Hot and flawless

August 24, 2016 -- This summer, there are once again many parts of the street that are dug up and fenced off – work zones that we pedestrians have to weave around.  Tom chalked it up to flood damage to the electrical network this past spring and early summer.  But I’ve been wondering about that, because the signs on these work zones refer to projects for upgrading the reseau de chauffage – which means “heating network.”

The Eiffel Tower in the early morning light.

Today, I used the computer to figure it out.  These projects are for the upgrading of an urban heating network, run by the Compagnie Parisienne de Chauffage Urbain (CPCU).  This utility provides heating and sanitary hot water for the equivalent of 500,000 housing units in Paris and surrounding communities.

The heat is generated by a mix of recycled domestic waste; natural gas, coal, and oil; and, coming soon, geothermal heat and biomass.  I believe that the “mix of recycled domestic waste” means a trash burning power plant.  I know there is such a facility on the east side of Paris.

Some of the heat production facilities have been and are being converted from oil-burning to natural gas-burning.

CPCU is a big deal in the 15^th arrondissement because there are two heat production facilities here.  At the Grenelle facility are five boilers, three of which run on natural gas.  The other two are oil-burning, but can be run on biodiesel.  The Vaugirard facility has three natural gas-burning boilers.

In total, the CPCU has eight production sites.

This idea of central heating distributed by a network is not new.  I remember the old central boiler and system of hot water heating pipes that served many of the older buildings with radiators on the campus of the Ohio State University.

Roasted bass filet with Duxelle de Champignons and creme de bacon sauce.

The CPCU in Paris as well has been around since 1927.  Since then, it has never ceased modernizing and expanding.

Its production facilities must have burned coal at first, but in 1941, the first trash burning power plant went online.

In 2009, when the T3 tramway was being constructed, the CPCU took the opportunity to expand is network under the long expanse of those tracks, and for the first time, it dismantled one of its older production facilities at La Villette, giving the land back to the city.  Now, in that northeast corner of the city, CPCU has a geothermal heat production facility (on the Quai de la Gironde, Boulevard MacDonald, in the 19^th arrondissement).

Of course the CPCU can only serve buildings that have a central hot water heating system.  Many apartment buildings, like the one where we stay, have individual hot water heaters in each apartment.  Ours is over the sink in the kitchen; it burns natural gas, and it heats the water on demand for the bathroom fixtures and kitchen sink, as well as for the radiators in each room.  Its pilot light burns all the time.

Lamb shank in honey-thyme sauce with semolina at L'Alchimie

We certainly do not have the radiators turned on now, however.  Yesterday, the temperature hit 90F, and today it will be in the mid-90s.  No we do not have air conditioning.  We open the apartment at night, then shut it up during the day to keep the cooler air.  That only works for a few days, until the entire building heats up.  We’re now in day 2 of a five-day heat wave.

Last night, we dined on rue Letellier at L'Alchimie, which is not air conditioned.  Still, at that time of the evening, temperatures were only in the upper 80s and it wasn’t too humid.  This morning, when I walked from 7 to 8:30, I could tell that the humidity is up.  It is around 65%, which is still far better than Sanibel’s typical 90%.  So we’re doing okay.

After we were seated at the table in the front window, the place began to fill up with regulars, all from the neighborhood, it seemed.  (I was surprised when the French people at the table next to us did not know the difference between leg of lamb and lamb shank!)

Dinner was flawless.  It began with a shared starter of foie gras, accompanied by piping hot, scrumptious rolls.

Foie gras with rye toast, but we used the hot rolls instead.

Tom had a souris d’agneau (lamb shank) with semolina and a honey-based sauce.  It was stunningly good.

My main course was a roasted bass filet on a bed of finely diced mushrooms cooked in butter (Duxelle de champignons), served in a pool of crème de bacon sauce.  It was heavenly.

We shared a fig-and-almond-cream tart for dessert.  The pastry was light and flaky, and the figs were soft and sweet.  So was the scoop of white chocolate ice cream.

The value was incredibly good.  Each two course dinner was just 27 euros (including tax and tip).  (Three courses would have been just 31 euros.)

Fig and almond cream tart with white chocolate ice cream

L’Alchimie remains my favorite restaurant in Paris.  Hats off to Chef Eric Rogoff!