Probably the Coolest Culinary Experience of My Life

Right now it is 1:15am my time and I should probably be in bed. But I just have to tell you about my dinner tonight. It was probably the coolest culinary experience of my life (hence the title). The restaurant is called Dans Le Noir? (yes, the question mark is part of the name). The idea behind the restaurant is that by eating in complete darkness your ability to taste is heightened. So upon entering the restaurant, the host asked Carleigh, Wright, Miles, and I to place our purses/watches/cell phones/lighters in a locker. We then selected our menu option (all of us got the two course, entree + plat menu and we split a bottle of wine). But we had no idea what we would be eating for these two courses. After a short wait we were lead through heavy black curtains into the restaurant. Our server, Fazia, was our guide. She is also blind. All of the servers who work in the dining room are blind. She led us two our table (we walked in train fashion with one of our hands on the next person's shoulder). The only reservation available when I called today was for 10pm, but it was probably closer to 10:30pm once we sat down. Based on the noise level when we entered, the restaurant was packed. First Fazia sat down another party, a couple, one of whom was on my right. Then Wright sat on my left, Carleigh across from me, and Miles on her right. Fazia brought our bottle of wine and poured the first glass for each of us.

The entree course arrived quickly. Curiously enough, my first instinct was just to reach for the food on my plate, to feel around for what was there. Apparently I wasn't the only one. Just based on touch, I guessed there was some kind of stuffed tomato, a vegetable similar to shredded carrots, and some kind of fish. Then after tasting everything, I changed my mind. The round thing was a fig and it was very sweet (I later discovered it was honeyed). When I tasted the shredded thing I guessed caramelized onions (turns out they were shallots, close enough). And I was also correct about the fish - it was smoked salmon with a creamy sauce. All of it was delicious. It really was amazing how I could focus more on the flavors of the food - the sweet, savory, tangy sensations. At first it was very disconcerting to be totally in the dark (this is the darkest dark I have ever been in, there was no way for me to begin to see the outline of my plate, my hand in front of my face, Wright next to me, anything at all). It meant I had to eat a little slower and be much more careful about where I put my hands on the table. For most of the meal I held my wine glass in my right hand to prevent myself from knocking it over (it was a cup, smaller than the water glass). After that first glass we had to pour our own wine, and I did it by placing a finger just inside the rim, so I wouldn't accidentally pour too much. Ditto for the water.

So then the plat principal arrived. This one was a bit trickier to figure out. At first we thought one of the foods was lobster, then calamari. Finally we decided they were mushrooms. It may seem a little ridiculous to go from lobster to mushrooms, but the "thumb" of a lobster claw has a texture not unlike that of the stem of a mushroom. The main meat was broiled salmon, very tender and flavorful. It melted in my mouth. It was also an easy guess. The other two parts of the dish we guessed completely wrong. We thought there were mashed potatoes and some kind of hash brown item (although we knew that wasn't potatoes, we thought it was some kind of vegetable). Turns out the "mashed potatoes" were mashed zucchini and the "hash brown" was made of chickpeas. I am a little suprised I didn't guess the mashed zucchini, we've actually eaten that recently.

After we finished (we lingered at the table for quite a while, savoring the experience) Fazia led us back into the bar/reception room, which was completely lit and staffed by sighted employees. It was definitely a shock to be back in light. I am surprised at how quickly we adjusted to not having the use of our eyes. Before we paid one of the hosts brought out a little booklet which showed us the courses we had eaten and he described them to us. All of us agreed that it was an amazing experience (I wanted to put eye-opening, but that is obviously not relevant here). Not only was the food delicious, but the whole sensation of eating was much more potent without my eyes to distract me. Too cool.

