Paris. Story book with a difference

With springtime finally arrived it's been nice to enjoy some continental style weather. For some reason, the month of May always puts me in mind of Paris. So in addition to looking up flights and places to stay it is also a time to bouquiner my book shelves and imagine myself there.

Last Christmas, I got a lovely book as a present. Paris, the Story of a Great City by Danielle CHADYCH and Dominique LEBORGNE is a book with a difference. With superb photographs and informative text, its real delight is the integrated folders containing pull out facsimiles of historic documents.

Talking about the fine weather earlier, it was interesting to pull out an extract from a booklet relating to the Great Flood of 1910. It includes a photo of flood waters reaching up to the arch of the Pont Alexandre III. Another facsimile is of a board game relating to Paris monuments from around 1820. Yes, it's time to revisit!

With the recent présidentielles having been much in the news and the country coming to terms with differing hopes and expectations, it was good to see a chapter on The Builder Presidents, who left their legacies.

A story book then with a difference, and while not the real thing, perhaps the next best to being there.

Time to pull out the stops and go.....

Belfast - Europe du Nord

One of the parties in the French Presidential and Legislative Assembly elections brought its campaign to Belfast yesterday in the person of Parti Socialiste candidate, Axelle Lemaire. She came hoping to enlist the support of French people living here who are registered voters back home in France.

For the Presidential elections, French people can vote by proxy or using a ballot box at one of 9 centres throughout the UK. For elections to the Legislative Assembly, which take place in June they have an even greater choice being able to use: ballot box, proxy, mail and for the very first time the Internet.

Axelle explained that also for the first time, two and a half million French people living abroad would be able to elect 11 députés to represent them at the Assemblée Nationale. The constituency, La 3ème circonscription - Europe du Nord, is expansive, comprising the 10 countries of the UK, Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. The exact number of French people living in the area is not clear and could be about 500,000 and about 80,000 are already registered voters.

We packed a lot into the short lunchtime meeting and talked about common themes among French people across Northern Europe and especially about the position of languages.

It was a pleasure to show off a little of Belfast's patrimoine, the Cathedral Quarter and its new art spaces, the City and Waterfront Halls and then a photo stop outside our newest link to our past, Titanic Belfast.

Relieved that my French had kept up with a wide range of socio-cultural and educational themes I dropped our visitor back in town to go in search of her compatriots. In a spirit of égalité I said it would be nice to meet other legislative contenders and show them around. To connect with the "constituency". After all it's not every day that a Francophile gets to hear that, for French people at least, L'Irlande du Nord is on the election trail for La 3ème circonscription - Europe du Nord.

Calva done

The Calvados evening went well. A little sample was offered and those driving had theirs tightly wrapped in cling film to taste later. Had a nice Domfront cheese to go with it but found out today that Sawyers Deli is selling Calvados Camembert! Need to get a picture to share here.
Santé

Talking Calvados

A week to go until my talk on Calvados. It is intended as a collection of faits divers, drawing on historical, geographical, literary and culinary aspects. At the heart of the evening will be a degustation of this hors d'age bottle of the famous spirit. Plenty of content still to be added yet and it may help to pour a small sample just to let the inspiration flow.

Nice tram

Bonjour Paris - Recipe: Galette des Rois or Epiphany Cake of the Kings

Bonjour Paris - Recipe: Galette des Rois or Epiphany Cake of the Kings

Une part de flan

I've always loved to eat flan. As a language assistant, walking a couple of kilometres to school each morning, I would stop to buy une part de flan. A sweet, onctious breakfast that had it not been for the walk would have added several kilos over the year in Vierzon. Old habits die hard and so a stay in France is not complete without a trip to a patisserie to remind the taste buds of a tried and tested treat.

The patissier looked on as I was served one of the few remaining portions of his creation. He seemed pleased at my appreciation as I took it to a table outside. It is said that one eats first with one's eyes, so I took a while to survey and savour. It was a generous portion, one and half centimetres deep with a lovely amber glaze on top of a golden yellow custard, dusted at the rim with icing sugar. Perfectly set, firm yet yielding to the touch of fingers that would soon break the portion into smaller parts. And in the mouth, as so many times over the past 40 years, the Proustian involuntary memory conjures up a time past and I am once again a young assistant stopping for a breakfast treat in a pastry shop in Vierzon. There is a little fountain nearby; the very spot to rinse fingers and continue my journey. A stroll now, a slower pace than all those years ago. To stroll. The French have a nice word for that: Flâner.