Food & Misc Photos

This will be my last post from Paris, but not necessarily my last Paris post.  There's a Canal St. Martin cruise I haven't done (topical posts take a lot more work than adding misc. pics as they come along) & I'm sure there'll be interesting pics during our last 24 hours in Paris.  But I don't know how busy I'll be when we get back.

I talked about moules et frites but forgot to photograph them.  Well, we went back to Leon & remembered halfway thru the moules.

This is moules provencale.  There are lots of other ways to have them.  The portion is huge for us, so we share.  Lots of people can conquer a full pot on their own.  The frites are "all you can eat" so no one leaves hungry.

I learned about Raclette cheese in Geneva in the early '70's.


It is also a dish from the southeastern part of France nearest the Alps, a region called Haute-Savoie.

Basically it's a brick of Raclette placed under a heating element so that it melts.

It is served with the small boiled potatoes seen below.


















 




It's a do-it-yourself sorta thing.  Susanne turned the cheese away from the heat to scrape off the melted part onto her plate. 

The rind is also a very flavorful part of the cheese.

Take some potato, grab a cornichon (pickle) & don't forget the white wine...a Fendant if you're in Geneva or a Muscadet in Paris.

You're set!

We serve this at home in the winter.  A slice of Raclette in the microwave works.

And of course, a half liter of Carlsberg ain't so bad either.

Let's just call her "Mademoselle Noir".


































We have old friends dating back to 1999 when Susanne came to Paris to learn French.  It's complicated & involves an amazing coincidence of my knowing a fellow volunteer at the Scottsdale Police Department also knowing this family.  Long story short, the parents (Zina & Ali) live just outside Paris, one of their sons married an Arizona girl & this couple (Madjid & Margarita) now lives in Phoenix. 

By yet another coincidence, Madjid & Margarita's (M&M, we're S&S of course) visit overlapped ours by a few days.

So last night, we all had dinner at Zina & Ali's home.  Zina cooked one of my very favorite dinners, Algerian cous cous. 

This is a table set for cous cous.  Of course, in the rush to take the shot before we sat down to enjoy the delicious meal, I forgot to move the wine bottle & a few other things.  Can't exactly go back & re-shoot this. 

After the cous cous was fruit & cheese.

We brought a fruit mousse cake and with traditional mint tea, the dinner was complete.

We didn't have an extra person to take the photos, so it takes two to get all of us.

That's Zina between Susanne & me. Then Ali on my left & Margarita.

That's Madjid between me & his father, Ali.

We are truly people of coincidences...M&M have the same make & model of camera as S&S.

View at dusk from Z&A's balcony.  That's a soccer field lit up.

Hotel de Ville, Paris City Hall, to me the most beautiful building in Paris.  Shot taken on a walk-by.  Didn't get a chance to go close-up this trip.             

Statue of Jeanne d'Arc, Joan of Arc to us, or was it Ingrid Bergman, I get confused.

A wisp of a French girl who led them into battle against the Brits until captured & burned at the stake.   

The more famous Parisian column.  It's in the center of Place Vendome, also the location of a ritzy hotel called The Ritz.