Just in case you were wondering, here are a few facts:

• The restaurant was founded in 2004 by Edouard de Broglie and Etienne Boisrond with the support of the Paul Guinot Foundation for Blind People
• "Dans le Noir?" is now also in London with one of the biggest "Restaurants in the Dark" in the world
• According to my guidebook, a portion of the restaurant's earnings go to help people who are blind find jobs, through the Paul Guinot Foundation

Paris Day #2: Tuesday

Okay, so today was another long day. My legs were sore from all of the walking I did yesterday, so of course, I went for a run. I was going to cut it a little short, but it ended up being a full 30 minutes because I got a little turned around. On the way back I forgot that I had crossed two bridges, not one, on my way across the Seine. I ended up in front of Notre-Dame and realized my hotel is not quite that close. But I asked the nearest Parisian and they kindly directed me across the Seine. Knowing more than a little French makes these interactions so much easier. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a tourist who doesn't speak French or English. Yesterday, on our way to Eglise La Madeleine, Carolyn and I were stopped by a Japanese woman who was clearly lost. She was pointing feverishly at her map (which of course, was labeled in Japanese) and trying to ask for directions in broken English. We managed to point her in the right direction, thanks to my handy maps. But Carolyn and I both noted how difficult it would be not to have any kind of common language with the majority of the French population.

Anyway, today:

• Notre-Dame de Paris: This seems like sort of an absurd comment, but I was a little disappointed by Notre-Dame. I have seen it before, but this time when I walked inside my first thought was: oh, another gothic cathedral. It seems terribly gauche of me, since Notre-Dame is the original gothic cathedral. But I think one of the hallmarks of gothic architecture is that the arched vaults can make even a smallish cathedral look majestic and imposing, so the extra-large cathedrals therefore aren't expontentially more impressive. When I walked further in though, I really did like the rosaces (stained glass mirrors in a circular shape which resembles a rose). The violet-purple glass in them is really striking, and they're enormous.

• Musée D'Orsay. We had a guided tour of the museum and our guide was excellent. She talked in detail about paintings by Gustave Corbet, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and August Renoir. Of course, she went into detail about 6-7 paintings out of the thousands in the Musee D'Orsay. As awesome as it is to see very famous works of art, I actually prefer smaller museums. I always feel a little overwhelmed in big museums like the Louvre, the Met, etc. There's just so much to see and no way to possibly see it all! But I did learn a lot, especially about Corbet. The picture on the right is of me on a terrace at the museum. The picture of the lion below has absolutely no significance for me beyond it's connection with a family joke "it looks like Miss Annie!" (Annie is our yellow Labrador)
  

• Musée Rodin. This is a museum of the work of Auguste Rodin, "the father of modern sculpture" (according to my guidebook). The museum is located in his former residence (see picture below). I really liked this museum a lot. It's the size I like - manageable in an hour or two - and sculpture is one of my favorite art forms. I really don't know very much about it but I thnk it's beautiful and I wish it was still as popular as painting.

• Les Invalides. This was a very brief visit because it was getting to the end of the day andis buried. His tomb consists of six concentric coffins, each made of a different material (I know at least two are mahogany and lead, and the outermost one is marble). In 1989 the dome was recovered in real gold, making it the only monument in Paris whose exterior has real gold. I've already been there before last time I was in Paris, so I don't feel like I missed out because we didn't linger.

Tonight we went to Saint Chappelle for a performance of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." It was fantastic! The quartet (although a violinist joined them partway through, making it a total of three violins, a viola, and cello). They played in a little chapel which contains the oldest stained glass windows in Paris (13th century) - and what must be some of the tallest. They stretched practically from floor to ceiling! The rest of the chapel which is not stained glass windows was elaborately painted and covered in gold. It was a cool venue and the music was excellent. A great evening. The picture on the far right is one of the stained glass windows inside the chapel where we heard the concert. The picture on the near right is of the Palais de Justice, the building right next to Saint Chapelle. The exterior of Saint Chappelle is undergoing renovations, so all I could see of the exterior was scaffolding.

Tomorrow we're going to Versailles!

