You gotta love the French when it comes to pleasures of all kind, be it wine, art, food and love! Not your everyday experience to find a working vineyard in a Parisian hospital, but Paris is known for her little surprising secrets!
Hopital Bretonneau, up in Montmartre, has been growing grapes since 2001, with their first wine harvest in 2007. Besides the wine grapes, they also grow their own chasselas table grapes.
The hospital was named after a prominent French physician, Pierre Fidèle Bretonneau who was the first to identify Typhoid fever, name Diphtheria and successfully perform a tracheotomy. He also was one of the first to feel that bacteria were responsible for some illnesses and use aseptic techniques, Additionally, he was a fervent gardener, who believed nature was healing.
Paris was at one time , about 2000 years ago, covered in vines. Romans cultivated them and then the monks of the monasteries, Saint Germain des Près, Saint Victor’s, and Saint Genevieve, all had their vineyards too.
Sadly, as civilization grew, the vineyards were replaced with dwellings, leaving only a small plot up in Montmartre and in a western suburb, Surenes. Recently there have been efforts from the city of Paris to restore the tradition, by planting vines in several parks and even hiring a oenologist to care for them.
Hopital Bretonneau was started as a pediatric center in 1895 and now has evolved into an innovative geriatric hospital. Keeping in the spirit of Dr. Bretonneau and his philosophy of using nature as a healing agent, patients are in charge of cultivating and pruning the vines , then later harvesting the grapes, and being involved in the vintification process.
They planted 125 vines of the Malbec variety, which is the grape used in making the great wines of Cahor, one of my personal favorites. A vintner from Cahor volunteers his expertise and supervises the vintification process in the hospital’s new wine making cave.
Clos Bretonneau, as seen in the photo is not commercialized, but is reserved solely for patients and their friends. The director of the hospital thought patient involvement would be a therapeutic opportunity to recapture their youth and provide a ambiance of joviality amongst patients and residents.
In addition to the vineyard activity, I really like how the hospital has created a sort of interior city(though Paris is just outside the door) for the long-term patients who are too weak to venture outside. They have their own little bistro called the Petite Bretonneau as seen in the photo, that opens into a lovely terrace with a beautiful ancient fountain, like the ones seen in the south of France.
Their oneologist also gives wine appreciation courses too for all who wish to attend for a small fee. I waited too late to sign up for the guided tour and degustation of the wine, but however the wine tastes, I really like the spirit that goes into making it.
This past weekend was one of those weekends where there was too many events going on at once and made it difficult to get to them all. My own neighborhood welcomed the birth of a long-awaited food marché near Porte d’Orleans, which I have been wanting to happen for a long time.
Paris has these marché volants, or flying marches that sprout up almost magically several times a week in all the arrondissements of the city. I much prefer to carouse up and down the vegetable and fruit stalls ,the cheese stands, the charcutries and see all the glistening fresh fish to choose from, rather than go to the supermarkets, however good they are here in Paris.
Fresh cut flowers and plants are there too. Smells of roasting chickens fill the air along with aromas of Lebanese pizzas hot off the grill makes one hungry enough to easily over buy, so I proceed with caution.
Game season has arrived so there were feathered birds and furry hares dangling from the top of the poultry stand, that always bother me, though I haven’t achieved vegetarian status yet. I did find a wonderful chevre(goat) cheese bought from some young farmers, who described their farm as only having 200 goats to make their array of chevres all by hand!
Besides the wine festival of Montmartre described in detail last year, there was another event going on in Bercy on Sunday that I always enjoy going in order to pick up some wine and goodies specific to their region. Food and wine producers from the Aveyron come to Paris twice a year and is one of the most heavily attended regional specific marchés in Paris.
The Aveyron region is located in the southwestern part of France and is very mountainous, with beautiful wild and savage scenery, that had a different dialect called Occitan that can sometimes still be heard spoken by the older residents.
The area’s most famous product is Roquefort cheese, but I love their wines too. The most unusual is Marcillac made with the fer servadou grape, which was brought into France during the middle ages by pilgrims, returning from Saint Jacques de Compostelle.
Additionally they are reputed for their crunchy sweet onions, as well as sausages, hams, ect. A local speciality, called farcous was sizzling in a large pan, giving off wonderful aromas of onions and herbs. For only one and a half euro it warmed by hand in the cool autumn air and proved to be a delicious nibble as I walked about looking at the other goodies.
The photo of the gateau a la broche or cake made from dribbling batter on a turning spit is also a speciality of the Aveyron. Flavored with vanilla and rum, it has a unique taste due to being cooked by over flames.
Gabriel Courlet Roquefort is considered one of the best, due to its flavour and unique creaminess, so I couldn’t resist picking up a quarter wedge. I love Carles roquefort too, which is one of the last to use the penicillium mold taken from their own rye bread and inoculated by hand. Both are considered top Roqueforts!
Wines made in the vicinity of Roquefort are called AOC Millau and are hard to find, if at all in Paris. So, I always like to pick up a few bottles for my cave.
Lastly, I spied some chestnut flour for sale, and since my own supply is waning, added that to my purchases. I use mine mostly for cakes and pastries, but it can also be used to make crepes. It gives a rather sandy like texture not obtainable with wheat flour.
Besides all the food merchants, I adored taking in the folk dancers and their intricate costumes. The music almost sounded somewhat celtic to my ears and anyway the whole spectacle was great, though hard to catch photos with so many others crowded around to see them too.
Upon returning home, I brought up some Marcillac from my own cave, that I had bought last year, and put out the Courlet Roquefort to bring to room temperature. I then set about making my tarte aux pommes au caramel beurre salé, or apple tart with salted buttered caramel as see in the photo.
The Roquefort went wonderful with the rusticity of the Marcillac, and my apple tart came out of the oven bubbling with the buttery caramel underneath the apples. Served very warm, the salted sweet caramel was a perfect complement to the tart lemony flavor of the apples, that I left unsugared, and topped with some camelized walnuts.
What a way to wind down the weekend of new discoveries and gustatory delights! But that is Paris for you! Treats galore to dazzle your eyes and taste buds await you everyday here, in every part of the city! Easy to understand why I, along with millions others love this city so much!