Shake it

During my trip to the US last week I went to New York and finally got to eat at what is reputed to be one of the best burger bars in America. I was not disappointed. I heard about the Shake Shack from the Heston Blumenthal series 'in search of perfection' where the chef takes a single classic food each episode and tries to make the best possible example. He visited the Shake Shack as part of the programme. The shack itself is a medium-sized hut in the corner of Madison Square Park, just opposite the flatiron building. There's nowhere to eat inside, but there are folding tables in the park reserved for customers. The queue is long - everything is cooked to order and we had to wait about half an hour to get our burgers on a sunday evening around 9pm. You can get a hamburger, cheeseburger or 'shack burger' which is just a cheeseburger with the house sauce. I had the shack burger, and it was indeed perhaps the finest burger I have ever eaten. The main difference is the quality of the meat. They use some blend of sirloin, chuck steak and brisket, freshly ground every day. You also get a crisp boston lettuce, slices of ripe roma tomato and a toasted potato flour bun which is lightly buttered just before toasting to give a slight sweetness. I took a plate of trans-fat free fries (big deal in NY) and a pint of the house draft, the bill was just over $12.

Le metro

awesome. Relais de la poste closed but discovered my nearest cafe, Le Metro, has wifi. Am now working comfortable with coffee and watching murray finish off ferrero - perfect.

Chaleur

Decided it's too hot to go on the RER so am working in local library. However it's almost as hot in here. The open windows are just letting in hot polluted air (Paris officially has elevated pollution levels today, and you can tell if you ride a Velib around. There are signs asking drivers to drive gently and mentioning mandatory pollution controls for old vehicles - I have seen no evidence of either phenomenon)

May decamp to Relais de la poste to see if it's any cooler there.

a guy has just come in to negotiate a repas for himself and nine mates to celebrate the end of the university year on thursday night. He sat down with the patron and they worked out a menu, essentially he's offering his lunchtime deal but in the evening, with a couple of additional things on the menu, in particular the steak tartare since he expects it to be hot thursday. But now the guy has gone promising to call tomorrow to confirm, and the patron's wife is giving him a hard time. 'The tartare? but that's expensive!'. The patron's theory is that they'll drink a lot of wine, have aperitifs, maybe digestifs, and that way they'll make some money.. his wife remains unconvinced.

'what wine are they going to take?'
'buh.. we said some beaujolais rosé, I said they could have 4 bottles for 50 euros'
'I don't know..'
'50 euros plus 150 for the food, that makes 200 euros!'
'Bon.. c'est bien'

Le relais de la poste

There are water works in our impasse, very noisy, so I've come to work in the relais de la poste opposite the post office. Free wifi and wimbledon on the TV, quite distracting. Referring to the picture below, i'm sitting in the window, bottom left, just next to the barrel.


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The word on the streets

When I go to the market at boulevard Richard-Lenoir on Sundays, I usually call in for coffee at the bar du marché. In these times of ongoing financial crisis, riots on the streets of Iran, etc., what are the topics of import being discussed at the zinc? 1) why is the renault car not doing better, when the Red Bulls are in positions 1 and 3 on the grid (for Silverstone today) and they use the same engine? This is the cause of much vexation. Subject 2) what is the size of a beer glass in Italy? It was contended that a small beer in Italy is typically 20cl, while a normal beer is 40cl. I could have provided some expert comment on this but obviously someone with the actual answers is superfluous to a discussion like this.

ESORICS

I've had a couple of papers accepted to the conference ESORICS in S Malo in September. This is good news because (in no particular order) it's good to publish papers (my boss says so), one of the papers is the first major publication for which I did all the work in French (it's written in English of course..), and Sam's mum's birthday in Jersey is just afterwards so I can go by boat to the party..

bibliotheque

I decided to staty at home today to avoid another RER B strike (which seems to have been pretty weak in the end). So I'm working in the local public library, Bibliotheque Faidherbe. It's not bad, good wifi, a bit noisy. Parisian universities typically don't provide their students with a great deal of work space, and everyone lives in tiny flats, so the libraries are full of students, especially as its exam/dissertation season.