Paris Day #1: Monday

Notre-Dame de Paris at night (I took this Sunday night after dinner)

Wow the last two days have been a blur. When we were en route from Giverny to Paris Dr. Barbour gave us all a list of sights/museums we needed to see during our six-day (really five-day, we leave Saturday morning) stay. While it's certainly not everything in Paris, the list is very comprehensive. I've spent the last two days trying to get to as many of those sights as possible. But I don't want to give you the impression I've been doing the crazed tourist mad dash through the city. I've been taking my time at each of the museums/sights and spending as much time as I want, but just spending the whole day doing it. My schedule for the last two days has been thus:

8am: Wake up, go for a run along the Seine
9am: Breakfast at the hotel (baguette, OJ)
9:30am - 4pm: Sight-see
5pm - 6pm: Return to hotel, relax
6pm - ?: Theatre/Musical performance with the group

So you can understand why I am a bit fatigued. I've decided to take tomorrow off from running because my legs are so tired. Dr. Barbour got us museum passes and metro passes for our stay, so it's very easy for us to move around the city. Monday I went around with Carolyn because we met up with our friend Jess for a quick lunch before she had to go to class. Jess went to Wake our freshman year and played on RUCKUS. She transferred to William & Mary our freshman year and I haven't seen her in a while, so it was great to catch up. She is spending the semester in Paris through another program. Carolyn and I saw a ton on Monday:

• St. Germain-de-Pres
• St. Séverin (see photo of the column on the right. This is in the more contemporary part of the chapel (15th century, as opposed to 13th), and something I've never seen before. After going lots of old churches over the last month, I'm starting to notice those elements which make any given one unique.
  
• Église St. Julien-le-Pauvre
• La Sorbonne

• Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden)
• Place de la Concorde

• Église La Madeleine (Church of Mary Magdalene). This church was very interesting. From the exterior, it doesn't look like a church at all (at least, not like most of the cathedrals I've seen in the last few weeks. It's done in the neoclassical style and has a dome to let in light, rather than windows. On the inside, all of the walls are painted and there is gold everywhere. On the altar is a giant statue of Mary Magdalene, and the paintings above it feature her prominently at Jesus's right hand. Even the chandeliers inside seemed like they would be more natural in a train station, rather than a church (you can sort of see them in the picture of the statue on the right). I guess it's just my Protestant roots, but it always seems odd to me when I go in a church and visual focus is on a person, rather than Jesus.
  

• Opera Garnier (think "Phantom of the Opera"). Carolyn and I didn't get a chance to go inside, so we went back today, but the main auditorium was closed because of a dress rehearsal. So we're going to try and go on Thursday morning before our tour of the Louvre at 10:30am.
• Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysee

That night we went with Dr. Barbour and the group to "La Comedie" and saw a play called "Figaro Divorce." We thought we were going to see Moliere's L'Avare, but apparently that was Sunday night. "Figaro Divorce" was very difficult to follow and three hours long. But I think the difficulty in following it came from the writer's style, not from the dialogue, which I could translate just fine.

Oh, something interesting which happened that day. At one point while we were riding the metro between monuments, Carolyn and I got onto a train where a Frenchman was proselytizing loudly. As in, no one else was talking but he was shouting (in French) about the Revelation and the Second Coming and repentance. He was not addressing anyone directly, but his shouting was obviously making people uncomfortable. Carolyn and I ended up getting off a few stops early just because the mood in the car was getting tense. I could understand everything he said and none of it was violent, but anyone using that tone in a public transportation vehicle makes me nervous. Not a big deal, just something that happened.

Impressionism through Arrival in Paris

So Saturday we spent the whole day walking in the footsteps of the Impressionists. We started off by driving to the spot in Chatou where Renoir painted "Le déjeuner des canotiers." We stood on the spot where he set up his easel, right along the Seine, and looked up at the restaurant patio which is still there (and, go figure, still open if you want to eat lunch for an exorbitant price).

Mr. Tomarchio explained that the man and woman in the lower right of the painting are the son and daughter of the proprietor. And one of the men in the back right is a collegue of Renoir. I'm really excited for our class with Mr. Tomarchio, based on his explanations of the historical context of the paintings we saw in the museum later, he knows a lot about this kind of art and we're going to learn a lot from him!

