Shopping Day: Oops! Cancelled the Sun Came Out!

We had programmed a shopping day and not a walk today and headed over to Galleries Lafayette to shop for leggings and tights.  The sun came out and we aborted that plan after just an hour in the fabulous store.   The central area/staircase of the main store is highlighted by wonderful mosaics and stained glass.  The Arts de Table area is gorgeous, with lots of green and purple, and – before they set out place settings, they iron the tablecloths and napkins.  The sales staff were all dusting the china and crystal, polishing the cutlery, and discreetly following behind the shoppers to restore everything to proper order, properly spaced, properly folded.  Shopping in France is just so different from shopping at home where the sales staff is simply biding time until something better comes along.  Towels were organized and arranged in compatible color schemes from light to dark and perfectly spaced.  The only downside – they keep the stores way too hot.  In the Galleries Lafayette store for the home, they had curly willow, decoupaged with Sunday comics – at least they were in color. We made our way to the Seine to enjoy a walk in the sun and warm weather to Pont Neuf, Ile-St-Louis and Ile-de-la-Cite.  We grabbed lunch accompanied by a Cotes-de-Provence rose beside the Seine.  I had a tomato, chicken, and emmenthal tartine with a green salad.  Mike had a ham and cheese tartine with a green salad.  The wine was served warm – YUCK! We strolled back across the river toward our apartment, walking through the Marche Aux Fleurs, checking out the varied orchids and plants – and the holiday ornaments! We eventually stopped at a bistro for a drink, and then met up with the others at the apartment.  One of the interesting past-times is to sit by the sidewalk and people-watch.  You can see top-end elegant attire all the way down to travel pants with zip-off legs and t-shirts. Unfortunately, we set out on a shopping excursion so I failed to bring the camera and, therefore, have no photos from today to record the sights. Once home, a food shopping excursion ensued since we are having company for dinner tonight!  Mike prepared shrimp risotto topped with huge gambas (a recipe from Pinot), a green salad with vinaigrette, and I helped with tomatoes coeur de boeuf marinated with a dressing of walnuts, garlic, shallots, olive oil from France Today magazine.  Sandy and I walked to a local patesserie to pick up a strawberry gateau, almost a cheesecake with fresh strawberries and very creamy.  Wine, of course, was flowing.  We spent time with Lou and Sandy’s acquaintance, Alex, a lovely young woman who works as an assistant buyer for Dior.  We walked out on the balcony after dinner and checked out the evening scenery. Alex, lost track of time, and must have had a great time with us old fogeys, and left pretty late – considering she has to go to work tomorrow.  It was a lovely time – we are all very fortunate! Alex also clued us in why Hugo’s restaurant is busy through October 12: Next week it’s Fashion Week here in Paris; buyers, sellers, merchandisers, manufacturers and anyone related to the fashion industry will be here.  We’ll just have to save La Cordonnerie: Chez Claud and Yvette, Hugo’s kitchen, behind Eglise St-Roch on rue St-Roch for another time. As an assistant buyer for Dior, she will be working late every night, helping make decisions about what women’s shoes to include in the Dior stores in Europe and the Middle East. I decided to add the tomato recipe here, just in case I misplace the magazine! It comes from Susan Herrman Loomis, who teaches cooking classes in Normandy and Paris. Salade de Tomates Coeur de Boeuf If you can’t get beef heart tomatoes, use the best you can find.  We found Tomates Coeur de Boeuf in the street market for ours last night! The best come from Normandy and are gigantic tomatoes available at farmer’s markets sometimes into October.  Coeur de Boeuf tomatoes are fat, juicy, flavorful, gorgeous, and fragile. 1/4 cup walnuts; 1 clove garlic, peeled; 1 shallot, peeled; fine sea salt; 1 cup basil leaves; 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil; 2 pounds tomatoes, cored; freshly ground black pepper 1. Put walnuts, garlic, shallot and a large pinch of salt in a blender. Process until they become a chunky puree.  Add basil and continue until leaves are coarsely chopped or crushed – you don’t want a fine puree. Slowly add oil until it is mixed with other ingredients. Taste for seasoning, add more salt and some pepper if you’d like. 2. Cut tomatoes into thin wedges and arrange them on a shallow platter.  Pour the basil and nut mixture over them and toss gently.  Garnish with basil sprigs and let sit 15 minutes to allow juices of the tomatoes to emerge.  Serve at room temperature with plenty of bread for soaking up the juices. 4 to 6 servings Here’s the link to the original article in France Today, September 2010 issue. Tomato Time! Now for the main course, here’s a link to a recipe to Chef Pino’s Risotto with Shrimp! Chef Pino is one of the chefs who teaches at Cooking With Class cooking school in Paris – the one Mike attended a couple of years ago.

Dinner is served!