FoodNet

The gourmet's guide to Europe

1903

Page 36

Presented as published in 1903. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
The best known of the Paris clubs is undoubtedly the Jockey Club. If nothing else about it is re- membered, the story of Isabelle the The Jockey flower-girl, who was practically adopted Club, Boulevard by the club, can always be recalled. des CaPucines The club was founded by an Englishman, Lord Seymour, and many of the members of the British Jockey Club also belong to the French one. A “commission of dukes” secured the present club- 60 The Gourmet" s Guide to Europe house on the Boulevard des Capucines and super- intended the furnishing and adornment of its very comfortable rooms. The Club of the Rue Royale is very much like any of our large London social clubs. It is at the corner Cercle de la Rue of the Rue Royale in the great Hotel Royale, Place de Choislin; one face looks on to the Place la Concorde de la Concorde and the other looks across the Rue Royale to the Ministry of Marine. Some of the English residents in Paris belong to this club. Every one who has walked in the Champs Elysees on a fine summer day has noticed the well-groomed „ ' elderly gentlemen who sit on the raised l’ Union Artis- terrace at the corner of the Rue Boissy tique, Rue d’Anglas and watch the people coming Boissy d Anglas an(j g0ing from the Place de la Con- corde to the Champs Elysees. These are the members of the Epatant, as the Cercle de l’Union Artistique is familiarly called. This club is the most amusing of all the Parisian clubs, and its fetes, its theatricals, its art exhibitions, have gained for it its astonishing nickname. Other Parisian clubs are the Automobile, next door to the Cercle de la Rue Royale, which has a garden on its roof ; the Military Club in the Avenue de POpera ; and the Cercle Agricole, which is the most aristocratic and entirely French of all the clubs. AFTER DINNER To give any description of the performances likely to be found at the opera-houses and theatres and music halls of Paris would be an impossible task, for there is a constant change not only in the entertainments, but in the style of entertainment as well. The Opera and the Opera Comique, of course, are standing dishes ^Paris 6 1 for their particular types of opera, and the Frangaise and the Odeon are subventioned to keep classical comedy alive. The Gymnase and the Vaudeville generally house modern comedy, and at the Palais Royal, the Varietes, and the Nouveautes there is an abundance of Gallic salt in the pieces performed. One little tip I may give even to Anglo-Saxons who know their Paris, and that is to buy at any kiosk, on the day of arrival, the little paper Comoedia , which not only gives the “ casts ” of all plays, but also a sketch of the plots. It also gives the programmes of all the music halls, big and small, tells one who are the stars singing at them, and what Revues are run- ning, and gives all the Cabaret Artistiques, and the places at which the bands play in the afternoons. It is a great help in deciding what plays may suit one’s mood after dinner, or what other amusement one prefers. II FRENCH PROVINCIAL TOWNS