Ruth Rendell - The Water's Lovely

Enjoyable, but just a bit too "crazy" for me. A little too neat.

Doris Lessing - Time Bites

Paul's comments...
I don't like her politics but her writing and commentary are wonderful -sharp and insightful while a delight to read. Her essays show what good writing can be like. It makes me want to erase everything I ever wrote as inadequate.

Book Description
Arguably the grande dame of English letters—the list of her published works comes to 60-plus—Lessing has always been outspoken about literature, politics and social issues. The 65 essays and book reviews collected here range over those topics and others, all declaimed in Lessing's brisk, wry voice and articulated with pragmatic intelligence. Her literary reviews always amplify the book at hand; the pieces on Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy and Jane Austen resonate with fresh insight. Her enthusiastic reconsiderations of authors who are little read today, including Olive Schreiner, George Meredith, A.E. Coppard and Walter de la Mare, may pique readers' curiosity. Another obscure book, about an American prostitute, comes to light in the fascinating "The Maimie Papers." Six essays discuss the writer Idries Shah and his books about the mysteries and consolations of Sufism, which, Lessing claims, were "like a depth charge" and fulfilled all her philosophical and spiritual needs. Not every reader will be convinced. There's a tirade against Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia was Lessing's homeland) and a coruscating indictment of American complacency before 9/11. The main theme, whether addressed overtly or underlying her literary criticism, is the indispensable place of books in the life of an educated person and an enlightened culture. Hers is a clarion call

Minnette Walters - The Chameleon's Shadow

Lawrence Block - Hit Parade

A clever new genre - hitman as "hero". Keller is well drawn. Brings new meaning to the banality of evil. Really a series of short stories more than a novel.

Book description
Block's assassin, John Keller (Hit Man; Hit List), returns in these loosely linked, well-crafted vignettes of the protagonist on assignment, blithely but expertly eliminating a grab bag of targets: a philandering pro baseball player, a jockey in a fixed horse race, two women who hire him to put down a neighbor's dog, a Cuban exile and more. Manhattan-based Keller works through his agent, Dot, who assigns murders from her home just north in White Plains.Keller, a loner by temperament and trade, has an easy camaraderie with Dot. The two entrepreneurial colleagues strike a casual tone in conversation—but they're discussing death (sometimes in gory detail). With dry wit, Block tracks the pursuits of the morally ambiguous Keller, who hunts rare, pricey stamps for his extensive collection when he's not "taking care of business." Four-time Shamus- and Edgar-winner Block has the reader queasily rooting for the killer as well as the victims, unsettling the usual point of identification and assumptions about right and wrong

Dennis Lehane - Darness, Take My Hand

Pretty good, but the heavy focus on Boston neighborhoods is off-putting for a NYer.

Book description
In his outstanding second novel, Lehane (whose debut, A Drink Before the War, won a Shamus award) explores horror close to home. Boston PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro agree to help psychiatrist Diandra Warren. Her patient, using the name Moira Kenzie, has said she was abused by Kevin Hurlihy, a sociopathic Irish Mafia henchman who grew up in Angie and Patrick's neighborhood. Hurlihy may have threatened the doctor, who fears that her son, Jason, may be in danger. While Patrick and Angela shadow Jason, another former neighbor, Kara Rider, is found crucified. Sensing a connection, Patrick seeks out a retired cop turned saloonkeeper who recalls a hushed-up crucifixion murder in the neighborhood 20 years ago. The suspect in that killing is in prison, so he can't be murdering again, can he? As Patrick probes painful memories, he faces losing the woman he loves, Grace Cole, who is appalled at the brutality invading their lives. By the time Patrick and Angie realize how the murders relate to their own youth, they are the next targets. The showdown is unpredictable, like the New England autumn which, in Lehane's depiction, is informed by a wind "so chilly and mean it seemed the exhalation of a Puritan god." The story is densely peopled with multidimensional characters; there are no forgettable, walk-on roles on Lehane's stage. Lehane's voice, original, haunting and straight from the heart, places him among that top rank of stylists who enrich the modern mystery novel

Postcards from Paris, another first!

