What has 600,000 visitors, 1,000 exhibitors from 17 countries and 22 French regions, 700 producers from France plus more than 4500 animals including 2,000 dogs, 650 goats, billy goats, sheep, rams & ewes, 610 rabbits, 600 cows & bulls, 100 horses ponies and donkeys, and 60 pigs? The amazing, incredible, humongous, taste-bud tantalizing, overwhelming, dizzying, Salon d'Agriculture.
I was invited to attend by a new friend who I met through a mutual friend via email , David Jaggard, who I technically didn't meet till that night. It turns out that David writes about food for my friend Heidi Ellison's excellent Paris info website Paris Update and we met up with Heidi and some of her other writers.
The Salon d'Agriculture is held at the Porte de Versailles, one of the largest exhibition spaces in Paris with seven massive hangars. Since I'm such a city slicker like Eva Gabor in Green Acres, I wanted to see the farm animals first. We went to the cow and sheep pavilion and I was taken by the sweet cows, gentle sheep, and rambunctious baby pigs. Next we went to the food halls and I was amazed by the endless rows of food stalls, wine stands, and make shift restaurants with food from so many different regions. We sampled our way through the maze of aisles tasting cheeses, foie gras, many types of ham, pastries, chocolate, bread, oils and vinegars and so many more things I can' t remember, because my mouth went on automatic pilot after a certain point. One stand, which had cooked foie gras sandwiches on baguettes had a long line so we figured it must be good. Heidi generously bought us a bunch of them and we savored the delicious, rich taste of the foie gras which practically melted in our mouths. David found a fresh oyster stand from Bretagne and feasted on a plateful.
As you know, I am not much of a wine person but when I was told the wine vendors were freely offering tastes of 135 euros a bottle I became very interested. We sampled some dry whites and robust reds and the vendors aggressively courted us to buy.
Exhausted and full from my many, many tastings, my last stop was the horse pavilion, where I saw an entertaining horse show where a young man gracefully straddled two horses while standing up.
I will for sure return next year and in fact will be organizing tours to visit the Salon d'Agriculture, so if you plan on coming to Paris next year, reserve your tickets for the end of February and we will pig out together.
http://www.salon-agriculture.com/
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.
Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.
Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
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