Baguettes, Birds And A Tad of Europe

I love crusty brown baguettes and birds of all kind! I can indulge in birds all I want, whereas with baguettes I can’t.

Sunday, I took in two festivals, Fête du Pain and Fête de L’Europe, both of which I look forward to attending each year.

Both were surprising, one in a great way and the other not, which is where the birds took presidente.

The French bakers fest takes place in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, a highly symbolic place.

You see, the baguette has not only been considered the bread of life for many years, but retains its title as one of the main pillars of French cultural identity.

The majority of French still take very serious their daily baguette and the quest for quality remains high and very competitive.

The French Federation of Bakers puts on their annual Fête du Pain not only to promote their savoir faire in this domain put to honor the best baguette baker and best croissant baker as well.

It was a cloudy cool spring day when I got off the bus at Palais de Justice on Ile de La Cite, seen here with the spires of  Saint Chapelle in the background.

It is only a short walk to the parvis of Notre Dame, that sits across Hôpital Dieu on the right side and the Seine on the left.

As soon as I turned the corner I smelled the wonderful enticing aromas of baguettes and croissants carried by the ever-present river breeze.

It felt wonderfully warm inside the  tent and I was immediately startled by the pleasant sounds emanating from the makeshift stage that sounded distinctly very familiar to me.

Hard to believe my ears, but it was definitely the tunes of Cajun music.  Plus, there was folks  energetically dancing the two step.

I eventually saw a sign saying the festival was honoring the bakers of America and there was a lady passing out tourist brochures of my home state of Louisiana.

Well, what a great surprise for me! Unfortunately there weren’t any New Orleans style beignets to be found, nor Cajun Oreilles de Cochon, but the music made up  the deficit.

Back to the baguettes, croissants and all the other glories of French bakers!  The baguette as I have written about before is a highly regulated entity, that can only be made with flour, yeast, water and salt.

The quality of the baguette depends on the quality of the flour and the yeast and of course the methods they used to make and bake the breads.

The majority of great bakers use organic strains of special wheat, many from ancient varieties.

Some bakers rely on natural yeast cultivated by themselves, and I know of one baker who uses only spring water from a Parisian well.

The ingredients must be  put together, kneaded, rise and baked on the premises of any baker who sells his bread in his boulangerie.

The Best Baguette of Paris contest takes place every year in April and the winner gets to supply the presidential palais with bread for the next year.

This year’s winner again went to another baker in my own arrondissement of the 14th, which has won 3 times in the last 5 years.

Several recent winners, as this year’s  were  from immigrant families, challenging the notion that you have to be genetically French in order to make the very best loaves.

Here is a table of international breads on display that were not for sale.

The only nods that I saw towards American baked goods were brownies, and a pear crumble, which nowadays one sees everywhere here too.

I stuck around for not only the music and dancing, but for the lovely smells, warmth and the general ambiance of good cheer.

There is always participation for children to practice working with dough.

 

 

Baguettes, croissants and all of the other pastries that they make on the premises are of course for sell, which I found to be a bit more expensive in general.

I ended up being enticed by the Langues de Belle Mère, mother in law tongues, a light rounded wedge of puff pastry simply caramelised with sugar on top.

I asked for one “bien caramelisé” and enjoyed nibbling on it walking to next festival across the Seine.

I was really looking forward to the Fête de L’Europe held each year in front of the Hôtel de Ville of Pairs, the main city hall.

I was surprised just by looking at it from a distance that it apparently had shrunk in size, as there were very few tents in place.

There was a nice Irish orchestra playing Celtic music and a guy standing on a map of Europe throwing out questions related to all the countries that make up the European Union.

I walked through the paltry few stands, hoping to see more displays of cultural foods, and touristic  freebies and promotions.

In years past, almost every country of the European Union had a stand, and also some food stands to offer their regional delights.

Other than a Portuguese food truck there were none to be seen!  Where were those great Polish strawberries they were passing out last year?

With not much to retain my interest, except the music,  I decided to leave.

Anytime I am around Ile de la Cité on a Sunday, I also think about the bird market.

Birds never fail to interest me and there are other little critters to enjoy looking at as well.

As I got ready to turn onto the Pont d’Arcole to cross back over the Seine, I noticed a lot pigeons enjoying a feast of baguette crumbs someone had obviously dumped out just for them.

Were they leftovers from the bakers fest?  It was the first time I had seen the trough like part of bridge used as a feeding place for pigeons.

The French Bakers Federation has its headquarters on prized real estate on nearby Ile Saint Louis just behind Ile de la Cité, so maybe they are used to doing this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bird market is an old Parisian institution that is held every Sunday since 1809 behind the entrance of Ile de la Cité metro.

Most of the flowers stalls close on Sundays to make room for the event , though not all.  In the Maison des Orchidée I was pulled in by some plumeria seen growing in the window, but without any price.

I was hoping that they would sell a few stalks, but non were seen.  I had in the past tried unsuccessfully to keep some plumerias alive and was willing to try again.

The birds chirping away is an enjoyable sound to my ears, but I hate to see them cramped in such small cages.

There must be a lot of bird breeders in Ile de France that bring in their birds each Sunday for Parisians to admire and hopefully to buy.

I am always miffed and amused by them offering farm birds too, like roosters, hens and quails that no city dweller would have room nor garden space to raise.

I spied an unusual sight not seen before.  In a basket were fertile goose eggs to incubate!

I couldn’t help wondering who in the world in Paris would buy one! Next time I will certainly ask.

There always are a few buyers seen and everyone enjoys the parrots and other birdies on display, some perched atop their breeders head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They usually have dwarf bunnies, guineas and white rats for pets, along with rows of cages and a multitude of seeds.

Pigeons love to lay in wake in the overhead trees, hoping to swoop down to steal some seeds.

All in all it makes for a pleasant Sunday afternoon to wander around, even if you have no plans on buying any birds or seeds.

Perhaps buyers come here rather than buy birds at the garden centers in the suburbs or on Quai Messagerie nearby.

It was getting late, so I decided to head home empty handed, without a bird nor baguette.

I have my own favorite baker down the street where I live, who is so popular that there is generally a long line waiting to buy his superlative breads.

I had recently bought one of Gontran Cherrier’s ink squid baguettes that I parcel up and freeze, since we are not going to eat an entire one in a day’s time!

A baguette a day might be fine for a traditional French family, but for the two of us, would  be way too much of a delicious treat!