Fêtes accomplies

Newsletter 02.05.2023

Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art…and patisseries and identity theft! Thanks so much to those of you who reached out with your own tales of identity theft and suggestions for how I should go about contesting my fraudulent Verizon bill. And also, how to protect myself from whomever has stolen my identity and is probably, right now, using and or selling it!!! Peter in San Francisco sent, among other things, a link to Nerdwallet which had lots of good information. Elaine in Indiana shared her experience and confirmed what I feared, this is probably just the beginning. Bill in Ohio also had lots of good advice. Sally pointed out, and I completely agree, Verizon is at fault for so quickly opening a fraudulent account and then making me jump through hoops to prove that I hadn’t opened it. Thanks to all of you.

The sticking point for me last week was the requirement to file a complaint, in person, with my local police department. Seems like a vestige from the past. As the police officer told my daughter, identity theft is a federal crime not a local issue. Who knows where the person who opened those telephone lines is.

Several people suggested that I get around the local police department requirement by going to the American Embassy here in Paris. I called the embassy and the woman with whom I spoke told me that I could come to the embassy and they would be happy to notarize anything I stated, for a 50 euro notary fee. I could bring my California Drivers License and my US passport, but they wouldn’t authenticate either one. She also suggested, as some of you have, that I go to my local police station here in Paris and ask them to witness me writing that I am the victim of identity fraud in the United States. She told me that the Embassy could supply a list of registered translators who could translate the document into English, for a hefty fee.

Then, I found the FCC Fraud website. On which I filled out a complaint against Verizon. The form required an electronic signature. The email the FCC sent me, confirming receipt of my complaint, had a Ticket Number. Bingo - I had a signed complaint mentioning Verizon, with a number. That’s what I used for the Fraud Report I submitted to Verizon. It was accepted. I don’t owe them anything for opening the account and I won’t be receiving monthly statements for it either. Whew!

Despite jet-lag and identity theft, I knew I had only a few days to sample a few galettes des rois before the end of the month and the end of the galettes. So on Saturday, I met up with Barb and Erin (both of whom are in the process of moving to Paris) at Cafe Hugo on the Place des Vosges. En route, I stopped at my favorite local patisserie / boulangerie, Brigat. (Figure 1) They had four varieties of galettes, traditional (almond paste), pistachio paste, hazelnut paste with lemons and chocolate with orange. I bought a slice of the first two and promised myself I would come back in a few days to try the other two. After a café crème, Erin and I walked over to Maison Aleph and Erin bought me two slices (as a thank you for bringing her drivers license and contact lens from California). One of the slices was filled with halvah, the other with pistachio. (Figure 2) On Sunday I bought two more slices at Brigat and one from the Le Notre around the corner from the Place de la Bastille.

Figure 1. Galette des rois with hazelnut paste and candied lemon, Brigat

Figure 2. Galette des Rois from Maison Aleph, left Pistachio paste, right, halvah 

After rigorous taste testing and considerable soul searching, it’s clear, I am a traditionalist. My favorite filling is almond paste and my favorite pastry is puff ( Maison Aleph uses philo dough). I am not such a traditionalist that the almonds need to be skinned so that the almond paste is white, as it was in the otherwise unexceptional slice from Le Notre. (Figure 3) Finally, a chocolate filling without any nut paste is a chocolate tart. (Figure 4) Buying slices rather than whole galettes meant that I didn’t get any crowns this year. But I did get a feve in one of the slices I purchased at Brigat! As I reflect upon all the galettes des rois I have eaten over the years, the one that continues to be my favorite was the one I bought in Bergerac, nearly 20 years ago. It was a traditional almond paste galette with the thinnest layer of sauce au caramel et buerre salé, on the almond paste. Salted caramel sauce is, hands down, my all-time favorite toppings for just about anything …. That galette was the perfect combination of sweet and rich.

Figure 3. Skinned almond paste in LeNôtre galette (Left); With skin almond paste Brigat (right)

Figure 4. Chocolate galette des rois with orange confit, Brigat (Feve on left)

I thought I was through with food themed holidays until mid-February. But I was wrong. No sooner had I put my galette des rois obsession to rest for another year, then I fell upon another annual celebration with a food component which somehow I had never heard of before. How that is, I do not know. That it is, I can confirm. Yes, I am talking about Chandaleur (Candlemas).

