Le Foire de Paris

The Paris fair is not like any fair that we are used too in America.  Zero resemblance!  There aren’t any rides, nor freak shows, nor corn dogs, and thank goodness that awful smell of rancid cooking oil that always nauseated me is nowhere to be sniffed.

Think instead of a huge and very vast market place, where a multitude of objects, home furnishings, appliances, swimming pools, verandas, (yeah, just what one needs living in a small Paris apartment) decor, cosmetics, clothes, building equipment, garden furniture and equipment and ideas, gastronomy, wines, trinkets and gadgets, etc.

Market place fairs have been a European mainstays since Roman, Celts, and Gauls inhabited the whole area. It was a time to socialize, to buy necessary items, drink and eat, and make merry and they were well looked forward to each year.  Christmas fairs were similar , but generally smaller in scale.

In the early days, folks would travel days to get to one, because for many, it was the only times merchandise could be purchased.  For the merchants of the day, it may have afforded them the only time to sell their goods or at least offer them to a much greater number of potential buyers.

Nowadays, when everything imaginable can be ordered online, you would think that attendance in these fairs would be diminishing, but that it not the case. Why? From eons back, human beings have always needed to touch, to see, to smell, to manipulate with their own hands and in general have a personal access to whatever catches their eye!

The smells were all enticing from sausages, chocolates, meats roasted on brochets, and visually seeing the raclette cheeses, seen below, slowly melting in front of your eyes, being scraped up to make baguette sandwiches was tempting too on an empty stomach!

Also, in order to buy online, you at least have to solicit a specific search, which prevents you ordinarily from being exposed to articles that you never even knew existed! Not so with the fair, as they bombard you row after row with articles you have never heard of or seen before!

Nothing like hands on experience to make a sell!  In a moment of flurried excitement and anticipation, the pull to buy can be magnetised and merchants of course know this. You don’t have to be interested in the product, until a merchant literally shoves it into your hand.

You stop maybe out of politeness to say no thank you, when for a split second you find yourself giving in to least hear their sales pitch. Whether or not you are in need of the article, you can end up looking at the seller going through his song and dance routine as mindless entertainment.

I am always amazed at the crowds that form thick walls around the merchants selling this and that magic cleaning creams.  They are literally mesmerised by the merchants spilling mustards, ketchup, paint, oils, lipstick, ect on surfaces such  on floors, glass, leather, whatever, then watching in amazement as their rhythmic strokes give way to pristine clean areas.

It is a huge collection of various exhibits, activities, booths from around the world and of course from France hawking just about everything imaginable and a lot unimaginable!  Well over 3,500 merchants!

This year they had an area walled off admitting only those over 18 years old, called Coquine(naughty) shop. For someone who has it all, why not bring home a pink sex toy shaped like the Eiffel Tower!

I have found that there are few bargains to be had in anything. True, you will find articles difficult to find elsewhere, except the country of origin, such as shiny metal Nepalese chime bowls.  I was tempted by the lovely sounds emitted, but decided to wait maybe another year.

The only good buys to me, were the handmade karite soaps and some hot powdered ginger from Benin.   Since my daughter was a Peace corps volunteer there years ago, we are always drawn to Beninese products.

In the cosmetic and health sections, you will find all sorts of unusual beauty preparations or machines and gadgets for your well being.  Besides mattresses, herbal pillows, energy stones and the sort I found a German mouth exerciser that purported to have health benefits by realigning your spinal energy?

Another unusual find was cosmetics made from snail saliva, which were quite expensive. They were derived from noticing that snail  farmers here in France had very smooth velvety skin!

You don’t have to go with having anything in mind to buy, but be aware that you will be tempted many times to buy stuff, especially gadgets that seem from now on indispensable and any regret for not buying them will linger in your mind.

Yes indeed, it happened to me! Let me tell you up front, that I am not materialistic, except maybe when it comes to kitchen equipment, but that is another post.  Accumulation of objects just doesn’t do anything for me.  Plants and books are another story, but limits of space living here have that curbed.

I was caught by the bucket and mop man, several years ago in his slick trap. You would have thought that he was a vaudevillian performer, prancing around his stage holding his mop like a trophy of the gods. It wasn’t just any old ordinary mop of course, but a flexible micro filament one, with two exchangeable heads.

