Weekend of Artillery, Gourmet Treats And Mixed Feelings

Wow! What a combination of diverse activities provoking opposite feelings this weekend!  Sainte Barbe artillery show,  and sumptuous Saveur Christmas gourmet salon, both to the glory of France!

Who would have guessed that poor Saint Barbara is the patron saint of  such tough guys as artillery men and firemen!   The Fête Sainte Barbe is actually a big celebration for artillery men, who put on a colourful show of force and might, dating back to medieval times at Les Invalides.

Saint Barbara was an early Christian martyr who lived in the Anatolia plains of what is now present day Turkey.  Raised by a despotic father and kept isolated in a tower until he wanted her to marry, she secretly converted to Christianity and refused to marry.

Her enraged father had her unmercifully beat and gruesomely tortured, finally beheading her himself. Karma was quick for this cruel man and in the few instants afterwards, he was struck by lightning and turned into ashes.

Musée de L’Armée, which put on the show, occupies a part of the majestic Invalides, built in 1670 at the request of Louis XIV to hospitalize war veterans, which it still does to this day!

The museum, which I initially did not think I would enjoy,  is really a marvelous tour back into time and  history of soldier’s weapons, uniforms, armour and the like that I found surprisingly very fascinating, given that I have pacifist core.

Saturday, after being checked at the gate for concealed weapons, we were greeted by the official artillery band and a old regiment marching in formation.  The gorgeous pastel blue and white uniforms of the Regiment of Touraine, each wearing long silver blond wigs tied with ribbons looked much more appropriate for the ballroom, than any battle field!

Inside the courtyard there were parading troops on horseback where each horses coat had been impressively trimmed and coiffed that gave  an illusion of them being bi coloured.  The horses all performed the dressage maneuvers with ease as if they had memorised each twist and turn.

There were plenty of soldiers dressed out in the sharp dark blue and red uniform of the Napoleonic era too.  They demonstrated how they shoved and pushed mobile canons weighing over a ton into position for firing, which certainly required the toughest muscular men.

The oldest artillery was a working trebuchet, dating back to Medieval times that looked like a huge wooden slingshot/catapult that was capable of sending a blazing projectile weighing up to 350 lbs,  almost as far as a football field that was extremely accurate in trained hands.

Using inflatable white balls filled with water, each one landed within the mark, to prove the point. The triangular barrel looking boxes on each side weighed over 66 pounds, likewise requiring a lot of muscle to roll them down ready to spring forth with attached canonballs.

As seen in the photo, there was an old United States jeep from world war two capable of pulling its own artillery in the back.  I thought this was a very nice tribute and recognition of the American forces who helped finalised the rescue of Paris from the Nazi occupation.

The most modern field artillery of the French army is the Caesar missile ensemble, which is a truck carried 155 meter self-propelled howitzer  able to send missiles to reach any target over 42 to 50 kilometers(26 to 32 miles), which I find its destructive intent terrifying.

This along with an even newer artillery tank models equipped with the same Caesar system was open for inspection, which proved very popular with the kiddies being hosted down and up the top tubal entrances, unaware of its implication.

Saint Barbara is also the patron saint of French firemen and EMT’s, who likewise celebrate with a festive dinner  on her feast day December 4,  each year, that I hear goes on till the wee hours of the morning, but is not open to the public.

I always look forward to the Saveur Christmas sale full of exquisite goodies that France is rightfully famous for. It is a huge salon, offering mounds and myriads of foie gras, holidays roasts, chocolates, wines, champagnes, breads, olive oils, pain d’epices, honeys, smoked salmon, cheeses, sausages, escargots, fancy hams and the list goes on!

I was reassured as well upon entering  that purses and belongings were opened to ensure safety of the attending crowds.  I usually know in advance  the few things I want to buy and always keep in mind my budget, because if not, you can walk out easily spending way too much.

It was very crowded as usual, with a lot of the venders all over the country offering their unique regional specialties.  Italians offer their lovely cheeses and sausages plus loads of other goodies and Spanish producers are always there too, offering the supreme but wickedly expensive Iberique hams, some going up to 439 euros!

You won’t find any bargains there, but you can buy products directly from the producers, who are more than eager to sell you the merits of their products, all of which are selected by Saveur magazine as  being the best of their fields.

There were a lot of special cakes and pastries , such as gateau Basque, Breton and the buttery rich Kouingn Amann.  I don’t buy them, because I prefer to make them myself, although the Kouingn looked succulent.

The merchants are fairly generous with their samples, but I  do not stop at many of them, even to taste, especially when I know that I will probably not buy. One stand that caught my eye was selling boudin noir with duck and chestnuts.

It definitely was delicious enough to buy, and after I had already paid, he slipped me another delicacy likewise unusual.  It was dry cured smoked duck breast wrapped jelly rolled around foie gras and it was too irresistible to not buy it too despite its hefty price per kilo.

I bought some more capers preserved in salt from the Italian stand, which I prefer over the ones sold in jars, but resisted all the lovely very aged parmesan selling at over the top prices, though enjoyed the nibbles.

The porchetta man was there again, and  I am always tempted, but again think that I can do that myself, as it is basically herbed stuffed pork belly with a loin roast inside.  Maybe I will give in next year though, as it is pretty time consuming job to do.

The garlicly buttered escargots was on my list, but somehow got forgotten on my way out.  I did remember to pick up some small freshly dug old fashioned potatoes grown on the sea-coast, Juliette des Sables for their  briny flavour, like the potatoes of Normoutier island which are excellent too, but passed up the blue spotted Bluebells, even though they are cute.

Strangely, Monsieur Bordier’s butter stand was not there this year, but his butters are easy to find in Paris.  I did have to pry myself away from buying the premium morilles and  dried cepes, because the prices were too high, knowing I still had some of the less expensive bits and pieces  previously bought several years ago.

By the time I left the Saveur salon, it was dark, and I knew that I had Sunday dinner to put together once home.  Retrospectively, maybe that porchetta would have been a good idea after all!

At least I had made a rather humble but nevertheless delicious date, walnut and fresh orange cake before leaving.  I will have another onslaught of temptation  soon with another wonderful pre-Christmas gourmet salon coming the next weekend.

Fortunately I am pretty disciplined, because my budget is always dented by the wine salon in late November, where I buy the vast majority of  my wines.  The glitter of these sumptuous mouth watering food displays demonstrates the human capacity to offer festive enjoyment and merriment of the holiday season, in stark contrast to the residual undercurrent of grief  and fear still present in the air.

Dinner conversation touched upon the very mixed feelings about  those weapons of mass destruction at times necessary to defend against even worse evils.  They are being used by France and others to fight and defend against the spreading violence, fueled by fundamentalist religious ideology that is metastasizing in secret cells like a cancer throughout the world.

I wonder if the peoples of Europe before the Christmas of 1940 were totally aware of the proliferating evil and heinous crimes of genocide that were being carried out against the Jews and would engulf the French nation in two years time, even sporing collaborateurs on French soil, like the Vichy regime.

I sense we only know the tip of the most recent evil iceberg. Perhaps like the French back then, most of us do not want to believe, nor confront that this tremendous threat is expanding and has the capacity to sprout even more violent bloodshed in the future.  History has a tendency to repeat itself, because some human beings remain the same with their various sickening pathologies of hate and dominion.

Unfortunately, despite my own optimistic and pacifistic nature , I sadly feel a dimming glow of the approaching Christmas season, leaving me with a certain apprehension of the upcoming months ahead.  Pray for the whole world!