Markets and morsels

I got a little carried away with the frisée at market this morning.  That is a LOT of frisée.  We wandered up to Blvd Charrone for their Saturday morning market.  In addition to the greens we picked up some Reblochon and some Brie de Meaux.  The first smear of it on a Parisian baguette and I felt fully arrived.  

I was a little more subdued at Gerard Mulot.  I only bought nine macaroons.

Plat du premiere jour

So our first meal in Paris was at Cafe des Anges. It was a buzzing crowd, most of whom it seemed ordered the famous burger. I chose the hanger steak with a tasty scoop of gratin potatoes that was perfection. That's horseradish sauce there on the side.


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Take off

This was one big bird and we were on the top tier.  First time I walked UP hill  on a jetway.  This is Air France's premiere voyageur class btw business and coach.  There is a real difference in comfort and space.

No sleep on the plane ... A much too early flight for sleep, but we were in our Paris apartment by 10 Paris time and slept well into the afternoon.  Headed out for dinner and a night time exploration of our Bastille neighborhood with the time lag at our back pushing us bright eyed into the Paris night.

Preparing for Paris

I am hoping to leave my laptop at home and to blog from the flight deck of my iPad. This is easier said than done. It is the thorny question of how to upload photos. As promised in the reviews BlogPress is a bust (*note to self BELIEVE THE REVIEWS in the app store) , but if it DID work it would be sleek and wonderful. So now I am thinking about emailing my posts.

I'll be leaving the "books" behind for iphone maps of the Metro. I've even loaded a movie for the flight since my recollection of Air France's inflight screens is less than stellar.

I remember on my very first trip to Paris, Genevieve loaned me her hard cover Plan de Paris par Arrondissement.

Now I will be staring into a small screen as a venture forth.

Libros Para Pueblos

The Oaxaca Lending Library (OLL) was established in 1966 and is the oldest English language library in Mexico. Ten years ago members of this library began a program called Libros Para Pueblos in an effort to bring the joy of reading to children in primary grades in the remote villages surrounding Oaxaca. Today there are 41 libraries in remote villages. We went to visit two of them yesterday.

Our group of eight gathered at the OLL at 9 where we were met by three volunteers and a van. Our first destination was the library at San Lucas Tlanichico. The small village is outside of the market town of Zaachila. Emblazened over the door in both Spanish and Zapotec is the motto of their library .... Casa del Saber ... and yuu nan ... house of knowledge.I was unprepared for what happened upon our arrival. The local school emptied out and and each child came and shook our hands and went into the library and chose a book to read to us. We spent the next forty minutes listening to these young readers read to us. I let the pictures speak.About a 15 minute drive from San Lucas is the school that serves children living in more remote parts of the foothills. The school is named Margarita Maza de Juarez and even this short distance we could see the difference the added remoteness made in the opportunities for these children. If a child who attends this school wants to attend secondaria, there would be a 2 hour bus trip that costs $2 each way. That cost is prohibitive.

We were greeted by the principal and the children and the women who are the officers of the PTA. Again the children were eager to read us their favorite books, and before we left asked us to send them more. We have decided to sponsor a library located in San Pedro El Alto. Like this school we visited, San Pedro El Alto serves remote mountain villages. Interested in how Libros Para Pueblos works? Click here.

The Montezuma Cypress Tree at Tule

Two Thousand Years Old. 1500 feet wide. Over 635,ooo Tons.

This tree outside of Oaxaca is quite the specimen. Apparently it tapped into an underground spring which accounts for its mass and longevity. When arborists realized a few years ago that it had tapped out its water source, they began feeding it.

Music in Oaxaca

Yesterday afternoon we attended a jazz concert in the courtyard of the Casa Colonial. It was in the outdoor courtyard and the quartet shared the stage with drop in vocalists as well as doing Miles Davis and Charlie Parker numbers. It was delightful to sit in the late afternoon sun amid the buoganvilla draped courtyard listening to good music. On Saturday night we dropped in to Amarantos on the Zocolo and listened to the trio Tierra Sol y Luna. If you want musical accompaniment to go with the picture below click HERE. Pour yourself a margarita and close your eyes ...

The Woodcarvers of San Martin Tilcajete

On the road home from Octolan we stopped in the village of San Martin Tilcajete at the studio of Jacobo and Maria Angeles. Jacobo took us through his studio and explained to us what goes into making a collector's quality carving.He started with the tree, the copal tree to be exact, giving us each a year old seedling to hold in our hands. Then he took us to the woodpile and showed us the difference between male and female tree wood. The female is softer and easier to carve. The male wood has a reddish color in its bark that is used as part of the natural coloring.The carver begins with a machete, chunking the wood into the form that he wants. The finer work is done with chisels and knives. The wood is left to dry for 6 months, and about half way through the drying process is dipped in gasoline to kill any termites.

The traditional ways of making pigment were explained to us. Using his hands as his palette, he began with traditional plant and animal pigments ... the powdered sap of the copal tree when mixed with honey becomes a rich brown. But if you add a little limestone to it, it becomes a rich black ... add baking soda and lime juice to to that and you have a rich yellow. There is a yellow ochre that comes from the fermented corn mold called huitlacoche ... and the reds, from the now familiar cochinella. It was quite the magic show.
Thoroughly dazzled we moved to the area where the painters were at work. There were some painters working on commercial pieces in acrylic. But there were also artists working with the natural paints on the collector pieces. Here is an example of a finished collector's quality piece from their gallery. You can see the intricate detail, and while this picture does not showcase the rich earth tones that I think make these pieces so attractive, it does highlight the intricate detail of the work.

The Traditions of Oaxaca

Friday night after a long day on the road from Ocatlan we attended a dinner and dance performance in the great hall of the old Dominican convent. I will let the pictures speak.The final dance was the traditional dance of the region with the large feathered head dresses

On the road home from Ocotlan

A short way out of town we stopped to visit the workshops of of the Aguilar sisters. These potters work in fanciful pottery images. While there I spied a pottery painter and asked if someone might paint something typical from the region on the side of my Tilley hat. The last time I did that was at a parasol festival outside of Chiang Mai. I was delighted with the result.