My Birthday Week 2016

It was my birthday week again and I am a big believer in celebrating  birthdays in whatever way, that brings joy to the celebrant.  At my age, one day is simply not enough, so now I opt for seeing the whole week as one big birthday celebration!

That does not mean nightly parties and gorging on cake for a whole week, heaven forbid, but taking an active role in celebrating your birth.  Just the mere fact that you are alive on planet earth is a big thing and not to be taken for granted!

Happiness and joy should be daily pursuits, but with birthdays I am more mindful of my responsibility to honour my life as a gift from God with gratitude for my many blessings.

One of my well wishers said just being in Paris is the ultimate birthday celebration and cake, and I totally agree!  Each day I decided to play tourist again, which I often do anyway, but to see Paris again as if I just arrived.

Sightseeing  turned out to be on the hot side, as Paris is in a “canicule” or hot wave.  To a former Louisianan, their definition of a hot wave  which is anything 35 C or above, (95F plus), would be everyday  temperatures in any typical southern day!

Parisians feel it more because the vast majority of  apartments are not air conditioned, including mine. Most larger stores are now days, but buses, trams and subways are not, with a few rare exceptions.

Fortunately the insulation here with older buildings having thick stone walls keeps them cooler, so as soon as you step inside the building, it already feels cooler.  Town halls were offering “cooling off” rooms as well for the public in need.

With a fan, I am  comfortable enough and after the sun moves away from my balcony, I love sitting out  feeling the breeze and smelling some of my perfumed flowers, liked jasmine.

The coolest place is my cave, where I keep wine for storage amongst other things, so going down to bring a bottle up is the closest I get to air conditioning.

On my actual birthday, I spent more than half of the day making the various components for my birthday pastry, but delaying the assemblage.

Afterwards I wanted to walk around Ile de La Cité, and Ile Saint Louis along the quai(banks) and enjoyed briefly sitting at the small park at the tip end of the island.

The lovely gardens behind Notre Dame, which are beautiful year round offer, are a favorite of mine too.

It was getting to be aperitif time, so the thought of having a glass of champagne along the Seine sounded perfect to me.

Several barges turned into floating bar and eateries have sprouted up west of Pont Marie, that offered music, river breezes and shade from the burning hot sun.

I had initially contemplated a rooftop bar, but with this heat, I’ll take cooler breezes over view, though the river view of the bateaux mouches passing by was more than sufficient.

The resoundingly loud bells of Notre Dame started ringing for vespers a little before 5:45 pm, which is always a prelude to evening mass.

I think it is important to honor one’s birth in a spiritual manner and give thanks not only for my own earth’s entry but to celebrate my mother who made it all possible!

The perpetual very long line in front of the cathedral had shortened somewhat and despite security moved fairly enough along to make it inside, finding a chair in the front mid way through vespers.

With the incense swirling around my head and the magnificent ancient organ vibrating off all those ancient stones,  my state of mind is easily transformed to one of awe and complete gratitude for being here.

A fancy birthday dinner would have to wait till friday, as the restaurant I had chosen is already too popular, even though I called for reservations over a week ago.

Facing that trivial little setback, I had been  craving soft shell crabs, which are impossible to find fresh here! Perhaps only native Louisianans can understand, though they are also sought after in Baltimore and Venice, Italy.

The only ones I have found here were in well known Laotian restaurant, frozen of course, but decently crisp and crunchy.

After mass, we caught the bus heading south to the 13th arrondissement, only to arrive at a closed door, due to the annual august vacations.

Not wanting to chance any old  restaurant, I opted to end up cooking that night as usual.  Fresh tuna at the supermarket looked good and  I grilled it to perfection.

In my eyes, it’s not worth wasting money on a mediocre meal, when I can cook something I like and serve with wines I know are good.

It being really late, I didn’t have the desire nor energy to tackle putting together the final necessary touches on the pastry, so the candle blowing would have to wait!

Instead I enjoyed admiring the beautiful red birthday roses that were awaiting me at home.

Next day being Tuesday, I had a yen for Gontran Cherrier’s sumptuous squid ink baguette, a pure delight! Even though his bakery is way up in Montmartre, it makes for a nice sightseeing bus ride up.

Walking up the incline of Rue Caulaincourt, I knew I was nearby as the enticing smell of fresh bread permeated the parched air.  To my delight, not only did he have those long black beauties, but also some basil lemon baguettes that I bought as well.

Tucking my two  treasures in my knapsack, I stopped off for another ice-cold bottle of water for the trip back and resisted any temptation to nibble on my baguettes.

