La Commune

A few Saturdays ago I volunteered at a Slow Food fundraiser at La Commune Cafe. Most of you living in New York have heard of the Slow Food movement, as it is quite the culinary trend at the moment. But for those of you who don't know slow food is according to their website "Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment. A non-profit member-supported association, Slow Food was founded in 1989 to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Today, there are over 100,000 members, in 1,300 convivia – local chapters – worldwide, as well as a network of 2,000 food communities who practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality foods." I find it to be a very impressive and important organization. 

La Commune Cafe is a comunity kitchen and part of the commune libre d'Aligre association that is heavily supported by voulenteers and is a meeting space for many Slow Food volunteers. The association aims to aid  community leadership, cultural and sporting Quarter Aligre (a part of the 12th arrondissement). "The defense of its environment and its living environment, promotion of mutual assistance and solidarity among its people."

Commune libre d'Aligre (CLA) was founded in 1955 by Mr. Jeanson, Beauvau merchant market, in  solidarity and in an effort to aid people who needed assistance post-war. The CLA began in 1978 to celebrate the Aligre market and with many festivals, and local food and drink. The CLA is open to all, and is in fact dedicated to the life of the city in a spirit of conviviality and solidarity. I know this is sounding very hippy-dippy of me but ot me food is a way o connect people and land. I find that food and shared meals is a universal language. 

Since 2004, the CLA also hosts the Aligresse, a small garden where people, young and old, grow together. And in 2007 the CLA opened a coffee associative 3 rue Aligre, high place of conviviality in the neighborhood.

 

I find the CLA an amazing orgainzation and was happy to volunteer to help them and the Slow Food Movement. It was a long 13 hour day that finshed in the rain but I learned so much about produce that I had never seen before. We made Moroccan couscous, Peruvian cousa, sardine croustinis, and even a San Francisco cioppino.


We bought all the items we need at the local market. 

The mis-match crew making Tarts with Red Fruit

Julie and I took a little road trip

And we saw little hidden treasures of France. I am going to let the pictures and captions do the story telling.

 From Biarritz to Bayonne. It adorable little city is very proud of its Basque roots.

On our way for Bayonne to Arcachon was stopped by Europe's largest sand dune, to say it was odd and amazing are both understatements

 

Ready to climb?

 

 Up we go...

 All most there...

 The view!

 

AMAZING French Hippie Van

Arcachon and a very happy Julie, in her element of west coast France

We then continued our trip to Il-de-Re, a Julie find of course.

 

Off we go on our biking adventure to Phare des Baleines (a lighthouse)

 

Oyster farms, Il-de-Re produces almost 10,000 kilos (I think...) of oyseters each year, yummy!

 

 Crazy tides

 

 

 These are a few of my favorite things.... wine and Pepe

 

Le Phare, so overrated considering it took us forever and just a few wrong turns to get there.

 Look Mom...Donkeys! (I may have been on the verge of exhaustion at this point)

Bar Hemingway, baby bottles of wine, and the Hammam

So this post is long over due...

From Laura's visit over Bastille Day to Julie's visit my futon was in constant use, get your minds out of the gutter. It was wonderful to have all these friends and loved ones but somethings slipped by the wayside, case and point my blogging. 

Post Dwight and Brittany's Paris extravaganza Jebby and Katie came to visit on their way to Italy.

While their trip was short, it was certainly event filled. On day one we did a warp speed walking tour of Paris. Katie's pictures prove this by being all off angle because we did not stop to let her compose any of them. (sorry Katie, I can only walk by the Eiffel Tower so many times)

After a quick respite at my apartment we decided to go to Bar Hemingway at the Ritz. Oh la la right? Bar Hemingway is a very cool Ernest Hemingway bar, with delicious but grossly over priced cocktails. But was had to allow Jebby one macho event during his 48 hours in Paris.

But lets just say after our swanky cocktails the classy-ness of our night serverly dimished.... cheap wine in baby bottles anyone?

Le me tell you it never leads to good things or decisions. You can drink wine out of baby bottles just too damn fast. Now mom did you ever think at almost 25 years old I would be complaining about that?

Needless to say all three of us woke up with a very painful head...

Now Paris has these wonderful things called hammams. A hammam, also known as the Turkish hamam or Turkish bath, is the Middle Eastern variant of a steam bath, which can be categorized as a wet relative of the sauna. Although the first hammams originated in Arabia, and bath culture was a central part of Roman life, Turkey popularized the tradition (and is most often associated with it) by making hammams available to people of all statuses

The bathing in a hammam is a process, but let me tell you it really does sweat all the toxins (aka cheap wine) out of your system. When I first suggested the hammam to Katie she thought I said Hamas, yes as in the  terriorist group, now as that may have been one way to scare the hangover out of all of us the hammam seemed like a more relaxing way for Katie and I to get through the next few painful hours.

As with almost all fun nights, a hangover comes and the next morning, and after a few horrible hours the hangover soon does pass.... but I would like to suggest a hammam or a Turkish bath next time you want to accelerate the detox process. Alas the hammam near my house is women only so Paris really did get the better of Jebby...