My Birthday Week 2016

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imageIt was my birthday week again and I am a big believer in celebrating  birthdays in whatever way, that brings joy to the celebrant.  At my age, one day is simply not enough, so now I opt for seeing the whole week as one big birthday celebration!

That does not mean nightly parties and gorging on cake for a whole week, heaven forbid, but taking an active role in celebrating your birth.  Just the mere fact that you are alive on planet earth is a big thing and not to be taken for granted!

Happiness and joy should be daily pursuits, but with birthdays I am more mindful of my responsibility to honour my life as a gift from God with gratitude for my many blessings.

One of my well wishers said just being in Paris is the ultimate birthday celebration and cake, and I totally agree!  Each day I decided to play tourist again, which I often do anyway, but to see Paris again as if I just arrived.

Sightseeing  turned out to be on the hot side, as Paris is in a “canicule” or hot wave.  To a former Louisianan, their definition of a hot wave  which is anything 35 C or above, (95F plus), would be everyday  temperatures in any typical southern day!

Parisians feel it more because the vast majority of  apartments are not air conditioned, including mine. Most larger stores are now days, but buses, trams and subways are not, with a few rare exceptions.

Fortunately the insulation here with older buildings having thick stone walls keeps them cooler, so as soon as you step inside the building, it already feels cooler.  Town halls were offering “cooling off” rooms as well for the public in need.

With a fan, I am  comfortable enough and after the sun moves away from my balcony, I love sitting out  feeling the breeze and smelling some of my perfumed flowers, liked jasmine.

The coolest place is my cave, where I keep wine for storage amongst other things, so going down to bring a bottle up is the closest I get to air conditioning.

On my actual birthday, I spent more than half of the day making the various components for my birthday pastry, but delaying the assemblage.image

Afterwards I wanted to walk around Ile de La Cité, and Ile Saint Louis along the quai(banks) and enjoyed briefly sitting at the small park at the tip end of the island.

The lovely gardens behind Notre Dame, which are beautiful year round offer, are a favorite of mine too.

It was getting to be aperitif time, so the thought of having a glass of champagne along the Seine sounded perfect to me.image

Several barges turned into floating bar and eateries have sprouted up west of Pont Marie, that offered music, river breezes and shade from the burning hot sun.imageimage

I had initially contemplated a rooftop bar, but with this heat, I’ll take cooler breezes over view, though the river view of the bateaux mouches passing by was more than sufficient.

The resoundingly loud bells of Notre Dame started ringing for vespers a little before 5:45 pm, which is always a prelude to evening mass.

I think it is important to honor one’s birth in a spiritual manner and give thanks not only for my own earth’s entry but to celebrate my mother who made it all possible!

The perpetual very long line in front of the cathedral had shortened somewhat and despite security moved fairly enough along to make it inside, finding a chair in the front mid way through vespers.

With the incense swirling around my head and the magnificent ancient organ vibrating off all those ancient stones,  my state of mind is easily transformed to one of awe and complete gratitude for being here.

A fancy birthday dinner would have to wait till friday, as the restaurant I had chosen is already too popular, even though I called for reservations over a week ago.

Facing that trivial little setback, I had been  craving soft shell crabs, which are impossible to find fresh here! Perhaps only native Louisianans can understand, though they are also sought after in Baltimore and Venice, Italy.

The only ones I have found here were in well known Laotian restaurant, frozen of course, but decently crisp and crunchy.

After mass, we caught the bus heading south to the 13th arrondissement, only to arrive at a closed door, due to the annual august vacations.

Not wanting to chance any old  restaurant, I opted to end up cooking that night as usual.  Fresh tuna at the supermarket looked good and  I grilled it to perfection.

In my eyes, it’s not worth wasting money on a mediocre meal, when I can cook something I like and serve with wines I know are good.

It being really late, I didn’t have the desire nor energy to tackle putting together the final necessary touches on the pastry, so the candle blowing would have to wait!

Instead I enjoyed admiring the beautiful red birthday roses that were awaiting me at home.

Next day being Tuesday, I had a yen for Gontran Cherrier’s sumptuous squid ink baguette, a pure delight! Even though his bakery is way up in Montmartre, it makes for a nice sightseeing bus ride up.image

Walking up the incline of Rue Caulaincourt, I knew I was nearby as the enticing smell of fresh bread permeated the parched air.  To my delight, not only did he have those long black beauties, but also some basil lemon baguettes that I bought as well.

Tucking my two  treasures in my knapsack, I stopped off for another ice-cold bottle of water for the trip back and resisted any temptation to nibble on my baguettes.

The bus felt almost as hot as a slow oven, and women could be seen fanning themselves like crazy.    Parisians seem to have a harder time with the hot than the cold.

Once home, I tackled assembling my complicated pastry, which took a fair amount of time.  In the end it looked like a luscious  mound of coconut and passion fruit cream topped with a passion fruit filled cream puff surrounded with tiny ones below.

