Paris at the dawn of the 20th century

In 1900, Paris entered a new era of mobility with the inauguration of the Paris Metro that has become the symbol of the city.

Hector Guimard crowned the iconic metro entrances with his organic, curvilinear forms that epitomised Art Nouveau - an art movement that peaked in popularity throughout Europe at the turn of the last century. There are many fine examples of architecture in this style, notably by Victor Horta in Brussel and Antonio Gaudi in Barcelona.

Cast-iron balustrade decorated in botanic motifs

The last vestiges of Art Nouveau in Paris are probably best preserved in Musee Carnavalet.  Czech artist Alphonse Mucha's design for the Fouquet jewellery shop in Paris in 1900 was reassembled here after its removal from the original site. Also of interest is an interior designed by Guimard.

Mucha's Art Nouveau design was also popularised by Liberty & Co in London

In Germany, the decorative style of Art Nouveau is termed Jugenstil

Guimard's sinuous forms in a domestic setting

One of the most interesting aspects of Art Nouveau is the philosophy behind it.  Art should be a way of life.  The movement was a reaction against all things classical and aimed to break down the barriers between fine arts and applied arts.  The fact that everyday objects could be a work of art in the 1900s underlines a new way of thinking in modern society and the changing attitude towards the nature of art.   

It seems least surprising that in 1917 avant-garde artist, Marcel Duchamp, created his most prominent work, Fountain, out of a urinal.  It was Dadaism but it also raised important questions about the concept of art that even artists of today are still trying to address.

Guess where the famous LV graphics had come from?

For those who own an LV bag, I would imagine the likelihood of them knowing the origin of the famous quatrefoil and flower pattern is pretty slim.  In the latter half of the 1850s, the soaring success of Louis Vuitton's innovative flat-top trunks using waterproof and lightweight canvas had led to widespread imitations.  To combat the copycats, a uniquely different design had to be adopted.  Before that, their luxury trunks looked more functional than stylish.

By the end of the 19th century, Vuitton launched and patented the signature LV monogram canvas that featured the graphic symbols of quatrefoil and flower that were inspired by Japanese and Oriental designs.  The rest is history. In a 2010 study, Louis Vuitton and the LV monogram is the world's 29th most valuable brands.

Over the years, Louis Vuitton and his family have worked with numerous royalties and celebrities of their time.  The majority of their commissions were one-off designs tailored to specific needs of their clients, like the foldable day bed and the bureau.

A travelling folding bed that fits in a trunk

An office on the move

The romantic notion of travelling on a hot-air balloon, like the ill-fated Lindbergh, across the Atlantic Ocean gives you an idea of how aristocratic the whole business of travelling could be in those days.  No expense was spared to make sure the experience would make perfectly good dinner conversations over a glass of champagne.

The stained glass that decorated the original shop on rue Scribe, Paris. Circa 1900s.

Little joint along the River Seine

My craving for a decent 'savoury-only' lunch has been escalating to the point that it is now unstoppable. Luckily the weekend is full of possibilities as most restaurants are open and I got lucky by ringing Le Reminet at 11:30 to make a reservation for lunch on the same day.

I was initially a bit skeptical about this bistro due to its close proximity to the Notre Dame Cathedral, but on my friend's recommendation, I was willing to give it a try. The decor was classy and the food were well-executed with a contemporary twist in its presentation.

The 3-course lunch menu written on a chalkboard is quite a steal for 18 euros.

Smoked salmon with endives and apples

Ham steak with mashed potato

Cheese Platter

Apart from the main course which was the ham steak that I thought was over seasoned, both the starter and the cheese course were delicious and presented with a flair.

Then, what came immediately after lunch could easily be the highlight of my day out. I wandered off to Berthillon, my favourite ice-cream shop and had a scoop of raspberry sorbet infused with rose petals.  And it was the best sorbet I have ever had in my life!  This was bliss.

Who moved my macaron?

In a country that is obsessed with macarons, I am still amazed to see how Parisiens and tourists alike are queuing up in front of Laduree and Pierre Herme for their share of those precious, jewel-like almond meringues.

Pierre Herme store on rue Bonaparte on a rainy evening

No doubt they are very appealing visually, but some people think they are too sweet, me included.  I have tried making them myself by using less sugar but tweaking the proportion of sugar content in this recipe can be tricky.

The Paris macaron, as we know it today, is the creation of Laduree. Filled with a layer of ganache, buttercream, or jam and sandwiched between two almond meringue cookies, macarons have travelled far and wide in their popularity.  In Paris, perhaps the only serious competition for Laduree is Pierre Herme, whose outlets can be found in all the posh department stores. Trained at Lenotre and worked in Fauchon before he started out on his own, his constant innovations in blending new flavours and colours to stunning effects are absolute crowd pleasers!

