Snow, snow, snow

Today we watched the snow fall through the window. Unfortunately it first was slit and the temperatures were probably a bit above freezing point so even though it snowed heavily for a good three hours nothing was left on this part of the city. I was quite amazed to discover later on in the news that it disrupted the whole South / Southwest suburbs with people trapped in their cars for hours waiting for the road transport authorities to remove the snow from the roads. I am quite happy since I kind of wanted to see some snow and I just got some following me around. I got some in Philadelphia, then moved to New York where it followed me and now Paris. I can happily go back to the Australian summer.

Rapa Nui, Espace Fondation EDF

I am not too sure about what has been attracting me to the Easter Island for years. I know I will visit the place one day. I actually nearly did once but I realised it was the wrong time of the year and settled on Alaska instead. It is a barren land with hardly anything to see and I am usually not particularly attracted by islands but something fascinates me with Rapa Nui. It probably is its inaccessibility and remoteness. Or it is its famous stone giants. Or maybe one of the most intriguing ways of writing, the Rongorongo. It is all there (physically, suggested or documented) at the moment at this very instructive exhibition that is taking place at the Fondation EDF, in the 7th Arrondissement until the 1st of March 2009. A must see.

Les Plages d'Agnès

Agnès! What an incredible woman. I have not seen so many of her movies / documentaries but every single time I do I am in love with her work. Everything she does is done with so much humility and kindness. This latest movie, still showing in quite a few cinemas, is a kind of autobiographic documentary on the eve of her 80th birthday. She gets to share a glimpse of her life that saw her moving from the beaches of Knut-Le-Zout to New York. She witnessed so many Art movements and Artists. Most of them now dead. That is the emotional element of the movie but it is with pleasure we cross the path of individualities as different as Jim Morrison, Catherine Deneuve, Jim Morrison or Yolande Moreau. And of course the biggest emotion comes along with every mention of her late husband, Jacques Demy. If it had not been issued last year this could easily have been my movie of the Year!

Rent-a-Car

I do not own a car so I rent one every time I need one. In the end I believe it is probably much cheaper than owning one. First of all, I get a new car for each trip. Usually they are quite new and only have a few kilometres on the odometer. Secondly, I am not worried about where to park it when I am not using it. To drive from Washington to New York we rented a Prius since they seem to be quite popular over there. Why is that people continue to use normal cars? Hybrids are so fuel efficient. It might not be the definitive solution but at least you can guess that it is a real progress.
On our way back from the countryside, we had a little Opel. In contrast, cars in France continue to use extremely polluting Diesel fuel (which you rarely see anywhere else in the world except for trucks). For the recorded story, it was filled with the wrong fuel and we got stuck at the fuel station after realising the mistake (we had hopefully not started the engine). Not an experience I recommend to anyone on a Sunday morning in the middle of nowhere in France.

Lapin de Garenne

We went directly from New York to the French countryside and it was a bit of a ‘culture lag’. Nevertheless, we always are greeted by my mother’s excellent cooking and on this very day we lunched on a real ‘Lapin de Garenne’ (wild rabbit). The ‘Garenne’ has a very subtle flesh and you could fear that it tastes quite gamey as any other wild animal but it is not. The only drawback is that they are always killed by hunters in the wild and as a result you have to mind the bullets while you eat it.

Boeuf Bourguignon

It has obviously been much colder than this a few weeks back but I find the weather to be still rather cold. After all, it is more than 30 degrees colder than what I was experiencing two days ago so there is nothing strange in feeling cold outside. With this kind of temperatures there is nothing better than a slow cooking and hearty Boeuf Bourguignon (Burgundy Beef, and that's where I am originally from) to keep you warm. After all that winter food I will have a good reson to go back to the swimming pool when I am back in Australia to burn all those extra calories.

Perfect Breakie!

Oh! No better way to start this first day in Paris than with my favourite French Breakfast for a cold winter. Hot chocolate, croissant and Libération newspaper. It was also market day in my corner and I just loved browsing through all those nice fresh products on display. I could not help buying a few things I do not find elsewhere (or not tasting as they do here) like Boudin Noir and Boudin Blanc that will compose my lunch. Also, I would like to see a few movies that I did not have the opportunity to view wherever I was this year. Les Plages d'Agnès, an autobiographic documentary about Agnès Varda and Séraphine with the usually excellent and touching actress Yolande Moreau.

See you next time

Bye bye the countryside and see you next time! it is amazing how quickly time flies. I hardly had enough time to reconnect with my native environment that I am already travelling away from home. A brief stop in Paris tonight and I am off to take my nephew along to London tomorrow. I already took him a few times when he was a kid but it is his first time as a teenager. I have not been there myself for a couple of years neither. It is always interesting to rediscover a familiar city through someone else's eyes though.

Foie Gras

You might not find the organ on the above picture appetizing but believe me, once cooked it is a delight. Many know about Foie Gras and also are aware of the awful way geese and ducks are force fed to produce a huge liver. I have to admit that if I think too much about it is taking my appetite away but it was very interesting to take the opportunity of being in my native village to visit the local Foie Gras producer as my Mum went to buy a fresh liver. After marinating in salt (fleur de sel) and pepper it will be oven cooked in a terrine for a delicious result.

Autumn Specials

I do not know much about it but now definitely is one of the mushroom seasons at the moment. It seems to be truffle season in the southern central part of France and Italy but one thing is for sure is that there are many mushrooms in the fields and woods around my village. While walking I spotted quite a few different models. Some of them I know and some others I do not. the above picture is part of the latter category. I have no idea what they are but they certainly stood as a happy and united bunch in that field!

