French Cooking

Yep, PE took a cooking class in Paris. Well, I kept my wife company anyway. Here is the main dish - Sage and Walnut Stuffed Pork Loin

Start with pork loins, some nice prosciutto or other cured ham and caul fat (optional - you may not be able to get this in the US)

Lay out the caul fat and ham

Slice your pork loin lengthwise, stuff with sage leaves and chopped walnuts, wrap it in the caul fat and ham and tie it up.

Sear it in a pan

Finish it off in a 400 degree oven. We then made a sauce using the debris from the pan, carrots and cream.

Slice the loin. It was presented on a bed of ratatouille with the sauce around the side.

Paris Street Iron

I happened to be in the 16th today when I heard the whine of a sports car. t turns out that I happened to walk into a shoot by Top Gear France. They were driving a Radical RXC Turbo around the area. This car set the record at the Nurburgring for a production car. It is a street legal track car. I think the guy behind the wheel is Bruce Jouanny, a French race driver and co-host.

Mechanical Engineer Nerdiness

This is how the lower elevators on the Eiffel Tower work.

Steampunk Paris

Saw this guy and his bicycle next to Notre Dame this morning. Yes, those are candles in the headlights.....real ones.

Gates of Hell

If you see these, don't go in.

Book Review - Avenue of Spies

I have read several of Alex Kershaws books (The Liberator, The Longest Winter) and found his writing style easy to read and enjoyable. "Avenue of Spies" is about an American, Dr. Sumner Jackson from Maine,  who headed up the American Hospital in Paris during the war and was active in the resistance. He lived on Ave. Foch which is one of the main streets that end at the Arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately, when the Germans occupied Paris, the Gestapo and the Secret Police decided to commandeer buildings on this same street. His story is one of low key courage as he hid downed pilots and helped them make the "home run" back to England, treated French soldiers and helped them to disappear from the lists, kept the Germans from taking over the hospital and used his house as a message drop for the resistance.

It's a good read about a little known piece of history about the war.

Evidence of War

There are memorial plaques all over Paris. Some commemorate the people who were deported and sent to the camps and others commemorate those who fell during the liberation of Paris. Some are not even plaques at all. If you are observant you can find evidence of war everywhere. This is a picture of the outside of the Palais du Justice (Court). It is across the river from the St Michel Square and still has the bullet holes from 1944.

Invaded!

There is a street artist in Paris that goes by the name of  "Invader". His art is mosaic pieces based on the early pixel figures from the game of the same name. He puts his art on buildings, usually without permission. He calls them "invasions". He has over 1600 installations in Paris and has branched out to other cities, including Miami. Here is some of his work. The last one is probably one of his early invasions. You can see where the building as been painted and they did a poor job trying to paint around it..

Seen in Paris

My wife and i were having lunch next to La Madeleine when this came tooling by. It's called a Solowheel and I want one.

Economic Indicators

Notes from Paris.......

There is a woman who begs outside of the church of St. Louis en L'isle. We pass her almost every day and usually drop a few coins in her basket. Today my wife spoke to her and she realized that we were Americans. She then asked that we donate in dollars instead of euros. It's good to know that with the euro dropping and the current world economic concerns that the "street economists" still prefer dollars.

Head Count

Saudi Arabia played catch up last month by beheading a total of 21 murderers and druggies. Their year to date head count now stands at 121. There were so many that they had to resort to batch beheadings doing up to 5 at one session.