Here are a few of the possible roots of this fete. There was the annual Roman festa candelarum, (candlelight festival), a celebration that honored the dead. According to one source, at the end of the 5th century, the Pope took this festival and made it a celebration of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. (Figure 5) Another source suggests that Candlemas grew from a purification ceremony known as Juno Februa, (Juno the Purifier) which took place at the second full moon following the winter solstice. Christian leaders transformed the festival into a celebration of the purification of the Virgin Mary following the birth of Jesus. In 684 Pope Sergius I officially put the holiday on the church calendar, on February 2. When debate arose about whether Mary needed to be purified, the festival was collapsed into The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, which occurred forty days after his birth, on February 2. (Figure 6)

Figure 5. Byzantine Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

Figure 6. Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Giotto, Arena Chapel, Padua, 1304

The pagan roots coalesce with the Jewish ones. When Jesus was born, there were three obligations for Jewish parents regarding the birth of their first male child. The first was that the infant boy had to be circumcised 8 days after his birth. The second was that the mother had to be purified. According to Leviticus, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, ‘When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation … And on the eighth day the flesh of (her son’s) foreskin shall be circumcised. Then for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed."

The third was specifically for a firstborn son. As far back as the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, the firstborn male belonged to the Lord. If they were to be allowed to live, then their lives had to be purchased from the Lord with offerings based upon the wealth of the parents - from a pair of pigeons or doves (which Joseph and Mary paid) to a lamb, that only the very wealthy could afford to buy and have sacrificed. The offering took place on the 40th day after the baby boy’s birth. That’s what Joseph and Mary are doing in all the paintings of The Presentation in the Temple. (Figure 7)

Figure 7. Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Andre Mantegna, 15th century

Whatever the Roman, Jewish or Christian roots, the French celebrate Chandeleur by eating crêpes. (Figure 8) Maybe it’s because the color and shape of a crêpe is evocative of the sun. And it is said that using the wheat of the last harvest to make the crêpes brings good luck for the next harvest. Maybe it’s because Pope Gélase I (1492-96) distributed a crêpe-style dish to pilgrims arriving to Rome and crêpes are a continuation of this tradition. Perhaps it’s a mix of both of these traditions, the round shape represents the sun and the circle of life, while the act of eating and sharing with others commemorates the tradition of popes distributing food to the poor every year.

Figure 8. Crêpe making for Chandaleur, France

In Germany and Scandinavia, bear festivals took place in the Middle Ages. When a bear came out of its cave at the end of winter, it meant that the weather would get warmer. That sounds a lot like Groundhog Day, which may be just a movie to you but for this native of western Pennsylvania it meant breathlessly waiting for Pawskatawny Phil to come out of his burrow and see or not see his shadow. (Figure 9) This year, on February 2, he saw his shadow so we’re in for another 6 weeks of winter. That this American tradition started in Pennsylvania makes sense because most of Pennsylvania’s early settlers were German. That’s right the Pennsylvania Dutch are actually the Pennsylvania Deutsch as in Pennsylvania German (just a little case of Lost in Translation). Which Jimmy Kimmel knew, here’s what he said yesterday, “Groundhog Day is a tradition that was brought to the United States in the 1800s by German settlers. The boring German settlers — the fun ones brought us beer.”

Figure 9. Bill Murry and groundhog from Groundhog Day film

Finally, in Mexico, Candlemas is linked to Epiphany. Whoever finds the muñeco (bean-shaped Christ child) in the Kings Cake (Mexican equivalent of the galette des rois) on January 6 is responsible for organizing La candelaria, a family meal featuring tamales (Figure 10), which forms a connection to Mexico's pre-Christian past when maize was offered at festivals.

Figure 10. Tamales for La Candelaria, Mexican celebration of Candlemas

When I learned about Chandaleur on January 31, I didn’t have time to organize a crêpe event. But since February 2 was a Thursday, I just walked over to the marché on Blvd Richard-Lenoir and bought a buckwheat galette (rather than a wheat crêpe - it’s healthier) and ate it, (Figure 11) looking forward to longer days ahead and hoping they will be warmer and sunnier.

Figure 11. Buckwheat galette from Richard-LeNoir marché

AND, ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) : Let me know what you think of Barbara Kruger’s work, remember to Use Your Words.

Gros bisous! Dr. ‘B’

I received several very helpful suggestions about what to do about my identity theft problem. They are in the Comments section here: Very Particular

Readers Comments on Simone Leigh See No Evil

Very good piece!  You put a lot of thought into it. I'm not doing it justice but my first thoughts are: She seems to be the antithesis of Georgia O'Keeffe.  Why deny your feminity?  To me her blank-faced sculptures say "I know what's going on here,.  I'm wise and thoughtful but I can't express it to the world. This is how it is for women. Men debase us but we know that we're the nurturers and that we hold it all together.After 50 years of happy marriage I certainly believe that. We’re searching for a Paris apartment at the moment on our old standby site "Paris Attitude" for our summer digs.  It's fun to tour Paris this way! John, Florida/Paris

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