Happy Bastille Day!

Bastille Day by Erica Simone

Your taste of life in Paris and France
ParlerParis.com
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 • Paris, France

Dear Parler Paris Reader,

While a band was practicing (too loudly) on the stage in front of the Mairie de 3ème, Jeffrey Greene, poet, author and professor of writing and literature, enlightened us by speaking loudly enough to drown out the band (!) at Parler Paris Après Midi on the life of the wild boar as well as the life of the American in the Burgundy region.

You might think wild boars are boring, but not so as Jeffrey tells it -- a wordsmith of extraordinary talent who can turn any topic into a thought-provoking tale. A large group of Parler Paris readers listened intently to his talk about how he came to be so fascinated with wild boars -- when a neighbor dropped a body bag on his doorstep filled with the carcass of one big bristly boar, ready to butcher and eat.

His latest book, "The Golden-Bristled Boar," sold out all the copies he had towed along, but it's available by visiting our Recommended Reading section on the site at: books/setinparisandfrance.html (or Amazon.com or local bookstores, of course).

Read all about Jeffrey's talk, who attended, what they had to say and see the photos from the afternoon by visitingparlerparis/apresmidi.html

Après Midi is taking a break for the summer, so showing up the second Tuesday of August will do you no good...but be sure to mark your calendar for September 13th when Victoria Strong, the Pleasure Coach, will answer the question: "Does Paris Give You Permission to Have Pleasure?" Join Victoria for a liberating view on how you can most benefit from that sly and encouraging nod the city of Paris offers you -- the nod that says: go ahead, live your life with sexual pleasure. Victoria will share the beats of her own transformation (no, not X-rated!) and her observations on the social and cultural factors that encouraged a life-changing journey...so much so, she left her career in the children's television business to create her pleasure coaching service. For more information about Victoria's work, visit: thepleasurecoach.com.

On a special note, the French-English Conversation Group, Parler Parlor (not to be confused with Après Midi), is also closing for the rest of the summer, reopening September 3rd with a Fête de la Rentrée, so mark your calendar and plan on being there!

Walking home late evening, the band was playing in full force, drowning out everything in our little 'hood' -- with only one more evening of concerts left (tonight) during Les Soirs d'Eté sponsored by the City Hall of the 3rd Arrondissement.

Tonight I won't be at the concert, however. Instead, as every year, I'll be dancing with friends at a "caserne" (barracks) during the "Bals des Pompiers" -- not to be missed are the Firemen's Balls held on the 13th and 14th at the various fire stations all over France. They start at 9 p.m. and end at 4 a.m. (sort of!), with live bands, serving wine, champagne, beer and soft drinks, and usually chips and other snacks.

The ladies dress to get kissed and the firemen do the kissing...as is the tradition! Things can get pretty wild -- they've been known to strip for an adoring public (the firemen, that is) and I've heard tales and seen photographic proof of some serious partying by those handsome men we've all come to love and trust: THE POMPIERS DE PARIS. Rest assured, I'll be at one of them tonight.

Here's the list for you to make your own choice:

• ROUSSEAU 21, rue du Jour - 75001 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• SEVIGNE 7 to 9, rue de Sèvignè - 75004 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• CDS 2 (out of barracks) 61, rue Monge, Lutetia Arena - 75005 PARIS. Bal July 13 only
• COLOMBIER 11, rue du Vieux Colombier - 75006 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• WHITE 28, rue Blanche - 75009 PARIS. Bal July 13 only
• LANDON 188, quai de Valmy - 75010 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• CHALIGNY 26, rue de Chaligny - 75012 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• MASSENA 37 Boulevard Massena - 75013 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• PORT-ROYAL 53-55, boulevard Port-Royal - 75013 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• GRENELLE 6, place Violet 75015 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• CHAMPERRET 3, boulevard de l'Yser 75017 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• BOURSAULT 27, rue Boursault - 75017 PARIS. Bal July 13 only
• CQG (excluding barracks) Beauvais Bus station Porte Maillot - 75017 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14
• MONTMARTRE 12, rue Carpeaux - 75018 PARIS. Bal July 13 only
• BITCHE 2, place de Bitche 75019 PARIS. Bal July 13 only
• MENILMONTANT 47, rue Saint-Fargeau 75020 PARIS. Balls 13 and July 14

Don't go too crazy at the Balls, because tomorrow you must get ready for the annual parade along the Champs-Elysées and of course, later in the day, the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.