Next we went to a museum of "minor Impressionists" (I left my notebook upstairs so I am going to skip past this part and move onto Giverny). So, Giverny, Monet's home. Yet again I had been there before, but yet again I love spending time in gardens. I think one of the highlights of this excursion is how much time we have spent in beautiful gardens. As a sort of random side note, the weather here has been pleasant and mild the entire time, so it's not nearly as evident that fall has arrived. It was certainly cooler once I got back from that brief weekend in Cincinnati, but still the weather has been beautiful. One of the ways I have been able to see the change in seasons is through the way the vines are changing colors (more so than the trees). On the right you can see some of the vines on a building near Giverny. Below are some of my favorite photos from Giverny:

And after Giverny, we headed for Paris. Sunday evening traffic meant it took a little longer than we expected (about 2 hours), but we got there in time to relax and walk around before dinner. We ate at Royal Couscous - and I was very happy to have more Moroccan food. My couscous was actually served slightly differently than Moroccan couscous (I think it was Tunisian style). They served each of the elements separately (a big bowl of couscous, a tureen of vegetables and broth, and a plate of grilled lamb). Then you added as much or as little of each to your plate as you preferred. I love North African food, I hope I get more opportunities to eat it (when I'm not chowing down on French food, of course).

Fontainebleau and Impressionism

Day #5 of the excursion marked our transition from the chateau and the Renaissance towards Impressionism. We started off in the morning with our last chateau, number six, Fontainebleau. For me, this was the most impressive. In Peter's words, "it gives Versailles a run for its money." Walking through room after room covered in gold-gilted everything, tapestries, luscious fabrics, and Sevres china, I suddenly had an acute understanding of why the French Revolution happened. And I was not the only one to reach that conclusion. That level of oppulence makes the colonists' complaints about Tea Taxes look like whining. But I couldn't help but admire the sheer amount of art work and talent displayed. It's certainly worth seeing, if only for the shock factor. Another reason this chateau seemed so much more excessive than the earlier ones is that it is outfitted in a different style. It was the palace of Napoleon I, and thus the decorations date from an earlier time period and are slightly more recognizable as flagrant displays of wealth. That, and there's gold everywhere, which was not the case in any of the other chateau we visited. The picture on the left is of the queen's bedchamber.

Oh, I almost forgot, before we toured the chateau we had lunch at a cafe in Fontainebleau. There we had the worst service I have seen so far in France. There were 10 of us (nine students plus Dr. Barbour, our chauffeur Stephan was not with us at this point) and we sat down and ordered at 1:15pm. We all got cafe food - salads, two hamburgers, a "Pomme Cheese" (explanation to follow, picture at right), and a pizza. 40 minutes later the first four salads arrived. Another 10 minutes later the Pomme Cheese, a hamburger, and another two salads arrived. Another 20 minutes later, Mary-Kate and I had yet to receive our respective hamburger and pizza. We had reminded the server a few times that we were waiting on some items, but it was only over an hour after we had ordered that she realized the kitchen had forgotten our two items. Like I said, this is the first time something like this has happened. Normally service is prompt, especially for simple stuff of the variety we ordered. Three course meals are normally more like an hour and a half for lunch and two plus hours for dinner, but that's what we expect. Normally those are more complicated dishes too. So needless to say, we're not going back to the Cafe Churchill again. But the upside is that I got to try Dr. Barbour's "Pomme Cheese" which was the French equivalent of a stuffed baked potato. It was two halves of a baked potato, covered in crème fraiche (similar to sour cream) and chives and topped with melted cheese. I wish I could remember the name of the cheese, but it is escaping me now. Anyway, it was very tasty. My pizza "Napoleon" was an interesting concept, but not very well executed. It had the standard crust-sauce-cheese and then mushrooms, prosciutto ham, olives, and an egg over easy in the center. The flavors worked well together, but the crust had a lingering burnt taste (as if the stone it was cooked on wasn't clean), so I think it could have been better.