The bus felt almost as hot as a slow oven, and women could be seen fanning themselves like crazy.    Parisians seem to have a harder time with the hot than the cold.

Once home, I tackled assembling my complicated pastry, which took a fair amount of time.  In the end it looked like a luscious  mound of coconut and passion fruit cream topped with a passion fruit filled cream puff surrounded with tiny ones below.

It was my tropical take of the very classical French pastry called a Gateau Saint Honoré.  A lot of labor involved for sure, reminding you why they are very expensive to buy!

Wednesday, a play caught my eye that sounded like a perfect way to spend the evening.  The theater was near Montparnasse on Rue Gaité, which always looks like it lives up to its name,  and is a plus because we could walk there.

Un Folie was a comedy about a psychiatrist having to deal with two manipulative spouses, each one accusing the other of being at fault, and proved to be hilarious.

I found myself laughing throughout , remembering some of the hijinks  I have seen disgruntled spouses go through in the throes of marital woes.

Thursday I wanted to hit a museum that I have never been to, which in a city that has around 130 of them, is still very possible!  The Pavillon de L’Arsenal was having an exhibit on the islands of the Seine, some of which have been forever immortalised by impressionistic painters.

The exhibit was very interesting despite that the so called air conditioned museum felt more warm than cool, which is often the case here.

The entire museum sits on one of the former islands(Louvier) that was annexed to the right back of the city. The street in front was once a narrow canal that separated the bodies of land filled in 1843.

The fancy restaurant day finally rolled around, so instead of wearing myself out before the big night, I preferred to stroll around Montsouris park before it would be filled to the brim again by returning Parisians.

The hill-side was dotted as usual with young folks congregating seemingly more interesting in looking at their phones rather than at each other.  The ducks and swans were hiding except for a few, probably because of the heat.

 

Chef Toschitaka Omiya, is a very talented young chef, who had already gathered a Michelin star at Agapé, but now has his own place in the fifth, my old neighborhood which I always love going back to.

His restaurant Alliance on Rue de Poissy , close to the Seine, is small but elegant where you can watch him and his equipe work their magic.

We were the first to arrive and I went for his multi course chef’s menu and I was dazzled with one dish after another from the amuses bouches to the end.

Buckwheat chips with herbed chevre,  mousseuse of celery root with grated grains of coffee, anchovy dentelle on local grown marinated tomatoes , oyster with cream of bourrache, cris marine and oxalis, monkfish with cucumber roulades, poached duck foie gras in duck courtbouillon, topped with chard and flowers, Pie Noir beef with chives, and confit shallots, cream of vanilla and black olive, raspberry tart with red pepper and raspberry sorbet, et little financiers as midardaises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading home totally satiated with wonderful culinary memories, and new ideas, the quai looked almost deserted with Notre Dame in the background.

I hope to return to the Alliance again before he starts pulling in some more Michelin stars, which always doubles or triples the prices.

Saturday, I had only one thing in mind after going to the marché and that was to finally get back to E Dehillerin, which is a fantastic mind blowing over stuffed bazaar for cooks,  to choose my birthday gift.

I have been shopping there since 1971, and the store arrangement has never changed, nor the rather archaic procedure of having to go to the catalogue hanging on the wall to look up prices, and then having an invoice ticket written up to give to another clerk for payment.

The rather stern faced clerks, dressed in their drab work jackets, have a reputation of not being the most cheerful, but they have always been  nice and helpful to me.

I was initially going for an oval De Buyer black steel fish pan, which like cast iron are indestructible. Unfortunately the size I wanted I could barely lift off the counter!

Instead I was seduced with their somewhat lighter non teflon coated one, that I could at least manage to lift with only one hand!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least was to plant something in honor of my birthday, which I find to be a nice symbolic thing to do. With a balcony already filled to the brim with flowers, herbs and fruit trees, it was going to be a little runner from my delicious Mara de Bois strawberries, that I would eventually re-pot later  in the fall.

Yesterday I had hoped to go again to the colourful Fête de Ganesh parade, but did not make it out on time, so back for another spin in the park after I finished making my almond apricot tart, for Sunday dinner.

The cafes are bursting full again, and thick clusters of  Parisians were laying around on the grounds,  so the quieter days of August are over.    At least the ice cream man and merry go round was happy to have a line again of customers.

With having to dodge the little ones mindlessly riding their little bikes and scooters, plus the bigger ones glued to their phone screens,  and the donkeys, it was time to say goodbye to those tranquil August days that I love and my birthday week till another year, God willing!