In: Stunning museum. Out: Metro tickets. In: Mashed potatoes.

August 31, 2018

By Patricia Tennison
www.ParisCafeWriting.com

It’s not really a museum, in the classic sense. The hot-new Atelier des Lumières in Paris is more an experience, a 360-degree submersion into whatever they are featuring, like the initial focus on the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.

I hesitate to reveal too much because I believe that the best way to experience the Atelier is to just go. Don’t search Google to find more than the few photos I have posted. Just go.

(That’s also the way I prefer to see movies or read a book: Get a tip, dive in, come to your own conclusions, and read the reviews later.)

For those who still like to read at least the book cover flaps, here is a little background:

The Atelier des Lumières, 38 rue Saint Maur, opened this spring in the 11th arrondissement, just east of the Marais in a former 19th century foundry. It’s basically a huge room with a three-story high ceiling, concrete walls and floors—and 140 video projectors.

Brilliant is the best word for this hot ticket

In a brilliant kaleidoscopic effect—and brilliant is the word I choose for this whole Atelier experience—portions of the artist’s work appear on one wall, another portion on another wall, on the ceiling, on the floor. One friend said she almost stumbled when the scene on the floor seemed to move. Children do move, chasing the colors.

Ah, the children. I love children. Truly. And I’m glad they get this experience. However …

However—and I am expecting another short response from the reader who called me an “airhead” after I reported on Paris’s first marijuana restaurant—avoid the children.

I checked with a guard, and the children tend to come in the mornings. When they are under five they come for free, and they freely play hopscotch and run in circles and laugh as they run and run as they laugh.

Come in the afternoon.

Classical music accompanies the light display and it’s like a reflective hour in church or at the opera. Brilliant.

The Klimt show ends December 31. Open daily. Price: 14.50 euros. Advance tickets are obligatoire. Here is the link: www.atelier-lumieres.com/en

TIP: Once you have experienced the main floor, find the stairs to the mezzanine. It’s a different sight experience from that vantage point, and there are some written displays.

***** ***** *****

Out: Those paper Metro tickets

After more than 100 years of service, the little paper tickets for the Paris Metro and bus are going to disappear.

You can still use the ones you have through 2021, but starting next year you can also buy its replacement, a plastic Navigo card. There will be two kinds of Navigo cards, but we’ll come back to those in another newsletter next year.

The plastic cards will be easier to use—one version links to your credit card—and they will have no time limit. But the paper will be history.

So hold on to the memories of the paper tickets with the magnetic strip on the back, the ones strewn on the Metro floors along with mégots (cigarette butts). Yes, any magnet in your purse will de-magnetize the paper tickets and you have to stand in line to get the bad ones replaced. And which are the bad ones? The faint “used” line is hard to read.

I have already saved some paper and coin French francs, and now will add a few paper Metro tickets. You might want to do the same.

***** ***** *****

In: Mashed potatoes á la Robuchon

Celebrity chef Joël Robuchon died of cancer in August at age 73, leaving behind a record 32 Michelin stars among his many restaurants—and a legacy for mashed potatoes.

Those who loved him, love the potatoes and give him full credit for the very specific recipe. Others shrug “it’s just mashed potatoes.” With a lot of butter.

Either way, when the summer heat diminishes in Paris and winter re-enters, I predict honorary offerings of purée (mashed potatoes) on Paris menus. It’s been a few years since I dined at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in the 7th, and it’s time to go back.

If you want to make them at home, below is the recipe, courtesy of the Guardian newspaper. I have changed the kilos to pounds, and the grams to cups.

Recipe from The Complete Robuchon (Grub Street, £25.00)
For successful mashed potatoes, salt the cooking water when it is still cold and salt the finished purée carefully. If you can, use a food mill or potato ricer instead of a blender or food processor. When the potato has gone through the ricer, put it in a saucepan over a medium heat and turn it vigorously with a wooden spatula to dry it out a bit. Stir in the butter first and the whole milk later. Finish mixing with a whisk for a lighter purée.

Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 35 minutes
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
2.2 pounds potatoes, preferably rattes or BF15,** scrubbed but unpeeled
Coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, diced and kept well chilled until use
1 cup whole milk
Salt and pepper

1. Put the potatoes in a saucepan with 8 cups of cold water and 1 tablespoon of coarse salt. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until a knife slips in the potatoes easily and cleanly, about 25 minutes.

2. Drain the potatoes and peel them. Put them through a potato ricer (or a food mill fitted with its finest disk) into a large saucepan. Turn the heat to medium and dry the potato flesh out a bit by turning it vigorously with a spatula for about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, rinse a small saucepan and pour out the excess water but do not wipe it dry. Add the milk and bring to a boil.

4. Turn the heat under the potatoes to low and incorporate the well-chilled butter bit by bit, stirring it in energetically for a smooth, creamy finish. Pour in the very hot milk in a thin stream, still over a low heat, still stirring briskly. Keep stirring until all the milk is absorbed. Turn off the heat and taste for salt and pepper.

5. For an even lighter, finer purée, put it through a very fine sieve before serving.

** Ah, here is the reason your mashed potatoes won’t taste like Robuchon’s. The ratte potato is a low-starch, nutty-flavored fingerling more common in France. You might find them in a specialty market in the U.S. The B15 is another famed French variety, also very difficult to find in the U.S. For a substitute, look for a waxy potato that’s good for boiling. The most common solutions are red potatoes or newly dug “new” potatoes with a thin skin. (Patricia Tennison)

Photos of the Atelier des Lumières exhibit by Joseph Prendergast.

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