Also, in an intersting piece of architectural design, this library is on the ground floor of a building wtih an 'ecole maternelle' (i.e. a nursery) on the first floor, so you can hear kids running around upstairs. Thump thump thum scream. Hopefully they'll go home soon.

Notes des frais

Seen in le monde:

Ce qui est drôle, avec ce scandale des notes de frais, c’est qu’on a
le même chaque semaine dans le Canard (sinon pire).

le Canard being the French Private Eye style newspaper, which every week reveals French MPs doing even more crooked things than the UK MPS, to a collective gallic shrug from the general population who go back to fiddling their tax returns.

and in the Economist:

Gloom for Britain’s Labour government became outright humiliation when the party was pushed into third place by the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which advocates withdrawal from the European Union. UKIP was a big beneficiary of British voter rage at an expenses scandal that has left the British Parliament reeling. This is ironic, given that of the 12 UKIP members of the European Parliament elected in 2004, one was later jailed for fraud and a second is now facing trial for money laundering and false accounting.

The hard life of a French researcher

Our lab has its 'away days' or team bonding trip next week monday->wednesday. It's in a country hotel in Troyes. We've just received the menu:

Déjeuner: Terrine de truite aux amandes - Sauté de volaille, sauce au
cidre d'Othe - Craquant aux 3 chocolats

Diner: Méli-mélo de crudités de saison - Pavé de saumon au jus de
ciboulette - Dacquoise aux pommes fondantes et miel de Géraudot.

Déjeuner: Bavarois d'écrevisses et coulis de tomates fraîches - Cuisse
de lapin à la moutarde de Meaux - Charlotte aux biscuits de Reims et
fruits de saison.

Diner: Gougère tiède farcie à la poêlée de légumes au basilic et
chaource - Tajine d'agneau de l'Aube aux courgettes - Fondant au
chocolat, glace au nougat et tuiles aux amandes.

Déjeuner: Vol au vent de volaille aux champignons de Paris - Couronne de limande
aux écrevisses et tomates confites - Poire pochée au cidre d'Othe.

Elections

Good news and bad news in the French EU elections - no matter which side your political tartine is buttered. Sarko's party got the single biggest vote, some 20 odd percent, which is unprecedented for a right-wing party in power at a midterm election of any kind. The greens did extremely well, getting close to 16%, a major gain for them. The socialist party did very badly indeed, which is bad news for their recently elected leader. But the left in general did ok, the new anticapitalist party taking 5% in their first tilt. But the 'taux de abstention' was a record high, making all the results somewhat weak.

wifi in the park

It's some sort of semi-holiday here today - Sam has to go to work but my lab is closed. I have a paper to finish so I've come to work outside in Square la petite Roquette, one of Paris' wifi enabled public parks. This is the nearest one, about 2 minutes by Velib from our place. It's very pleasant, lots of seats are under trees so no screen glare and there's good reception everywhere. Background noise of fountain, kids playing 5-a-side, gurgling babies, etc. is quite relaxing.

Football latest

In Scotland, Rangers fans had a cunning plan to get tickets to see their side win the SPL at Tannadice after the away allocation quickly sold out. A poster on a Rangers forum wrote: "Phone up the club shop and ask to buy a pair of Dundee United socks. Don't even mention tickets for Sunday. They might become suspicious.

"Then when they take your sock order, personal details and process your payment, your details will then be stored on their system. Phone up again and order your home tickets for the Rangers match and because of your sock order, you will be on their system and you will get your match tickets. It's perfect."

Perfect, aside from the fact there was no such database, resulting in Rangers fans ending up with hundreds of pairs of Dundee United socks and no match tickets. The poster was a Celtic fan.

Taxing

Tomorrow is 'post your tax return' deadline day here. You have longer if you do it online, but if you're a foreigner you have to do a paper return in your first year, so I dutifully walked down to the tax office this morning and dropped in my return (I have no faith whatsoever in La Poste, for reasons I won't bore you with now). I handed in declaration 2042, 2042C (complementaire), 2033 (industrial and commercial profits), 2033-B (a short set of accounts for 2033), an explanatory spreadsheet for 2033-B, 2047 (money earned and deposited abroad), and a list of foreign bank accounts.

