village a month earlier: find short- and long-sleeved shirts that have a breast pocket. From the mall’s website, I had already identified fourteen shops that might carry the kind of shirts that I wanted.

Our first stop was at a store named Bellerose, and we startled the shopkeeper, who was busy vacuuming when we entered. When I described to her what I was looking for she initially seemed reluctant to help. It turned out that her reluctance was because the shirts that I was seeking were stashed in a big box and that she had not yet had time to display them properly. She quickly changed her mind, though, and soon she was pulling shirts out of the box and showing them to me. My wife and I immediately saw that these were precisely the types of shirts that I had been looking for: they were well made, constructed from soft cotton, and many of them came in my size. Within a few minutes of trying them on, I selected two shirts that appealed to me.

From Bellerose, we followed the list of shops that I had prepared and made several purchases:

At Brooks Brothers, a long-sleeve, vertically-striped shirt and a short-sleeve linen shirt
At Shilton, a short-sleeve sport shirt
At Cyrillus, a pair of loden-green cotton trousers.

We also visited Cotélac, eden-park, Guess, Sandro, Scotch & Soda, Vicomte A, Levi’s, The Shop, Gant, Galeries Lafayette, and Café Coton, but didn’t find any shirts or trousers that suited me. The shopkeeper at Gant told me that the best time to look for short-sleeve shirts would have been in June. Galeries Lafayette has a very large selection of men’s clothing. The shopkeepers there let me browse to my heart’s content.

The salespersons in all the stores that we entered were helpful and friendly.

For lunch, we dined at a delightful Italian restaurant called Locale Trattoria. I ordered a salad of octopus and smoked salmon and my wife a grilled vegetable salad accompanied by two large portions of burrata. Both salads were copious, and the waiter graciously placed one of the portions of burrata into a take-out box so the she could carry it home. For dessert, we enjoyed scoops of Movenpick ice cream served in sundae glasses with thin, crispy, cigar-shaped cookies.

It had been a successful day of shopping and we made our way back to the Villepreux – Les Clayes train station by foot. We arrived at the Montparnasse station in Paris around 6:00 p.m.

Tags: One Nation
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Bus Toqué – An Extraordinary Gourmet Excursion through Paris

September 6th, 2019

On a recent Friday evening in August, we boarded a double-decker bus for an extraordinary gourmet excursion through the French capital. What made this so special is the dining room on the top deck of the bus that affords remarkable views of the city. During our two-hour journey, the waitstaff served us a four-course meal as we meandered past glorious Parisian landmarks.

Table setting - Bus Toqué — **Table setting – Bus Toqué**

To begin the adventure, we arrived at the point of embarkment on Avenue des Champs-Elysées around 8:00 p.m. We were greeted at the entrance to the bus by a bilingual maître d’, who took a photograph of us at our request and then invited us to step onboard. As we climbed the stairs to the upper level, we noted a kitchen and a serving counter on the ground level. When we reached the top deck, a waitress invited us to settle into a table at the front of the bus. There, we had a superb view of the Champs-Elysées, a street that is often described as “the most beautiful avenue in the world.”

While waiting for the bus excursion to begin we each ordered a glass of champagne. Cleverly-designed drink holders affixed to the dining table secured our beverages and prevented them from spilling once the bus got underway.

The driver started the engine, the bus pulled into traffic, and we began moving slowly down the avenue. As we sampled the first starter, a generous disk of chopped, lightly-smoked salmon served with a dollop of confit of tomato and red onions, the bus proceeded down the Champs-Elysées to Place de La Concorde. There, the Luxor obelisk and two great fountains stood proudly in the evening twilight as the bus rounded the square and proceeded up Rue Royale to Place de la Madeleine and then on to Place de l’Opéra. All along the way, a laptop-size screen affixed to the side of our table presented pertinent information about the sights that we came upon.

