The Salon de
l’Agriculture is the first big Paris
food fair of the year. I try to begin with a scouting mission first thing in
the morning on opening day. The crowd buzz, jostling and extreme lack of
personal space are reminiscent of a rock concert, except that it’s 9am, the
average age is 50 and people like me are rolling over your feet with their
grocery carts. When the doors open, it is a rock concert, people darting and
scurrying this way and that, some decisively, others carried along with the
stream. With five pavilions to choose from, some strategy is required. My
favorites are the Animal hall (Pavilion 1) and the two-storied Regions of
France food hall (Pavilion 7). Pavilion 2 is devoted to beauty and gardening;
Pavilion 3 has an International food hall and booths with information on food
and agriculture-related professions; Pavilion 4 showcases house pets and
tourism.
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| Valentine says, "I'm on my way!" |
The Animal hall will be, sorry, a zoo on the weekend when
families descend en masse to see
bovine prize winners from all over France, offering an opportunity to learn the
difference between a Charolais and a Blonde d’Aquitaine (both much bigger than
your average city dweller imagines). It's also great fun to see the
playful piglets, snoring sows, and other barnyard friends, including some crazy
chicken plumage. There will be a huge crowd for the animal parade in the Grand
Ring at 2pm on Saturday, opened no doubt by Valentine, this year’s mascot, a
seven-year old Gasconne dairy cow.
The animal hall isn't just about showing animals to city people. This is big business. The dairy industry has an especially strong presence with information booths and activities to promote the biggest names in dairy products, les produits laitiers, such as Le Gall, Danone and the supermarket chain, Carrefour. Last year there was a hilarious dance act with hip hop dancers under a banner reading "Lait's danse", an awkward play on milk. Think "Let's dance" with a very strong French accent.
The animal hall isn't just about showing animals to city people. This is big business. The dairy industry has an especially strong presence with information booths and activities to promote the biggest names in dairy products, les produits laitiers, such as Le Gall, Danone and the supermarket chain, Carrefour. Last year there was a hilarious dance act with hip hop dancers under a banner reading "Lait's danse", an awkward play on milk. Think "Let's dance" with a very strong French accent.
McDonald's, or MacDo (pronounced "Mac Doh") for the French, is also on hand to promote their coordination with local farmers. After a very rocky start in Paris in the 1970s, and negative publicity from the political activist farmer, José Bové, beginning in1999, McDonald's, has made noteworthy strides in cleaning up its reputation, creating convivial dining spaces (within in the limits of the genre), and contracting directly with French farmers for potatoes and fresh produce, rather than importing potatoes from American facilities.
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| © 2010 K-Rae Nelson |
The real draw of the Salon are the food halls of Pavilion 7. If you go in the
morning, it will be fairly calm, but the afternoons are a madhouse. Grab a map
from one of the information stands and start wandering. There is a vague
regional organization with lots of traffic in the Aquitaine
(Bordeaux) and Bourgogne regions (foreshadowing for the
Salon des Vins des Vignerons Indépendants, the Independent Wine Makers Salon,
which will be held March 23-26). Taste your way through both levels. You'll
find duck products galore (confit, cassoulet, magret seché, fumé, duck breast stuffed with foie gras), saucisse (sausage,
to be cooked) and saucisson
(salami-like sausage) from every region, farm-fresh cheeses, and regional
specialties like Aligot, cheesy
creamy mashed potatoes (25% Tome de
Laguiole cheese, 12% cream), from the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the
South of France. For immediate gratification, regional restaurants serve their
special dishes and beverages.
Five Things to Bring
Home
It's difficult to whittle the list down to five, but these are some of the items I regularly purchase, most of which travel well.
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Eau
de vie – Fruit Brandy. Unlike sea salt, it is very difficult to
find excellent eau de vie, clear brandy distilled from fermented fruit. Eau de
vie has a very fruity nose, but is not sweet to the taste. It's similar
to a grappa, but traditionally made from the Williams pear (poire William),
plum (quetsch, or another variety, prune), raspberry (framboise), and the tiny,
yellow Mirabelle plum. They are all fabulous, but a good framboise is heaven -
the sweet aroma of the fruit with the herbaceous bite of the stem. I see that
my last year's favorite, Michel Vosgien is not listed as a having a stand. You
might drop by the Distillerie Castan and sample their eaux de vie.
