"Ça coûte seulement un sourire"

The sign for the festival (la fête des vendanges),
hanging out under Sacre Coeur.

As I found out today at the fête de vendanges in Montmartre, having no money to spend on expensive cheeses does not stop one from being able to sample them.

Example conversation:
"Madamoiselle, est-ce que vous voulez goûter quelque chose de magnifique?"
(Miss, would you like to taste something wonderful?)
"Oui, bien sur, mais je n'ai pas de l'argent."
(Yes, of course, but I don't have money.)
"Ne vous inquietez pas, ca coûte seulement un sourire. Pour moi, ça suffit."
(Don't worry, it only costs you a smile. That is enough for me.)

Then this man handed me 8 or 9 samples of crazy expensive cheeses from pays basque. He told me he wanted to send me on a "voyage" to where he grew up. I must say, based on his cheese, he must have had a fabulous childhood.

But it wasn't just this man, many other people were happy to serve me samples of their expensive cheeses, even after (and sometimes especially after) I told them I couldn't afford it. It's almost like they got more out of watching me enjoy something that they've worked so hard on, than they would have gotten out of my euros. There's something still so magical about Montmartre, and I think this is definitely part of it.

The beginning of the line of vendors (see the pointy, white tents).

The festival today also included a section that was intentionally free to visitors. Metro, a company under the same ownership as Carrefour and Walmart, put on a series of free dégustations. You better believe I took advantage of every single tasting I could.

I started with the olive oils, which were very interesting. I didn't know that they varried so much in taste. Some of them had more of a kick than others, while some tasted quite sweet. After learning how to taste-test olive oil (which is much different than taste-testing wine), I moved on to the epices (spices) and sirops.

Some premium olive oils waiting to be tasted.

The sirops bar, unsurprisingly crowded.

In case you haven't heard, the French LOVE their sirop. It goes in almost anything, or often by itself, and comes in almost every flavor imaginable. I tired some unusal ones (like ginger, and green bananas), and some classic ones (like hazelnut, and crême de cassis).

For wines, they were offering 2 reds (a bordeaux and a cotes du rhones) and 1 white, which I sampled along side some fresh baked breads. I felt like a princess, sipping my wine on a beautiful day in Montmartre, listening to a couple sing "La Bohème" in the background.

The final dégustation was THE BEST. Metro had a professional chef come and cook up some meals, giving out tips on how to turn up the "wow" factor. I tried her risotto and nearly died. It was so delicious. Watching her tend to the risotto was like watching a mother care after her child -- she never slipped up, her spatula work was like art. I really do believe French cuisine is an artform. This was my museum.

I continued my stroll about Montmartre, checking out all the local wineries and their offerings for the day as well as the amazing cheese and sausage stands that were kind enough to offer me free samples all the time. The fruit places were very kind, too. I tried some great apples and even found some bananas at only 89 centimes the kilo (of course I had to buy 1/2 a kilo).

Local wineries pour glasses of champagne.

Tourteaux fromages that the vendors were calling, "cheesecake."

A vendor heating up some raclette.

Escargots for sale.

Some of my favorite stands were the candy shops -- I expected to see all of the gorgeous macarons and gorgeous chocolate confections, but I had no idea how beautiful the multicoloured sugar candy could be.

Gorgeously colored rope candies.

The pistachio nougat looked amazing.

A child's dream.

An adult's dream: the macaron bar

I also enjoyed the giant sized pans in which vendors were cooking everything from sausage to cheesy potatoes. I've never seen pans so huge, but the smells the omitted were unparalleled as well. If the crowd wasn't packed together like sardines, I could have just stayed there smelling these concotions for hours.


I journeyed around the butte for a while, looking at local artists as well. I really wish Jay could have been here -- it was just such a great day with such amazing food.


I returned home and decided I would stock up on some cheese (clearly I was inspired) and butter. I also got myself 12 eggs, hoping that this would supplement the other day's grocery trip sufficiently.


I adore France -- this place seems to be a permanent celebration of everything I love in life, and I can already tell it will be a hard transition back to the United States in January. Until then, I am going to soak in all the cheese this body will let me!

more photos at: http://s818.photobucket.com/albums/zz101/E_Grossman/

Total Damages this morning:
3 bananas: 53 centimes
1 huge wheel of brie: 2,92 EUR
1 stick of chevre: 1,24 EUR
1 block of butter: 1,19 EUR
12 eggs: 1,75 EUR

L'exploration de Montmartre

Today began with morning jaunt about the neighborhood. One of the fabulous things about living close to the "jewish district" is that many things are open on Sunday so long as you know where to go. After picking up my baguette at Biatrix, I took a stroll down one of these streets with many open-les-dimanches markets and took note.

A baguette and some cheese in hand, I meandered my way to the subway in hopes of beginning today's scheduled tour of Montmartre a little bit early by myself. The last time I went to Montmartre, I had gotten off at "Anvers," but my tour was scheduled to start just outside of "Lamarck-Caulaincourt" so I decided to explore that area more.

Once I arrived, I realized that this metro, while being a slightly less direct route to Sacre Coeur, was a better metro stop for Montmartre because it began already some ways up the hill. That's right, you can walk down to Sacre Coeur.

Walking around the area just about the Metro stop, I noticed some stores I wanted to visit once they reopened, as well as some beautiful homes, streets, and scenery. Montmartre is probably as close to a "village" as I've seen in Paris yet and everything really reflects that village "charm." After picnic-ing on a park bench and then returning to the metro stop, I finally met up with my group and ascended the steps to the street "villa leandre" where we caught a glimpse of what an older Montmartre might have looked like. Our guide, Natalie, informed us that Monmartre is relatively new to Paris, and prior to its inclusion, Montmartre was a little village filled with potagers and abbeys. Villa Leandre is one of the only streets left in Paris (and Montmartre) with stone laden streets and almost every building is a house (as opposed to an apartment).