From Place de l’Opéra the bus made its way down Avenue de l’Opéra and then proceeded through Place du Carrousel, where we had a marvelous view of the glass pyramid of the Louvre. After turning left on Quai François Mitterrand, it proceeded to Place du Châtelet and then crossed the river onto the Left Bank. By the time we passed Notre Dame Cathedral, which stands on Ile de la Cité between the Right Bank and the Left Bank, we had been served a delicious artichoke velouté, our second starter.

Arriving on the Left Bank, the bus turned right onto Quai des Grands Augustins and followed the stretch of road that borders the Seine toward Les Invalides. Along the way we were served the main course, a cut of tender veal accompanied by ginger-flavored carrots and purée of celery root.

Skirting Les Invalides, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived there just before 10:00 p.m. The bus parked near Pont d’Iéna, where we disembarked so that we could view the tower’s sparkling light show.

We re-boarded the bus about fifteen minutes later and inched across the bridge to climb Avenue de Mun to Place du Trocadéro. Along the way we were served an exotic dessert — a dome of mascarpone cream resting on a genoise base coated with a mango-flavored topping. After the bus circled Place du Trocadero, it turned onto Avenue Kléber and proceeded to the monumental Arc de Triomphe. From there it turned onto the Champs-Elysées and returned to the starting point.

It was a splendid journey and a splendid meal. The city revealed its beauty all along the way and the waitstaff was gracious and helpful.

Bus Toqué was founded in February 2018 by Vincent Durand, creator of Auto Passion Café, a restaurant and cocktail bar located on Boulevard Brune in the 14^th arrondissement of Paris. Cuisine aboard the bus is prepared by Chef Kevin Peperty.

Bus Toqué runs three different services: a Left Bank lunch tour from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., a Parisian dinner tour from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., and a “Paris-by-night” tour from 8:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. To learn more about this unique dining experience and to book a table, click here: https://busto que.fr/en/concept/.

Bon appétit !

Tags: Bus Toqué
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Designer Outlet Shopping – My Paris Experience

August 11th, 2019

There are a few designer outlet stores in Paris where fashionable, ready-to-wear clothes are sold, but they are located in various parts of town. Because we did not want to spend time crossing and re-crossing the city to visit these far-flung shops, my wife and I decided to make an excursion to an outlet mall that lies about 40 km to the east of Paris. Called La Vallée Village, this mall boasts about 70 boutiques selling ready-to-wear designer brands, such as Hugo Boss, Kenzo, and Calvin Klein. I thought for sure that I would find some shirts and slacks there at prices within my budget.

Monique at Paris City Vision Pick-up Point

We booked round-trip passage on a shuttle bus that whisks shoppers from central Paris to the mall in about one hour. Called Paris City Vision, the bus leaves from 2 rue des Pyramides. Arriving at 9:15 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. departure time, we saw that there was already a long line of eager shoppers, most of whom seemed to be tourists from foreign lands, waiting to board the bus. The first bus filled up and we got a front-row seat on the second that pulled up to the curb. As we boarded, we were given a voucher for our return trip.

The ride to La Vallée Village was uneventful. I remarked about how quiet the engine of the Mercedes-Benz vehicle was and how comfortable the seats were.

Stepping off the bus at La Vallée Village, we were grateful to be handed a map of the mall by a young, smartly-dressed woman who worked for the mall’s welcome center. Examining the map, I saw that it was practically useless because the numbers identifying the shops were printed in non-contrasting ink on a grey background.

As the welcome center is located at one end of the mall, it was a simple matter to follow the walkway set with flat paving stones to explore the shops that lie on either side. Village-like in appearance, the boutiques are interspersed with an occasional shop for coffee (Starbucks), pastries (Ladurée), and other food services. Food carts are located at strategic spots along the sidewalk for additional gourmet pleasure.

We found contemporary sculpture and art installations along the sidewalk as well and were intrigued by a small exhibition space located down a side passage where additional pieces of the artists’ work were shown.

My goal was to find short- and long-sleeve shirts equipped with a breast pocket. Entering the first men’s shop that I came to, I quickly learned how fruitless my quest would be. Most of the shirts that I found had no pocket at all or the pocket was small, rendering the garment completely useless for my needs.

