Gourmet Walk with Black Paris Divas

On March 31st, I had the pleasure of guiding eight members of the Black Paris Divas tour group on one of Discover Paris' most popular gourmet walks on the Ile Saint-Louis.

The day was a bit nippy but soon the weather was forgotten as we explored numerous epicurean boutiques and restaurants on the island.

We began the tour across the river, where Tom (my husband) took a group photo in front of a brûlerie called La Caféothèque. This boutique roasts and sells only single-origin coffee beans – not just from individual countries, but often from individual plantations within a country. There are no blends to be found here! Three rooms accommodate visitors who want to drink a cup of coffee in a relaxing setting, and beans may be purchased to take home.

Black Paris Divas' group in front of La Caféothèque
© Discover Paris!
We then walked across Pont Louis Philippe to the island, stopping in front of an épicerie fine (gourmet grocer) that sells mustards, nougat, wines, honeys, and numerous other products that all proudly proclaim their precise origins - their terroir. We moved on to a second boutique that specializes in foie gras produced from free-range ducks and geese, and then walked a short distance to the south side of the island to get a bit of perspective on its location in the city. I pointed out city landmarks visible from the island before plunging into the heart of the walk.

The Pantheon viewed from Pont Louis Philippe
© Discover Paris!
On rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile, the "main street" of the island, a true gourmet will find himself or herself in heaven! There are so many restaurants and food shops here that one must be judicious in selecting where to spend time.

Because the street serves not only tourists, but also those who inhabit the island, one finds the traditional shops there - the boulangerie/patisserie (bakery/pastry shop), the fromagerie (cheese shop), the marchand de vins (the wine shop), the boucherie (the butcher), the supermarché (the supermarket)... In that sense, it is a true market street. But trendy cafés, art dealers, and gourmet boutiques to add to the eclectic mix of businesses on this narrow thoroughfare, which was teeming with people that afternoon.


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Monique and her husband put together a great group of shops for the tour. I wanted info about cheese, chocolate, wine and pastries and breads! Got that and more...

- Deborah Washington, one of the tour participants

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As we made our way down the street, we discussed a wide variety of food items. Crêpes (rhymes with "yep" in English) and their accompanying cider, cheeses, chocolates, and French and Italian ice creams (Berthillon and Amorino, respectively) all received the attention they were due. We also stopped in front of one of the best restaurants on the island, Mon Vieil Ami, where vegetables from the Paris region are featured prominently on the menu. Meat and fish are indicated in small print, as though they were incidental to the dishes served.

Making crêpes at Sarrasin et Froment crêperie
© Discover Paris!

Façade of Mon Vieil Ami restaurant
© Discover Paris!

Berthillon ice cream boutique
© Discover Paris!
Do you like olive oils? I presented two beautiful shops where you may sample them. These boutiques select and promote olive oils based on their distinctive aromas and flavors, just as wine vendors promote wines. One of the stores, Première Pression Provence, specializes in olive oil from the Provence region of France (think Marseille, Nice, and Aix en Provence).

Interior of Première Pression Provence
© Discover Paris!

Tasting station at Première Pression Provence
© Discover Paris!
Première Pression Provence is run by Jenna, an American woman, who is assisted by Matthew, a charming young black man of Caribbean origin. Jenna is an oléologue, an olive oil expert, whose passion for these oils is infectious!


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I enjoyed the Gourmet Walk, no doubt...I found the tour to be very informative since I consider myself to be a "Gourmet Foodie" of MOST (not all) sorts-LOL!!

- Winfrey Woody, one of the tour participants

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The last stop on the walk was La Charlotte de l'Ile. Once a quaint and whimsical spot complete with marionettes, homemade chocolates, and fabulous hot chocolate, it has been recently been renovated and expanded by its new owners. It is still a lovely tea room and the owners say that they have retained the hot chocolate recipe for which the former proprietor was famous.

After the official presentation was over, members of the group were free to wander back to whichever shops struck their fancy during the tour. They sampled wares and made purchases, either for themselves or for family and friends back home. Two participants went back to Première Pression Provence just for this purpose and Jenna welcomed them enthusiastically!

I look forward to November 2012, when the next gastronomic adventure with Black Paris Divas will take place. Plans are being made to add a cooking class to the gourmet walk - check out the BPD Web site for information about the trip!

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Homage to Césaire, Senghor, and Damas at Dorothy's Gallery

On Friday evening, April 13th, a remarkable event took place at The American Center for the Arts at Dorothy's Gallery in the 11th arrondissement. Two actors - Jean-Michel Martial and Virginie Emane - interpreted several works by famed Francophone writers Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon-Gontran Damas in a reading entitled Paroles Croisées (Crossed Words) as the penultimate event for the Surrealist Heritage art exposition at the gallery. Césaire, Senghor, and Damas were founders of the Négritude movement of the 1930s.

Flier for Surrealist reading
© Discover Paris!
The announcement for the event read as follows:

Sculpteurs de verbe, Aimé Césaire, Léon Gontran Damas et Léopold Sédar Senghor réinventent la langue, disent la vie, l’amour, la peur, l’espoir… avec des mots qui sentent le poivre et le piment de Cayenne… Surréalistes, jusqu’au bout des mots, mais réalistes aussi jusqu’à vous faire entendre ou pousser le grand cri nègre.

