{Some of this is on my Instagram account, so apologies if you’re seeing things twice.)
Bread and art, is there anything else? In Letter #1, I talked about the ‘baguette tradition’ and our chat with Vanessa, at Coeur. I asked if she could help me understand this notion of two categories…. The common version and this mysterious (to me) traditional version. She stuck her head in her tiny office and came out with a copy of Drift, an American magazine dedicated to coffee culture. The current issue (Fall of 2022) was centered on where else…Paris. She opened it to the middle to show us three Boulangerie that make outstanding traditional style baguettes. Chanceux, 10 Belles, and Sain Boulangerie. All three are within walking distance of us in the Marais. We hit Chanceux first. I believe I mentioned in my previous letter, that it was still warm when we got it… It so happens that I was making Boeuf Bourguignon that night, and what might accompany that dish better than a still warm, traditional baguette? Soft, airy, that incredible texture, a bit of a crunch on the crust — slathered with butter, oh my goodness. When I had asked her how I should ask for it, she said, “Un tradition, sil vous plait.” And so I did. At table, it disappeared in short order.
Here’s a lovely remembrance of things (and bread) past by Alice Waters. We might call this the inciting incident…’that first taste of apricot jam…’
“When I was in college in the ’60s I went to France for my junior year, and that’s when I really woke up to real food. I remember that first taste of apricot jam on a baguette that was still hot from the oven—I just immediately wanted to eat that every single day. And I did! Back then every corner in Paris had a place where baguettes were baked in the wood oven. Everyone went to the bakery, and you waited in line in the mornings for your baguette. I liked that the apricot jam I found there had a tart-sweet taste to it—not sweet-sweet, but with a hint of acidity. At the time I thought apricots were apricots, but what I learned later is that there are all these amazing varietals, and when you get the right one in the right microclimate—like a Blenheim apricot in mid-summer in Brentwood—they’re ethereal.”
Can you just imagine this notion in the United States of America?Regulated bread, decreed by the government? Here’s the criteria:
A traditional baguette must be made with only the following four ingredients: wheat flour, water, salt, and yeast, and it must weigh between 8.8 and 10.8 ounces and measure between 8.8 and 10.6 inches long.
This is Communist ideology, pure and simple. Thank god that in America we are free to throw in all the additives, dyes, and preservatives we want.
Speaking of ideology and Communism.
We visited The Maison Européenne de la Photographie the other day. This is a gorgeous center for contemporary photography and as luck would have it, (truly incredible luck I’d say) nearly the entire space was given over to the work of the photographer, Boris Mikhailov. He’s from Kharkiv, of all places. The show is 800 images (!) and the range of his work has to be seen to be believed.
From the MEP website:
Boris Mikhailov’s pioneering practice encompasses documentary photography, conceptual work, painting and performance. Since the 1960s, he has been creating a haunting record of the tumultuous changes in Ukraine that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disastrous consequences of its dissolution. Conceived in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition brings together more than 800 images drawing on more than twenty of his most important series, up to his most recent work.
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Haunting is right. Here’s what I found so moving about this show. Boris has developed countless, alternative ways to push photography in every imaginable direction in order to convey his wildly varied subject matter so that the content and the process are both telling the story . (See image above.) He has mastered the medium and made it his own. Beyond that he’s courageous, deeply sensitive, funny, and compassionate—there’s a big heart beating inside the man and the pictures show it. He’s 84 now, so he’s both seen and lived through a lot. I urge you to read of this piece in the NYT; it gives a great overview of the man and his work.
We made our first visit (there will be more) to Père Lachaise Cemetery, the legendary resting place for an extraordinary collection of humans. Who’s here? Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Guillaume Apollinaire, and many, many others. It opened in 1894 and continues operations to this day.