So then after Fontainebleau we transitioned towards the Impressionism section. We went to a museum called Musee Ganne which is located in the building where there used to be an auberge (hostel/inn). It was at this auberge that certain artists went to escape the official "Empire-approved" art of Napoleon's regime and wanted to paint natural landscapes. It was called the Barbizon school and they were the forerunners of the Impressionists. *The picture on the right is the inside of the auberge, note the cabinet doors are painted - apparently they practiced on all of the surfaces inside - walls, cabinets, etc).* It's kind of funny to think that once this auberge was out in the woods, but now there's a street running right in front of it. It's not a big town, but it's definitely not in the countryside. I think it's awesome that although this class with Dr. Barbour is not conventional because it lacks a classroom setting, I am still learning so much! Not only so many facts, but realizing so many connections between art and history and politics. It's so cool that we're doing all of these things chronologically, as if we are following history as it unfolded. Our five days in Paris will be the culmination of this chronological history - between the monuments and museums there we will study up through the present day. Of course, once we get back to Dijon we'll be taking an art history course with Mr. Tomarchio (I spelled it phonetically, I'll get back to you on that). He joined us for these last few days to help give more insight into the history of Impressionism. But it's so cool to see these things in context.

That night (Friday and Saturday night) we stayed in a hotel called Villa des Impressionistes in a small town called Bougival, a little ways outside of Paris. This hotel was another three star and I could really tell the difference. I roomed with Kara and Jenn in a triple and our room had two floors! I got a big queen-sized bed all to myself on the first floor.

Day #4: Azay-le-Rideau, Villandry, Clos Luce

*Unfortunately our last hotel did not have internet, so I had to wait until we arrived in Paris today to update you all. This will be less comprehensive than I would have liked, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.*

Today was light on the history and heavy on the beautiful photos. So I'm going to include more of those and less of the dialogue. For some reason all of a sudden it takes much less time for me to upload photos to Blogger, that's why I have included so many more of late.

This is Azay-le-Rideau, the fourth chateau we have seen so far. I think it was my favorite. I had never been there before and I was pleasantly surprised. It combines all of my favorite elements of other chateaux we have seen: pleasant scenery (lots of trees and a river nearby), a manageable size, and fewer tourists. Instead of having formal French gardens like Chenonceau, this one just has a "Romantic" British-style park (read lots of grass and trees).

Then in the afternoon we went to chateau #5: Villandry. I have already been there before, but it was interesting to see the flowers in the early fall rather than the late spring. Neither last time nor this time did I go inside the chateau, because the gardens are better worth the time. Last time I went it was June and the arbors were covered with grape vines, but no grapes. Of course, right now is the vendage (grape harvest to make wine) so the arbors along the gardens of Villandry were full of plump bunches of grapes. Since it was mid-to-late afternoon at this point, the sunlight was streaming in sideways through the wooden arbors and the gravel path underneath the arbor's arches was downright magical. I felt like a little kid, a princess, a Greek goddess. I just wanted to reach up and pick some.And once I saw Jenn do exactly that, I followed suit. And my reward was that the fat grape burst right in my fingers, spraying juice in my hair. Undaunted, I grabbed another, but more carefully. I was astounded by the variety of colors: pale yellow to supermarket-grape-green to rosey pink to deep burgundy red to violet. And sometimes there were multiple colors in a single cluster of grapes. This probably doesn't seem earth-shattering for you, but I found it pretty neat. I've now added "an arbor with grape vines" to my list of future desires.

After Villandry we went to Close Luce, Leonardo da Vinci's home near the chateau of Amboise (we didn't go inside, so I can't really count this as chateau #6). I have also been to Leonardo's home before, but yet again I discovered things I had not seen before. This time we got to spend some time wandering in the garden, which has life-scale models of his inventions. We also discovered, to our extreme pleasure, a play-ground. Even better, it was not occupied. So we made good use of the hanging/swinging/human-tetherball thing. Clockwise from the back: me, Miles, Kara, Carolyn.