It was my tropical take of the very classical French pastry called a Gateau Saint Honoré.  A lot of labor involved for sure, reminding you why they are very expensive to buy!image

Wednesday, a play caught my eye that sounded like a perfect way to spend the evening.  The theater was near Montparnasse on Rue Gaité, which always looks like it lives up to its name,  and is a plus because we could walk there.Une folie

Un Folie was a comedy about a psychiatrist having to deal with two manipulative spouses, each one accusing the other of being at fault, and proved to be hilarious.

I found myself laughing throughout , remembering some of the hijinks  I have seen disgruntled spouses go through in the throes of marital woes.image

Thursday I wanted to hit a museum that I have never been to, which in a city that has around 130 of them, is still very possible!  The Pavillon de L’Arsenal was having an exhibit on the islands of the Seine, some of which have been forever immortalised by impressionistic painters.

The exhibit was very interesting despite that the so called air conditioned museum felt more warm than cool, which is often the case here.image

The entire museum sits on one of the former islands(Louvier) that was annexed to the right back of the city. The street in front was once a narrow canal that separated the bodies of land filled in 1843.

The fancy restaurant day finally rolled around, so instead of wearing myself out before the big night, I preferred to stroll around Montsouris park before it would be filled to the brim again by returning Parisians.imageimage

The hill-side was dotted as usual with young folks congregating seemingly more interesting in looking at their phones rather than at each other.  The ducks and swans were hiding except for a few, probably because of the heat.image

 

Chef Toschitaka Omiya, is a very talented young chef, who had already gathered a Michelin star at Agapé, but now has his own place in the fifth, my old neighborhood which I always love going back to.

His restaurant Alliance on Rue de Poissy , close to the Seine, is small but elegant where you can watch him and his equipe work their magic.image

We were the first to arrive and I went for his multi course chef’s menu and I was dazzled with one dish after another from the amuses bouches to the end.

Buckwheat chips with herbed chevre,  mousseuse of celery root with grated grains of coffee, anchovy dentelle on local grown marinated tomatoes image, oyster with cream of bourrache, cris marine and oxalis, monkfish with cucumber roulades, poached duck foie gras in duck courtbouillon, topped with chard and flowers, Pie Noir beef with chives, and confit shallots, cream of vanilla and black olive, raspberry tart with red pepper and raspberry sorbet, et little financiers as midardaises.
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Heading home totally satiated with wonderful culinary memories, and new ideas, the quai looked almost deserted with Notre Dame in the background.

I hope to return to the Alliance again before he starts pulling in some more Michelin stars, which always doubles or triples the prices.image

Saturday, I had only one thing in mind after going to the marché and that was to finally get back to E Dehillerin, which is a fantastic mind blowing over stuffed bazaar for cooks,  to choose my birthday gift.

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I have been shopping there since 1971, and the store arrangement has never changed, nor the rather archaic procedure of having to go to the catalogue hanging on the wall to look up prices, and then having an invoice ticket written up to give to another clerk for payment.

The rather stern faced clerks, dressed in their drab work jackets, have a reputation of not being the most cheerful, but they have always been  nice and helpful to me.image

I was initially going for an oval De Buyer black steel fish pan, which like cast iron are indestructible. Unfortunately the size I wanted I could barely lift off the counter!

Instead I was seduced with their somewhat lighter non teflon coated one, that I could at least manage to lift with only one hand!image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least was to plant something in honor of my birthday, which I find to be a nice symbolic thing to do. With a balcony already filled to the brim with flowers, herbs and fruit trees, it was going to be a little runner from my delicious Mara de Bois strawberries, that I would eventually re-pot later  in the fall.

Yesterday I had hoped to go again to the colourful Fête de Ganesh parade, but did not make it out on time, so back for another spin in the park after I finished making my almond apimagericot tart, for Sunday dinner.imageimage

The cafes are bursting full again, and thick clusters of  Parisians were laying around on the grounds,  so the quieter days of August are over.    At least the ice cream man and merry go round was happy to have a line again of customers.

With having to dodge the little ones mindlessly riding their little bikes and scooters, plus the bigger ones glued to their phone screens,  and the donkeys, it was time to say goodbye to those tranquil August days that I love and my birthday week till another year, God willing!

 

 

 

8 thoughts on “My Birthday Week 2016”

  1. Hi Cherry,

    Sounds like you really had a good “birthday week” . . . . LOL . . . my wife has ALWAYS claimed a “birthday week”. Yeah, one day is just too short of time to celebrate it .

    You seem to have developed a knack for enjoying your life in Paris. Enjoy the simplicities of day to day life s a lot more important than having big one day celebrations a couple of times a year, huh? You truly seem to really make the best of your life in Paris on a day to day basis. I think that as we get older, we become more aware of the potential future quality of our lives.

