Wednesday 1-Oct 2008 Paris
Weather Cold, Heavy Rain at Times
Euro now at $1.38
Today my friend Martin from the Legion of Honor arrived today.
I went out to CDG to meet him from his flight. On the way to the metro I got to peruse the market in front of my house, it is not big on a weekday, bigger on the weekend. My friend, the food writer for Gourmet, has told me that the markets in Paris are not as good as they were when Les Halles was in place, it being the center city wholesale food market.
http://courses.umass.edu/latour/2007/chandler/index.html
Les Halles was replaced by a market very south of the city called Rungis. Then with the expansion of Paris most of the farms close to the city were turned into tract homes. With the European Union’s Trade agreements there is never a moment you cannot get something not normally in season as now the food in these markets comes from all over. Paris markets used to be about what was in season and close to the city center; the people used those ingredients only when they were in season and fresh! Anyway I digress, the market is still better than anything we have in the US!
Euro now at $1.38
Today my friend Martin from the Legion of Honor arrived today.
I went out to CDG to meet him from his flight. On the way to the metro I got to peruse the market in front of my house, it is not big on a weekday, bigger on the weekend. My friend, the food writer for Gourmet, has told me that the markets in Paris are not as good as they were when Les Halles was in place, it being the center city wholesale food market.
http://courses.umass.edu/latour/2007/chandler/index.html
Les Halles was replaced by a market very south of the city called Rungis. Then with the expansion of Paris most of the farms close to the city were turned into tract homes. With the European Union’s Trade agreements there is never a moment you cannot get something not normally in season as now the food in these markets comes from all over. Paris markets used to be about what was in season and close to the city center; the people used those ingredients only when they were in season and fresh! Anyway I digress, the market is still better than anything we have in the US!
I love the cheap Chanterelle mushrooms, they call them Griolles. Also love the “cheese on a stick”
So Martin is a museum curator and spent time in school here in Paris so I was in for quite the tour. He also amazed me because after a 10 hour flight he was ready to walk! Here he is getting into his rental car (kidding) and another of him taking a picture of a building. The picture was of a house that was torn down in 1905 for the sake of progress, one of the interior rooms is now on display at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Here is what stands there now and the architect’s name
For more reading on touring what used to be in Paris and is now gone: http://www.leonardpitt.com/books.html
This book made me look at Paris and Prefecture Haussmann in a whole new light:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris
This is an Art Nouveau building near Martin’s Hotel, I do love the style
For more reading on touring what used to be in Paris and is now gone: http://www.leonardpitt.com/books.html
This book made me look at Paris and Prefecture Haussmann in a whole new light:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris
This is an Art Nouveau building near Martin’s Hotel, I do love the style
We walked all over looking at things that are no more and things that are. Here is a picture of the garden at the Musee Rodin, I call it Burger Butts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burghers_of_Calais
We did see an old Citroen so Martin made me pretend to be getting into it, to return the favor of the other car pic! Here is an older pic showing the new 'retro' styled model available now:
After dinner I walked home and got a chance to walk under the Eiffel Tower which is in Bleu right now as a symbol of France holding the presidency of the E.U. Pretty in any color!
