One Potato...Two Potato...Three Potato...Four!

This old childhood counting/elimination rhyme has been on my mind the past couple of weeks. Every morning, I've been on the métro, going back to school again!  This year, a two-week  "cours intensif" at the École Langue Onze  over in the 11th arrondissement. Every morning, I get off the métro at Parmentier, a station right at the busy intersection of Avenue de la République, Avenue Parmentier, and Rue Oberkampf. The first morning, I got off the train and found myself facing this statue, set into a recess:

I was running late, so didn't bother to check it out, but each morning since, I've been lingering longer and longer on the platforms, and learning a whole lot about the gentleman on the right, Monsieur Parmentier, who was responsible for the acceptance of the potato as human food in France!!

As an army pharmacist, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813) was captured during the Seven Years War and imprisoned in Prussia. His only food was potatoes, known to the French as hog feed. In fact, in 1748, believing that potatoes caused leprosy, the French Government had passed a law forbidding the cultivation of the potato.

On his return to Paris, Parmentier pursued his studies in nutritional chemistry, discovered there was much to be said for the humble potato, and began promoting it as a great and healthful source of nourishment. He ran into a lot of opposition, but persevered, even using publicity stunts such as hosting dinners that featured potatoes and inviting such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin to participate. He even offered bouquets of potato blossoms to the King and Queen!

Eventually, he succeeded in persuading the Paris Faculty of Medicine to declare potatoes edible in 1771. Then, during the siege of the first Paris Commune in 1795 potatoes really came into their own. The Tuileries Gardens were converted into potato fields and their harvest staved off certain starvation and famine during the siege.

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery, and in his home town of Montdidier, a bronze statue looks down on the townsfolk as they pass through Place Parmentier. Almost 200 years later, a postage stamp was issued in his honor..

...and on the platforms of the Parmentier métro station today there are extensive panels, honoring the man, and distilling an amazing amount of information about potatoes...

...including their real roots in Peru, where, in 1532,  the conquistadores discovered gold, spices, AND 2300 different varieties of potato!



 Going home from school, waiting on the opposite platform, I've been learning more about the healthy values of the potato, vitamin and mineral content...

...the huge numbers of different varieties, their seasonal harvest times, even how to cook them!

Who needs to go to school when you can learn so much on a métro platform!

But I have been going to school, and back at the real school, Langue Onze, the language program has been intensive indeed, lots of focus on grammar, exercises to do in class, homework to bring in the next day, and lots of good conversation...

...between the three students (me, Francisca from Chile on the left and Eva from Israel in the middle) and our very young and lively teacher, Lise -- on the right! It's been an excellent class because with only three students, and a three hour class each day, you find yourself learning a lot! I told them all about M. Parmentier and how lucky we are that he persuaded the French to adopt the potato. Imagine a world without "pommes Dauphinois", "pommes Anna," pommes gratinées", etc.

The name Parmentier, by the way, also extends way beyond the street and the métro station. Any foods in the frozen section of the supermarket that includes "Parmentier" means that there are potatoes involved. And there are many of them. And the menu at any good bistro -- specially at midday -- will inevitably include a dish called "Hachis Parmentier", meat and vegetables topped with creamed and browned potatoes. In England, we call it Shepherd's Pie, and I made one last night in honor of M. Parmentier! 

Bon Appetit, et À Bientôt!