Incongruity that jostles

In the touristy area near the base of the Eiffel Tower, regular life goes on.  The Avenue de la Bourdonnais may be home to many souvenir shops, but it is also the address for a large clump of municipal buildings that include a gymnasium, a library book depository, and, turning the corner on the Rue General Camou, a big high school named for Gustave Eiffel.

The Eiffel Tower last night, as we walked home.

In France, students must decide their vocational path fairly early, so high schools are specialized.  While logic would dictate that a school named for Gustave Eiffel would have a mission of preparing future engineers, that is not the case.  The focus of this school is professional training in the commercial and administrative sector, including the hospitality industry.

That early choice of career path might seem to stifle creativity and growth.  But this school has something called the "Opera Project," which is described as follows:

The opera project is a great adventure, where the pedagogical, human, educational and artistic converge to help students grow.

The first objective of this project is incongruity: to propose something that astonishes and detonates, that jostles, panics, forces to move. This is to make the high school team reshuffle the deck, to go against the grain of daily life where students are often stuck, to go to the opposite extreme of their comfort zone, to make them fall off the walls and break the glass ceiling.

The second objective is consideration: we take the time to watch our students attentively and we look at them with interest, giving them the feeling that they were chosen, that we set the bar very high, that they will have to reach up and out.

To educate is to raise, and the words take on their full meaning here. With these two objectives, the incongruity that jostles and the consideration that repairs, we will gradually generate desire, then pride and finally ambition. With the hope that they find or reinforce their motivation for schooling and studies.

While I have no way of knowing how well the Opera Project works, the cliché-filled description offered shows that at least somebody cares about teaching students how to think and set goals.

Rue Monttessuy

We dined on the Rue Monttessuy, just a block away from the Gustave Eiffel high school, at Firmin le Barbier.   We discovered this tiny bistrot last year, around the same time of the year, when we were seeking more highly rated bistrots that are open in the middle of August.

The dinner last night was delightful.  An extended Japanese family occupied two tables inside and one outside.  They were all having so much fun, being served a big steak dinner family style.  Gigi, the server, was of Chinese background, but she communicated very well with the family in English.

When the family left, we all exchanged farewells.  It is a very small bistrot, after all!

At last, when it was our time to go home, Gigi asked if they would see us again next year.  Clearly she paid attention to the data in my Lafourchette reservation.  She knew we'd dined there almost exactly one year ago.  I responded, "Peut etre la semaine prochaine"  (perhaps next week), and she was delighted.  So were the chef and sous chef, who were nearby, just behind the counter.

We all said goodbye to each other, and then Tom and I were out in the cool, damp evening air,  making our way toward the Champ de Mars and Eiffel Tower.  We crossed the Champ in the dying light, but the lawn was alive with groups of people picnicking. 

Today is the Feast of the Assumption.  I'm writing this at noontime, and the church bells are ringing.  Happy holiday!

Here are some photos from the superb dinner at Firmin le Barbier:

Starter courses were a pork and foie gras terrine, above,
and escargots in a yogurt-based soup, below.

A specialty of the house at Firmin le Barbier is Quenelle lyonnaise, champignons et nantua d'étrilles 
(soufflé-like seafood dumpling with a curry-like bechamel-based crayfish sauce and mushrooms).
We each thoroughly enjoyed the quenelles last night.

Raspberry sorbet and chocolate tart (above),
and creme brulée flavored with passion fruit (below).