So which one is better, Laduree or Pierre Herme? There is no question that both macarons are exceptionally airy, moist and melt instantly in your mouth. It really comes down to a matter of flavour.  For purists, probably Laduree will be your choice.  For the more adventurous, Pierre Herme's range is more exotic and varied! Try both and decide for yourself which one you prefer. My verdict is still undecided at this point...

Bouchon Abel, depuis 1928

Bouchons in Lyon pride themselves in serving traditional fares from their mother's table.  There is nothing fancy in terms of presentation.  Just rustic, down-to-earth recipes that have been passed down from generations of home cooking.

Bouchons are ubiquitous in Lyon especially in the Old Town and it is easy to end up in a tourist trap. Cafe Comptoir Abel was mentioned in Lebovitz's review, so I thought I would give it a try.

As though it was frozen in time, Abel is one of the those places that exudes nostalgia and charm. The menu chalkboard shows some interesting dishes, if not entirely catered to the English or American tastes.  Tripes and blood sausage, for example, are standard choices. 

The set lunch menu offers a sample of local cuisine like their Lyonnaise salads and creamed chicken - hearty and delicious. 

Salade Lyonnaise

Chicken with Supreme sauce and rice

Chocolate cake with vanilla sauce

And the Winner of the World Cup of Pastry is...SPAIN!

I was not exactly keen on attending a trade show for the catering industry until I realised the World Pastry Cup would also be held at the same event.  Two hours on the TGV to Lyon was not going to deter me from getting a piece of the action in Le Coupe de Monde de la Patisserie.  19 national teams competed for the coveted title over two days.

In ten hours, the trio teams had to churn out three chocolate desserts, three frozen fruit desserts, an ice sculpture, a chocolate sculpture, a drawn-sugar sculpture, plus a dessert on a plate which would then be tasted by a panel of judges.  Ten hours might seem a long time, but it was a gruelling race against time. The skills and creativity seen here demonstrates the best trends of the moment in pastry, chocolate and ice-cream making.

Outside of the contest, the trade show was equally fascinating in many areas.  Everywhere I turned, there was something delectable that caught the eye.

The best-known patissiers show off their handmade delicacies.

The creative use of macarons

Cakes by the slab

From the largest industrial catering equipment to the tiniest chemicals for molecular cuisine and in fact, anything else in between can be found in this bi-annual international event.  For a food professional looking for new ideas, this is heaven!

Lecitina de soja is the foamy stuff on your sauce.

These look like hair accessories more than they do chocolates.

I suppose there are few places more fitting to host this event than Lyon, the food capital of France.  Lyonnaise cuisine is typically served in bistros called bouchons that specialise in boudin noir, foie gras and dishes from your mother's cooking.

Louise Bourgeois's homage to Eugenie Grandet

The last time I saw Louise Bourgeois's work at Tate Modern, her retrospective exhibition left me with a lasting impressive of an extraordinary woman artist who had lived through all the avant-garde artistic movements in the 20th century and yet her work had defied tradition and remained individual, inventive and experimental.

Her monumental spider sculpture Maman and what are being shown at the confined space of Maison de Balzac cannot be more different in terms of the scale and approach.  Bourgeois's series of work for this show were dedicated to Eugenie Grandet, the heroine from the 1833 novel by Honore de Balzac who lived under the tyranny of her father and died a spinster.   

Ode to Eugenie Grandet

Portrait of Eugenie Grandet 

Bourgeois, who had a complex relationship with her own father, openly identified with Grandet.  As if to convey the frustration of a woman from realising her own identity, the works leaned towards handicraft - needlework and embroidery that symbolise the feminine role in the society.

The mundane, repetitive routine of Grandet's futile existence is seen through the clock - an element which appears in many of the works shown here.

This is one of the last series of work that Bourgeois made before she died at the age of 98 in 2010.  Her oeuvre includes sculptures and installations on the grandest scale.  Perhaps it was time she felt the need to return to a more intimate level through exploring the life of Eugenie Grandet that paralleled her own. 

  

Beware of caramel!

Coming from a cuisine background, patissiere just seems much more calm, cool and collected.  I was foolish enough to be sloppy in handling caramel and ended up with a burn - the first of many accidents to follow no doubt if I fail to pay respect to what I am doing.

Saint Honore is quite a beautiful cake only if you have mastered some basic French pastry techniques - the pate sucree, pate a choux, creme chantilly, caramel and piping PLUS a big appetite for fresh cream.