But, the best part for me, who has contamination fears, was his magic bucket  with a centrifugal force basket where you place the wet mop. It expelled almost every drop of dirty water, so I would never,  have to squeeze another dirty mop again!

Well, bingo, I was sold! For only 40 euros I proudly hauled home my magic bucket and mop, where in installing the gears, I ended up puncturing a small hole in my bucket.  So yes, it does leaks a little, but by god, that little centrifugal basket goes like a furious hurricane!

A telescoping window washer I was able to resist, but my lingering regret eventually lead me to buying one at the BHV department store, which lives up to its name of Bazar Hotel de Ville.

I feel sorry for the merchants who have to hawk their wares on their feet for 12 or so hours a day, and some can be as testy as they are pushy.  After having a sample of cheese shoved in my hands, and being the polite person that I am. I stopped to sample two other of her cheeses.

My willingness to buy her very expensive but well made cheese didn’t make the grade.  After requesting two times a smaller slice, she told me “to forget it” in a huff, as she obviously wasn’t going to sell me a thin enough slice of 45 /kilo of brebis(sheep) cheese!

I have learned to have more boundaries with these folks, as they can and will manipulate a lot of your time to make a sell.  Looking at kitchen renovator stalls after I had just bought my apartment five years ago,  I ended up in being practically kept hostage while an interior design person took more than an hour to draw up an overly expensive provincial style kitchen that he hoped to sell for 30,000 euros, despite my exclamations that it was not within my budget!

Thanks to the fair that year, I did discover the line of  Ilve  Italian “pianos”, though not the one that you play, but the one you cook on! In French terminology a gastronomic professional type stove is called a piano.  I did not buy my beloved blue Ilve there, but from a wonderful online supplier; thank you George!

Another good thing about the fair, is that you can elicit a 30 minute free session with an architect regarding your building or renovation plans.  You can also get expert advice on electrical, plumbing, masonry, and what not needs!

There was also a personal shopper available to those who either wanted to beeline to exactly their particular interests or have their whole visit planned and outlined for them.

If all that is not enough, you can get a free consultation with legal experts in negotiating disputes you may have!  Believe me, when you live in a large urban city like Paris, in apartment building with sometimes crazy and bizarre fellow occupants, disputes can be  a dime a dozen!

My favorite parts are the huge gastronomy halls, one concentrating foods from France and also from other areas of Europe.  Another vast hall features foods from the French tropical oceanic departments in the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Caribbean, plus nations from all over the world.

There are restaurants set up inside the halls, each specialising in various regions of France or of foreign countries.  The photo of a cauldron of potatoes smothered in Cantal cheese and garlic is a version of a popular dish called aligot from Aveyron area.

This year, a stall was offering comestible insects and crackers made from worm meal which I decided on passing. Your money though, can easily disappear in a New York second, if you allow yourself to give into buying some really wonderful made delicacies from all over the world.

I did end up buying delicious and warm Portuguese custard tartlets called Pastéis de Nata. My daughter insisted on a buying a glass of the Corsican beer fermented from chestnuts.

There were also culinary workshops and the one that I  participated in was rather disappointing.

Molecular cooking may have some merits as being astonishing how foods can be prepared.

I am more concerned with flavor rather than flair .  Anyhow the mojito cocktail we prepared with edible blue pebbles floating up like lava lamps things and then steaming from dry ice, was cute enough, if not too sweet.

Meringues frozen in liquid nitrogen did explode with flavor but left your tongue feeling burned.

Knowing that one of my wonderful candlelight dinners to be made with love was waiting to be orchestrated, we headed home tired and still hungry.

Grilled saint Jacques or sea scallops with bright orange coral, are quick to do, topped with basil and tarragon from my balcony garden.  I made a delicious and pretty to look at beurre rosé to surround them and the white asparagus, which is basically a beurre blanc sauce made with red onion, instead of shallots.

A bananas foster bread/cake loaf I had made earlier turned out to be the best bananas type bread that I have ever made with a succulent moist crumb and an intense banana flavour. I took an idea and made up my own measurements, and topped it my own caramelised sugar rum sauce in which I had cooked the bananas, sprinkled with walnuts, because I did not have pecans.

I loved going to the fair, but it was nice to come home and have dinner overlooking the lights of Paris, which never fails to thrill me.  Drinking wines from some of my favourite vintners is a plus too,  and it could all be had for a fraction for what I would have paid at the fair or elsewhere!