It’s a Wrap!
Newsletter 123123
Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. This week’s post is my second on Sophie Calle’s exhibition at the Musée Picasso. Which has been extended through January. I’m still obsessed with this very cool 70 year old artist. I thought of her when I recently checked out a podcast that my friend Sharon from Haifa (who is busy with the orange harvest at the moment) recommended. It’s Seinfeld’s Elaine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, interviewing older women. The podcast is called Wiser Than Me. So far, I have listened to her interviews with Jane Fonda, Amy Tan, Ruth Reichl and Isabelle Allende. I was surprised by the probing questions and frank answers. Unfiltered Sophie Calle would be a perfect guest and I think she speaks English. I wonder if Julia takes recommendations.
For me, as for other fortunate people, there is no better time of the year than the week between Christmas and New Year. It’s a liminal moment, betwixt and between the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one. Everything slows down. It is a time to take long walks or drink hot cocoa - or do both if you are lucky enough to live in San Francisco and a) are in training to walk the last 110 km of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela and b) if you were gifted Dandelion Chocolate hot cocoa mix for Christmas.
One thing I have noticed is this - as we take longer walks, longer walks seem less daunting. Places that we thought were too far to go on foot turn out to be not only eminently walkable but walkable there and back. I think having a destination does the trick, especially if it’s a restaurant, as it was on Wednesday. Arbor, (Fig 1) a lovely casual spot where I had a burger and Ginevra opted for their fried chicken sandwich. I think the breading is cornflakes. It was delicious, I’m going to get it next time. We ate in their courtyard and then we walked back home.
Figure 1. Fried Chicken & Burger with Kombucha at Arbor, Hayes Valley
The only sadness around here is that the Advent Calendar windows have all been opened. This year as last, I bought chocolates from a variety of chocolatiers in Paris to make my own Advent Calendar. One with enough chocolates for two and if I was lucky, three people to share. This year I tried new places (for me) Edwart, Charles and Plaq and returned to old favorites, Pierre Marcolini, Alain Ducasse and Jacques Genin. I’ll definitely be returning to Plaq, which I discovered collaborates with my favorite San Francisco chocolatier, Dandelion. And I know why my old favorites are my old favorites.
Every time I was offered a teabag during the year (while making a purchase, not from random strangers on the street!!!) - at Mariage Frères, Palais des Thés or Damman Frères, for example - I put it aside to bring home with me to make our Tea Advent Calendar. When my friend Sydney, visiting from Portland Oregon in November, brought me a few teabags from Steven Smith, a Teamaker in Portland, I put them aside to take home. Very well traveled tea bags! And then, what do you know, there was a new Advent Calendar from Palais des Thés!. The bags I brought will just have to wait. Our two favorites from Palais des Thés were Le Thé Enchanté, (Fig 2) a delightful blend of black and green teas, red fruits and chocolate. That’s a morning tea. And Rooibos des Vahinés (Fig 3) with almonds and vanilla which is an infusion for the end of the day.
Figure 2. Le Thé Enchanté
Figure 3. Rooibos des Vahinés
On the inside of each calendar door, there is a proverb or pithy phrase, in French and English. (Fig 4) December 23 was this: “The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes” A quote from, you guessed it, Marcel Proust. From Socrates was this, “Wisdom begins with wonder” and from a Chinese proverb, “Doing good makes you feel good.”
Figure 4. Advent Calendar, Palais des Thés
This week, our mornings began with a slice of traditional Italian panettone. (Fig 5) For our afternoon breaks, we had Ginevra’s homemade cookies (Fig 6) and drank Dandelion hot chocolate.
Figure 5. Panettone slices (too small for some people I know) with oranges & tangerines
Figure 6. Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies with Marshmallows, NYTimes recipe by Vaughn Vreeland
Not as easy but almost as delicious and certainly more laudable were the recipes we found to use the vegetables we got in our Vegetable Box. We followed Alison Roman’s recipe for Roasted Beets with buttermilk, red onions and walnuts (Fig 7) from her Nothing Fancy cookbook and her Harissa and Maple Roasted Carrots (Fig 8) from Bon Appetit. We sautéed squares of halloumi cheese and tossed them with the beautiful radicchio and lettuces in the box. (Fig 9)
Figure 7. Alison Roman’s Roasted Beets with buttermilk, red onions & walnuts
Figure 8. Alison Roman’s Harissa & Maple Roasted Carrots with peanuts
Figure 9. Radicchio & lettuce with sautéed haloumi
For the bone in, skin-on porchetta from Gus’s, which we had for Christmas Dinner (roasting it in our just delivered oven), we followed Melissa Clark’s stellar video and recipe. (Fig 10) The Yorkshire pudding (Fig 11) that we served alongside it, also a NYT recipe. Since Christmas was on a Monday this year, and since Nicolas was with us from the 23rd until the 26th, I decided to start the holiday early. Christmas Dinner #1 was on December 23. And Christmas Dinner #2 was on Christmas Day. Not as much leftover Christmas pork as there had been leftover Thanksgiving turkey, but we still managed a few terrific leftover meals. Like pork tacos and fried polenta squares with homemade tomato sauce and shredded pork. The leftover piece de resistance was another Melissa Clark recipe - shredded pork with homemade barbecue sauce on brioche buns. (Fig 12) Seriously delicious! New Year’s is going to be a four day celebration, too. Headlining the festivities will be our favorite holiday fare - foie gras and Monbazillac wine.
Figure 10. Porchetta after 7 hours in the oven, Melissa Clark recipe, NYTimes
Figure 11. Yorkshire pudding from Recipe from April Bloomfield Adapted by Jeff Gordinier, NYTimes
Figure 12. Homemade barbecue sauce with pulled pork sandwich on brioche bun, NYTimes
Finally, when I was rummaging through some drawers this past week, I happened upon a few calendars that we made when the kids were little, using photographs we had taken during the year, mostly during the summers, mostly in the Perigord. Here are a few which feature the pigeonnier. (Figs 13, 14, 15) Part II of which drops soon, hopefully next week.
Figure 13. One of our ‘Hay’ photos
Figure 14. Me at the pigeonnier
Figure 15. Nicolas at the pigeonnier
Before I wish you a happy new year, I want to thank you for kindly reading these posts and taking the time to comment on them when you can. And thanks, too, for telling your friends about them. Until next year, Gros Bisous et Bonne Année, Dr. B. 12/31/23 (123123).