Chen Zhen shows at Musee Guimet

The Cradle, 1995

When Chinese diaspora Chen Zhen from Shanghai first arrived in the Paris art scene in the mid 1980s, he took it as a compliment when the French press commented on his work as being "indicative of something incomprehensible."  It is true for most contemporary Chinese artists from his generation, they do not address problems head on.  They speak through allusions, evocations and metaphors.  This artistic language obviously had contributed to Chen's success in France and internationally.

He left behind a sizeable body of work when he passed away in 2000 at the age of 45.  Ten years on, I think his legacy still lives as he is the first artist chosen to show at Musee Guimet, a museum not known for featuring contemporary art, alongside its permanent collection of oriental art. The five works shown included The Cradle that refers to the permanence of the cycle of life.  Presented in the rotunda was the high-profile Round Table which symbolises the ideal human order of mutual respect, equality and multi-culturism.

Round Table, 1995

Chen's other works form an interesting dialogue, both formal and spiritual, with those objects in the dimly-lit Chinese gallery. Stele / The Coffin is one of his early works from the 80s. The Hibernation / Wandering and Altar 9 are from 1993 and 1994. The play of words and texts as well as typewriters and keyboards as media through which meaning is created, is evident in these works.   

Interestingly, his contemporaries in Mainland China at that time were also fervently exploring the complex relationship of the Chinese text and the production of cultural meaning. In the context of the significance of the written words during the Cultural Revolution, it seems likely that Chan was questioning the very nature of language.  Some texts are immortalised and preserved like those inscribed on ancient Chinese steles, while others are being relegated to everyday consumption.

Stele / The Coffin, 1989

 The Hibernation / Wandering

Altar 9, 1993

Is great food only to be had in Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris?

Judging from all the foreign patronage received at the top restaurants in Paris, I began to wonder if the French are equally keen to splurge on meals worth 300 euros, wine excluded.  Of course, then the question is where do ordinary French people eat?  

* Starter *

Soupe de legume

Terrine of Foie Gras

* Plats *

Confit de Canard Pomme Sarladaise

Grilled pork with homemade egg pasta

* Dessert *

Tarte Tatin

Caramelised apples with vanilla ice cream

Who would have guessed all these mouthwatering dishes came from a cosy little bistro with only 20 seats on the Ile St Louis? More incredible is that it is a fix-price lunch menu that costs 16 euro!  I have yet to find another place in Paris that provides better value for money than this one. Voila! Mystery solved.  Ordinary French people eats in brasseries and bistros like this one. Wrong! On the day of my visit, there were two other tables of Putonghua-speaking Chinese and no French.  These days, we are just about everywhere!

As if all these were not enough for one meal, Berthillon is just around the corner. Their ice-creams are simply divine. Shame that all I could manage was a tiny scoop of sorbet to satisfy my craving.

Delightful les cocottes in the 7th arrondissement

Reservation for restaurants in Paris is almost essential if not compulsory even for the smallest of places.  So Les Cocottes de Constant seems like the perfect choice for impromptu dining as it operates on a first come first served basis.  The hip, informal and cosy atmosphere is fitting for the cocottes that this modern eatery is famous for.  The new twist on such classic dishes as stuffed pig's feet and potatoes and beef bourguigone are unmistakably versions from the 2010s.

Pig's feet with potatoes

Jerusalem artichoke with white truffle oil

Beef Bourguignon

Les Cocettes is one of the three Christian Constant creations after his long career as the executive chef for the 2-star Michelin Les Ambassadeurs at Le Crillon Hotel.  Here, the simplicity of the food only accentuates the quality of the ingredients and that is what I love about it.  I can't wait to check out his other two restaurants, Violon d'ingres and Cafe Constant, on the same street at Rue Saint Dominique.

A lesson for the New Year - be vigilant!

What did I do on New Year's Day?  As a house guest, I just had to go along with what the host proposed. As though the feast from the night before was not damaging enough for my arteries, I woke up to another round of gorging just eight hours later!  The French are not big on breakfast and usually a croissant or a piece of bread with coffee is ample for them. Today was exceptional. In addition to croissant, bread, apple compote, home-made marmalade and coffee, Joelle even baked a cake called Far that had originated from Brittany.  It reminded me of the English bread and butter pudding but the French version comes with prunes, a chewy texture and tastes better.

Far originates from Brittany

The sumptuous breakfast left me feeling sleepy again but I realised it was time to leave.  As I stepped outside of the building, there it was - debris of some vandalised vehicles and a signpost lying just around the street corner.  I then quickly slipped my iphone securely inside my bag and zipped it up.  It had been recently reported in the news that two women was killed in a robbery involving mobile phones.  The lesson for the new year is to stay vigilant.  It is better to be safe than sorry.