French Diary Day 6: Tea and Wooden Ceilings

A lovely quiet night although it felt rather eerie at first all by myself: I had to keep my ipod playing a book to keep me company until I got used to the silence!

At 6.30 I was rudely awoken by a cockerel crowing: those of you who know me or have followed this blog for a while will know how fond I am of a cockerel crowing in the early morning.  However, this was not welcome.  The previous tenants had left the alarm clock set for both that time and that particular sound.  Not happy, was I.

Could not get back to sleep knowing that guests were coming about 10.00 so got up and made a veggie soup to keep me fortified.  Then found an e-mail saying the time difference had been forgotten so no-one appearing until 11.30.  Some last minute shopping and then welcome visitors.

After tea and chat they set off about their adventures and I set off to add a further few sophistications to the flat, ie some T-towels.  Clearly I am expected to use the dish washer but for one that seems rather pointless.  Also there are not enough dishes to last the length of time it would take for me to fill it!

Despite my earlier forebodings there is a tea pot here: in fact it is a large teapot.  However, even without the excuse of needing to buy a teapot I still felt I needed an excuse to visit my favourite tea selling emporium.  So, off to the Place des Vosges to the best tea selling shop I have ever seen.   It is called Dammann Freres.

http://www.boutique-dammann.fr/?gclid=CN69vZHw-qQCFdD-2AodfC0Piw

Inside it is floor to ceiling boxes and tins of tea: Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Russian, African.

 

The location, the high, wooden, beamed ceiling and the dark interior already give a feeling of sophistication and romance as soon as you put your nose through the door. The packaging of the  tea is simple and elegant: a black square tin with subtle block letters and cinnabar colored trim around the edges which gives it pure class.

One wall comprises richly colored Chinese traditional iron teapots along with more modern glass and architectural shaped ceramic ones.

A really neat idea is a  ceramic mug with a built in strainer and ceramic cover to keep your tea hot while it steeps.

And if you are traveling and want to bring your tea with you, there’s a pretty, pastel-orange, pressed leather mini suitcase with four small tins inside to add to your luggage, along with the vanity case and hat boxes!!

In the centre of the shop is an ingenious way to sample the tea: there are  over 100 individual small cupboards which have doors you flip open, so you can sniff away freely at various varieties without having to bother the salesman to keep bringing out the canisters.

Although you can barely see it in this picture the wooden beams have all been painted beautifully: they are very faded now but the remains are still there to be seen.  A visit to the Hotel de Lully afterwards showed me exactly what this ceiling would have looked like if kept in good condition: there they have such a ceiling which has been preserved:

This ceiling is in what is now the bookshop of  the Hotel de Lully which is the Centre for National Monuments of Paris.  I could not resist buying a few books – they are wonderfully tempting.  One is a novel of all the women, low born and high born, religious and secular who have lived through the centuries in this area: another is a small illustrated book of examples of Art Nouveau in Paris: and the last is an illustrated History of Paris, with old photographs, paintings and cartoons. I also bought a Christmas present for my daughter in law!

Laden down with goodies, I made my way home, to find today’s busker underneath the arches: a man singing opera to an instrumental recording, with a tenor voice.  Only he kept changing to what sounded like a castrato (for the pedants amongst you and yes, I know you are there, I know there are no more castrati, but that is still what he sounded like when he sang falsetto, so there!) and back, it was extraordinary.  Not perhaps the greatest voice ever, but far better than most and a sight and sound not to be missed.  As he sang higher and higher, he lifted his chest, lowered his chin and straightened his back:

My friends came round and we went to the opening of new Art Gallery to which they had been invited: unfortunately the imagery was lost on me.  One of my friends who is Jewish explained that they referred to a Kabbala (not sure of the spelling) in Judaism and that the juxtaposition with Christian imagery was very provocative.

Then on to a favourite restaurant where we had a sublime meal.  I had goats cheese creamed with herbs and garlic set on stewed aubergine (eggplant) followed by wild boar braised in red wine and mushrooms with pureed root vegetables.  Absolutely divine. I cannot explain it except to say you had to be there and taste it for yourselves.   I shall take any friends who come to stay with me and who are interested in good food for a meal there.

A walk back with my friend to her house and then back again to mine, stopping for a sneaky ice cream on the way!  Now, that’s what I call a Saturday.