The Military Parade this year honors the overseas territories with regiments from Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Reunion, French Guiana, Mayotte, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. The parachute jump onto the Place de la Concorde that we've been used to seeing in recent years will be replaced by a performance by the fire brigade of Paris which this year celebrates its bi-centennial. As part of the celebration, Chilean and Monegasque (Monaco) troops and firefighters will be present as these two countries were the first two in the world to have created a fire brigade, Paris being the third.

It all starts at 10 a.m. with the arrival of the President of the Republic (Nicolas Sarkozy) on the Place de l'Etoile and heading down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. There will be an honoring of the Head of State by the Republican Guard at Place de la Concorde, an opening performance dedicated to the Year of the Overseas Territories and the parade, consisting of 54 aircraft including 9 Alphajet de la Patrouille de France, ground troops (5035 men and women), mounted and motorized troops (241 horses, 82 motorcycles and 275 vehicles ) and an air show including 30 helicopters.

If you can't wake up in time for the parade, watch it on TV (TF1) -- it's the best view!

Then pack your picnic and head to the Champs de Mars for the annual fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. This year a concert begins at 5 p.m. with a host of artists...Yannick Noah, Gregory, Nolween Leroy, Pascal Obispo, Kassav', Abd Al Malik, Michel Delpech, Benabar, Raggasonic ...and others. On the sidelines of the Champs de Mars, over 60 village associations (open from 2 p.m.) will be set up on the Champs de Mars offering discussion and activities.

Then at 11 p.m., the fireworks begin. These are the most amazing you will ever have seen! Lasting 30 minutes, the display will be set to the music from Broadway musicals and the best view is, of course, from the Champ de Mars! If you dare to go (as I do every year), bring your alcohol in non-alcoholic-looking bottles, as wine will likely be confiscated!

And no matter what, do have the time of your life! Because that's what life in Paris is all about!

A la prochaine...

Adrian Leeds

Editor, Parler Paris

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P.S. Happy 94th birthday to my mother, Gertrude Beerman, who will outlive us all as the model of stamina...still working (two volunteer jobs), living alone in a three-bedroom home, driving (and washing, not to mention filling the tank) of her own car and cracking dirty jokes as if she were 25 years old (which she says she still thinks she is)...with love and admiration, her youngest daughter.

Marketing and Making Your Parisian Mark

An Oyster Lunch After La Marché Bastille

Marketing and Making Your Parisian Mark

Parler Paris Nouvellettre^®
Your taste of life in Paris and France
ParlerParis.com
Monday, January 31, 2011 • Paris, France

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A Note from Tom Regan

Dear Parler Paris Reader,

My daughter told me not to miss the Andrée Putman Retrospective exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville, that I would ‘freak!’...and she was right. It took too many weeks before I found the time to sneak in an hour before closing at 5:45 p.m. on Friday afternoon while the line to enter in the freezing cold was its briefest.

Until a few years ago, I didn’t have a clue who she was. Then, at an event at the City Hall, one of the many galas celebrating “Paris, Capital de la Création,” she spoke and presented awards to young designers. A French friend attending with me was impressed by her presence, but to me she meant nothing.

Why hadn't I known about Ms. Putnam’s designs when I was developing a hunger for checkerboard and harlequin patterns? She was busy marketing modern classic designs via her company, Ecart International; inventing boutique hotels in major cities such as New York, Cologne and Paris; creating movie sets for Peter Greenaway; designing china dinnerware for the Air France Concorde and jewelry for Christofle. Her interiors include the Guerlain flagship store on the Champs-Elysées and private residences in Dublin, Miami, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Tel Aviv and Tangiers. Her recent project in Hong Kong with its 21 stories is appropriately named “The Putman” and she says of it and her most successful projects that they are “the perfect balance between discipline and revolt.”

My daughter was right. Don’t miss the exhibit!...on until February 26th and open every day except Sundays and holidays at the Hôtel de Ville de Paris. For more information, visit:paris.fr/

Saturday afternoon I set out to peruse the annual winter sales before they disappear and we go back to paying full retail price on everything. Things are well picked over by now and the “nouvelle collections” are starting to take over more retail space than the mark-downs. The first shop to step into was an immediate success purchasing...guess what(?)...one pair of black slacks and one black skirt...at almost half price. (If you read lastWednesday’s nouvellettre®, then you know that these two items fit to a tee into the perfect Paris wardrobe).