Last Friday I sent an enquiry via the government tax website about a couple of things to do with the return. They promised a reply in 48 hours. 72 (business) hours later I got a reply saying they would respond as soon as possible. Still no response today, so now I'll never know whether I should have put the 30 euros interest into box TR or box TS. Hopefully it won't matter too much.. we get the resulting tax demand in September, which you have to pay in three installments, the next February, May and September.

Foot

Football is the hot topic in the cafe at the moment. There are three matches to go in the French division 1, and Bordeaux and Olympique Marseilles are level on points. It's exciting stuff. On Sunday OM host Lyon, the third placed team, while Bordeaux play the first of two home games, against teams with not much to play for, before their final game against relegation-threatened Caen. Marseilles are away against Nancy (who have nothing to play for) and then home against Rennes on the final day. At the moment OM have the better goal difference but, to coin a phrase, it could go either way.

Caught napping

The French spend more time sleeping and eating than anyone else. I can definitely believe the bit about eating: since I've been here, I've definitely noticed that everyone takes time over eating, even if it's just a sandwich at lunchtime (which nobody here *ever* eats at their desk).

Cannes

Perhaps in need of escapism, the French are especially excited about the Cannes film festival this year. One reason is that Quentin Tarantino's new film Inglorious Bastards is at least partially set in France. Various people have stories of bumping into Brad Pitt on Rue Montorgueil last summer, and Karim, the barman who makes my morning coffee, saw some filming going on around the mairie of the 18th, which is behind montmartre. He apprently tried hard to find a way to walk behind the shot - nothing doing..

Edwin Morgan

Just back from a really enjoyable wedding in Edinburgh. The best man gave a version of The Loch Ness Monster's Song by Edwin Morgan - who was 89 yesterday, happy birthday. Photos will appear here, we'll add a few tonight..

In other pastry news, the boulangerie where I often buy my lunchtime sandwiches has made it onto a similar list for chocolate éclairs (sorry no handy pdf available) I might as well wave goodbye to my waistline!

Flan update

My local baker 'l'Autre Boulange' has been awarded the Best flan in Paris prize by Le Figaro. Full results here in PDF. There's a picture of the bakery top left of this sheet.

Anniversaire

Thanks for the cards and emails!

Sam made some cakes last night which I took into work today to celebrate. These disappeared very fast.

Poisson d'avril

The director of our lab just sent us a mail saying our laboratory has been awarded the prestigious CNRS 'Prix Gobshite', and that every member of the lab in posession of a BNP/CNRS business card can claim a 50 000 Euro bonus by senidng their card numbers (and CVV) to an email address in Tuvalu..

Meanwhile I've been invited to a meeting on increasing the attractivity of my employers to good researchers who might want to come and work for us. One of the other invitees (some recently hired, some old hands) replied, CC everyone, asking if this was a poisson d'avril since such meetings are obiously a waste of time. Finally he was disabused of this notion, and wrote back (again CC everyone) to say that he would participate with no enthusiasm and considered the time (2 hours) as time thrown out of the window.. oh dear.

Four newish reasons to love Venice

I'm back in Venice for work. Venice is a good place for new thinking. For one thing, it's a beautiful man-made place being destroyed by nature, rather than the other way round. Though of course mankind is chipping in, destroying the city economically and socially with the negative aspects of tourism. But there are still new good things in Venice. For example:

1. The new Calatrava bridge which is stunning. The best way to see it is from the front right seat of a vaporetto coming from the train station to Piazzale Roma. That way you don't see the scaffolding where they're trying to retro-fit a wheelchair lift.
   
2. New restaurants. Contrary to what one might think, the best restaurants in Venice are not necessarily the longest established ones. Though the residential population of the island is lower than it has been since the plague, there are still lots of professional people who come to work every day in Venice, and thousands of students. New places are opening (and closing) all the time, and often come without the stuffiness of some of the older Osteria. Last night we ate in Ae Cravate, a sort of equivalent of an up markt gastropub. Very good
   
3. imob - venice now has a contactless smartcard based ticketing system for the vaporettos. It's baffling the locals but it makes sense. The old system was a joke.
   
4. Da Lele - the hole in the wall selling wine close to Piazzale Roma. An essential rendezvous point for all arrivals in Venice.
   
   

Graham has been sadly neglecting this blog of late, so I thought I'd write in with a little update.