France profonde

We like to call it 'Deeeeep France' both reluctantly and affectionately. The fact is that having lived here as a teenager has never been easy but I am quite attached to the place and it can be beautiful for a few days in all seasons really. At the moment we are having a late Autumn. The colours are not quite yet this beautiful array of browns, goldens, greens, yellows and reds but when the sun is out there is nothing nicer than enjoying the countryside and its pure air with a digestive walk after a delicious French meal.

Oh joy!

I personally find long day flights to be a bit more tiring than night flights as my body clock usually is not in a sleeping mode. But that is valid for long flights like the Singapore-Paris leg that is nearly 14 hours. The plane was really empty today which made such a difference. Only a handful of people in Biz and maybe 50 passengers in Economy. That gave us the impression of flying a private B777 with more air hostesses than you could ask for. As a result the service was even better than usual and I can say I had the best beef in the sky ever. So tender. The food generally tends to be better out of Singapore rather than out of Paris strangely enough. Overall, a very enjoyable flight.

Pâtisserie Millet

Experience the real thing! I did for the first time today. My favourite French pâtisserie has always been the Flan. It tends to be pretty ‘industrial’ anywhere even in the nice cake shops with a filling that looks more like a custardy jelly than something else. But the real thing was hidden in this shop on Rue Saint Dominique in Paris. The traditional ‘Flan Pâtissier’, as its name indicates, is filled with a thick ‘Crème pâtissiere’ made out of milk, corn starch, sugar, vanilla and milk. It melts in your mouth, teases your tastebuds and the crust… Yummy… The crust has to be the most perfectly cooked I ever had.

"Polynésie"

How amazing! Far away from the exotic dreams of tiny islands with perfect white sand and transparent blue waters we are deep into the reality of the sacred and divine Polynesian Arts while visiting this exhibition. That said, it is cleverly divided into sections that clearly put things into perspective: The Sea, the Earth, the Marae, the Divine and the Chieftaincy. All the elements that form the basis of the Polynesian society. You should really take this opportunity to witness those artefacts now as you will probably no longer have the opportunity to see them together ever again. And there is no risk as they have all been de-sacralised during a ‘Tapu’ ceremony prior being publicly displayed.

Pouilly-sur-Loire

After Chavignol I could have talked about the famous Sancerre wine produced a few kilometres away but I decided to go for something a bit rarer. Back on the other side of the Loire River, Pouilly-Sur-Loire is widely known for its Pouilly Fumé. Completely forgotten and hard to come by is the Pouilly Chasselas. Only a handful of wine makers still produce this rare wine that is not to be found in shops. The bottle label usually only reads ‘Pouilly-sur-Loire’ with no other mention. One of the best places to get it is from the Domaine Masson-Blondelet (picture of the bottles above). It has to be said that my grandfather was a wine producer but I never got the taste for wine (or alcool in general). Nevertheless, I am always quite interested in what is grown and consumed locally when I visit a region.

Chavignol

From where I was born, across the Loire river, lay a couple of nice villages more or less famous around the world amongst food and wine specialists. One of them is called Chavignol. Its specialty is a cheese - I know every French village has a special cheese - named Crottin de Chavignol. It is always surprising to see that a tiny village hardly housing 200 inhabitants can make it on the world cheese map as it produces the most famous goat cheese of the many varieties produced in the Loire Valley. The name seems to be coming from something no too glamourous as it is believed that while getting old, the "Crottin" gets harder and browner and tends to look like dung (Crottin = dung). Appetizing, isn't it?

Hell's Hail

Today has been a fine day again but the night has been a real nightmare. Ice balls as big as a golf balls have been falling from the sky by 3 am. This morning, my mum's beautiful garden was a mess and all the trees and flowers were slashed. But it was even worse at my sister's place a few kilometers away as it created a flood and their family house was inundated by a - difficult to get rid of - muddy slush. You really realise in these situations how impossible it is to fight against the elements. (The picture above was taken by 9 am while it was already nearly 30 degrees celcius outside but the ice was far from having already melted).

My life, my life, my life... in the sunshine!

This morning we headed to the countryside. It was so nice to have a tasty barbie at my sister's place. We then enjoyed a bicycle ride through the vineyards and came to rest at my mother's place. You can't help but notice it has been raining quite heavily over the past weeks / months as the nature is so green and lush. In my mum's garden there is a place with lavender. Not quite Provence but attracting enough for the bees to come and buzz. Feeling good. The soundtrack of those moments cannot be something else than Roy Ayers...

Music Hole

It looks like I am more and more into French music. Except that Camille's new album 'Music Hole' is mostly sung in... English. Bjork tried to use vocals as instruments some years back and I was not overwhelmed by the result (even though I remain a big fan of Bjork) so I was a bit weary when I heard a similar technique was used for Camille's album. But where Bjork's album was a bit artsy-farty bordering on boring, Camille's record is pure joy and happiness. Words are used in a such a clever and melodic way. Un pur bonheur!

Joyeuses Paques

Happy Easter.

After yesterday's awful day, today is graced with a beautiful sunny winter weather. Still cold but with a perfect blue sky. Exactly what I like about French winters (erm, isn't it supposed to be spring now?). Unfortunately, I will find myself in one of those planes again tonight to reach Singapore back tomorrow afternoon and face the humid and hot weather that prevails in that other part of the world.