thu, 11 March 2004 Metropole Paris 9.1O/11 – Monday, 1–8 Mar <h3>Number 9.1O/11:– Monday, 1–8 March</a> <!-- the below lines check to see if 'print' has been called. Then it inserts the correct link into the right of the navbar. Notice the second line of 'echo $_SERVER' code - and notice the '?media=print' after it. When you are in 'screen' version, this is the link that will be displayed - and this is where the 'print' call is sent to this page. If it is already 'print', no '?media=print' is inserted into the URL, telling the php to compile a 'normal page' -->
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<p><img src="horzline.jpg" alt="horz line" align="middle"
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<h2 class="c3">Good Foodland</h2><img src="cows910a.jpg"
alt="photo: beef of the week" align="middle" height="220"
width="330" />
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<p class="c4">What it's all about – les vaches.</p>
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<h3 class="c5">'France Farms Corp.' Struts Its Stuff</h3>
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<p class="noindent"><b>Paris:– Saturday, 28. February:–</b> In
principle there should be nothing strenuous about going to
the Salon de l'Agriculture on its opening day, because
everybody is supposed to be out of town standing in lines
waiting to ski down some distant, freezing Alp.</p>
<p>Paris' turn to have winter holidays ends on Monday, but
somebody overlooked the fact that not everybody can afford
high–altitude winter sports – so the 'beautiful
cow show' is a perfect chance to distract kids who have
been watching TV all week.</p>
<p>Or maybe it's the final treat, after dad or mom has been
shepherding their loved ones for a week, or two. Plus,
farmers<img src="cows910c.jpg" alt="photo: sheep family"
align="left" height="175" width="235" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> in general are always saying they are
poverty–stricken, so they come from all over France
with their kids – to see 'France Farms Corp.' all at
once, all in one place.</p><i>A typical family of sheep
– lamb chops, goat cheese and sweaters.</i>
<p>But at first, on the Métro ride down to
Paris–Expo at the Porte de Versailles, there are few
on the train. In theory lunchtime is a good time to travel
in France because everybody is supposed to be eating. If
they are eating at the Salon de l'Agriculture, then they
are already there.</p>
<p>At Paris–Expo there is a separate entry for
foreigners – over to the west – and entry is
free if you bring a passport and say you live outside
France. Everybody else has to pay 11€, except kids
between seven and 12 who are charged 7€.</p>
<p>In all, 650,000 visitors are expected to visit good
foodland between now and Sunday, 7. March. Just after noon
today the lines to get in are shorter than for an average
cinema.</p>
<p>The main event is in Paris–Expo's hall 1. There
are 2300 animals at the salon in all. Most are present for
the competitions, for example, for 'Madame Vache' of 2004.
Of course, a 'Bleu du Nord' is not in direct competition
with a 'Bretonne Pie Noire,' or any of the 'Blondes
d'Aquitaine.'</p>
<p>France's Président, Jacques Chirac, has already
made his annual visit, so he is not in competition except
in a political sense. 'France Farms Corp.' always has a
'crise' of some sort, so there are some farmers here who
definitely want to tell France's boss about their
problems.</p>
<p>The price of milk is in the cellar, and 'les cochons'
are in deep trouble – with the 'industrial' ones not
fetching more than 1€ a kilo wholesale. There is
overproduction of milk, pigs, chickens, fruits and grapes,
along with a new version of the Common Agricultural Policy
which will bring a reduction of subsidies, and coming
difficult negotiations with the World Trade
Organization.</p>
<p>Alone, the fall of the milk price is supposed to force
the elimination of 40 percent of 110,000 producers. Worse
and coming soon – competition with the strong Polish
milk producers.</p>
<p>But for the mini–season of the Salon de
l'Agriculture the point is to put these worries aside and
show off 'France Farms Corp.' best face. On the hoof or
lying down, these faces belong to the 'Amoricaine,' the
'Pie Rouge des Plaines,' the 'Bazadaise' or the
'Parthenaise' – all breeds of cows or bulls.</p>
<p>The straw is clean, each animal has an individual water
bowl and there are no fences, but signs say, 'please don't
touch.' There is a little kid, between two and three, who
can't read and is patting the sleek brown rump of a resting
1100–kilo cow, more gently than the nuisance of a
fly.</p>
<p>Standing in an aisle, admiring the brown eye of a
'Blonde d'Aquitaine,' there is a jostle as a Cadillac of a
cow is led through the crowd, attached by a string to its
handler. Some of the concrete floor is covered in red or
green carpets – Paris is a high–class
barnyard.</p>
<p>As usual, the showring is in the giant hall 1,
underneath the raised centre section – but nothing is
happening except for the sand being smoothed for tender
beefeet. The waiting beefs are parked to the west and
south, within a short walk of showtime.</p>
<p>Each year one of France's regions is the main guest and
this year Poitou– Charentes has the honor.