Translation: Sculptors of words, Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas and Léopold Sédar Senghor reinvent language, talk of life, love, fear, hope...with words that smell of black and Cayenne pepper...Surrealists through and through, but also realists to the point of making you listen to or shout out "the great black cry."

Both actors read from loose leaf pages, with Emane seated on the arm of an overstuffed chair and Martial standing and pacing in turn across the floor. They wove elements of multiple writings together, including Césaire's Cahier d'un Retour au Pays Natal, Senghor's Hosties Noires, and Damas' Black-Label, before a full house.

Virginie Emane and Jean-Michel Martial
© Discover Paris!

The crowd
© Discover Paris!
Emane and Martial read from several texts, never pausing between them, so the words of the three great writers flowed as though they comprised a single work. The effect was riveting!

Rapt attention
© Discover Paris!
When I asked Dorothy why she conceived of and hosted this event, she responded that was great friends with Ina Césaire, the daughter of Aimé and Suzanne Roussi-Césaire. She knew the Césaires well and visited Martinique - their homeland - multiple times. She knew that they embraced surrealism and wanted to pay tribute to them through this magical evening in association with the exposition of surrealist works that she mounted at the gallery.

Dorothy Polley with flier
© Discover Paris!
The event was free, but Dorothy passed a hat among the attendees at the end of the presentation for those who wanted to donate a small sum to show their appreciation for the artists' performance.

Dorothy passing the hat
© Discover Paris!
The evening was a great success, with more than twice the number of persons who sent RSVPs showing up for the reading. It represented Emane and Martial's debut performance of Paroles Croisées. They plan to present this performance again, particularly in French schools as part of an effort to increase awareness of the history, literature, and culture of African Diaspora peoples.

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Intrigue in Paris: A Book Review

Vee Williams Garcia's novel Intrigue in Paris combines romance and mystery in a quick-reading tale that unfolds in the City of Light. Magazine editor Bluesette "Blue" Stills, singer Nareen Anderson, and administrative assistant Adele Kendrick are the three women around whom the book revolves. All hail from the D.C./Maryland area, all are strong willed, and all find themselves supported, frustrated, or threatened by men at various points in the story.

Nareen's life is the most complicated of the three, as she is being stalked by not one, but two, men. Blue inadvertently becomes involved in this drama because Nareen has agreed to let Blue stay at her apartment during Blue's two-week vacation. Adele has come to Paris for a second time and is looking for a tryst with a man whom she met on her first visit. She meets Blue and Nareen near the end of the story after the plot takes an unexpected turn.

When I read novels set in Paris, I love (and expect) to find the city portrayed as thought it were a character. I want to be able to envision the protagonists walking down a particular street, driving past a particular landmark, eating at a particular place...in short, I want to be transported there! Garcia satisfied my expectation, using a tour company owned by two male characters in the book to take us to major monuments and to provide details about several sites that are important to African-American history in the French capital.

Intrigue in Paris progresses rapidly, provides a surprising twist, and has the elements required to whisk you away from home for a vicarious visit to Paris. Read it and whet your appetite for the city!

Vee Williams Garcia
Photo courtesy of Vee Williams Garcia
Vee Williams Garcia is the author of three previous novels. One of them (Forbidden Circles) is set in Paris; another (The Jazz Flower) ends in Paris. All of her novels include jazz music themes. She currently writes an online arts blog, The Dawn Café Journal, and is working on a collection of poems and a new novel.

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Black Paris Profiles™: Ellen Kountz

Ellen Kountz is one of the few African Americans in Paris whose professional life centered on finance and banking. She earned an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an Executive MBA at ESSEC (Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Sociales) in Paris (La Défense). She is also a vocal advocate of political engagement in the U.S. and an active member of the Minority Caucus of Democrats Abroad France. I introduced you to her a few weeks ago as the person who organized the first Black History Month event at the American Church in Paris. I am pleased to feature her in this month’s Black Paris Profile™.

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You’ve lived in Paris for over 20 years. What sparked your interest in living here?

I’ve had a lifelong curiosity about living overseas, which was sparked from the numerous international trips that my family was fortunate to take at the height of my father’s career in the 1970’s. This interest solidified when I went to summer camp in Crans Montana, Switzerland from the ages of 11 to 14. I was exposed to cosmopolitan polyglot teenagers from around the world and was acutely aware that being an American meant having a linguistic disadvantage. Somewhere in the back of my mind I decided to rectify this and go beyond what high school French classes could offer.

Ellen at the Pont Mirabeau
Photo credit: Franz Kennedy
Tell us how you came to settle here.

Ironically, I arrived in France after having avoided French classes for years. When I attended the Wharton School undergraduate program in 1988, there was no language requirement. I had put that interest on the back burner to focus on my best subjects – economics, statistics, and business. As a junior, I was informed that requirements had changed and that I needed a liberal arts credit to graduate. I freaked out!

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Black Paris Profiles™ is now available on Kindle.  Only excerpts are available on this blog.

To get your copy of Black Paris Profiles™, click HERE.

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