At the end of the street, there is a dead end and some stairs that lead to a park on the way to the Place Dalida. The park features a statue of Saint Denis, carrying his head as legend said he did on the day of his execution all throughout Montmartre. Some say that the "martre" part of "montmartre" comes from the word "martyr."


When we exited the park, we stood on the place dalida, facing the famous bust of the beautiful singer. Continuing up (and then down) the rue de saules, you can see some of Montmartre's old agricultural history: vineyards. The abbeys sold a lot of land to people who were looking to take advantage of Monmartre's unique taxing situation: since Montmartre was virtually in Paris, but technically not subject to Paris' tax on wine, the wine business in Montmartre was very lucrative. It was so much cheaper to drink in Montmartre that many Parisians frequented the taverns in Montmartre every time they wanted to drink which, as we all know, lead to the creation of many cabarets and Montmartre's reputation as a district of illicit pleasures.

In fact, at the end this vineyard on rue de saules, one can see the only remaining Caberet in Paris: "Au Lapin Agile." Unlike many other cabarets that have since been converted into restaurants and cafés, Au Lapin Agile still maintains its regular program.

We continued our journey seeing all of Montmartre's "musts" at the "butte" (at the top of and alongside the hill that is Montmartre): the museum of Montmartre, the moulin de la galette, the old city center, the Dali museum, l'Eglise Saint Pièrre, Sacre Coeur, la bateau-lavoir, etc...



When we began to descend, we passed the théâtre de la ville, the rue des martyrs, and the deux moulins (from Amélie). At the end, we ended up at the Moulin Rouge, which in the bright daylight looks unfortunately far less glamorous and bohemian that it does in my dreams. It's even wedged in between a "Quick" (France's Mc Donalds) and a modern 3-story nightclub. If you continue your way down the street, you'll happen by the erotica museum (this used to be a red-light district, after all).


I returned home to a glass of red and a pasta with pork, corn, and basil tomato sauce. Mhmm delicious Paris.







Total damages:
Baguette: ,85 EUR

The Sketch Factor: La Drague

I am, for the most part, completely tolerant of cat-calls and things of that sort -- Especially in Paris where the catcalls consist of "t'es belle!" instead of "hey baby, nice ass." However, I draw the line when they don't stop, and get increasingly invasive. In America, I know how to deal with these wont-take-no-for-an-answer guys pretty well, but in France I have no idea what to say to them. I don't want to be rude, but at the same time, I do want them to leave me alone like all the other men who say their 2 or 3 words and continue walking. I've been pretending that I don't speak French, smile, shake my head, and walk away, but I would prefer a nice one-liner like we have in the states. "I'm sorry, I'm engaged," "I have AIDS," or even a simple, "Not interested."

So today when I left for Montmartre in an outfit that I thought was pretty cute, I didn't know what to say to the man who thought that I was pretty cute. I looked around me and noticed that I didn't look much different than the other girls on the metro, except that I was wearing very very tall shoes. So tall that when I was walking to the metro a little boy asked his mother if he could wear shoes like mine so he could be tall, too. Still, I remember seeing tons of girls in my neighborhood wearing even taller shoes, shoes that were brightly colored and would attract much more attention than my black suede closed toe heels. Maybe there is some unwritten "no heels in Montmartre" rule that I haven't figured out yet, or maybe I just got unlucky and happened to cross the path of the one sketchy guy in Montmartre.



After a gorgeous trip up and down the stairs of Sacre Coeur, I went one metro stop down to the local TATI where, as Samantha and Christelle had informed me, the prices were much more reasonable. I saw things I could actually afford! I bought 2 wine glasses (we only had 1 in the apt.) and a little hanging thing for the shower (we're girls, and we have a lot of shower products). At Monoprix, the shower stuff started at 9 EUR, but I got a large container for only 3 EUR at TATI. The pair of wine glasses was less than 5 EUR.

I finished up the afternoon with a walking trip to Monoprix and ED (in jeans and my most mundane looking shoes, of course). I picked up a quick pain au chocolat at Monoprix where they cost only ,60 EUR but are not quite as yummy as the ones at my local boulangerie. When I stopped by ED, I just intended to look around as I had at Monoprix, but then I saw that I could buy a whole kilogram of pasta for ,91 EUR and then there was the bordeaux for only 3,09 and the tomatoes... well lets just say I caved but honestly not the worst place give into temptation (did I mention the bordeaux? That wine sells for 13 EUR/ glass in many cafés around here, not that I've been looking...). My total damages at ED came to 5,53.

When Taylor came back from her weekend trip, I decided to take her for a walk along the Seine so that she could scream like a little girl the way I did yesterday. We celebrated her homecoming with dinner at a cute café right along the Seine. A prix fixe meal (I chose frites, steak and salad, and a fruit tart) with an orangina, a view of the seine, and a place to rest our tired feet came at 14,00 EUR a piece, and we even got a compliment from the chef about our French. :)

Might go out dancing later :)

Total damages thus far:

Wine glasses: 4,99 EUR
Shower container: 2,99 EUR
Pain au chocolat: ,60 EUR
1 kg spaghetti: ,91 EUR
3 vine ripened tomatoes: ,60 EUR
1 package of chunks of meat (I swear it looks delicious): ,90 EUR
bordeaux: 3,09 EUR