Happy Easter/Joyeuses Pâques

Joyeuses Pâques is French for Happy Easter…and as many of you sit down to your festive holiday brunch,  here’s a bit of the history of how eggs, rabbits, and dyed marshmallow peeps came to be associated with the occasion. Yes, today is when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ, but the holiday actually has roots that go much further back. Back to when the coming of Spring symbolized a sort of re-birth after a long, hard Winter.
To the ancient Egyptians and Romans, eggs were a symbol of vitality and it was customary to offer painted eggs as gifts to commemorate the changing of the seasons. The tradition was reinstated by the Christians as a way to make use of all the eggs that had been stockpiled during Lent when the eating of meat and eggs was forbidden.  Children immediately took to the challenge of finding the brightly colored eggs that had been hidden. The French explanation for how the eggs got there went like this: normally the church bells rang each day to invite the faithful to services, but during the week before Easter, the bells were silent from Thursday evening until Saturday evening. That’s because the church bells had flown to Rome to get eggs. On their return back, they would drop the eggs so that they could be found by good little girls and boys! By the eighteenth century, French children were finding eggs that had been emptied and re-filled with chocolate.
In Germany, the eggs were left by a hare or rabbit…a long time symbol of fertility and re-birth. German settlers to the United States brought this custom with them and voila…the Easter Bunny is born! Other immigrants brought with them several related customs…like burying a colored Easter egg at the foot of a vine or row of crops in the hopes that the crop yield will be quicker and greater…or believing that if an egg is buried for 100 years, the yolk will turn into a diamond!
With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, Easter-related molds were produced and mass-marketed. The molds were both for general culinary purposes…like this rabbit-form glass mold…probably for pâté….


…but many more were produced for making chocolate…like this wonderful egg with a man-in-the-moon motif…
 
…or an egg to commemorate the rooster who helped to produce all those eggs…

Chocolate is now firmly entrenched into the French customs surrounding the celebration of Easter…reportedly at least 20% of the nation’s annual sales of chocolate occurs during this time. (And that’s no small amount since 97% of the French eat chocolate at least once a week).
And of course, it’s Easter chocolate as only the French can conceive…here are some examples for your holiday enjoyment…
…as seen in the windows of Lenôtre……a bunny wearing a toque de cuisinier… …waving gaily as he flies in a chocolate balloon over a chocolate Paris…
…priced at 390 euros, one would have to be a very, very good little girl or boy to find one of these creations!
Over at the next window, one finds his friend, the rooster……who is much smaller, and not quite so expensive…but the chocolate map is much smaller as well and the Eiffel Tower that he flies over is not in chocolate as it is for the flying bunny. A very strong incentive to be really, really good!
Over at Patrick Roger’s… …there’s a chicken with chocolate “feathers” and a white chocolate “nest” and the shells of real eggs that have been filled with chocolate.
Last year, Monsieur Roger created an amazing chocolate “vegetable patch”…
…with cheerful Easter potatoes…
 
…rows of smiling carrots…
…and several marauding hedge hogs making quick work of shelling some chocolate-filled eggs… …and of course, except for the egg shells…every bit of the scene…including the farm house…was in chocolate!
And to think that I used to marvel at a Cadbury egg…Joyeuses Pâques!
Stay tuned for more behind the scenes adventures of The Meadows Collection…or check out the results at www.meadowscollection.com

The View From My Window…Dimanche des Rameaux

Well, I’m still wrestling with computer issues. For now, I think the computer itself is functioning, but the keyboard has suddenly decided to go haywire….and at the moment, there is absolutely no correlation between which key is pressed and what symbol appears!
So less words…more pictures.
Early in the morning…à table in our fourth-floor, walk-up pied à terre…this was the view from my window last Sunday…
It’s not terribly unusual for us to hear music from la rue down below…strains of Piaf from an accordion player on the corner…or an impromptu jazz trio on the bridge that connects us to “the other island”…but this time, there was a definite difference in what we heard.

