My Weekend With Piglets, Cows, Nudes and my Luscious Walnut Tart

Some weekends in Paris, there is just too much to see and do!  The Salon d’Agriculture is definitely one of my favorites salons and then this Sunday was free museum day.  I look forward to this huge and most popular salon every year, where the country comes to Paris.!

There you will find the most prized award winning cows, pig, sheep, goats, all on display usually grazing and feeding for the most parts oblivious of their human spectators snapping photographs of them.  Horses, mules, donkeys, and ponies plus all the varieties of barnyards birds can be found there too in their own glory.

Dogs and cat shows for the finest of breeds are very popular, and it was practically push and shove time to even get near the dog show Saturday. The dogs were for the most part much better trained than their human counterparts.

There is absolutely no comparison with the county fairs back in the states, which frankly I found rather cheap and tawdry.   Think of country done with a French flair from flower adorned cows and pretty braided horses, in additionally to all the glories of French food here and from her island colonies.

In addition the all the pretty animals, I always head to the Outre Mer building where  French island possessions from the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific proudly display there foods and culture.  I love to get a cup of coconut ice cream from the old-fashioned crank ice cream makers of Marie Galant.

Various Martinique and Guadalupe stands had Caribbean music and dancing as seen in the photos and  were passing out a deliciously strong rum punch that they are famous for. Accras de morue or fried cod beignets and other Caribbean fare can be had at stands and in full service restaurants.

Then there is the hula dancing from  French Polynesia and Nouvelle Caledonia , and their stands selling black pearls, and those huge prawns.  Indian Ocean islands of Reunion, Mauritius, Madagascar and Mayotte are famous for their flowers, spices and vanilla and they too had their own food specialities for sell.

Every region of mainland France is likewise celebrated, each with their myriad of regional cheeses, sausages, foods and wines!   Those from Brittany, Normandy and the Aquitaine regions all compete with their delicious oysters, mussels, shellfish, and various fishes that ply their coasts, that you can buy from multiple stands.

If that wasn’t enough, the rest of the world countries had their on building  where you could buy their clothing, jewelry, foods, wines and whatever else their countries are  famous for. A lot cheaper that a round the world ticket to savor all the cultures you could imagine!

The world of plants and crops building is fascinating too and so much to see and learn that you never knew about, with some usual specimens for sell. Before I left though, I always head towards the milking stand to buy raw milk and buttermilk from Brittany to take home.

Free museum Sunday always presents with a hard decision where to go as 17 of the city’s museums, that ordinarily you pay to get in are free on the first Sunday of each month, which this beauty seeker can’t pass up.

I had wanted for some time to visit the Jean Jacque Henner museum, which was having a special exhibition of Sensuality and Spirituality, which I have always maintained have a strong and interchangeable  connection.

Jean Jacque Henner was born in Alsace-Lorraine  in the early 1800’s and lived and painted in Paris most of his life.  He was noted for his landscapes and nudes.  This small jewel of a  museum is housed in a beautiful old multi storied mansion with a lovely central atrium that illuminates the many rooms.

Whenever I am in the presence of an artist’s canvases, I generally am able to feel the energy of the painter.  With Jean Jacques there seemed to be an underlying sadness and longing.  His collection was rich in portrayals of the Crucifixion of Christ, sometimes interchanging the Christ with what looked to be  ordinary men such as a suggestion of himself, I thought.

His beautiful nudes, often with red hair and those of Mary Magdalene made me think of the softly rounded nudes of Manet or Corot.  He also often painted the dead perhaps as a mirror of the  grief that he must have endured in his lifetime.  I know he was very pained by the deaths of his two sisters and his grieving over his natal Alsace-Lorraine being annexed again to Germany after the French German war in 1871, where it remained until being returned to French soil in 1919.

Little is really known about his personal life, so I for one, see his paintings as in many ways a reflection of his own psyche and conflicted sexuality that I don’t think he felt free to express openly. Certainly the theme of suffering and persecution can be seen woven into his masterpieces.

Returning home Sunday is always a pleasant one knowing I will be making my one deletable pastry or dessert for the week.   With a mound of left over walnuts from Périgord, I had been having visions of making  a walnut tart with salted buttered caramel.

As in any tart, the pasty shell must be perfectly flaky and tender and frankly this southern girl prefers her version to any pate brisee or sucré in pastry shops ,which are generally not as tender as my own.  In addition to butter used, I added a few spoonfuls of walnut oil to my pastry dough that added another nutty dimension.

Once baked to a golden brown, you only have to fill it with the caramel and walnuts, which is easy for me to do, as it seems I have been carmelizing sugar since my early twenties. Salted butter  with grains of sea salt are added to the amber melted sugar and then  a dollop of creme fraiche goes in before the whole mixture is poured over the pastry shell filled with walnuts. When cool, just a sprinkling of sel de Guérande finishes it off.

The pastry melts in your mouth and the walnut salted caramel is just sublime!  Truly an absolutely sensual pastry in all dimensions that I thought was a perfect extension of my own sensuality and spirituality Sunday.