One of the things that has really improved since I first came to Paris in the 70's is the public bathrooms. Back then, 'pissoirs', outdoor urinals, were the preferred venue for Parisian men (I don't know what women did). They were large, round, dark green, steel contraptions not unlike the familiar round advertising locations common now, only larger. Men (up to 10 at a time) would enter and pee against the center wall and it would drain to the sewer. Bathrooms in Cafes were co-ed and featured urinals along one wall and commodes along the other for men and women. Less elegant locations would have neither urinals nor toilets, but rather co-ed 'squatters 'with two raised footprints in the center of a tiled drain.

Today, public bathrooms in Paris are a joy, located in every cafe, restaurant and public facility. There are also high-tech pay toilets located on busy streets. These are well designed commodes that self-clean and disinfect after every use. There's also a mechanism which causes the doors to fly open after a respectable time period. They've been in use for about 5 years and NYC recently agreed to purchase a number of them for use in Manhattan.

As one of his first initiatives, the new Mayor of Paris made all city museums and pay toilets free of charge. This does not include the major museums that are national. To date, we had enjoyed the free museums, but not the toilets. I'm happy to report that they are not to be shunned

- they are clean and well equipped with toilet paper, towels and running water. This is probably more then you ever wanted to know about this topic, but suffice it to say that any remaining hesitations about coming to Paris should now be eliminated.

Postcards from Paris #3

We're eating at home tonight after visiting a great exhibition at the Centre Pompidou all about the sculptor and painter "Giacometti". It was wonderful with over 100 pieces of work beginning with his earliest painting at age 15. You'll recongnize him as the artist who did "Walking Man"--tall skinny sculpted figures that have a 'pinched' look to them. It was particularly interesting as we thought his work was familiar to us but found he had evolved significantlym over the years. He had even been briefly part of the Surrealists, but they threw him out after a few years for unspecified reasons - maybe his work was understandable!

Walking home along rue Rambuteau, we picked out goodies for the evening meal which included stuffed bread and little calimari from an Italians place, pate and some cold salads from the French place and then of course there was the usual cheese, wine and chocolate to round things off!

Yum, wish you were here, Chris and Paul

A Postcard from Paris

A postcard from Paris . . .

I took a French cooking class with Scott and Jory/ We enjoyed experimenting with new ingredients we bought at a local market. The result, at the end of a morning in the kitchen with 'chef Eric,' was a sumptuous lunch of sauteed shrimp on ratatouille and winter veal stew. We finished with cheese and a molten chocolate cake (served with a "surprise" sauce of banana and avocado). All were served with the appropriate wine. All in all a fine morning! Paul was happy to be invited to share the meal even though he did not participate in the preparation.

Wish you all could have been there,

Postcards from Paris

Postcards from Paris: An Unusual Visitation. . .

Christina and Christine went to visit Pere Lachaise Cemetery this week where the line-up of illustrious corpses date back to the 1700's! Here lie Proust, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and almost anyone French, talented and DEAD that you can think of. They don't discriminate against creed or nationality but space is now at a premium, in fact since 2003 they have introduced 10, 30, and 50 year leases. If you have an existing lease, it buys you about a century and those in 'perpetuelles' may stay until abandoned. Of the one million originally buried here, approximately 200 thousand remain--now that's a lot of souls!

The grounds are beautiful, and you need a minimum of half a day here. Here's just a little snap shot of some of the gravestones we found interesting.

Ooh la la

We have never visited Reims, the Champagne region, just outside of Paris. So we decided that it would be a perfect trip to take when Scott and Jory joined us in Paris this year. Several people had recommended a particular chateau that offered a one day, all inclusive lunch with a champagne tasting menu and a visit to Veuve Cliquot, our favourite 'cave'. Sounds perfect--right????

