Until Sept 25: The Paris Pop-Up in Arles

In the food world, pop-up restaurants are all the rage. The idea is that a chef moves into temporary quarters in a new space, city or country, allowing him to share his cuisine with a new clientele while drawing inspiration from local chefs, new ingredients and unfamiliar culinary techniques.

The ancient city of Arles has had its own pop-up since late April, on the terrace of the historic Nord-Pinus Hotel. Since I've been travelling I haven't had the chance to go but my foodie friends tell me the food is really great. If you haven’t been, the Paris Pop-Up will stay open until September 25 so you still have the chance to experience it. The concept plays on the success of the first Paris Pop-Up, which took over the hotel’s terrace last summer.

And having fallen in love with Arles and Provence, the folks behind the Paris Pop-Up have now opened their own place in Arles, where they’ve turned the tables and are playing host to a roster of other “nomadic” chefs. More on that is below.

The Paris Pop-Up is the brainchild of British chef Harry Cummins and Canadian-born sommelier Laura Vidal, who hatched the plan while working together at Frenchie Restaurant in Paris, he as head chef and she as GM and wine director. In December 2012, Harry travelled to London and attended a pop-up dinner. Back in Paris, he and Laura decided to launch their own pop-up, inspired by the “bistronomy” movement...meaning innovative, gastronomic cuisine served in a casual, bistro-style atmosphere. 

Thanks to the generosity and willingness of their fellow Parisian chefs, restaurateurs and assorted friends, they were able to “play restaurant” by occupying empty spaces and restaurants on closing days.  They offered what has now become their formula: seasonal menus of creative dishes crafted from locally sourced ingredients, paired with wines or other interesting drinks.

Getting a great response, the two started thinking about opening their own place in Paris but decided they’d rather travel and not be tied down to the demands of a traditional restaurant. So since January 2013, they’ve been popping-up in Montreal, New York, California, Kyoto, Quebec City, Fez, Barcelona and London. A full list is here.

Since September 2014, Julia Mitton (another Canadian...from Nova Scotia) has joined them; they say Julia brings with her “world-class organizational skills, a love of well-sourced product, an international expertise and the entrepreneurial spirit that fits perfectly with our vision.”

Sometimes the pop-ups are inspired by a wine region that Laura loves; other times, by a type of cuisine that Harry already enjoys cooking or wants to explore in more depth. From there they create a tasting menu and select appropriate wines. Winemakers, sommeliers and brewers are often invited to participate, allowing them first-hand interaction with guests.

In Arles, the menu has been changing every ten days or so.

Starters currently include pineapple tomato gaspacho with yellow peppers, peaches and nectarines; and grilled mackerel with green beans and homemade pesto.

Popular main courses have been duck magret with a ragout of lentils and duck hearts, roasted figs and balsamic; and homemade hand-rolled tagliolini laced with fresh courgettes, chili, crab meat and fresh herbs.

The tapas menu offers six selections, including duck parfait, cured pork belly with fried rosemary and a whole barbecued quail with a miso condiment, along with simpler things such as flatbreads with homemade hummus.

Wines come from France only and start at 6€ by the glass or 25€ by the bottle.

All food allergies, intolerances and other special requests are met to the best of the team’s abilities.

Having spent the last two years working in other people’s kitchens—and having fallen in love with Arles and Provence--the trio decided to open a bistro/bar in Arles called Chardon, in May 2016. There, Laura explains, they’ve reversed the pop-up idea and are hosting other chefs who choose, like they do, to be nomadic.  Chardon serves small plates, a selection of wines and an imaginative cocktail menu. The focus is local products with ingredients coming from the region’s best farmers, fishermen, breeders and other purveyors. 

You can try the cuisines of various “chefs in residence” until October 31^st. After that, Harry, Laura and Julia will be taking back the reins, until December 19. 

“The idea behind Chardon is that that we can be there sometimes and we can also travel at others and be elsewhere,” Laura explains. “We want to have a touch base in the South of France where we can hop down to from wherever we open our next project. We currently have our eye on Paris or London, our two favorite cities!”

And now that Arles has been their home base for two summers, I asked Laura what she, Julia and Harry have found most appealing about the region...and what local restaurants have become favourites.

“We loved exploring the surrounding Camargue and the seaside close to Arles,” she told me. “It’s a cool little town and it’s really central to all these awesome places like Marseille, Sainte Marie de la Mer, Nîmes, Montpellier, Aix, Avignon and Cassis.

