Beth Arnold

Letter From Paris: Chateau du Petit Thouars

Crossposted at the HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included here.

As you all know, my daughter Blair--The Cheese Princess--is my eyes and ears in the food and wine world. She leads, and I follow. So when she was here this summer, I had to introduce her to our new friends Sebastian du Petit Thouars and his lovely girlfriend, D'Arcy Flueck--or @dupetitthouars and @chicsetera in twitter parlance.

The Lone Wolf and I had met them a couple of months before, and we were charmed. Sebastian is a Parisian hipster in the best sense of the word, a mod Renaissance man who is up on good music, food, wine, and a range of other subjects including American culture. He has a natural joie de vivre that radiates from him like a cherubic Buddha in a hot, zesty band, and he happens to be running his family's vineyard Chateau du Petit Thouars (chateau pictured above).  Not bad, as our friend M. Malric of the Hotel St. Germain once said to us with a twinkle in his eye. D'Arcy has a background in fashion and luxury goods, and it warmly shows. So naturally we wanted The Cheese Princess to meet these two.

So I snagged a reservation for us all at Le Baratin, a restaurant which we'd wanted to check out for some time in our neighborhood, Paris's 20th Arrondissement. The scoop about Le Baratin is that it's the place where Parisian chefs like to go, including Pierre Hermé. It can be hard to get a reservation, partially because it's difficult to catch someone on the phone.

Le Baratin--notice all the stickers denoting its recommended status among various food guides (Photo by Beth Arnold)

Letter From Paris: A Chateau Weekend

Crossposted at HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included here.

The Lone Wolf and I slipped onto the TGV and sat down in our single seats facing each other in the First Class car. We were escaping from Paris. Yes, even though it's pleasure to live here one still needs to get out of town. And it was a fast 46 minute train ride to Vendome (pictured below), where we were picking up a car. In fact, I didn't even finish making my "To Do" list before we arrived and hopped into our darling little Fiat that was a cross between a Volkwagen Beetle and Mini-Cooper in which we would sportily zip around the Loire for the next few days.

We were headed to chateau country. Better than that, we were checking into a chateau-B & B, the divine Chateau de la Barre, which is near tiny village Conflans-sur-Anille in the Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region of France. The chateau is owned by the Count and Countess de Vanssay, whose family it has been in since 1404. Countess Marnie de Vanssay is our new Grace Kelly--a beautiful former model who happens to be American and became a countess when she and the count (Guy) married. Marnie and I had gotten to know each other through social media, and she had invited the Wolf and I down for a weekend ages before. It had taken us months to get there, but we were on our way now. We couldn't have been happier.

Chateau de la Barre (Photo by Beth Arnold)

Letter From Paris: A Season for Festivals

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

---(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll)

And so it is time to talk of summer in France as the season for festivals.  From tiny villages like Conflans-sur-Anille where the Lone Wolf and I just witnessed a wonderful fireworks display, to Saint-Tropez where I marched in the parade of the Fête de la Bravade (how I loved it!), to Paris where our yearly Paris Plage has just begun.  (See my Paris Plage piece from last year here.)  It is the time of year for people to take lazier days, relax in the sunshine, breathe some fresh air, and for the arts to be celebrated outdoors with music, theater, dance, regional food and drink, and any other artistic endeavor you can think of.

We all get lessons in joie de vivre that have evolved through the history of France when we partake of the rich culture here.  Is it merrier in summer?  The answer is simply, yes.  Citizens and visitors alike are in holiday moods, and this is part of the summer charm one finds from north to south.  For me, it has always been impressive that every village provides cultural opportunities for its citizens as well as tourists who might be passing through, whether to watch a flamenco performance or to peruse the local museum.

What would we find in the U.S.?  Not that.  The closest thing we have to compare to these yearly fêtes are our County Fairs.  I haven't made it to one in years, though the Independence County Fairs in Batesville, Arkansas, are almost mythological in my memory.  We celebrated our local life and the men and women who lived it.  We rode carnival rides and ate cotton candy.  We ogled the prize-winning cakes and admired the livestock. 

Letter From Paris: Happy Bastille Day!

It's been a wild 14th of July in Paris--from rain to hail to sun--and a flood from my terrace to my kitchen!

 

But Happy Bastille Day, everyone!  May we all hold the spirit of r/evolution in our most inner selves and in our daily lives. 

                                                     ---Beth Arnold in Paris

Letter From Paris: Chilling in Corsica, Part 2

Image via Wikipedia

Crossposted at the HuffPo.com.  Comments not included here.

Any coastline on the Mediterranean is beautiful, so what is it about Corsica that makes it so dreamy?

One perfect day: The Lone Wolf, Cheese Princess, and I were wandering around Calvi's magnificent citadel when we came across the one and only Christopher Columbus, a native son according to the signs.

Christopher Columbus in Calvi (Photo by Beth Arnold)

We knew Napoleon Bonaparte came from Corsica, before he put the "E" in emperor. But Christopher Columbus? T.C.P. pointed out that Corsica was actually closer to Italy's mainland than France, and that Corsica was once part of Genoa. T.C.P. has a photographic memory, so she always knows the skinny.

Letter From Paris: Chilling in Corsica, Part 1

Image of Corsica via Wikipedia

Crossposted at HuffPo.com.  Comments not included here.

