Oy Vay, Sunday is Our Oyster Day!

Annually, friends from Ann Arbor who I met in 1998 come to Paris for two months — January and February. Jeffrey has had an ongoing teaching gig here all these years — his specialty being “Partial Differential Equations (PDE) and especially those of the hyperbolic type.” I don’t have a clue what that means except that his bio at the University of Michigan further states that “These arise in mathematical physics as equations of motion in acoustics, electromagnetic theory, elasticity, fluid dynamics, and other areas.”

Let’s put it this way — this man can think ‘outside of the mathematical box’…except don’t put him in the same room with my spiritually-minded daughter who will argue her theories of the 11:11 phenomenon with him until it stops raining in Paris (meaning forever).

Geraldine, Jeffrey’s wife, is the best story-teller in the world. She can keep you laughing for hours with her tales of whatever — as things seem to happen to Geraldine that happen to no one else. You may remember her from a past newsletter as the “Museum Guard Magnet” — because in museums all over the globe, wherever they travel, museum guards manage to single her out as the one person worth speaking to and strike up a conversation, without her having to provoke it. It happens time and time again to which I have been a witness for proof. Geraldine is also the author of a blog known as “The Travel Oyster” filled with information derived from their galavanting all over the globe.

By sheer coincidence to Geraldine’s blog (although her affection for oysters may be the reason…) she and Jeffrey have come to habitually visit the Bastille market every Sunday morning to purchase fresh oysters for their Sunday lunch. Fortunately for me, the habit has included me as a willing guest of downing about a dozen of the succulent mollusks with a bottle of Sancerre or other chilled crispy white wine.

This past Sunday was no different. While French oysters are not the same animals as the plump, sweet Gulf of Mexico oysters I grew up on (battered and fried or downed raw with hot sauce and Saltine crackers), these smaller translucent briny varieties are down right tasty, to say the least. Jeffrey is an ace at opening them and all three of us are masters of swallowing them with a shpritz of lemon.

The funny thing is that coincidentally, too, on the wall in the dining room of their rented Marais apartment hangs a photo of a dozen oysters on the half shell taken by the owners…whom of course have no idea that oysters are eaten at their table every Sunday for the first two months of the year.

Geraldine has written about the French variety of “Mollusca” — of which there are about 85,000 species and make up about 23% of all the named marine organisms (Wikipedia.org) in The Travel Oyster, of course! So, be sure to read what she has to say. And if you want to learn even more, our Parler Paris culinary friend, Susan Herrmann Loomis, wrote an article for France Today coincidentally titled “The World Is Your Oyster.”

We only tasted one of them on Sunday, but that was enough to know we don’t want to live without them.

When the oysters were gone and the shells disposed of, I headed out into the cold, rainy weather to see how the Chinese New Year Parade was coming along, supposedly starting at the Hôtel de Ville at 2:30 p.m. All I found were a lot of wet, cold, patient people hoping for a glimpse of this Year of the Snake’s Dragon and sounds of fireworks. Instead of staying among them to get soaked to the bone, I took Geraldine’s advice, headed home to a dry warm living room and am now posting a photo from last year’s parade when the weather was better!

A la prochaine…

Adrian Leeds

(with the largest oyster EVER!)

Director of The Adrian Leeds Group, LLC

Respond to Adrian

P.S. If you’ve ever considered moving your valuable financial assets to a secure and private offshore account, but aren’t sure how to get started, attend our free seminar on February 26th, “Mastering Offshore Banking,” sponsored by the Adrian Leeds Group, LLC. Peter Zipper, President of Caye International Bank of Belize, will discuss the truth about offshore banking and how you can master your financial life. Seating is limited and spaces are booking up fast so please reserve your place by visiting meetup.com/Adrian-Leeds-Group.

P.P.S. Due to technical problems the newsletter is on. Happy Mardi Gras y’all! –Schuyler