Travel News:

PARIS when it sizzles. . .

“We’ll always have Paris,” said Bogart to Bergman in Casablanca, and for some of us, that’s an enduring sentiment. Reading Julia Child’s wonderful final book, “My Life in France,” brings back a cascade of memories, of discoveries gastronomic and certainly otherwise, and even brought me back again to “Between Meals,” A.J. Leibling’s passionate, eloquent love letter to Paris: “If I had compared my life to a cake,” he wrote, “the sojourns in Paris would have represented the chocolate filling. The intervening layers were plain sponge.” He liked a restaurant on the corner of Place Gaillon; 80 years later, it’s under new management, and so do I.

LA FONTAINE GAILLON
Not far from the Tuileries and the Louvre and taking advantage of its corner space with a hedged-in triangular patio that’s a pleasure to eat in when the sun’s out, is this sleekly understated, elegantly chic restaurant, owned by Gerard Depardieu and his partner Carole Bouquet. Inside, it’s done up in leather and suede and dark wood, in shades of brown and gray. Depardieu is often there, messing around in the kitchen—he’s an accomplished cook, and has even published a cookbook, terrific recipes but a hymn to cholesterol. The specialty is fish: langoustine ravioli, a carpaccio of tuna with Provencal olive oil which would make any sushi chef proud, red mullet fricassee with anise, scallops with truffle sauce, and Merlan Colbert, which is a whole whiting breaded and fried in clarified butter, and delicious. Some of the recipes are Depardieu’s own, such as rabbit terrine in aspic (allegedly his favorite breakfast), and a four-meat slow-cooked stew. In the middle of the main dining room is a steel cabinet full of wine, some from his vineyards in Anjou (quite a good Rosé), some from Bouquet’s in Sicily (including a great sweet wine from Pantelleria), some from the extensive Bordeaux vineyards of his partner, Bernard Magrez. It’s not cheap, but not bad value. Across the street, they’ve taken over a small café, renamed it L’Ecaille de la Fontaine—relatively inexpensive, informal, small, seafood with a southern French/Italian accent, more emphasis on Italian wine.

Open: Monday through Friday, lunch and dinner
La Fontaine Gaillon, Place Gaillon, Paris 75002 (2d Arrondissment); tel: +01 47 42 63 22
Nearest Metro: Opera

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Liebling also wrote, “Paris is foreign to no literate person.” It’s still true, and provides some of the best armchair travel—Paris seems to be magic for writers: Besides Between Meals, Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast is still thoroughly fascinating (interestingly, both men, and later Julia Child, all recalled quite a bit of Colette-spotting—the long-lived author of the Claudine and Cheri novels apparently ate out all the time, and even had her own regular table at Tour d’Argent). Three thrillers set in Paris are terrifically evocative: In the Blue Light of African Dreams and The Forger by Paul Watkins, and of course Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth. The most charming recent book remains Paris to the Moon, by Adam Gopnik, one of the few meditations on the City of Light that includes children. If you’ve missed any of these, you can easily order them through the Amazon links on my Books page.

Cooking Schools (Italy)

We’ve had good vacations at cooking schools, especially in Italy. Most offer room and board and local excursions, and prove to be good value as well as great fun. Those offered at wineries provide that tasty extra dimension, including wine-tastings in their programs. Here is a selection of notable cookery courses, and some further sources:

Badia a Coltibuono, Gaiole in Chianti, Tuscany. Wonderful wine, lovely people, good classes, a view to die for; the restaurant's terrific too. Information available directly at www.coltibuono.com

Tasca d’Almerita, Tenuta di Regaleali, Vallelunga, Sicily. Perhaps the best of Sicily right here. A variety of classes, or even just a wine-tasting lunch. Splendid. Information available direct at www.tascadalmerita.it

Capezzana, Carmignano, Tuscany. Information available direct at www.capezzana.it or from Gourmet on Tour (see below); in the US, contact Nikki or Richard Walters, Bocioni Inc., 235 E. 22d St. #9T, New York, NY 10010, phone 001 212 679-3660 or e-mail nhirsch@cwsny.com

Villa Lucia, Vorno, Tuscany (just outside Lucca). Information from Luxury Destinations, c/o Rhode School of Cuisine, 3 The Street, Frensham, Surrey GU10 3DZ; telephone +44 (0) 1252 790 222, or www.rhodeschoolofcuisine.com

Judy Ebrey, at Cuisine International, books Il Melograno, Il Falconiere, and a dozen more good schools in Rome, Venice, Umbria, Friuli, and Bologna. New this year are hands-on classes with my favorite Tuscan chef, Alvaro Maccioni, of London's La Famiglia restaurant--he's the benign, charming godfather of Italian cooking here. Contact: PO Box 25228, Dallas, TX 75225. Phone 1-214 373-1161 or www.cuisineinternational.com

Tasting Places books La Foresteria Serego Aligheri and a variety of courses from Piedmont to Sicily, with several London chefs as guest instructors. Phone +44 (0)208 964-5333; USA Freecall 1-877 6952469, or www.tastingplaces.com

Gourmet on Tour books many courses and schools, notably Capezzana, Coselli School, and Villa San Michele and the Cipriani, which feature well-known guest chefs: Berkeley Square House #2F, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BD. Phone +44 (0)207 396-5550, USA Freecall 1-800 504-9842 or www.gourmetontour.com

Some of the most luxurious possibilities are classes at five hotels in the Relais & Chateau group: Hotel Villa del Quar, near Verona; Relais Il Falconiere, outside Cortona in Tuscany; Il Pellicano, on the southern Tuscan shore at Porto Ercole; La Posta Vecchia, on the coast near Ladispoli, north of Rome; and Il Melograno, outside Monopoli in Puglia. Check them out at www.relaischateaux.com

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