1936 On the Continent

no friend in Paris, and are in doubt, consult the worthy copper at the Porte St. Denis, for instance. He will not be surprised at all and will advise you in the friendliest possible manner.
    The traditional conclusion of a nocturnal expedition in Paris is a
gratinée
or onion soup in the morning. It is most enjoyable in the grey twilight of dawn when you are beginning to feel out of sorts. The place to take the onion soup is in the vicinity of the market halls, the stomach of Paris, with its fantastic mountains of vegetables, flowers and sundry edibles, which in the somewhat unreal mood of “the morning after” strike one as particularly dream-like. But the onion soup may also be taken at the traditional Chop du Negre in the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre.
    At all events, you should visit the market hall at least once at about this hour. It is an unforgettable experience. Besides, such a visit is part of the code of honour of night rovers.
    And after that, before going to bed, you may take a quick ride up to the Sacré Cœur, in order to see the sun risingover the eternal city, to catch a glimpse of the delicate pastel colours that form a halo in the haze enveloping the Seine Valley, and to capture quickly a little more of the secret of the city—before you are overtaken by that nasty feeling of the morning after the night before.

FRENCH COOKING
    Joseph Conrad once said that what struck him most the first time he visited Paris and became for him henceforth the hall-mark of “Latin civilisation” was not the monuments, statues or parks, nor the Louvre with all its wonderful treasures, but the keen, almost fanatical, devotion the Frenchman has for
bonne chère
, for good eating.
    That, or something like it, was Joseph Conrad’s opinion of the French, and allowing for a touch of exaggeration, there is nothing to add to it. The French
are
like that.
Cuisine Based on Principles
    The underlying principle of French cooking is simplicity. The French cook never aims at making queer and exotic tasting mixtures, though sometimes English people who are only accustomed to roasts, grills and boiled vegetables get that impression of French cooking. The sole and unique purpose of the French cook is to get the gastronomic maximum out of each thing, whether meat, fish or vegetable. That is why the French, to the surprise and disgust of many English visitors, so often serve a single vegetable as a whole course. The Englishman likes his meat, potatoes and vegetables all together on the same plate, and even likes putting a mixture of all three down his throat at each mouthful. To the French, that is merely an insult to good food. They serve vegetables usually with the meat course, but just a few carefully selected vegetables designed to bring out the taste of the meat or fish. How often have I seen English visitors clamouring for more potatoes when they are served a “filet de sole” in a Paris restaurant with two small steamed potatoes!
    Even the Russian hors d’œuvres are already a mixture, a series of salads, whilst the famous French hors d’œuvres consist of one entirely separate element at a time.
    French cooking possesses some fourteen hundred sauces to give the indispensable aroma to the various dishes, and yet no French cook wants to die without giving France at least one more new sauce.
    This reputation of French cooking is no new thing. Victor Hugo once said proudly: “Everything changes, and the only thing which remains immovable across the centuries and fixes the character of an individual or a people, is its cooking.”
    In France, on practically every menu, you will read the wise words: “A meal without wine is a day without sun” (un repas sans vin est une journée sans soleil). For, in addition to its cooking and its sauces, France has the best, and in any case the most varied, list of wines in the world, and has always linked up inseparably the worship of good food and the worship of good wine.
Gastronomic Centres
    At any rate, what is quite certain is that if the idea came to you in a restaurant or in someone’s home to drink champagne after the soup course, you should drive the thought from you like a pest, as otherwise your reputation of one who knows would be lost for ever. Everyone in France, from the highest to the lowest, knows that champagne is only drunk with a roast or with the dessert. Usually, at what is called a “modeste” meal, you will begin with white wine, continue with red, and finish