Sometimes, after a neighborhood walk during which we’ve peered in at gated parks and gardens, we return home and find ourselves grazing on poetry—well, some of us do. We brush by some texts, we shrug off others, we resist veering off to news and rumors on our phones. Increasingly we linger, first on one poem, then on another, until we sink into one and it engulfs us. We stay with it. We reread it. Have we understood it correctly? We contemplate its words and its lines and its entirety. If the poem is in French then we may translate it, if perhaps too literally at first, and work on it until we are satisfied with our day.

Renouveau (Renewal) by Stephane Mallarmé (1842-1898), written in 1862, published in 1866. Translation and photos by Gary Lee Kraut, March 22, 2020.

Renouveau

Le printemps maladif a chassé tristement
L’hiver, saison de l’art serein, l’hiver lucide,
Et, dans mon être à qui le sang morne préside
L’impuissance s’étire en un long bâillement.

Des crépuscules blancs tiédissent sous mon crâne
Qu’un cercle de fer serre ainsi qu’un vieux tombeau
Et triste, j’erre après un rêve vague et beau,
Par les champs où la sève immense se pavane

Puis je tombe énervé de parfums d’arbres, las,
Et creusant de ma face une fosse à mon rêve,
Mordant la terre chaude où poussent les lilas,

J’attends, en m’abîmant que mon ennui s’élève…
– Cependant l’Azur rit sur la haie et l’éveil
De tant d’oiseaux en fleur gazouillant au soleil.

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Fish-spawn addicts already know the drill. Sturgeon season ends in March and the last fish in the net provide deliciously low-salt caviar with a distinctive “woodsy freshness” on the palate. Astara, a company that usually deals exclusively with restaurants, is reaching out to the public, but only through June.

Yes, like the Franklin Mint, this is a limited edition offer. If you lust for a tin of seasonal proto-sturgeon, you need to hit three lucky stores. Only La Grande Epicerie at the Bon Marché, the Galéries Gourmandes at the Palais de Congrès (Porte Maillot) and the Ferme d’Hugo (Place Victor Hugo) will stock Astara’s “Sélection de Printemps” from March 21 to June 30, 2013. Prices vary from 13 € for 10 grams (barely a lick and a promise) to 162 € (125 grams) … a major investment that builds a Really Big Blini.

Of course, it’s best to have seasonal caviar served an iced platter.  When shoppers tire of browsing through the Paule K and Prada racks at Printemps, they can make their way to the sixth floor brasserie where Astara has installed an ephemeral FishBar through April 13.

It’s already serving luscious salmon salads and two plush variations of tarama (pink and white), but remember that the “Sélection de Printemps” caviar (served with a flute of Champagne) won’t light up the menu until March 21.

Printemps, 64, bd Haussmann, 9th arr. Metro Havre Caumartin. Closed Sunday.

The post Little Black Easter Eggs: Spring Caviar Comes to Paris appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

“April in Paris” has a particularly American ring to it. So for those Americans unable to get to Paris this month because of airport closings due to the erupting volcano in Iceland, Va-nu-pieds, the barefoot photographer went out on a photo shoot with Paris’s Ladies Liberty in a France Revisited exclusive.

Here’s Lady Liberty just beyond the Eiffel Tower on Ile aux Cygnes.

Here’s Lady Liberty in the Luxembourg Garden.

The post Va-nu-pieds: April in Paris appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

It’s springtime in Paris.
A line in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost In Translation,” which I saw again recently, goes like this:
“I tried taking pictures, but they were so mediocre. I guess every girl goes through a photography phase. You know, horses… taking dumb pictures of your feet.”
Should I take that personally.

C’est le printemps à Paris.
Une réplique de “Lost in translation” de Sofia Coppola, revu récemment :
« I tried taking pictures, but they were so mediocre. I guess every girl goes through a photography phase. You know, horses… taking dumb pictures of your feet. »
Dois-je le prendre personnellement ?

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