I quickly re-purposed my mission and began looking for trousers. Error! Most of the pants that I found were tapered or otherwise form-fitting.

After considerable browsing in all the men’s stores, I found and purchased two items that pleased me:

A khaki-colored pair of Polo trousers by Ralph Lauren, originally priced at 145€ selling for 99€ and a beautiful dark-grey merino wool sweater by Figaret Paris, originally priced at 165€ selling at 110€.

I saw other items that I would have purchased had they been in the color that I wanted, or, in the case of shirts, been equipped with a breast pocket:

A Timberland windbreaker originally selling for 170€ priced at 110€, a Timberland shirt originally selling for 89€ priced at 60€, and a pair of Ted Baker pants, originally selling for 115€ priced at 75€.

The best bargain that I spotted was a Dunhill shirt, originally selling for 230€ priced at 65€.

My wife and I stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Le Menu Palais where we dined on a three-course meal. We were comfortably seated in the attractive, spacious dining room and waited on by an attentive staff. Our only distractions were sparrows that flitted about the room and whooping children whose voices seemed to rise from every point in the restaurant. Otherwise, I enjoyed my breaded deep-fried fish served with mixed-green salad and my wife enjoyed her osso bucco served with tagliatelle pasta. The bill for two starters, two main courses, one dessert, two glasses of wine, and one bottle of beer came to 89.80€.

At 3:15 p.m. we walked back to the welcome center to board the bus for the return trip to Paris.

The day had been quite an experience for me. I learned that my taste in clothes was horribly out of date and that I couldn’t fit into the new styles anyway. In each shop we were waited on by a gracious staff of mostly young men and women who didn’t seem to mind helping an old man whose fashion sense was archaic.

Tags: La Vallée Village
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An Evening at Cook’n With Class

March 25th, 2018

Cook’n with Class
Photograph by Discover Paris!

I recently had the occasion to participate in a private cooking class at Cook’n with Class, a cooking school in Paris’ 18th arrondissement that was opened in 2007 by French chef Eric Fraudeau. Six persons participated: husband and wife team Tanzets and Ariqa Islam from New York, Andrea Campbell from California, mother and daughter team Nicole and Daven Pembrook from Paris, and me. The class was led by Patrick Hebert, a French chef who speaks fluent English and who has considerable experience in the restaurant industry.

Tanzets and Ariqa Islam, Andrea Campbell, and Patrick Hebert
Photograph by Discover Paris!

We met at 5:00 p.m. at place Jules Joffrin and proceeded to the neighborhood market, where Patrick helped us select the products that we would transform into a delicious meal. We stopped at several stores, including a bakery where we purchased fresh-baked baguettes; a butcher shop where we decided to purchase quail for our main course; a green grocer where we purchased fennel and small potatoes; a fish market where we purchased scallops and mussels for our starter; and a cheese shop where we purchased several cheeses for the cheese course. For dessert, we decided to bake lava cakes for which Patrick already had the ingredients back at the school.

Patrick Explains How to Recognize a Fresh Scallop
Photograph by Discover Paris!

At each shop, Patrick took care to explain how to select the best products for a meal. At the bakery, we learned that a baker only has the right to call his shop “artisanal” if his products are made on the premises (and not, for example, produced off the premises and delivered to the shop for retail sale). At the butcher shop, we learned that the Label Rouge is a sign of quality for agricultural products. At the fish market, we learned that the shop should “smell like the sea,” and not have a fishy odor. We also learned that fish should be moist to the touch and that some fish, such as the monk fish, should be slimy.

We arrived at the school, washed our hands, donned aprons, and then assembled around a large table. Each of us had a cutting board to work on, as well as a metal bowl for scraps and a sharp knife for slicing.

Patrick with Menu
Photograph by Discover Paris!

Patrick opened the class by posting the menu of items that we had selected for our meal. For the starter, we would have scallops and mussels with lemongrass sauce and candied fennel; for the main course, roasted quail in red wine sauce with Brussels sprouts and baby potatoes. These would be followed by a cheese platter and chocolate lava cake.