A zillion stores later, winding my way down rue de Rivoli, through the “BHV” for a bit of torture (packed with people!), then on to rues Vieille du Temple, des Francs Bourgeois and Turenne, not a single other item called out from the sale racks to be taken home. The only other items to make their way to my arms were two bags of tea from Palais des Thés: Noix de Coco (coconut) and Earl Grey. If you haven't already braved the crowds, know that the sales officially end February 15th.

It seems crazy considering the city’s largest open-air market is a 10-minute walk from my apartment, but I hadn't visited the Marché Bastille in literally years. Excursions to the market ended when I no longer had anyone for which to cook except for myself and occasional dinner guests. Then, I entirely gave up cooking for myself and even guests started to suffer from lack of invitations. The refrigerator got clean and neatly organized with just the essentials (less is more in Paris): bottle of champagne, bottle of white wine, jar of pickles, jar of mustard, can of coffee, bottle of milk, carton of fruit juice, a few eggs (old, I'm sure) and butter. I'm very proud of its minimalism as I eat in a restaurant or café virtually every meal now even though in another lifetime friends who regularly came to dinner once called me the “Pasta Queen.”

There were a few reasons to go to the market Sunday morning with friends. One was just for fun and act like a tourist, another was to purchase fresh oysters for Sunday lunch and a third was to purchase artichokes for a dinner I am actually going to attempt to make Wednesday night for a small group of very close friends. It’s been a tradition for 14 years to make marinated artichokes on February 2nd. This date has personal significance and artichokes are the symbolic vegetable. (I can see you rolling your eyes. To that I say, “Don’t ask. You don't want to know.”)

The Marché Bastille is THE open-air market of France. It’s the largest in Paris if not all of France with four aisles of stands from Place de la Bastille along boulevard Richard Lenoir to the Bréguet-Sabin Métro station. Don’t go there hungry, don’t go without a big marketing cart and don’t go if you don’t cook, because it may torture you to see the fabulous fresh and prepared foods without buying everything you see.

(This week my sister living in New Orleans sent photos of a recent meal she had just to torture me: Louisiana blue crabs, crawfish and shrimp boiled in Zataran’s spice mix. That wasn't nice of her, was it?)

There is one stand at the market that offers a dozen different kinds of herring! If you think you can't choose between one “primeur” (fresh produce) or another, just seek out the ones where there is a queue, because the regulars will know it’s either better or cheaper than the others. The fresh fish and seafood stands make me swoon, since I’ll eat anything that swims in the sea and the spice stands are not only beautiful to look at for their warm colors, but heavenly to just visit for their intoxicating scent. The merchants can often be quite entertaining – each may behave like a kind of ‘showman,’ proud of his/her wares and willing to stand out in the freezing cold or sizzling heat for hours to serve up goodies and “schmooze” with the customers. Plan on striking up lots of fun conversation with the merchants, as well as fellow-purchasers.

I bought six large purple artichokes. The merchant couldn't tell us what the difference was between the green and purple ones – so I’ll guess we'll find out if they are tastier or not Wednesday night. I also came home with a bag of raw almonds, a bag of tiny black Niçoise olives, a few lemons and a kilo of green beans...no where near as much as if I were to regularly cook!

When I returned home, "by sheer coincidence in my email in-box was a note from old friend, Tom Regan, with a 'greeting card' -- "Just got back from the market and had to take a photo of the beautiful fresh fruit that helps make Paris living so very special!" How apropos was that?!

The market is open Thursday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and well worth a special trip. Just so you know, by Wednesday night, we will have eaten all that and the fridge will be perfectly clean again...until my daughter arrives Friday from New York, goes to the market and messes it all up again!A la prochaine...

A la prochaine...

Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris

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P.S. IMPORTANT NEWS: Since October of 2003, Parler Paris Après Midi has been an opportunity to meet with other Parler Paris readers, come for drinks, share information about what it takes to create a life here and to make friends. It's been fun and we've enjoyed every minute...but now we want to make Après Midi even more useful and fulfilling!

Beginning March 8, 2011 a guest speaker of note will come to talk about a topic of interest and then open the floor for questions and discussion!

There is no charge, except for what you drink or eat and La Pierre du Marais does request that at least one item is ordered (that's why we can do this at no cost!)

Our goal is to provide a forum of discussion where we can all learn a lot about living in France as well as a way to make friends! And we hope you will find this more fun than ever!

The speakers will be announced in advance, so be sure to read Parler Paris to learn who!

BUT DON'T FORGET OUR NEXT MEETING IS...FEBRUARY 8, 2011 AND EVERY SECOND TUESDAY OF THE MONTH, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. (closed August)

For more information, visit parlerparis/apresmidi.html