Grocery Shopping
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| The Guinness mascot at our Kroger store. |
A Cheerful Fence
More Olympics
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We watched Biathlon because an acquaintance of Tom, Evelyn, Miriam, and Alice was competing.
I managed to get a photo of my TV at the moment of her arrival at the finish line (she was thirteenth).
We also continue to watch figure skating and a few other sports. |
Unfinished History Book
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| The Bookseller of Florence is interesting, but I don’t feel compelled to finish it. |
“The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King tells the story of Vespasiano da Bisticci, a major Renaissance bookseller who created magnificent, hand-copied manuscripts for Europe's elite before the printing press disrupted his business.” (Goodreads)
Paris Today and in the Past
Headline in the Times of London this week: the famous Poilâne bakery in Paris is in financial trouble. Baking continues — at least for now. (
source) What a shock! I have always thought that Paris food institutions were immortal.
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| Paris, 1976. Poilâne bakery on Boulevard de Grenelle, Paris. (My photo) |
The Poilâne bakery was across the street from the apartment building where we lived in 1976. The elevated Metro line, which you can see through the bakery window in the photo, ran down the middle of the street. The tracks (with all their noise) went right in front of our apartment windows.
The bakery had wood-fired ovens in the basement, and we could see the wood-delivery trucks each morning. We loved the bread that we could buy there. At first, we didn’t even know that this bakery was famous, we knew only that the bread and pastries were extraordinary. A Parisian friend explained how lucky we were to live near this culinary landmark.
Poilâne bakery is now more famous than ever. All baking is done at a central location in the suburbs where rent is much lower. Over the years,
more shops have opened: there are five in Paris and one in London. This famous bread is also sold in many other food stores and is exported to the US and elsewhere.Blog post and original photos © 1976, 2018, 2026 mae sander
Other photos as credited.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI like the cute Guinness mascot. The mural on the fence is pretty.
I hope the bakery can survive. Take care, enjoy your day and have a great weekend.
I also like the Guinness mascot, and thanks for taking me to Paris for a few moments. Food porn...it's sad that the internet has made people feel that everything has to look perfect and wild. And you know, I started a Ross King book once (I can't even remember which one but I know it was about painters) and I wasn't compelled to finish it either.
ReplyDeleteThat is so sad about Poilaine. We went to the one in Rue du Cherche Midi and got the most wonderful loaf of bread (one of the miches) -- huge, round, enormous and tasty, too. It was an experience. Oh, to live across the street, no matter which location! Sad news indeed.
ReplyDeleteHello Mae,
ReplyDeleteLove the cute mascot. It is sad news about the bakery. The bread looks delicious. The fence is cheerful. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great weekend. PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.
What a lovely mix of memories and current events. Your 1976 photo of the bakery is wonderful, I really hope Poilâne manages to stay open despite the news!
ReplyDeleteMae, I am also shocked about Poilâne. It feels impossible that one of the best bakeries in the world could go under. Thank you for sharing the photos you took of Poilâne. I've always secretly dreamed of living in Paris for a year and apprenticing there as a baker. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI have the cookbook I ordered from Poilâne after I got home, and I've meant to read it and bake from it for (literally) years. I will go right now and schedule that post for July this year.
Oh Paree! How sad about Poilâne. I don't know Paris very well, have only done the tourist things a couple of times. So I was not aware of that bakery but the miches sounds really good. I would certainly have one of those.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend,
Lisca
I do like a Guinness, but I could also just eat one of those pastries.
ReplyDeleteAh! Funny fact: one of my favourite classic mystery writers, Dorothy Sayers, is the one who came up with the toucan mascot for Guinness.
ReplyDeleteI need to get round to The Bookseller of Florence -- I've had it a while. Though I've now read about said bookseller in Christopher de Hamel's The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club, and I'm not sure I want to read about the topic again yet.
That makes me so sad about the bakery! And you lived one of my dreams...to have an apartment where the elevated train runs past!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, as usual, I enjoyed the pictures. Have great week!
ReplyDeleteI love your revisit to Paris in photos and stories, even if the reason for it is sad. I hope the bakery survives! That sourdough looks Instagram-worthy to me.
ReplyDeleteIt would be dangerous for me to live across the street from a bakery. I would spend all of my money there.
ReplyDelete