What the…?  Ah, yes…it was Palm Sunday. Only here it’s called  Dimanche des Rameaux…Branch Sunday…and while there was one palm leaf…

…held aloft by the prêtre…be-splendid in an embroidered crimson velvet cloak…

…the other participants are holding branches of buis or boxwood…
The parishioners follow…
  …forming a procession of faithful…that sings its way toward our neighborhood church. We can smell the mixture of incense, candles, and foliage. With each participant carrying a branch, from our vantage point, it’s sort of like a horizontal bush chanting its way up the street.

Different types of branches are used in different parts of France. Here, it’s boxwood, but other regions might use laurel branches…in Provence, an olive branch is carried as a symbol of peace and abundance. It’s all part of a custom that dates back to the ninth century.  Once the procession reaches its destination and is inside the church, the branches are ceremoniously blessed to signify vitality. Some are then placed on the graves of the departed and others are kept at home…until the following year, when they are brought back to the church to be burned as part of the ceremonies for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.
Where does one find all that boxwood?

Buxus sempervirens is its botanical name…

     …and throughout Europe it has been used for centuries in various handicrafts…carved into countless chess pieces or…duh…boxes.
Even though we are in the middle of the big city, it was not difficult to find boxwood branches…boxwood is a common component of a traditional French garden and we were lucky enough to befriend the gardeners at the nearby Bibliotèque Forney…an amazing library devoted to the Decorative Arts…
…as well as a wonderful place to sit and admire the architecture of the building in which it is housed…constructed between 1475 and 1507 as the Parisian residence of the Archbishop of Sens.

A French garden often consists of low hedges that form a decorative pattern…
…and, in keeping with that old saying…one man’s hedge clippings is another man’s symbol of vitality…
Ahhhh…Paris in the Springtime…who needs words, anyway?
Stay tuned for more behind the scenes adventures of The Meadows Collection…or check out the results at www.meadowscollection.com

County Fair…Parisian-Style

First of all, I should explain the extraordinary delay between this and my previous posts. We’re in the midst of a computer-related nightmare. It all started when the computer guru Chez Nous…aka Hubby Dearest…decided after the latest of several malware attacks that that was it…we were done with PCs. He then proceeded to tweak my Scottish sensibilities by running out and buying his and her Macs. The man at the Apple store assured him that the transition would be a piece of cake and that furthermore, the writing programs that I need…which are not offered in Mac versions…could still be used…because the new Macs can be partitioned to accept Windows-based programs. 

Ha! Well, it’s been a month since our new toys arrived and all they’ve done is create one problem after another. My trusty seven-year-old PC is sulking after being deemed incompatible and has been fiddled with so much that now it’s un-WiFi-able. I am reduced to writing to you now on a vintage, no-frills, ex-French government agency issue laptop. How old is it you ask? Well, the “intel inside” is so old that it has to be jerry rigged to be able to go online and the celeron might as well be celery.

So suddenly incommunicado…I did what any one else would do…I went to the county fair.

Each year, for nine days, the farmer that lurks within each Parisian goes amuck and propels itself to the Salon International de l’Agriculture. It’s the Parisian version of a county fair!

The event officially had its beginnings back in 1870, although, unofficially, agricultural competitions go back much further in French history.  The emphasis of the salon was initially on farm animals but over the past 141 years, it has  evolved to include all sorts of produits du terroir, such as wheat, milk, and wine. It moved to the current venue, the exposition center at Porte de Versailles, in 1925 and in 1964, it became an international happening. This year’s salon boasted 1098 different exhibitors and was viewed by 678,732 entrants. It is the largest agricultural gathering in France and offers much more than cows…in typical French fashion, it’s a fascinating gastronomic experience…regional and international!

That’s not to say that cows aren’t front and center…the poster girl shown above is Candy a young Vosgienne…a breed of cow that hails from the Vosges region. Just about every type of cow imaginable is there…big, huge ones with horns…
…others that are not so huge…
  …and still others that watch you while you eat.

