Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Pirna, a nicely restored small town a little east of Dresden and the entire surrounding district Eastern Erzgebirge/Saxon Switzerland
may be best known for its bad reputation as a stronghold of outer right-wing extremists, neo-fascists and populists. But fortunately the town also has a strong civil society which cleans up the spitted at windows and works for a humane neighbourhood and the integrity of creation. So whether you're on the road with your bicycle travelling the Elberadweg or take the urban train from Dresden -- have a break to support these brave people and marvel at the town with roots in the stone age, its rich medieval and modern history.
For a coffee break head for Café Bohemia
a little off the market place, located in a restored
renaissance house built in 1480. When the weather is nice you may take a seat outdoors, on the pleasantly quiet cobblestones of Schmiedegasse ("blacksmith's lane"). The Italian-style coffee drinks are made with organic milk, and the rich and lipsmacking home-made cakes contain organic eggs and milk as well as organic fruit and herbs, both home-grown or collected from meadows in the surroundings with scattered fruit trees. As the Saxon cake tradition has it the friendly owner will serve the cake with a dollop of cream.
Unfortunately the cafe is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
On these days, in the morning or if you prefer a hearty lunch proceed to the Vorwerk Podemus organic supermarket you may know from Dresden, with its fully organic bistro.
Another option for a cake or snack is the town's only artisanal organic bakery Spiegelhauer near the train station. The family also had an organic cafe cum ice-cream parlour in nearby Heidenau but this does no longer exist.
Small German towns with beautiful old city centres often have a small traditional organic corner shop in one of the historic lanes, and Pirna is no exception: However, the owners of the former organic greengrocery Naturkosten closed their shop near St. Mary's city church a few years ago and turned it into a beautiful organic bodycare shop, boringly dubbed
Naturkosmetik.
There's still another small-scale organic grocery in the south, a little out of town, the Bioladen in Pirnas Grünem Haus.
Closed
2020-01-29 19:00:00
[Pirna, Heidenau, Elbe_cycle_route, Elberadweg, organic, coffee, lunch, snacks, cafe, supermarkets, grocery, bakeries, bodycare]
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Tuesday, 07 January 2020
Walked the Champs Elysees and feel for an easy going, yet high-quality French-style bistro? Continue from the Arc de Triomphe along Avenue Victor Hugo, and you will finally arrive at Place Jean Monnet in the 16th arrondissement. Here you'll find all-day open neo-bistro Jacques, a small friendly place serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and -- on Sundays from 10am
to 5pm -- brunch. Apart from a selection of (generous) starters, salads, soups, and burgers there are two daily changing French-style main courses, usually meat and fish.
All fruits and vegetables are organic; the meat isn't promised to bear an organic label, but it is definitely of high quality. Unfortunately, of the drinks only the coffee and an easy-going Chardonnay white wine are organic, so although the bar keeps open longer than the kitchen (usually until 2 am) you will not get much organic during the night. The home-made potato chips which were served as a complimentary amuse-gueule may be an exception.
The service here is swift, good-humoured and happy to speak English and some phrases of whatever your language is.
While in all the other restaurants mentioned here tourists are the majority of guests, the audience at
L'Epidon,
a small fully organic restaurant and wine bar
near the metro stop Odeon was clearly local.
Their secret (with well-behaving kids): two of the seats are swings.
As in most French restaurants you order a set menu: a starter and main course or main course and dessert or starter, main course and dessert
Of course you can also order individually but if you wish to order more than one thing it's more economical to take such a combination.
In addition to the menu there's a daily suggestion of the chef -- in my case a hearty stew of calf, green beans and potatoes.
Another tip is the main course salad with a sheet of crips brique dough. All in all
a perfect place for both, omnivores, vegetarians and vegans, and the best: all drinks are also organic!
If you ready for the classical French Haut cuisine try La Ferrandaise.
This is definitely a place vegetarians should avoid, and even omnivores will probably feel to have eaten sufficient meat (and perhaps fish) for the next week after an evening out here.
The classical starter-main-course-dessert (at 37 EUR in the evening) is more than filling -- but absolutely tasty and often offers this magical moment when the known ingredients almalgamise into a higher unity, and you wonder how this taste might have been produced.
The restaurant is a heavy tourist spot -- English was the predominant language, which is probably due to the fact that the place was mentioned in the Guide Michelin.
All vegetables are organic, and there was one really good certified organic read wine on the daily menu. With other wines the restaurant promises that the vineyards work "in the spirit of bio".
Lunch menu (l'assiette du midi) comes at 16 EUR.
More to try
Here's a list of (partially) organic restaurants I found in preparation of my stay but did not have time to follow up. If you visit them I'd love to hear about your experience.
Closed
2020-01-07 16:00:00
[Paris, organic, lunch, dinner, restaurant, French, vegan, vegetarian]
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Monday, 06 January 2020
What would a visit to Paris be without tasting a crêpe? These thin pancakes come in two varieties -- galettes with savoury toppings make a perfect lunch while sweet teeth will prefer a crêpe with sweet toppings. For the real thing head for a crêperie, a specialized small restaurant serving no other food (apart from perhaps a salad), and you should do this for lunch as the better owner-run shops will usually close early in the afternoon.
My favourite place is Crêpe de la Joie, a family-friendly 100 percent organic owner-run crêperie near
tube stop Censier Daubenton.
The buckwheat-based galettes have savoury fillings, often with an egg on top, while the sweet crêpes are made of wheat.
All crêpes and galettes (except the one of the day) are dubbed after mythological figures like elves, gnomes and fairies and all of them are vegetarian or even vegan.
