Musings about Paris: French Fridays with Dorie

Eiffel Tower 2008

“One night in Paris is like a year in any other place...” the band 10cc said. 

This couldn’t be more true. Paris is a touchstone city for me.. I find returning there marks the beginning or end of many chapters of my life.

 I first went to Paris when I was 14 years old. My grandmother had left me some money “for education”. My oldest sister was planning to spend the summer in Europe with her money. My mother thought it would be good if I went along, to watch out for her, she was 25.  My mother fully supported us using our money from her mother to go abroad. She believed:“Europe is an Education.” 

This trip profoundly influenced me. Being exposed to so many cultures at an impressionable age shaped me into being a tolerant person. I realized that there isn’t a right way to do anything... that every culture has a different way of approaching religion, politics, governing, social interaction, etc...

I returned to Paris in 1986 with my best friend from high school. We were college students on Spring Break. We celebrated her birthday with Dom Perignon served in a top hat, we went to discotheques and strolled the Champs-Élysées . Young woman on the verge of adulthood with the world before us...

Me Paris 1986

When I turned 30 I returned to Paris with my sister on our way back from Istanbul. We befriended a French woman while we were there, a teacher. She loved Americans because as she said,

“If the room is stuffy you open a window... you don’t feel the need to ask. You just look at, and do things with a fresh perspective.” 

Me in Paris 1994

I was on the verge of starting my teaching career, along with getting married, and having my first child a few years later. It was insightful for me to hear from someone outside of my culture that American education and the way we teach innovation and risk taking is respected.

My last trip to Paris was 4 years ago. My mom and I went to celebrate her 80th birthday. She had lived in Germany when my father was in the Army but she had never been to Paris. 

“I can’t die and never have been to Paris.” 

My mom and I having tea with two friends from the tour 2008.

I had to agree. Well she is still kicking, and we both have fond memories of visiting the Eiffel Tower and eating an amazing beef stew in a tiny little restaurant in Montparnasse. We stayed at the Intercontinental a very luxurious hotel... my, I have come a long way from the time I stayed in a dive in Pigalle which I think was called “The Henry VIII.” You had to pay 2 Francs for a shower.

Why am I rambling on about Paris... well I have been reading the new cookbook by 

Dori Greenspan,“Around My French Table” 

as if it was a biography, and it is... it is a food biography of how Paris and France and the food of this country has influenced and shaped her life.

I joined a blogging group that is cooking through this remarkable book of French home recipes; you might be interested in checking it out. I hope you will enjoy a little taste of Paris.

I advocate traditional cooking and this book is very much about the traditional and modern updates of many classic French dishes. I will be remarking every Friday about the recipe of the week.

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