The day started badly... We had to leave the house at 8:30 am to catch the train. That was aggressive planning on Chris's part since Scott and Jory were still somewhat jet-lagged and not not stirring before noon. I'm normally grumpy about doing anything before I've read the paper. The short train ride put us in Reims at about 9:45 am, giving us what Chris said, would be enough time to explore the city before the designated pick-up by the Chateau. I had been thinking about our visit to Burgundy and the lovely little towns like St. Emilion that we enjoyed so much. Unfortunately, Reims is more New Haven than St. Emilion. As we headed out from the station, Chris was looking for the Cathedral, I was looking for a nice Cafe or tea house for breakfast; Scott and Jory were just groggily following along -- we were hopeful! Quel domage! We were too cold to walk all the way to the cathedral and didn't have enough time to visit the town and still satisfy the need for coffee so..... we stopped at the least offensive place and managed to get warm and raise our blood sugar enough to head back to the station for our designated pick-up.

Eh bien, at the station, with no pick-up in sight there was a certain degree of anxiety. Chris began her efforts to call the Chateau while Scott was looking at the timetable to see the earliest he could get back to Paris - not a good sign! I was thinking about the Rolls Royce that the hotel in Hong Kong had sent to pick us up. Forty-five minutes later with still no car in sight, there was some brief talk about lynching our travel arranger (Chris). Instead we took a cab to the chateau.

As we pulled into the drive, things began to look up. The chateau was lovely. In the garden room the mood quickly changed with our first glass of champagne and a discussion of the menu.

The menu was too complicated and required too many decisions so Scott suggested they just "surprise us". There were four courses. All had a champagne accompaniment except dessert (according to Veuve Cliquot, you "don't drink champagne with chocolate"). Each course had a dominant theme but was broken into 4 or 5 flights, each one presented separately in a dish or cup or bowl or goblet. I couldn't begin to describe them all so I'll just stick to the basic theme. Assume that fresh truffles, foie gras and seasonal mushrooms were

abundant.

Aperitif

1998 Veuve Cliquot Brut

Assorted nuts, flat breads, olives, salmon cake and faux french fries made from whipped potatoes. Not to mention the little glass of deviled egg that was outrageous.

The 'amuse bouche' was a little ball filled with warm champagne, presented atop the neck of a cut champagne bottle. We were told to pop the entire thing in our mouth because there would be a burst of liquid--a surprise!

Fish Course

2002 Veuve Cliquot Rose

Salmon tartare et al for the ladies

Scallops et al for the men.

Meat Course

1999 Veuve Cliquot Brut

Veal for the women on a bed of crisp veggies

Chicken rolled in truffles for the men (Bresse, of course - it is the most prized chicken in France where the markets carry, at least, Cock or Hen for 'traditional', 'farm raised' and 'Bresse') .

Dessert Course

Believe it or not, this was the course where they really outdid themselves. It came in three waves, each having 3-5 components. The first wave was a light puff pastry with cream and fresh raspberries, Next came the chocolate sensations: molten cake, mousse, puddings and ices. The third wave was delivered on a cart, like a cheese selection! At this point we all groaned--it all looked so good and was one of the most interestingly presented carts (Sheila-we were thinking of you!) We declined all but the smallest of tastes.

Coffee course

Served back in the garden room with brandies and chocolate truffles. We could barely finish the coffee--just wanting to be left alone to sleep it off. But no!!! There was more to come. We couldn't believe we were heading off to the caves and MORE CHAMPAGNE!

Our private tour with Fanny as guide, made this a truly deluxe experience. We went through the museum, which had a fascinating discussion of champagne forgery over the years and then went down into the chalk caves to look at the wine. It was interesting to hear about the process and the stories and innovations of Mme Cliquot. There were bottles that dated back almost 100 years. Back in the tasting room, they opened three bottles, all vintage a Brut, a Sec (slightly sweeter) and the flagship of the brand La Grande Dame (at least $150 a bottle retail). They were delicious but we were probably a little over-champagned by that point and not as appreciative as we might have been before lunch. Each couple was sent off with a bottle of the non-vintage Brut and a book of the history of Veuve Cliquot and an invitation to return.

The train ride home was quiet with all of us wishing that we could have gone back to the that lovely garden room for a nap. What an experience!