“In terms of other restaurants, we love La Chassagnette,” she continues. “We often go and have a tasting menu with delicious natural wine. Another favorite is definitely Le Gibolin, a local bistro with frank French fare.  Nothing fancy, just delicious and well-priced.”

Paris Pop-Up Details

The Paris Pop-Up runs until September 25, 2016, on the terrace of the Hotel Nord-Pinus in Arles. Weather permitting; you’ll be seated outside, overlooking the famous Place du Forum. In case of wind or rain, seating moves inside.

Lunch

Thursday through Sunday, from 12:30 to 3 pm

Dinner

Wednesday to Sunday, from 7:30 to 11 pm

Closed

Monday and Tuesday

Prix-Fixe Menus

32 € (starter and main course or main and dessert)

36 € (starter, main, dessert)

Tapas / Small Plates

From 5 € to 20 € 

Wine List

Bottles from 25€ to 300€ 

By the glass priced from 6€ to 13€ 

To reserve: reservations@theparispopup.com, +33 (0)7 62 23 46 43.

Chardon Details

37 rue des Arènes

13200 Arles

Lunch

Friday to Monday 12:30 to 3 pm

Dinner

Thursday to Monday 7:30 to 11:30 pm

Closed

Tuesday, Wednesday...and Thursday afternoon.

Parking

Info is here

To reserve: hello@hellochardon.com, +33 (0)9 72 86 72 04, 

Note: If you have space and might want to welcome Harry and Laura for their next pop up, they’d love to hear from you. They’re open to collaboration with all chefs, sommeliers, winemakers, foragers and producers of any kind or walk of life, etc. They’re also open to sponsorships and to creating Paris Pop-Up events based on specific products or brands. “The possibility to create a concept for one day (or more), inspired by a feeling, music, culture or a theme, is a rare freedom,” Laura says. “The goal is to share, learn, enjoy and have a good time. There are so many ways to collaborate that fit with this spirit of generosity and fun.” For more info: theparispopup@gmail.com.

Two Cool Events Coming Up This Week...

Two events caught my eye for this week, one happening in Paris on Thursday and one in London over the weekend.

Tech blog Rude Baguette, which tracks the tech and start-up world in France, will be holding its winter Paris Founders (or #ParisFounders) event on Thursday, January 28. Launched in 2013, Paris Founders "brings the global tech ecosystem together for the country’s largest networking event" four times  a year. Speakers will include investors Jacky Abitbol and Gil Dibner; Damien Bon of Stuart (a delivery startup that raised €22 million pre launch); COO Yann Lechelle of Snips; Microsoft's new startup leader Diana Flippova; Keyrus CEO Eric Cohen, CEO Franck Melloul of i24 and others. Different countries and cities are often showcased at these events and this time, it will be Tel Aviv. "Paris and Tel Aviv have long been interconnected as ecosystems, financially and entrepreneurially," explains Paola Gabriele of Rude Baguette. "In addition to showing off great founders and products on stage, we'll be bringing out special guests who are involved in both the Paris and Tel Aviv startup ecosystems."  The format for Thursday evening will be startup pitches, followed by keynotes, followed by a networking cocktail. Planning ahead, future Paris Founders events will focus on San Francisco (April) and London (July), with a large international two-day one in Paris in October. Some success stories and alumni info can be found here. For Thursday tickets and all other info, click here.

The annual France Show--the UK's biggest celebration of all things French--happens at London's Olympia this weekend, January 29 to 31st.  The organizers call it "the best of France in a day."  You'll find 150-plus exhibitors promoting French food, wine, tourism, vacation ideas, finance and legal help, entertainment and more, all under one roof.  (To see all exhibitors, click here.) Roughly 15,000 attendees are expected. As in previous years there will be a French market, cooking demos, tutored wine tastings, a language theater, a chance to play pétanque and entertainment. The France Show also hosts the largest French Property Exhibition in the UK, so if you're hunting for real estate, this is a great place to start.  There will also be prize giveaways, such as a gourmet cycling holiday in Southern France, a week-long stay in the Dordogne, a canal boating trip, luxury weekend breaks, an Apple Watch, a bike and more. Tickets are £16 at the door or £12 in advance.  Children under 16 accompanied by a paying adult are free. For all the show info including directions, hours and a schedule, go to: thefranceshow.com.

Photos: Two scenes from the last #ParisFounders event at the Hotel de Ville in Paris followed by three scenes from the last France Show at Olympia in London.

Renovated Provençal Mas for Sale

There are plenty of beautiful homes for sale in Provence but you rarely find a traditional mas (farmhouse) that's been fully renovated...and yet unlived in. Here's one and it's a beaut.