This year's salon d'agriculture is once more under way and we're planning our annual pilgrimage this Sunday along with my parents. Should be fun...

strikecam

You can watch the main protest for the strike on the bastille webcam (if you get there too late you can select recorded pictures - the head of the protest was due to leave bastille at 14h)

general strike- 08h49

No danger of a Velib to ride within bus-range of work, so I'll be staying at home.

The roads are quite quiet, lot of people (including Sam) are walking to work.

Bakery not on strike fortunately.

General Strike

On Thursday France is going on a general strike. It's not clear how many people will get involved, but the media is of course predicting 'black Thursday' and the Parisien is full of tips to avoid 'la galère'. I wasn't sure what the strike was actually about, but I was handed a leaflet on the street explaining. The strikers demands include, but are not limited to: a fairer and more transparent financial system, an increase in salaries and pensions, fewer people being layed off, less inequality, and an end to patronage by those in power. In my opinion, this may require more than a one-day stoppage.

There were no details of any particular demonstrations, but workers were urged to get 'into the streets'. I'll blog a report from those self same streets on Thursday.

Black Bream

The fishmonger at the Bastille market had a new catch today - line caught black bream, or dorade grise, from the costal fishing fleet of brittany. It costs just under 10 euros a kilo - as a comparison, regular bream costs anything from 8 euros (small, farmed in greece) through 16 euros (wild caught in the atlantic) to 29 euros a kilo (line caught). Black bream is one of these excellent under-rated fish - the flesh is not as pretty and white as a regular bream, but it's tastier to a keen palate and it's also much more abundant, which means you can eat a line-caught, good sized one with a conscience as clean as a whistle. Our one was a very decent size, and will feed us tomorrow as well. We roasted the whole thing en papilliotte, and filletted with the fancy knife sam's mum gave me for christmas.

When I go to the Bastille market, I usually take a coffee in the bar du marché. This is firmly in the category of places that will never be recommended by the lonely planet, but if you want to see a real parisian bar, this is it. It's about 20 square metres, and it's run by two brothers. The curved bar is real zinc, and judging from the number of dents and scratches in it must be at least 50 year old. behind the curved bar is a set of fridges with the catering-style lock handles, made of wood and fitted to the curve. The name of the manufacturer is still on one fridge - Meallet - and it was made when paris phone numbers only had 6 digits. It's always busy on market day. The clientele are of the 'pupils of the much respected old school' (I read that in Dickens! Did Victorian Englishmen really say 'yeah he's really old school'?), and when I'm taking coffee at 11am, most of them are on wine, demis, or calvados. Sometimes two of the above. The chap next to me today, with a hat like mine, had a white face and a long nose and looked like he'd been up for several hours. He complained about his colleagues, said he needed to find a job where you could work on your own, then ordered a refill of his beer glass while he stepped out for a cigarette. He stepped back in, downed the glass, wished bon courage and disappeared. Later, I was strolling round the market very happy with my huge black bream, and I crossed to the left side aisle of stalls. Like most markets, the bastille market has a certain geometry dictating where the good stalls are, where the expensive ones, the cheap ones, and the bad ones are. There are two very big and busy fish stalls, on th right hand side, where i regularly shop. There are a dozen servers at each one and half a dozen more people scaling and gutting behind. They also have managers who run around behind shouting 'let's sell some fish!' at the workers 'and i must be crazy look at my prices' to the general public. Everything I've bought from both has been very fresh and it's mostly served straight from cartons from the Rungis wholesale market close to Orly airport, with coded and dated labels. That way you know the fish has probably been out of the water for 24 hours at the most. On the left hand aisle are two deciededly more down at heel fishmongers where i've never bought anything - the fish are often very cheap but look second best, they often parcel them up on trays and price them before weighing them. It's a bit of a gamble. And they won't gut or scale anything for you. Anyway, as I was strolling past the southern one of these, I saw the proprietor shouting allez allez buy these cheap fish, and yes, it was the long nosed beer-downing man from the bar..

Politics update for inaugration day

Ségolène Royale, loser of one presidential election and one leadership contest for the socialist party, was in fact Obama's inspiration, in her humble opinion.

word of the day

Amerissage. Like aterrissage, except you land on water.