Sheep, pigs, rabbits, chickens, and horses abound…and the bounties of the sea are represented as well. The region of Brittany had a vast display of ultra fresh fish… …interspersed with an artfully-arranged selection of shellfish…
 
As for pigs…pen after pen was filled with the real thing…
…and there were also some not so real piggies… All the food groups were represented…wheat for making those fabulous baguettes…and fruit…here’s a stand full of bananas from Martinique…

Technically not part of a food group, but definitely an essential part of any French diet… wine…there was plenty of du vin at the salon…

 Non-essentials were there, too…like confiseries…
If you have never had a French bonbon…brace yourself…they are really, really sweet!

There were numerous educational displays that explained all that went into the care and raising of the various animals and then there were other displays that were more intent on seeing that you enjoyed the results in a more timely manner…
…jambon is French for “ham”.

There was every type of saucisson…or sausage…imaginable…
…including some that were à la truffe…accented with hunks of truffle…
As would be expected, cheese was very well-represented, but not just French cheese…there was Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Toscano, and Montasio varieties from Italy, Batzos and Kopanisti from Greece, and from Switzerland…… Appenzeller, Tomme Vaudoise, and enormous rounds of Gruyère.

Presenting all these delices were proud proprietors dressed in the traditional costumes of their particular region…including this woman from Berry…

   …and this man from Finistère…
And, of course, no county fair would be complete without someone doing the “it slices…it dices” routine…only in France, the end result is a bit more ornate…
…melons are swirled so that they are hardly recognizable as melons…and a French jack-o-lantern…
…is anything but rustic.

All this effort is made in the hopes of being awarded one of the coveted prizes…   …in this case, the lucky winner was Elysee, a pig from Normandy.

After making our way through the several huge halls filled to the brim with enticing exhibits and with our arms laden with bags full of products,  we capped off our day at Paris’ version of a county fair by visiting…

…the cheese temple…for a bit of raclette authentique…
….not to mention une vrai fondue savoyarde…

 

Stay tuned for more behind the scenes adventures of The Meadows Collection…or check out the results at www.meadowscollection.com

Fish and Company…

Continuing to describe the items that are in the photographs that span across the top of our blog…we’ve now reached the middle…

…and will be talking about antique raseurs.  In general, the word raseur…pronounced as “raw-sir”…translates to mean a person who is boring. A raseur…the object…was found in just about every early inn and tavern in the regions of Alsace in eastern France and Flanders…or what is now northern France and Belgium. When a customer  had had a bit too much to drink or  became an annoyance, the inn-keeper  would set the house raseur in motion.  Consisting of a fanciful figure in tôle peint…painted sheet metal…the raseur would oscillate back and forth...back and forth...until it eventually stopped...at which time, the boring person knew it was time to leave. No further discussion necessary.

We chose to adopt a raseur as the logo for our antiques business…The Meadows Collection…and you’ll find the raseur shown to the right on the home page of our web site: www.meadowscollection.com.

It’s a perfect symbol as we specialize in antiques and vintage decorative arts that are definitely not boring and pride ourselves on always having objects that are a little bit out of the ordinary...we like to say that they are  "Just as unique as you are."

The raseur featured on the top of the blog has its own stand; other types were designed with a counterbalance weight at the bottom and could rest directly on the bar counter or zinc…pronounced “zang” and meaning the bar counter which was typically topped with zinc…the metal that we pronounce as “zink”.

In addition, each night, the tavern owner would set the raseur in motion to signify “last call”. Kinetic sculptures…they are both playfully decorative and downright useful…particularly handy should you  ever suffer with a guest who has over-stayed their welcome…hence the title of this post!

Raseurs were made in all sorts of fanciful shapes…here’s one that
typifies those found in nineteenth century Alsace…
 
…he represents a horn blower…recalling that up until around 1790, the guardians of the Cathedral in Strasbourg would blow on a horn…called a grüselhorn…to signify that the town gates were about to be closed and those that were not authorized to spend the night in the city had best beat a hasty retreat. A fitting motif for a raseur.

