all of the Paris neighborhoods boast honest and competent merchants whose shops are never empty, whether they offer fresh produce like the market, or goods like bread, confectionery, cakes, cured meats or freshly prepared meals.
Les Halles may have gone and the slaughterhouses closed (both the horsemeat slaughterhouses of Vaugirard and the enormous abattoirs of La Villette) but Paris is still a world capital of fine cuisine. That people still wish to learn about it, cook it or taste it, as well as being demanding both at the market and in restaurants, is the surest sign that this status will remain for years to come.
Today, a few steps from the site of the old Halles stands the Pompidou Center.
Bread, Cheese, and Wine
The holy trinity Of French gastronomy
Once the basis of the French diet, bread—or rather breads of innumerable description—is now a mere accompaniment to food. But what an accompaniment it is! Only shops where bread is kneaded and baked on the premises may be called boulangeries, or bakeries. Parisian bakers who had at one point succumbed to the siren song of cheap, quick, industrial products, have now largely gone back to quality ingredients and traditional techniques, including sourdough, long kneading times, and baking in wood ovens.
Good bread is dense, rather heavy, and has an unmistakable smell of flour with just a zest of acidity. After years of mediocrity, the baguette, a veritable symbol of France along with camembert and the beret, and probably the most famous form of bread in the world, has once again become the object of jealously guarded attentions. Whatever the secrets of its production, a good baguette must have a crisp, golden crust, a dense crumb with irregular air holes that is creamy white, almost ivory in color.
Besides the flute (a thinner and shorter loaf) and the baguette, other popular breads include the boule de campagne au levain or sourdough loaf; the fougasse provençale, a dense, tressed bread made plain or with olives; organic whole wheat breads; rye bread with or without raisins; walnut or hazelnut breads often made from a blend of rye and wheat, and many other baked specialties. The art of choosing which type of bread to offer depends on the food served: toasted country loaves with foie gras; rye with oysters; walnut, hazelnut or raisin bread with a cheese platter. But simplest of pleasures in Paris is the baguette, hot from the oven, the crust crisp and the white inside soft and melting, eaten plain or spread with fresh butter.
Cheese is another example of extraordinary French savoir-faire. Curnonsky, between the world wars, catalogued 483 types of French cheese. By the 1960s, there were only 289. Today, with those that have resisted industrial normalization (some 200 cow's, ewe's or goat's milk cheeses), France is still the unchallenged leader in the field.
The richness of French cheese-making is rooted in geographical diversity and Paris restaurants proudly showcase them all.
From the early hours of the morning, a good Parisian bakery will offer a profusion of cakes, pastries and breads that were freshly baked during the night.
A cheese shop worthy of the name will offer a large range of perfectly ripe cheeses.
We will not discuss pasteurized cheeses here, those mass-produced dairy products sold in refrigerator cases (the surest way of destroying any semblance of taste), but of farmhouse cheeses that generations of craftsmen have made sublime. In Paris they are sold by merchants who have a real love of their profession, who age them in their cellars and sell them only in season and only when ripe. It is not a job for the faint-hearted. Some fragile cheeses have a delicate maturing process, followed by a few fleeting days of perfection and then rapid deterioration. Without any preservatives, a fresh set cheese can quickly turn sour. A scrupulous shopkeeper will discard any product that is past its prime. His reputation, the foundation of continued prosperity, will gain from what he might lose in his short-term profits.
The most famous cow's milk cheeses are the soft cheeses with a mild rind like the coulommiers from the Ile-de-France region outside Paris, brie from Meaux or camembert from Normandy. There are cured soft cheeses, often in brine, like Pont l'évêque and Livarot from Normandy or Maroilles, that was documented in the 12th century and the heart-shaped Rollot that Louis XIV loved (both from northern France). There are pressed, uncooked cheeses like Reblochon from the Alps, Saint-nectaire (best in summer and autumn) and Cantal, both from central France and described in Diderot's encyclopedia. And finally there are the pressed cooked varieties, including the famous Alpine Grayère, and Comté and Beaufort, from the region of Franche-Comté.
The Vacherin-mont-d'or from the Jura is eaten with a spoon and is available in the winter months only. Epoisses is aged with marc, spirits of Burgundy wine. Pungent Munster from Alsace is given more character with cumin seeds. Saint-marcellin from the Dauphiné melts onto its straw mat, and was much to the taste of Louis XI.
Don't overlook the delicacy of fromage frais, fresh cheese, curdled and drained, that is served as a dessert either plain, with salt and pepper, sweetened with sugar or with fruit sauces or compotes. Pick a fromage frais that is not industrial, made from whole milk and has not had air whipped into it. Faisselle from the Lyon region, topped with fresh cream, are a little taste of heaven.
Blue cheeses, cultivated with penicillium, are made from cow's milk, like the Fourme d'Ambert, or the blues from Auvergne, Causses or Gex, or from ewe's milk, like the most famous blue, the Roquefort, that Casanova claimed to be an aphrodisiac in his memoirs.
Ewe's milk cheese are generally found in the Beam like Esbareich, in Basque country like Ardigasna or in Corsica like Venaco. In Provence, there is a fresh curdled cheese, the Brousse de Rove, a cousin of Corsican Broccio.
Goat's cheeses form a large family: Cabecou from Gascony, Crottin de Chavignol, Loire Valley Sainte-maure, Valençay, Pouligny-saint-pierre, Brique de Forez, Pélardon from the Cévennes, Banon from Provence, Picodon de Dieulefit washed in white wines are but a few examples.
Wine, the crown jewel of French pride, demands, if not knowledge and experience, then at least a degree of respect. So Balzac was seen to stop a diner who was too quick to down a fine bottle "This is a wine, my friend, to be caressed with the eyes." "And then?" "Then you breathe it in." "And then?" "You put it back on the table, without touching it, piously." "And then?" "Then you talk about it."
The quality of a wine depends on its cru (the vineyard that produced it), its millésime (vintage, or year of production) and its appellation (AOC: appellation d'origine contrôlée, reserved for fine wines from a particular clearly defined area; YDQS, vin déimité de qualité supérieure, used for region wines often of excellent quality; and vin de pays, the most modest appellation, but which includes many honest products that have been elaborated with care). "Table wines" offer no guarantees whatsoever. They are often haphazard blends of the least appealing products the vines have to offer.
When it comes to tasting a wine, its age is a determining factor. Each wine has its moment of excellence, that must be waited for, but must not be exceeded. Too young, and a wine will not have had the time to develop its qualities. Too old, and these qualities will have disappeared. Other factors include opening the bottle, allowing it to breathe, its serving temperature, and perhaps decanting. If you have any doubt, ask a specialist.
France has six main wine-growing regions. Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Côtes-du-Rhône, and the