    This morning I received a “house call” from a AvMed (Medicare) Nurse practitioner to check my health. Boy, that drives the point home about getting older. Fortunately, I really don’t have ANY health problems . . . this was obviously the “health industry” just optimizing their services and revenues. (I really did not need an in-home medical evaluation . . . and the nurse practitioner said that I was in terrific shape medically.) I’ve never had any type of medical problems or taken medicines. However my one issue is that they have diagnosis me as being slightly over the norm in regard to blood sugar level,, and blood pressure . . . just marginally “over the norm”; but is enough basis for the doctor to categorize me as something like an “early diabetic” . . . that gives the doctor the basis to warrant seeing me more often, ergo more revenue for the doctor. The doctors are just too quick to proscribe all sorts of meds; and the meds have more and worse side effects than the medical conditions. Diet and exercise can do as much as well as a lot of the meds, and without any side effects. (I annoyed my doctor by declining to take Lipitor and metoformin.) Yeah, I may eventually need to take some meds to counter the effects of aging; but I don’t intend to get on the “fast train” to screwing things up with lots of side effects.

    I think that people have to become their own advocates in regard to their health and medical treatments. I didn’t see any doctors for 15 years during one period of my life. Then around age 67 I decided to have ALMOST EVERYTHING checked out; and everything was really darn good; no problems. However, I’ve had doctors prescribe all sorts of meds as cautionary due to my age . . . Ha! The medical profession has become more of a “business” than a health care profession.

    I was having some dental work done and they proscribed some fairly strong “pain killer” meds, which I really didn’t need; and didn’t even bother to have the prescription filled. There was a little discomfort for a day or two; but nothing that warranted strong “pain killer” meds. The biggest drug problem in the USA is the over prescription and used of pain killers . . . doctors pass it out like candy.

    But all of these “potential health issues to come” emphasizes the finite aspect of our quality of life at our stage of life. One can only wonder if we have maybe 5, 10, or 15 years of quality of life left. My sister worked in nursing homes for something like almost 40 years, she was the admissions person and handled a lot of the financial aspects of their operations (compliance to maximize the companies revenue). As she used to say, once one goes into a nursing home, the quality of life is over. So, we all need to focus on optimizing our quality of life . . . and you certainly appear to make the most of your life. You seem to be a good role model or example to inspire others.

    This last weekend, my 63 y/o sister-in-law “threw her back out” . . . she hadn’t ever done anything like that; and it certainly can change one’s perspective on life. Just never know when one will experience a life altering incident, or health problem. , accident, etc. So, enjoying life everyday is really important . . . it isn’t EVER going to get better as we get older. Enjoy it while one has it. I think that the simple daily things are more important than the occasional “biggie events”. LOL . . . I think that Paris may offer more interesting “simple things” on a daily basis though. (You seem to have a tremendous “advantage” in that respect . . . Ha!)

    Your blogs should be an inspiration to everyone to get out and just enjoy the simple things in life.

    Thanks for sharing . . . wish you a long, healthy, and enjoyable life for many more birthdays to come.

    David

    1. Thanks David! Glad to hear that you are in good health as well. You would need several blood measurements and several bp checks to concretise being borderline, as both BG and BP can fluctuate.
      Diet and exercise are indeed great for managing both, so keep it up. Also a great decision not to take any statins, which are oversold as a panacea for cholesterol “problems”, that end up doing more harm than good, as I have never believed just looking at levels indicates CVD. Particle size of LDL is more of an indicator.
      Each day of health is a blessing that deserves a lot of our gratitude! Riding around in a car exclusively is not conducive to keeping up one’s mobility as we get older, so walking is absolutely essential to keep our mobility intact.
      Fortunately city living requires that you walk in you want to eat or do anything, but I do it also for the fun of discovery. Buses and subways for really long distances only is my motto. Muscles atrophy is we don’t use them! Hugs

  2. Yes, Cherry, God willing and me wishing! I wish you a merry birthday week and past month. Thank you for the France lesson and tour which are always so enjoyable and welcome. It always feels like I’m right there with you and I appreciate that so much! Seeing the merry-go-round touched something in me. One day I will come. Things changed for me in April: one day a job, three days later no job. Life is fickle but I am doing well.

    1. Thank you Pam! God willing you will be able to visit Paris soon! There is a fair amount of permanent merry go rounds here. Perhaps the prettiest and most scenic is in front of Hotel de Ville. They touch the innocent playfulness in us, that however buried with adult’s hardship and loss still wants to come out again! Hugs

      1. I love how you put that. We will always be children at heart and some of us wear that heart on our sleeves! Tell us how the squid ink baguette tastes, would you?? Take care of yourself, Cherry!!! Yes–soon in Paris.

        1. Thank you Pam! Will take you to Gontran’s boulangerie when you are here. He was voted the sexiest baker in Paris, one of many who are very handsome!
          All of his breads are excellent and he won best Galette des Rois last year, which I wrote about trying to buy, but they were out.
          The squid ink baquette has a slight salty taste of the sea, really like encre de seiche! Hugs

  3. Cherry I’ve enjoyed reading your blog about your birthday wk.
    Apparently France has so much to offer that you can pretend to be a Tourist .
    Like your photos
    Hugs to you

    1. Thank you Isham for your kind words. Actually I think that I am a perpetual tourist! There is so much to do and discover here, that it would take more than a lifetime to cover. Anyhow, I am trying to see it all now! Hugs

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