o Distillerie
Castan 7.1, K32
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| © 2012 K-Rae Nelson |
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Sel de Mer - Sea Salt. You can buy
sea salt from the Camargue on the Meditteranean; the Guerande
Peninsula, or Noirmoutier Island
both on the Atlantic coast. I like the crunchy grey Gros sel de Guérande
which I buy in bulk (about 10 pounds per year) and split between Paris and San
Diego. You can also pick up Fleur de Sel, the fine and
highly prized top layer of salt, as well as seaweed or fennel-flavored sea
salts. While you're chatting with the paludier about their salt harvesting
profession, be sure to sample one of the caramels au beurre sale salty butter
caramels that they're always pushing. You'll be delighted to find that sea salt
in France
is a great buy. The markup in the US is about 4000%. (Note: you can
also buy the same sea salt in most grocery stores in Paris.)
Gros sel de Guérande, Fleur de Sel, flavored salts, salty caramels
Gros sel de Guérande, Fleur de Sel, flavored salts, salty caramels
o
Les Salines de Guérande Pavilion 7.2, Stand
J40
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Ail
Rose de Lautrec Label Rouge – Red Label Lautrec Pink Garlic. Garlic
seems a bit of a homely offering in the midst of all of these delicacies. These
braids of pink-skinned garlic with 6 or 12 heads per braid travel well and make
great gifts. This pink garlic has a protected name and a quality label to boot.
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Pruneaux – Prunes. Prunes, or dried
plums don't have a particularly high sexy rating, but Pruneaux d'Agen, Agen
prunes are pitted, dried and then rehydrated and pasteurized. They are very
moist, delicious alone, but even better covered in chocolate (what isn't?), or
filled with crème de pruneaux. Prunes are good in Armagnac
(sweetish prune brandy or wine, as prune eau de vie and liqueurs. Who knew?
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Noir
de Bigorre - Bigorre Black Pig. This is the
French answer to Spain's
Bellotta ham made from free-range Gasconny black pigs in the Pyrenees.
Sliced thin, and served at room temperature, this finely marbled, cured ham has
a soft, melt-in-your-mouth consistency.
o
Noir de Bigorre Pavilion 7.1, Stand M40
Salon de l’Agriculture February 25th – March 4th, 2012
Informations Pratiques
- Practical information
Paris Expo: Porte de Versailles 9am-7pm
Nocturne/Late Opening Friday, March 2nd, until 11pm.
Paris Expo: Porte de Versailles 9am-7pm
Nocturne/Late Opening Friday, March 2nd, until 11pm.
1 place de la Porte de Versailles, 15th
M: Porte de
Versailles, Balard ; Tramway T2, T3 – Porte de Versailles
Plein Tarif – Full Price: Adults - 12€
Tarif Réduit –
Reduced Price: Students, Children and Nocturne
after 7pm - 6€
What? You mention Agen, without mentioning me. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe best way to eat pruneaux, is "mi-cuits", possibly freshly done (i.e. in the Fall).
Covered with chocolate is a hit or miss really, as sometimes plums of lesser quality are used and/or the plum producer is not always very proficient in good chocolate making.
Filles with crème de pruneaux, it also depends, as sometimes they're a bit too sweet (some sugar added).
As usual with food (but I won't teach you anything here) the less processed, the better.
As far as the Salon de l'Agriculture is concerned, I have mixed feelings about it. Sure it was fun the couple of times I went, but I had the strange feeling to be in a zoo. With the farm animals as you mentioned (and I feel sad for all of those little Parisian kids that will never approach a cow or a pig in a different situation), but also somewhat of a human zoo, where Parisians go see "country people".
To be fair, "country people" sometimes do themselves a disfavor by dressing like the clichés expect them to do. From their point of view it can be to mock those "clueless Parigos", but they're unwittingly perpetuate the clichés.
One last word about the regional products section. Lots and lots of great products there, but gosh they're so overpriced it's painful (easily double their normal price out of Paris)
I wish we'd had your list before we went- we were at the salon for hours and never even made it to Pavillon 7. We got sidetracked among the international delices of Pavillon 3 and ended up spending a surprisingly long time with the Bulgarians, who wouldn't stop feeding us samples.
ReplyDeleteOkay, and we also spent a lot of time taking pictures of sheep.
Send sheep photos!
Delete