Sandra Peskin first came to St. Remy in 1977, while studying at Montpellier University. ''It was love at first sight,'' she says, ''and thereafter I dreamt about one day owning a home here.'' Once her kids, now 23 and 25, were done with school, the dream became a reality. In 2006, she and her husband Andrew bought a vacation home in the region and did a full one-year renovation. In 2009, they made the move down from London permanent and full time. But with her background in property sales, relocation and interior design--and one stunning Provence renovation under her belt--Sandra found herself itching to tackle another. So when this 19th-century house became available not far from their own, the couple snapped it up. Sandra spent close to a year gutting and renovating it for resale. Final landscaping touches are happening this month.

On the ground floor are a reception room, dining room, TV room/office/playroom, guest bathroom with walk-in shower and double bedroom with fitted wardrobes and en suite bathroom. The kitchen is fully equipped with Neff appliances, including three ovens (two traditional, one steam), a stove, American fridge/freezer, dishwasher and a breakfast bar that seats three. The utility room is equipped with another American fridge/freezer, a dishwasher and a large-capacity washer and dryer. Floor tiles are stone throughout the  ground floor.

The first floor has a master bedroom with en suite (tub and walk-in shower) and a dressing room; a double bedroom with fitted wardrobes and en suite; two additional bedrooms and a family bathroom. The floors upstairs are a mixture of stone and wood.

The house retains all the architectural features of a traditional Provencal mas: a south-facing entry, wood shutters, thick stone walls, tile roof, wood beams, large fireplace, etc.

The property comprises 328 square meters (3,530 square feet) of living space and is set in a mature garden of 3,800 square meters (just under one acre), with a newly renovated swimming pool with surrounding terraced areas.

Called Mas La Belugo, it's located ten minutes west of St. Remy, on a quiet, wooded lane between the villages of Mas Blanc des Alpilles and St. Etienne du Gres, where you'll find a high-quality butcher, boulangerie, florist, tea salon, restaurants, cafes and small shops. A few top-rated wineries are nearby. The price is €1.89 million. 

Plus, now that Sandra knows all the best design and decor shops in Provence, she says she'd be delighted to help the new owners find their way around and get set up.

So why am I writing about this house? First, because it's beautifully done and an ideal set-up for a family without the time, know-how or inclination to tackle a major renovation. Second, because I like Sandra and Andrew a lot and would love to help them find a buyer. Third, because you, my precious readers, tell me you're interested in real estate. Fourth: Le Finders Fee!

For more info, contact Sandra: sandrapeskin@googlemail.com, 

+33/4 90 96 46 41 or +33/6 06 66 68 45. 

If You Live in the UK and Love France...

The sponsors of The France Show (January 13 to 15, 2012 at Earls Court in London), are offering the readers of ProvencePost.com a special two-for-one deal on tickets for this popular French lifestyle expo. (At-the-door tickets are normally £13. Kids under 16 are free.) This year there will be wine tastings, cooking demos, info on relocation and property buying, a wide selection of French properties for sale, tourism ideas, a French marketplace, live music, petanque games, a bistro operated by Mon Plaisir (London’s oldest French restaurant) and much more. For full show info including a list of exhibitors and events, opening hours, a map and more, click here. To get the special deal (two tickets for £13), use the code PRP21 when booking here. Or, to order by phone, call: 01242 264777.

Book Giveaway: Sex! Sun! Syrah!

Shortly after moving her family to the South of France, Sophie Reed finds a lacy bra in her husband’s luggage….and it’s not hers. Her husband admits it: he’s having an affair. So what should Sophie do?  Should she give up on her dream of becoming a winemaker and move back to England with her three kids?  Or embrace her inner French woman, carry on and start a new life? Well clever thing that you are, you can probably guess which path our heroine takes, her journey eased considerably by the love and support of family and friends, bright sunshine,  just-baked bread, local wines, lots of yoga—and a French lover or two.

Author Helena Frith Powell is a journalist who contributes regularly to the Sunday Times, Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph. Love in a Warm Climate is her sixth book—she wrote the best-selling Two Lipsticks and a Lover—and her first novel. She says it’s semi-autobiographical and it came out last week.

The publisher, Gibson Square (London), alternately calls Love in a Warm Climate “a novel about the French art of love” and “a novel about the French art of having affairs”— leading one to wonder, of course, if we’re meant to believe that these are one and the same.  Each chapter begins with a “rule” such as “Pick a lover who has as much to lose as you do” or  “Remember that nothing has to last forever, or even for an afternoon” and so forth. The sub-plot is all about being sexier, more confident, more seductive….more French. What’s much more amusing, however, are all the vignettes about French village life, the travails of hunting for the perfect “old stone,” the behind-the-scenes peek into the world of French winemaking and all the challenges and culture shocks encountered on the road to becoming a contented and well-adjusted expat.

The story is set in a fictitious village in the Languedoc-Rousillon, a region the author knows well. She and her family (husband Rupert; children Olivia, Bea and Leonardo), left their home in Sussex and bought one in Pezenas in the year 2000. They lived there full time, until decamping for Abu Dhabi in 2008, and they now return each summer.

The description of the house early in the book, Helena tells me, perfectly describes her own when she first saw it--and other scenes were also drawn from first-hand experience. Fictional character Johnny Fray is based on real-life bad-boy chef Marco Pierre White, who, Helena reports, once gave her the snog of her life in a restaurant kitchen. Her friend and neighbor Jean-Claude Mas, of the highly rated Arrogant Frog, generously taught her all he could about winemaking in the South of France so she could sound convincing.

And lucky you: the kind folks at Gibson Square have given me two copies to give away. You know how this works: leave a comment below and we’ll choose the winners next week. If you have experience in “the French art of love” or pursued your own change-of-life fantasy or love the wines of Languedoc--feel free to share! And make sure to leave us an email address; simply signing in with your web address is not enough. Or, of course, you can  buy the book on Amazon here.  

Bon Chance! Cheers! Santé!

Another Fine French Book Giveaway

I love to read about France, my adopted country, and particularly the South. And I especially love books by and about expats in Provence, for all the obvious reasons. So when I received an advance copy of The House in France, I shoved all the other books and magazines aside and dug in right away. I knew the author Gully Wells was an editor at Conde Nast Traveler in New York and I knew, from bits of things I’d read, that she leads a big, interesting, literary life. Beyond that, I had no clue what to expect. But I was pretty sure it was going to be fun.

Turns out, The House in France is really only peripherally about the Wells’ family home and life in Provence--but I loved it anyway. The book provides a wonderful glimpse into a world I knew nothing about: the liberal, intellectual, literary world of London of the 1960s. The ramshackle farmhouse, which Gully’s mom bought on impulse in 1963, was meant as a vacation home but in many ways, it became home base. It’s where everyone in Gully’s clan retreats to rest and regroup and reconnect.

Gully was born in Paris, brought up in London, educated at Oxford, and moved to New York in 1979. Her memoir globetrots as she does but it’s set mainly in Provence, London, and New York. It chronicles three generations of her fairly eccentric family, most notably her mother Dee Wells (a glamorous, rebellious American journalist and TV commentator, a self-described “wild savage” who “found nice people dull”) and her stepfather A.J. Ayer, a celebrated Oxford philosopher and prodigious womanizer who everyone called Freddie.

Along the way, we also meet Gully’s “enormously attractive” father, who had “an enviable talent for extracting a huge amount of pleasure from every moment in the day.” Of her childhood, she writes: “It struck me as perfectly normal that I should live with my mother in London and then be sent off each vacation—like an airmail package—from Heathrow, with a label pinned to my lapel, to stay with my father wherever he happened to be.”

Her father, a diplomat who lived mainly in Germany, took Gully skiing in winter and to Italy in summer in his snappy white Mercedes convertible. (Now we know where her love of travel came from.) Freddie, on the other hand, “lived in London, took me to French restaurants, fed me my first snail and didn’t know how to drive.”

“They could not have been less alike, she writes, and I loved them both.”

We also get to meet Gully’s adored half-brother Nick, her various boyfriends (such as Martin Amis, her first love), and finally, her husband Peter (a BBC producer) and kids Rebecca and Alexander. Orbiting this core group are a whole universe of luminaries such as Alan Bennett, Isaiah Berlin, Iris Murdoch, Bertrand Russell, Jonathan Miller, Christopher Hitchens, Vanessa Lawson (Nigella’s mom), Anna Wintour and many more. Even Robert Kennedy, New York Mayor John Lindsay and Mike Tyson made cameos in Gully World.

It was the author’s relationship with her mother, however, that forms the backbone of the book—and that’s where the house in France comes in. Called La Migoua, it’s perched on a hill between Toulon and Marseilles. Here the family enjoyed languid meals under the lime tree, nosy but loving neighbors popping round with slobbering dogs and bottles of homemade vin d’orange. There were hot summer days at Bikini Beach, mountain hikes, fresh local food toted home from nearby markets and all the other things we associate with summertime in Provence. If you’ve spent any time at all in these parts (or seen Provence in countless movies), you can picture the house perfectly: the thick stone walls, the clackety beads in the doorway, the old baskets and dusty herbs hanging from the beams, the marble topped dining table with rush-seated wooden chairs (“like the one in van Gogh’s painting of his bedroom in Arles”), the enormous blackened fireplace. After her mother dies, in 2003, it’s six years before Gully feels ready to return, so closely tied in her mind were her mother and the house. And yes, Gully still has the house.

My only gripe about The House in France was that it had no photos. I wanted to see what all these colorful people looked like…and, of course, I wanted to see the house. Well now I see that the finished hardcover, released a couple weeks ago, has 16 pages of photos--which makes the story even more compelling.

Want the book? The fine folks at Knopf Publishing have offered me two copies to give away. Simply leave a comment below and two will be chosen next week. Make sure you leave us your email address, somewhere within your comment.  And if you don’t win a copy, you can buy it on Amazon by clicking here. The Kindle edition is here.

A Major Hotel Renaissance in London

After standing empty for years, the spectacular Midland Grand Hotel, overlooking one of the world's great train stations, has been restored to its former Victorian Gothic glory. It officially reopens as the 245-room St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London on Thursday.

The dramatic red-brick building, first opened in 1873, was designed to cater to travelers coming in and out of St. Pancras, the major train hub opened five years earlier.

The new hotel—a 12 year project that cost £150 million--marks the completion of the regeneration of the St. Pancras International Station, which was completely restored and reopened in 2007. It’s now the home of Eurostar, the high-speed train connecting London to Paris, Lille and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel. (From July 9 to September 10, you can take the Eurostar direct from St. Pancras to Avignon in Provence in just under six hours. The Saturday-only service is direct and does not require a change; it leaves at 7:17 a.m. and arrives Avignon Centre at 2:08 p.m. The return train leaves Avignon Centre at 4:24 p.m., arriving St. Pancras at 9:09 p.m. Other days and times you connect in Lille or Paris. For info, click here.)

While the hotel began welcoming guests since mid March, the official grand opening will be May 5th, exactly 138 years to the day after its predecessor. Many original areas and features have been meticulously renovated and restored, by a team of hundreds of craftsmen and painters. “Victorian architect George Gilbert Scott designed every single window in the building with a different surround,” says general manager Kevin Kelly, who left the five-star Marriott Grosvenor Square (London) to run this hotel. “In our restoration, we’ve tried to do justice to this great building.”

There’s also a 120,000-square-foot extension featuring original artwork and contemporary design. 

The hotel has restored gold-leaf ceilings, ornate wall murals and a Grand Staircase that’s widely revered as the most majestic in England, with windows measuring more than 50 feet and crowned by an elaborate vaulted ceiling. It’s been featured in many films (such as Batman) and music videos such as the Spice Girls’ debut single Wannabe.

And what about the food ? Top Michelin-starred London chef Marcus Wareing (a Gordon Ramsay protégé) is in charge of the restaurant The Gilbert Scott, which offers what he calls “an original yet familiar menu of Great British inspired classics."  He continues: “Inspired by the history and architecture of the building we’ve looked at old-style cookery books of Great Britain and done a lot of research on the traceability of dishes which are no longer recognized today as their names have changed." Dishes on the opening menu include Nettle and watercress soup; Dorset Jugged Steak (braised featherblade with Port, pork dumplings and red currants ; featherblade is a braising cut from the shoulder); Tweed Kettle (sea trout with a lemon, nutmeg and an herb crust); Yorkshire fish cakes; Manchester tart (custard, bananas, puff pastry, jam); and treats such as a “sweet shop bag” and chocolate cigars. 

In the second bar/restaurant, this one called the Booking Office and located in the train station’s original ticket office, Julien Maisonneuve (formally of the Michelin-starred Tom Aikens Restaurant) is the chef. The food there is seasonal, market driven and simply prepared, with dishes such as mushroom and leek Wellington with curly kale and hollandaise and a sea bass with wild mushrooms, new potatoes and lemon butter. Maisonneuve oversees banquets and room service as well.

The hotel also has a spa with swimming pool (in what had been the hotel's old kitchen), a 500-person event hall, a “gentleman’s grooming salon” and a “Ladies Smoking Room”--a renovation of the original room, the first place in Europe where it was acceptable for women to smoke in public. Rates begin at £225 ($371, €250).

Click on each photo to enlarge. Caption Info: The Grand Staircase during, after and before renovation. The hotel exterior today and in a 1884 painting by John O'Connor. The old booking office, now the Booking Office Bar. The view from the hotel's Chambers Suite bedroom.