Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Cynthia wrote to me yesterday to ask about those “oldest restaurant in Paris” claims made by various places. Which one is truly the oldest? Like so many things in life, it depends. In this case, it depends on how you define “oldest restaurant in Paris.” Is a bistrot a restaurant? Yes, in my book it is. Does it matter if the restaurant was actually in Paris when it opened? What if the borders of Paris at the time it started up meant the restaurant was originally outside of Paris? I can’t decide about this question, so I choose to ignore it. Is a tavern a restaurant? Is a cabaret a restaurant? If the place serves real meals from a menu that has some choices, I think the answer is yes. If it is really just a place to drink and/or be entertained, the answer is no. If the tavern is the kind of place where boarders are served meals, but there is just one offering, only one choice, of main course, then I say no. That is just an inn or boarding house. Does it matter if the place has been continuously operating? What if there are gaps in time when the place was not a restaurant? I think that disqualifies it, because restaurants come and go. The thing to celebrate is continuous operation in a particular location. Even though some claim that La Colombe/La Reserve de Quasimodo is the “oldest bistrot,” I think it has not operated continuously as a restaurant, and so is disqualified for this designation. Le Procope, which opened in 1686, makes the claim of being the oldest restaurant in Paris, but it, too, has not operated continuously. It was, however, within the city of Paris when it first opened. La Petite Chaise, on the rue de Grenelle, has operated continuously, and I think that is very special. It was, however, outside of the borders of Paris, on the road leading to the village of Grenelle, when it first started up. The reason for that was the tax on wine within the city of Paris. That popularized the idea of places where you could go, just outside the city, and consume wine tax-free. At the Petite Chaise, the manager (Georges Rameau) decided it would be a good idea to offer meals to go with that wine, and by 1680, he was doing so. David Lebovitz agrees with me that La Petite Chaise is the oldest restaurant in Paris. Le Procope initially was a café that just offered a little something, like sorbet, to go with that coffee. I don’t think that counts. La Tour d’Argent also makes the claim of being the oldest restaurant. But it was not always in the same location, so that doesn’t count, in my opinion. However, it does date back to 1582. One of the reasons it had to change location at one point was that it was destroyed in the Revolution, I believe, since it catered to aristocrats. I think this means it also did not exist for some period of time. It is a good thing that the Revolution shut them down. To me, something isn’t right about a restaurant that caters only to aristocrats. Food should be democratic, and the current philosophy of La Tour d’Argent agrees with me on that, even though this distinguished resto may not have had that philosophy in the past. Some claim that Le Grand Vefour, the restaurant featured in the Woody Allen film, “Midnight in Paris,” is the oldest. But the Vefour web site claims that the resto only dates back to the 1780s. The first place to call itself a “restaurant” was owned by a guy named Boulanger. He used the word to describe his place in 1765. Perhaps the Académie Française should convene a panel of experts to decide which place is truly the oldest restaurant in Paris. Anyway, who cares? It is either La Tour d’Argent, Le Procope, or La Petite Chaise, but I say it is La Petite Chaise. Cynthia pointed out that I erroneously said that the trees in the Place Dauphine were plane trees (September 14, now corrected). They are actually red chestnut trees, planted to replace sickly old white chestnut trees that had to be removed this past year. Twenty-nine new trees were planted, at a cost of about 120,000 euros, according to www.evous.fr . When we walk through the Luxembourg Gardens at this time of year, Tom cannot resist collecting a few chestnuts off the ground. But yesterday, we walked instead on the rue Jacob. Still, on a Monday, most of the shops were closed. Tom asks, “Don’t they want to make any money?” Good question. At the end of the rue Jacob, we circled down to the boulevard Saint Germain, and took a detour to the Saint Thomas d’Aquin church. It was almost deserted inside, and the few others present were sightseers, like us. So I took some photos, but still did not use a flash. Then we moved on, to the south. We stopped in to visit the Conran store across from the Bon Marché department store. The Conran store is in a building that formerly housed part of Bon Marché. Conran is a British chain, and we think its managers and executives should be embarrassed about what they’re doing (with the exception of the housewares that they sell). The home furnishings we find to be grossly overpriced and very cheaply made: some style, and little substance. Then there are ridiculous decisions, like mis-labeling a fine old tribal oriental rug as a “kilim” and then pricing it at 6,000 euros! If the perpetrator of this mis-identification really thought it was a kilim, it wouldn’t be priced at 6,000 euros at all. Certain old oriental carpets might be worth that much, but this one was not. This was most definitely a low-pile, handmade, old Kazak carpet. A very nice rug, but worth something more like $800, and certainly no more than $2000. The Conran people don’t even know what it is, and they put a price on it that has no relation whatsoever to reality. There are plenty of French people who know their oriental rugs, and they must see this and think those Brits who run Conran are nuts. Incompetent nuts. We moved on to the other side of the street, to find the new window displays that feature great, cartoonish drawings of left bank scenes with images of Catherine Deneuve. I’d read about the new displays yesterday, when I received the latest I Prefer Paris newsletter in my email. The occasion of the window displays is Bon Marché’s 160th anniversary. Catherine Deneuve is the “invitée d’honneur” for the celebration. That’s appropriate, since she lives in the area and she adores it. In fact, she was born in Paris. On Larry King Live in 2000, she said, “I live in Paris, you know, and I've been living in the same neighborhood for such a long time. I think also people are used to see me.” She’s just part of the ‘hood. The illustrations were by Marjane Satrapi, who made the animated film “Persepolis” in which Catherine Deneuve provides one of the voices. The illustrations depict Miss Deneuve’s ten favorite places in the left bank, and will be on display in the Bon Marché windows until October 6. You can buy a boxed set of 160 of these prints for 900 euros. A percentage of the sales goes to the children’s hospital, Necker. Marjane Satrapi said, “The world is Paris, and Paris is Catherine Deneuve.” Catherine
Deneuve says she appreciates the left bank for « la
décontraction, la liberté, la fantaisie… pouvoir aller du Flore, au cinéma du
Panthéon, en passant acheter un livre. » I agree. It’s that, and so much more. We stopped in the Bon Marché Grand Epicerie and picked up the swanky anniversary collection catalog, which has one of those Satrapi illustrations on the cover. Very nice. But the gourmet grocery there was too crowded, and it was too far to carry things home. So we decided to shop at Hé instead, when we were much closer to the apartment. There we bought the requisite organic orange juice, and a little almond cake called a Naoned which we then shared for “tea” back at the apartment (having skipped lunch, as usual). Dinner was at Aux 2 Oliviers, where I ordered the very spicy wok-cooked pork and vegetables as my main course. This time, the server didn’t warn me about its spiciness, because he remembers us and knows that we are familiar with that dish. Tom had the delicious duck breast. I am craving spicy food now, having had lots of subtle French flavors all summer. One night not that long ago we went to the Italian place, La Giara, where I ordered a pizza with the spicy salami. It is so funny and typical that when you order something that is spicy in Paris (a little hard to find!), the server usually warns you as if to say, “Do you REALLY want spicy food? Do you know what you’re doing?” You bet I do. I like it hot. |
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Inside
the Saint Thomas of Aquinas church.
Delicious
leek leaves stuffed with goat cheese, topped with shrimp, and served with a
ginger sauce and a bit of salad at Aux 2 Oliviers for dinner last
night. Below is
Tom’s fandarole des desserts. We love that resto!
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