For<img src="cows910b.jpg" alt="photo: tired pig of the week" align="right" height="170"
width="240" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> those who have always
wanted their own 'Pathenaise' on the hoof but do not have a
living room big enough, there is an online game you can try
at <a href="http://www.vacheland.com/">Vacheland.Com</a>,
where you can create your virtual cow, as a virtual French
farmer.</p><i>A French 'cochon' having a well– earned
siesta.</i>
<p>In one area there is a barbershop for cows. Two barbers
are hard at work with their electric shavers, with one
cautiously doing the bit around the tail. Cows may not be
more exciting to watch than – sleeping turtles
– but at least they don't fidget much.</p>
<p>There is just so much edible beauty one can take on a
Saturday afternoon so I move on to other animals. I can say
I see some porks because they look like pigs – oh,
and piglets too – but when it comes to sheep, I am a
bit at a loss.</p>
<p>These belong to the 'Ovis' family of animals, which my
big red dictionary describes as, 'any of various, usually
horned, ruminant mammals. A sub–species is lamb, and
most of the rest would be goats except they are in the
'Capra' family of animals that I mistake as
mountain–going sheep.</p>
<p>There is one animal that looks like a strong horse, but
it has a big head because it is a mule. There are some
donkeys too, bigger than I think they should be, and some
horses are around somewhere – as I see later on TV.
For example, there is a breed of racing draft–horse
that looks a lot like the steam tractor that replaced it,
but is faster.</p>
<p>In short – am I ever? – you can spend a
whole visit to the Salon de l'Agriculture in
Paris–Expo's hall 1, especially if you like a lot of
mostly big, clean animals.</p>
<p>But the salon is more than this. There are five other
'halls,' and some of them occupy up to three floors.
Ponies, donkeys,<img src="cows910d.jpg" alt="photo: salon meal table" align="left" height="180" width="230" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> mules and horses are in hall
2.1. Research, plants and gardens are in hall 2.3, which
is, logically, part of hall 3 – where the regional
foods used to be during past salons, but this has been
moved to two vast floors of hall 7.</p><i>Atypical remains
of a visiting family's salon lunch.</i>
<p>For some reason, all of the Parisians who were staying
home to have lunch, have turned up in hall 7 for an
afternoon snack. On the first floor France's regions
– including offshore ones – have their stands.
On the floor above, exotic world food shares the floor with
dogs, cat food, and hunters and sports fishermen. Do you
need an 'official' duck hunter's gumboot?</p>
<p>Regional food continues in the separate hall 4, where
every second stand is handing out slices of hard sausage.
Most of the food 'tastes' cost something, as do sips of
wine and Champagne – so the salami bits are welcome
and are good way of distinguishing one region from another
even if one seems to be mainly Italy this year.</p>
<p>Regions begin with Alsace and 17 regions later end with
Rhône–Alps. I don't know how many might have
been left out. One region, 'Centre,' is worried about its
name because it doesn't seem to evoke much – but for
all I know all the orphan regions are under its roof.</p>
<p>All the same, if the Poitou–Charentes region is
calling itself 'Vacheland,' then France should be calling
itself foodland. Even Paris, located inside the
Ile–de–France which is nearly 80 percent
farmland, claims mushrooms and yogurt as specialites.</p>
<p>Somewhere around the Salon de l'Agriculture there is
huge contest to identify this year's food winners –
all of the 'best ofs' – be they animals or varieties
of foods. I don't know where they find the time to sort
through the 'Label Rouge,' the 'AOCs' or the 'CCPs.' Some
products carry more than one label.</p>
<p>Around day nine of the salon, some 3300 gold, silver and
bronze medals will be awarded, after 15,000 samples
have<img src="cows910e.jpg" alt="photo: buggie disk brake"
align="right" height="175" width="230" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> been ingested, tested and judged. This means, even
if you do nothing other than eat, that there is more here
than you can get through during the time of the
salon.</p><i>A techical marvel – a horse–drawn
buggy's disk brake.</i>
<p>This is all very well. For myself I am perfectly happy
just to have survived a few hours of opening day. On
leaving Paris–Expo there is a bus waiting right
outside the main gate. I get on it without paying too much
attention, and then get off about four stops later.</p>
<p>A minor miscalculation, meaning I only have to walk from
the bottom of the 14 arrondissement nearly to the top. Ah
sure – it's pretty good weather, and I need some
exercise before the next meal.</p>
<p class="noindent"><b>Salon de l'Agriculture</b> – known to regular
Metropole readers since 1997 as the '<a href="http://www.salon-agriculture.com/">Beautiful Cow
Show</a>,' this annual food–gate event is with us
until Sunday, 7. March. Open hours are 9:00 to 19:00, and
until 22:00 on Friday, 5. March. At Paris–Expo, Porte
de Versailles, Paris 15. Métro: Porte de Versailles.
InfoTel.: 01 49 95 37 00.</p>
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