Day #3: Blois and Chenonceau

So today was chateaux #2 and #3. This was my first time visiting Blois, and I found it really interesting. It's a great example of the four main types of architecture in France from the 13th-17th centuries because there are four separate sections which were built at different times. This photo shows three of the four different sections. The white structure in the middle is the oldest, it was built in the 13th century. It's an example of simple gothic architecture. The brick and stone section on the right (L'aile Louis XII) is an example of flamboyant gothic architecture (it's called flamboyant because some of the designs look like intricate flames). There are even some Renaissance elements, because at the end of the 15th century France was still in the gothic period while Italy was in the Renaissance. The white stone structure on the left is part of L'aile Francois I and it's a great example of Renaissance (Renaissance art being the rediscovery of Roman/Greek themes in decoration...characterized by lots of flowers and verdure, lots of naked figures who were supposed to ressemble Roman/Greek gods or goddesses). The protruding spiral part on the outside is a staircase, because in France in the 16th century when this was constructed they were still building staircases outside to maximize the space inside. The fourth wing is "L'aile Gaston d'Orleans" and it was built in the 17th century in Classical style. The wings were supposed to form a complete square, but the construction of "L'aile Gaston d'Orleans" was never completed, so there's a 50 foot gap or so that allows people to walk up to the edge of the chateau's walls and see the Loire River below.


Our tour this morning was guided, but brief, and we had a chance to look around for ourselves too. We had lunch at a cute little restaurant in Blois (unfortunately I forgot to get their card). I skipped the entree for lunch because their special dessert of the day was tarte au citron which happens to be my favorite. It's odd that a fruity dessert should usurp chocolate as my favorite, but apparently not impossible. My plat principal was a cut of steak (I am perpetually guessing which cut, I know what entrecote looks like but the rest are a mystery to me). It was tasty though, and that's what counts.


Then on to chateau #3, Chenonceau. I'd already seen it before when I toured the Loire Valley with Mimi M., Mom, Trey, and Holly. Like Mont St. Michel and other parts of Normandie, it was interesting to go back a second time. We did not have a guided tour of Chenonceau (Dr. Barbor thinks one per day is enough). I've already heard the tour schtick once, so I focused on enjoying the views and taking some cool pictures. The one below is a giant cutting board which was down in the kitchens (which were cavernous and filled with lots of very shiny copper pots). Actually the whole Chenonceau experience seemed a little Disney-esque to me. The kitchen was brightly lit and all of the wood was polished to a shine and there were baskets of fake vegetables featured under subtle recessed lighting. It seemed just a little too clean for a chateau that is hundreds of years old. But I guess that's how they get to many visitors - there were infintely more people there than at Blois. The sort of funky picture is the brand name on one of the copper pots...and afterwards I realized my face is Picasso-esque in the reflection.


So then we found a labyrinth. It wasn't very difficult to reach the gazebo in the center, so we had a photoshoot once we all got there. Oh, also, while we were exploring we found a few grape vines near the Cher (the river which the chateau sits on top of) and Peter and Wright proceeded to start chucking some at me. So, of course, I retaliated and one of the small grapes I threw lodged itself in Peter's ear! Talk about serious aim! I think it's all the practice I have tossing pretzel nuggets to my dad... Kara was using my camera to take pictures of the group and she snapped this photo of me, sort of candid. Yes, it's a little vain, but I think it turned out all right, so I put it up here too. Tonight for dinner we went to "Le Buffet" again (the same place as Monday night). Our dinner on Monday wasn't extraordinary, so I wasn't super excited. But I ordered the risotto with asperagus and olives and it was downright tasty. It had hearty flakes (more like medium-thinly sliced squares) of Parmesean Reggiano on top and the whole dish had a lot more depth of flavor than I was anticipating. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised.
Now it's time for bed. Tomorrow we have two more chateaux and then on Friday morning we're departing from Tours. We'll be in Paris on Sunday! Yay!