Before The Cheese Princess arrived in Paris, I wanted to plan a little trip away from the city for us. But where? I always have a list a page long of the destinations that I want to visit, the places where I want to spend a minute of time, or a month or three if I could.  There are some countries like Africa where I would like to go back and settle in to write about the beauty of the land and of the grandeur of the animals on the savanna--the elephants, giraffes, and lions--the lives of the people, their needs and their joys, and the primal energy that exists there.

We thought of Belle Isle in Brittany that sang to our hearts when we were chasing Matisse around France and Morocco. We considered driving deep into the volcanoes of the Auvergne to look for the Salers cows and the Cantal cheese that we love.

London, Berlin, or Madrid? I have been dying to experience Sardinia for at least five years, and somehow I never do. I mentioned this to T.C.P., and she was very excited, but then she remarked that she'd also love to go to Corsica.

The Lone Wolf and I were in Corscia seven years ago (also chasing Matisse), in and around Ajaccio, although we also drove into the heart of the island to the capital of Corte. We loved the whole trip! We were entranced with the sea (I swear the Mediterranean is warmer there), the incredible fragrance of the maquis, and the intense taste of the meat, cheese, and wines that are flavored by it. We didn't want to leave the sunny island and imagined ourselves coming back to stay for several months and writing there.

Letter From Paris: The Perfect Algae Storm

Image via Wikipedia

Last summer the news was full of deadly algae washing ashore on the Brittany coast of France.  It was disturbing to read about toxic fumes (potentially) killing a worker who was removing it.  Dogs have been reported dying after interaction with this algae.  In another incident, a horse died in seconds while the rider was saved on the beach of Saint-Michel-en-Grève.

From The Seattle Times:

On July 28, Petit, 28, a researcher in a state-run virology lab, had just finished riding his thoroughbred Sir Glitter, a retired racehorse, on the Saint-Michel-en-Grève beach, when the two were mired in muck as he led the horse on foot.

"The horse and I slid in," said Petit, who is also trained in veterinary studies. Petit said he watched as his horse stopped breathing and died within about 30 seconds, and then he himself passed out. Petit was pulled from the mire by a bulldozer shovel after a man who witnessed the accident gave the alert.

The algae are not said to be dangerous in the sea but release toxic fumes when they rot on the beach. Researchers warn that inhaling the fumes can prove fatal within a matter of minutes.

Brittany is a beautiful agricultural region in France with a coastline that defines the territory.  Flat beaches, sunlight, and shallow waters along with chemical and natural fertilizers loaded with nitrates and phosphorous (that have been used on the land for many years) evidently create the perfect conditions for the deadly algae.  The perfect algae storm is ready and waiting on Brittany's Cote d'Armor, but this is happening in numerous other places around the world.

We are killing our oceans, and what will we do when they are used up and polluted beyond redemption?

Letter From Paris: The Springing of Spring

Spring is beginning to unfold in Paris.  Tiny leaves thrust from their buds on the vine outside my door, and pose themselves in stages of unfurling.  I can see only a few from where I'm sitting now, but I know there will be more and more and more. 

The deep well of cold in which this winter so lovingly embraced us has fled for better climes.  She was quite an icy vixen, which pleased me well.  There is nothing like a cracking cold and clear day or snow falling softly around me, lighting on my tongue and nose.

Baby green is the color of Spring, clear and bright before the sun has given it the blood of light and toughened it. 

Spring at the Monoprix

***

Letter From Paris: On Location--At Versailles

Image via Wikipedia

I know...I know...Versailles.  Who really wants to go, right?  Once is enough.  That had been my position. 

But since I've lived in France, I've consumed a lot of French history and was totally compelled by the biography of Marie Antoinette that Antonia Fraser penned (and Sofia Coppola spoiled with her frivolous film, including its miscasting--Kirsten Dunst...please.).  So a few years ago, I wanted to see the guillotined queen's pretend village Hameau de la Reine before it was closed again for renovations, and the Lone Wolf and I made a trip out to Versailles.  We were not disappointed.  One could almost see and feel the aristocratic shepherdesses skipping to and fro along the lake by Antoinette's tiny faux village.

A year and a half ago, the Jeff Koons exhibit at Versailles didn't lure me in, though my friends who went sang its praises.  And I must admit I liked the artistic juxtaposition of Koons' work with the Sun King's milieu that I saw in photos.

Gates into Chateau de Versailles (photo by Beth Arnold)

Letter From Paris: A French Idol and His Daughter

Image by mauren veras via Flickr

Crossposted at HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included her.

The biopic of Serge Gainsbourg, titled Gainsbourg (Vie Héroïque), has opened in Paris, and the French are flocking to see it like Americans used to beat it to Woody Allen movies.  (That is before Woody basically had an affair with and married his adopted daughter and became his natural born son's brother-in-law....Not to mention his films were getting a little boring.)

Unknown French actor Eric Elmosnino is playing Gainsbourg, who remains a beloved figure in France, and the actor's resemblance to the singer/actor is said to be uncanny.  The film covers Gainsbourg's entire life and is getting some criticism for the inclusion of M. Gainsbourg's alter ego (representing his insecurity about his looks) as a cartoon that speaks to him.

I haven't seen the film yet--but why not, I say?  The alter ego sounds cool to me.  I'll have to watch the film before I make my final judgment, but I can see this mixture of medias could add excitement as well as enhance the story and mood. 

Gainsbourg was a chain smoker of Gitanes, which added to his mystique and image.  The alternate movie title to go with the alter ego could be "Have Gitane Will Travel."  See movie poster below: