The situation this morning

One the radio a few minutes ago, a reporter said there are about 6,000 people who commute to work daily from Orléans to Paris and back. Normally, there are 10 trains in the morning, and as many coming back in the evening. This morning there were two.

Some pictures I took at the Arc de Triomphe in September.
This high-relief sculpture is called « Triomphe de 1810 ».

The reporter said a lot of people had arrived early at the train station in the north suburbs of Orléans to try to get a train. A lot of them had come by bicycle, thinking they might need their bikes in Paris if they got there.

Detail of « La Paix »

When I rode the train from Paris to Saint-Aignan one evening in September, the train made a stop at that station, which is called Les Aubrais. A group of about a dozen people, aged 25 to 40 I would say, were sitting together and engaged in lively conversation. They joked and laughed with each other, and were obviously really enjoying each others' company. Then they all got off the train together. They must have been some of the 6,000 people who live in Orléans, work in Paris, and commute by train.

« Départ des Volontaires en 1792 »
(also known as « La Marseillaise »)

Radio reports say there are no regional trains at all running today in many areas, including around Lyons and in Normandy. The A and B lines of the RER « n'ont pas démarré », according to France Inter radio — they didn't start up this morning. That means no RER trains at all are running between CDG airport in Roissy and central Paris, or on what used to be called the Ligne de Sceaux. Also, none are running across Paris east-west out to La Défense, where tens of thousands work, and to the eastern suburbs.

« La Résistance »

It's still early and details are just coming in. Car traffic around La Défense and on the expressways between Roissy and Paris is fairly normal, they said on the radio. I think a lot of people have decided not to drive today. A couple of years ago my mother was here and we went to Paris by car. It was a day when there was a big strike and the city turned out to be quiet and fairly empty, not choked with cars. We were able to drive all around and find parking with not a problem that day. You just never know.

A couple of cherubs

I just heard that trains are running on 10 metro lines in Paris, but in reduced numbers. When you think that hundreds of thousands of passengers ride the metro every day, you can imagine how crowded those few trains that are running will be.

The only TGV train of the morning from Marseilles to Paris left at 7:31 a.m., the radio says. It had exactly 27 passengers on it. I guess people who would otherwise have gone to Paris today changed their minds, given the transit situation in the capital.

« La Paix »

Meanwhile, Nicolas and Cécilia Sarkozy have started divorce proceedings. She went to court Monday night, they say, to talk to a family law judge. The judge went to see Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée Palace on Tuesday. If they go through with it, this will be the first time a French president has gotten a divorce while in office.

Detail of « La Résistance »

Years ago, President François Mitterrand, who was in office from 1981 to 1995, lived separately from his wife Danielle and had a long-term relationship and a child with another woman. Many in the press knew about the Mitterrands back then, but it was never made public. People's private lives are rigidly protected in France, even by the press. Or they were. The first the public knew about Mitterrand's second family was when his "illegitimate" daughter was seen among the other mourners at his funeral.

The Sarkozys seem to have chosen a less secretive way of doing things. Some would say they are being less hypocritical about their family life.

France will be France...

In other words, the labor unions have announced a big strike for tomorrow, Oct. 18. This will be the first test of France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, on the labor relations front. Negotiations have been going on for weeks, but the strike is still on. For commuters and travelers, tomorrow could turn out to be a very trying day, especially in and around Paris.

Fall dahlias at La Renaudière

For the first time since 1995, the eight labor unions that represent workers in the national train system (the SNCF) and the six unions that represent those in the Paris mass transit system (the RATP) support the strike tomorrow unanimously. The Minister of Transportation in Sarkozy's government has said there will probably be virtually no trains, metros, or buses running tomorrow. The strike will start tonight at 8:00 p.m. and end on Friday at 8:00 a.m. — unless it is extended.

Autumn chores: pruning an apple tree

The SNCF is asking people who need to travel by train to do so today or wait until Friday evening. Even after the strike ends, it takes a few hours to get the whole system up and running again. Local trains, like the ones that stop at Saint-Aignan on their way from Tours to Vierzon, will be hard hit. Authorities are predicting that only 50 of the scheduled 800 TGV trains will run on Thursday.

Fall colors in the vineyard

Why is the strike being called? It's because President Sarkozy wants to implement reforms in the transit workers' retirement pension system, including requiring workers to have put in 40 years of service to get full benefits rather than the 37½ years required today. Transit workers benefit from "special regimes" compared to other civil servants when it comes to retirement, and the government says it wants to get everybody on the same plan.

Meanwhile, there are likely to be sympathy strikes among teachers and utility and airport workers. One of the unspoken reasons the transit workers are calling this strike now is that another of the government's plans is to institute what is called a « service minimum » plan for strike days. In other words, unions will be required to keep a minimum number of trains, metros, and buses running even on strike days, so that people can get to work and otherwise move around the country. For some, such a plan goes against the whole right of workers to strike, making it impossible for them to express their displeasure effectively. But according to polls, 75% of the French think the service minimum is a good idea.

In Paris especially, and around the country, a lot of people who commute to work will just take the day off tomorrow. Others who can will walk to work, or drive — but there might be massive traffic jams, especially in the Paris region if too many people choose that option. The new "public bicycles" in Paris and other cities will probably be put to good use by people who need to move around the city faster than they could if they just walked.

More dahlias, the last of the season

There might be a party atmosphere in parts of Paris, where workers will get together to demonstrate against the pension reforms, and especially if the weather is nice. There were big strikes, mostly among students, when Walt and I were in Paris in April 2006. They were protesting the government's new employment programs. I posted pictures and commentary here. It might give you an idea of the atmosphere.

Autumn mushrooms growing big under an apple tree.
I looked them up and they don't appear to be edible.

Meanwhile, some in the press are saying that President Sarkozy's marriage is on the rocks. Already, during the election campaign last year, there was talk that they had split up. Then Cécilia Sarkozy came back and it seemed things were patched up. Recently, however, some thought she snubbed George and Laura Bush when the Sarkozys were on vacation in New Hampshire and they were invited to spend the day at Kennebunkport. He went, but she begged off. Now they are saying Cécilia has decided not to accompany President Sarkozy on an upcoming state visit to Morocco. Is she on the outs with her husband, or is she just trying to change the role traditionally played by French first ladies? Time will tell.

Another gratin with potatoes

I've never heard of Jansson's Temptation, but I'll look for recipes. Meanwhile, here's another classic French way to make potatoes au gratin. It's called Pommes Boulangère.

Instead of milk and cheese, you use broth and onions. Cut the potatoes into the same thin slices, and slice two or three onions. Make layers of potatoes and sliced onions in the oiled baking dish. Put a couple of bay leaves or some other herbs between the layers. Salt and pepper everything. Then barely cover the potatoes with hot broth: chicken, beef, or vegetable.

Fall scenes out in the vineyard

You can start it in the microwave or directly in the conventional oven. Let it cook for about an hour, lowering the heat as necessary so that it doesn't burn on the top but giving all the liquid a chance to evaporate. Actually, if there's a tiny bit left, tant mieux. The main thing is that the top layer needs to be golden brown.

Fall colors

Boulangère means the baker's wife. Why are these potatoes named after her? Because people didn't have ovens in their homes, and they would take their lunch dishes to the bakery to have them cooked in the hot oven after the day's bread finished baking. Or the baker's wife would cook her food this way. A lot of villages also used to have a community oven, called un four banal, which people could use to cook their roasts, casseroles, cakes, and pies — usually for a fee.

Wonder why these leaves are bright red,
while the others are yellow?

The weather here in Saint-Aignan is nice this week. It's fairly warm, sunny, and breezy. Good for drying the laundry on the clothesline outdoors, and good for doing gardening work. Walt is working on trimming the hedge around our yard, all 100 meters of it. I'm doing cleanup from all that clipping and starting to rip the plants out of the vegetable garden. It feels good.

In less than two weeks, I leave for my next trip to the U.S. I'll be spending three weeks in the Southeast, mostly in North Carolina. Hey, Miss Monet in San José, do you have any N.C. travel plans?

Les Gratins de pommes de terre

Yesterday I realized I had a bag of little red potatoes of the variety called Roseline (a variant of the Roseval type) that I needed to cook. They were big enough that they were easy to peel. I had cooked some of them before so I knew they were the firm, waxy, not-too-starchy kind of potatoes I needed to make what is sometimes called a Gratin Dauphinois.

A gratin is a dish that is cooked in the oven until it develops a nice golden crust on top. It's often topped with cheese, but not always. In the case of the Gratin Dauphinois, a standard French potato dish, the recipe comes from the Dauphiné area around Grenoble in the Alps, where milk and what we call Swiss cheeses — Gruyère, Emmental, Comté, and Beaufort — are plentiful. (Purists will tell you that you shouldn't put in any cheese at all or, if you do, call the dish a Gratin Savoyard.)

Peel and slice some potatoes. Grate some cheese.

To make a gratin like this, you take about a kilogram of potatoes, peel them, and wash them. Then cut them into pretty thin slices. The French recipes in books I have, depending on when they were published, say to cut slices of the thickness of a two-franc or five-franc coin. That might not help you much. What you want is slices that are thin but not paper-thin. You don't need to wash the slices, but you can if you want. Some people say not to wash them because the residual starch will thicken up the milk you are going to cook them in.

Layer potatoes in a baking dish and season with salt,
pepper, and nutmeg. Add some bay leaves if you want, and
then, optionally, put on a layer of grated Swiss-type cheese.

Rub an earthenware baking dish with a cut piece of garlic, or mash a small garlic clove and put it in the bottom of the pan with some melted butter or vegetable oil. Separately, put about three cups of milk on to simmer but don't let it boil. You can use skim or whole milk, or even half-and-half. Or a mixture of milk and cream. Start making layers of potatoes and (if using) cheese in the dish.

This just finished its first cooking in the microwave.

I used Comté cheese because it's one of my favorites but any Swiss-type cheese will work. Make a layer of potato slices, sprinkle salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg over it, and then put on a layer of grated cheese. Make another layer of potato slices, which you season the same way. Two layers is enough though you can make more. Don't yet put any cheese on the very top.

Add on the top layer of cheese before
baking the dish for an hour or more.

When the potatoes and cheese are layered in the dish, pour the hot milk into the pan. You should have just enough to cover the potatoes, so that the top slices are just barely covered. Cover the dish with a lid or with plastic wrap and put it in the microwave on medium for 20 minutes or so to give the cooking process a quick start.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Take the dish of potatoes out of the microwave, uncover it, and , if you want, layer on enough grated cheese to cover the top. Put the dish in the preheated oven and let it cook for at least 60 minutes, and preferably 90. Watch it and if the top starts to brown too much, keep lowering the oven temperature. Cover it with foil or a lid if necessary. You want the potatoes completely cooked, of course, and you want pretty much all of the liquid to evaporate.

Le Gratin Dauphinois (au fromage)

Be sure to let the dish rest outside the oven for 10 or 15 minutes before you eat it so that you don't burn your tongue. With it, have roast chicken, a steak, a pork or lamb chop, or just a green salad. Bread and wine are not optional.