Paris Notes: 2

The past week and a half has been filled with friends and visitors. It's great to have visitors when we're in Paris, because it brings a new rhythm to our days and it's fun to share the experience with others. So far, it's been really great--highlights include:

• An invitation to the home of a French couple who call Paris their home. Their warm welcome and willingness to put up with my less then perfect French won't be forgotten.


• Participation in "Nuit Blanche" with friends Narissa and Tony. Without them we would probably never have gone Cafe hopping to watch the final minutes of the Rugby match between France and New Zealand (France won) nor gone walking at the Tuilleries which were lit up with hundreds of open torches, and burning sculptures.


• Spending time with Scott and Jory eating great food, touring Champagne country and going to a cooking class.

Paris Notes

This is the fifth year we've come to Paris since we retired. We thought we'd share some observations at the end of the 2nd week...

We still love Paris.

• On average, we walk about 5 miles a day (based on Chris' pedometer). Paris is an outdoors city where people are on the street, walking, bicycling and cafe-ing . Sometimes the whole city feels like Central Park on a Fall weekend. On every corner there are one or more terraces open all year long with large gas heaters for the colder weather. The good ones are full all year. It may be the small, dark apartments but people don't seem to entertain at home; instead congregating in the cafes and Bistros around town where you can meet friends or simply spend the day people-watching. New York is trying to increase the number of sidewalk cafes but the city just isn't set up that way. Paris has a "Place" every hundred yards - hell on traffic, but wonderful for sitting around.
  
• There are more museums in Paris than in New York - there seems to be a museum to celebrate everyone and everything, but on the whole we prefer the ones we have in New York. They're more people-friendly and less crowded; one seldom finds a line to get in. On the other hand, the Musee d'Orsay may be the best all around museum I've ever been to, based on content and its manageable size.
  
• Everybody has a dog and they seem to be welcome most places. The stoop and scoop law is often ignored, so it's imperative to keep at least one eye on where you're walking!
  
  
  

Staying on our diet is very difficult!

• we love bread and cheese
  
• salad is hard to find
  
• the ice cream and gelato shops are along our daily route--we sometimes choose to miss a meal so we can indulge
  
• It sometimes feels like we walk from cafe to bakery to creperie to gelato shop to chocolate shops. Every one having a favorite that is calling to us.
  

The Euro is strong, the Dollar is WEAK!

• especially painful with the cost of restaurants. It can cost $50 for salad and club soda for two at a cafe and $600 for two at a nice (1 star) restaurant.
  

Chris is frustrated learning the language

• She spends hours every day doing "homework" and in a conversation group
  
• She talks to every cab driver, dog owner and waiter we see.
  
• She is making progress despite what she thinks
  

To be continued...

It's All About the Food!

Part of the fun in coming to Paris each year is not only the street markets, but also some of the most wonderful specialty stores that carry the foods we've come to enjoy and sometimes can't find in the same abundance at home. In New York we have places like Zabar's and Citarella that have beautiful selections of food, but here food is a living thing. Everything has a story, where it was made (or grown) and by who, how it was made. Our local cheese store has a dozen types of Tomme cheese - Cow, goat and sheep; mountain or valley, raw or pasteurized; and the producer. Every one of these decisions is passionately debated by the customers. I didn't know I could feel so inadequate. Last year we "discovered" a new store near the Madelaine called Hediards (it's a little bit like "discovering" the Bergdorf's of food unknown only to us). Paul is poised in the section devoted to 'drink' and from the smile on his face you'd think that he'd sampled extensively--NOT! This, like the food halls at Galleries Lafayette and Bon Marche that are chock full of top quality products both from France and afar. In the area where thay sell prepared foods there are series of vendors that also serve every imaginable food to be eaten there - for example, Petrossian serves caviar and salmon to be eaten right at the counter. We've also noticed more and more imports, probably to satisfy the palates of the many travellers from Europe, Asia and the US.

Each department here has products so tempting and beautifully displayed that it's pretty difficult to leave without something. We left with the cutest little dried sausages in a jar, incredible strawberries (here bigger is NOT better) and reasonably priced bottles of Cote du Rhone. We managed to march right past the pastry counter!
Hediards 2007