A scrumptious meal was in store for us! Were we up to the challenge of preparing it?

Patrick Shows Daven Pembrook How to Set Scale to Zero
Photograph by Discover Paris!

Andrea Campbell and Chef Patrick Prepare Lava Cake Batter
Photograph by Discover Paris!

We got to work, beginning with the lava cake because it had to be refrigerated for an hour before we baked it. To measure the ingredients, Patrick showed us how to use a scale. First, the “tare weight” was set to zero with an empty bowl on it. Then the ingredients were weighed, and Patrick showed us how to prepare the individual cake tins to receive the batter.

Once the batter was in the cake tins and the tins were in the refrigerator, we proceeded to prepare the mussels, the fennel, and the Brussels sprouts.

Tanzets Islam Removes Cooked Mussels from Their Shells
Photograph by Discover Paris!

Some of us sliced the fennel while others cleaned the mussels. Only closed mussels are supposed to be eaten, but if we came upon an open one, Patrick showed us a trick for determining whether it was fresh: squeeze gently on the upper and lower shell — if the mussel closes, then it is still alive, hence fresh. The cleaned mussels were placed in a pot with white wine, thyme, bay leaf, and shallots and cooked until they opened.

Nicole Pembrook Carefully Places Quail in Frying Pan
Photograph by Discover Paris!

Next, the quail were placed in a frying pan for browning on all sides. After this was accomplished, Patrick popped the frying pan into the oven for baking until the juices of the quail ran pale pink.

This was an evening of many firsts for me: the first time I had ever seen a frying pan used for baking, the first time I sliced fennel, the first time I helped prepare dark-chocolate lava cake with a secret white chocolate center…

Ariqa Islam Stirs the Sauce for the Scallops
Photograph by Discover Paris!

The mussels were cooked in white wine, the scallops were sautéed in olive oil, the Brussels sprouts were roasted, the baby potatoes were baked in their skins, the fennel was sautéed in olive oil, the quail were browned in a frying pan and then baked… Everything was ready!

We repaired to another room where Patrick talked about the two wines that he would serve with the meal. One was a rosé: Château Les Apiès – L’Arène de la Vallée 2015, from Provence, and the other was a red: Le Crouzet – Aude Côtes de Lastours 2015, from Languedoc. During our absence, a kitchen assistant cleared the work space and prepared the table for dinner.

The Starter: Steamed Mussels, Caramelized Fennel, Sautéed Scallops
Photograph by Discover Paris!

When we returned, Patrick, Ariqa, and Andrea plated and served the first course: mussels steamed in white wine, caramelized fennel, and sautéed scallops in a sauce made from the liquid from steamed mussels, lemongrass, and cream. Bon appétit!

The Main Course: Baked Baby Potato, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Roasted Quail, Sautéed Apple
Photograph by Discover Paris!

Our main course consisted of baked baby potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts, baked quail in sauce made with Port wine and Muscat grape juice, and sautéed apples.

Cheese Board
Clockwise from left: Sainte-Maure, Morbier, Pouligny Saint-Pierre, Cantal,
Fourme d’Ambert, Camembert, and Tomme du Barry
Photograph by Discover Paris!

Then came the cheese course consisting of Sainte-Maure, Morbier, Pouligny Saint-Pierre, Cantal, Fourme d’Ambert, Camembert, and Tomme du Barry flavored with tomato and olive.

Lava Cake
Photograph by Discover Paris!

At some point, Patrick removed the lava cakes from the refrigerator and popped them into the oven. When they were done, he served them piping hot. I cut into mine to release its white chocolate lava, which flowed copiously onto the plate. Yum!

Eating a Fine Meal
Photograph by Discover Paris!

The evening was an unqualified success. I met some great people, learned to prepare a delicious meal with them, and enjoyed their company as we sat down to savor the fruits of our labor. Thanks to Ariqa and Tanzets, Andrea, Nicole and Daven, and Patrick Hebert and the staff at Cook’n With Class!

Cook’n with Class
6 rue Baudelique
Paris 75018
www.cooknwithclass.com/paris

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