Here’s another raseur that looks surprisingly like Mickey Mouse…

…and this one’s a colorful parrot…

Definitely not boring…they are all wonderful examples of French folk art…what the French call art populaire!

Stay tuned for more behind the scenes adventures of The Meadows Collection…or check out the results at www.meadowscollection.com

Some Caviar Caveats…

Continuing the survey of the images that run across the top of the page…let’s see…we’ve done the one on the far left…the Bacchus/Bacchante piece…and the 1930s mug shot of a bad check writer from Pennsylvania. This post will be about the vintage caviar tin that is in between those two.
True caviar is the unfertilized eggs of a specific type of sturgeon. Processed and salted, the eggs...also known as roe...are a luxury gourmet item, with some varieties advertised at upwards of $10,000 per kilo…that’s more than $4500 a pound!

Here are some caviar caveats…

In most cases, caviar is delivered to a re-seller packaged in a tin such as these vintage containers…
Beluga is the rarest variety. It comes in a blue tin and has dark, black eggs of the largest diameter or grain...about 2.5mm. A tin of the size of our largest Beluga example...6.25 inches in diameter and 3.25 inches high…would have had its contents divided into smaller, more marketable jars....or else someone was very rich, indeed or perhaps expecting an enormous number of hungry guests! The smaller of our Beluga tins…the blue tin on the far left…measures 4.9375 inches in diameter and 1.3125 inches high.

Other varieties include Osetra which is packaged in a yellow tin and Sevruga (red tin).

Caviar is highly perishable...it can be pasteurized to extend its shelf life, but not without the quality of the product suffering significant loss. Once a caviar container is opened, the contents must be consumed within a couple of days.

Malossol is a Russian word meaning "little salt"...this signifies a caviar that is both the freshest and of the highest quality.

Guriev is the former name of a port on the Caspian Sea...it is now known as Atyraü, Kazakstan.

There are 280 calories in 100 grams of caviar.

A sterling silver spoon is not to be used with caviar as it imparts an unpleasant metallic taste...instead, tradition calls for a mother of pearl utensil for serving.

In ancient Egypt, caviar was offered to the feline deities; in the newly-industrialized nations of the nineteenth century, caviar was reserved for the wealthy and served at prestigious functions; in eastern Europe, caviar is more democratic and is served at any festive occasion...birthdays, weddings, etc.

A high-quality caviar should not be served masked with onions, eggs, capers, and the like...caviar connoisseurs insist that it is best served heaped upon a small piece of thin, toasted bread that has been spread with vodka-infused butter.

Sturgeons are believed to be one of the oldest survivors of the prehistoric age, but pollution and over-fishing have taken a toll and it is now on the list of endangered species. Russia has ceased all fishing for sturgeon in the hopes of protecting the species.

The red tin in the group photograph measures 4.125 inches in diameter and 1.125 inches high...the caviar it once contained came from Iran. Iran continues to fish for sturgeon.  In 1956, the government of Iran granted a monopoly for the processing of its caviar to a French firm...the product is known as Caviar Volga.

Russian caviar and Iranian caviar are different owing to the peculiarities of the waters and depths of the Caspian sea...each variety has its proponents. (Iranian caviar has been banned from being exported into the United States since the 1970s).

Sevruga caviar comes from the smallest sturgeon...perhaps a meter in length and weighing around 30 to 40 pounds. The roe is characterized by its small...1mm diameter...grains and is prized for its intense flavor.
Emptied of caviar by the time we found them…these tins would add a wonderful touch of color atop a kitchen cabinet for example…and each would surely spark some interesting conversation. They would also be great as unique storage tins for all those things that need to be stored…sewing tools and buttons…what have you!

Stay tuned for more behind the scenes adventures of The Meadows Collection…or check out the results at www.meadowscollection.com