The friendly owner prepared food for us even though we arrived ten minutes before her closing time. This will surely not be the rule but a little broken French and a friendly smile helped us to get a perfect start for our visit.
The shop also sells
Hildegard of Bingen food products.
Hip, professional
Breizh Cafe
within the Marais does not observe the usual French rules for opening hours but serves crepes and galettes all day. The place with its rough wooden interior does
not use organic ingredients as a rule, but the flours for both, the galettes and the crepes are always organic.
More to try
The following organic creperies I found in preparation of my stay but did not have time to visit. If you come there I'd love to hear about your experience.
2020-01-06 16:15:00
[Paris, organic, lunch, creperie, restaurant, coffee, French, vegan, vegetarian]
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Sunday, 05 January 2020
No carbon and nuclear power, no GMO
-- the window front of the more than 20 years old budget hotel Solar Hôtel features Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace and makes very clear the convictions guests are expected to share or at minimum to tolerate. Located in the 14th district near metro station Denfert-Rochereau this welcoming, family-friendly place offers the luxury of
eco-certified cleansing agents and solar-powered illumination of its facades, but not necessarily of Paris elegance.
If you have a room on the upper floors you may even have a glimpse of the top of the Eiffel tower -- unfortunately the ugly Tour Montparnasse is in the way for a beautiful view.
The family rooms are marked for one to three persons, but can be easily used by a family of four as long as two children share a smaller double bed.
The hotel's interior emphasizes on longevity and recycling, not necessarily on natural materials (though the towels are made from organic cotton), with headboards and tables made of recycled wood which have been there since 1992, and still do not look shabby. On the other side you may be disappointed to find (re-used) plastic cups at the bathroom and blankets made from 100 percent polyester.
Visitors are encouraged to use the narrow, blue-painted spiral staircase instead of the lift to save electricity and asked to separate their waste into the bins in the entrance area.
You may also ask for bicycles.
The fully organic French-style breakfast consists of tea or coffee and delicious croissants and baguette with jams and butter. In addition you may help yourself with apple juice, yogurt and breakfast cereals.
There's a sister hotel (more precisely: an annex) dubbed Le Lionceau nearby where organic tea and coffee are promised to be available in the rooms.
Paris luxury
If you are on a romantic vacation or have the budget for ordinary Paris hotel prices there's a number of more luxurious places to spend the night and wake up to a sumptuous
organic breakfast. Although I verified the existance of the hotels below I haven't stayed there (yet) and am interested in your experience.
The first ones on my list are the two Green Hotels Paris certified with the European Ecolabel: Hôtel Gavarni and
Eiffel Trocadéro
in the 16th district which promise 100 percent organic and/or fairly traded breakfast.
Just off the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in the 17th district, boutique Hidden Hotel is painted inside with natural pigments, offers coconut-fibre mattresses, organic toiletries and filtered water, plus organic breakfast.
In the 4th district, near Place des Vosges Hôtel Turenne does not promise 100 percent organic breakfast, but some (perhaps most) of the
fresh items, pastries and cold cuts should be organic. It comes at additional 14 euros per person (7 euros when you book your room at the hotel's website) and at no extra cost for children below 12 years.
Breakfast on the room is being served without an extra charge.
And finally: As you righteously may expect from a carbon-neutral luxury hotel the Eden Lodge
in the 11th arrondissement is reported to offer fully organic breakfast,
although the hotel website only promises organic fairtrade coffee, tea and eggs. The place is located
near Bastille and the Père Lachaise graveyard.
2020-01-05 09:30:00
[Paris, organic, hotel, accommodation, breakfast, lunch, dinner, bar]
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Saturday, 16 November 2019
If you prefer to set out on a shopping spree on a bicycle and prefer a rented bike that is not tracking you pay a visit to Fahrrad Schieber, a more than one hundred years local bicycle workshop located a few steps from the Wasserturm landmark within the squared part of town, the "Quadrate".
For 10 EUR a day (as of 2019) you will be provided with a well maintained used bike. If it against all odds breaks during your trip, do not hesitate to step by, it will be fixed promptly.
Founded almost 25 years ago your first stop could be HautNah, a fashion boutique specializing in ecologically and fairly produced clothes made from natural materials. The shop is a member of the
International Association of Natural Textiles (iVN) and aims at those looking for classical long-living cuts rather than at cutting-edge fashionistas (for trending fashion you may try the shops listed below). Needless to say that HautNah also offers an assortment of healthy outfits for babies and toddlers.
For shoes proceed a few steps along the Kaiserring to Fußspur ("foot trace"), a small local chain specialising in environmentally friendly produced and European-made shoes.
Leaving the ring road and entering the Quadrate through Kunststraße you'll find a tea shop of the
Tee Gschwendtner franchise. Although this specialist chain is selling conventionally produced teas and tisanes in the first place its shops have proved to be a trustworthy source of organic teas and herbal infusions for years. You can buy all kinds of loose teas and herbal infusions as well as high quality tea bags and even pre-fab iced teas, and there will usually be organic options. Although most teas will be filled into bags before your eyes there's always a minimum quantum you have to buy (usually 50 or 100 grams), and you have to buy standardized packages (bigger sizes being 250 or 500 grams).
Even longer west in the Quadrate area, located between the castle and parade square the new Umgekrempelt ("rolled up" and/or "turned inside out") clothes boutique offers both, fairly traded and organic slow fashion as well as a repair service and upcycling workshops. In addition you'll find a lot of accessoiries and gifts here, and even plastics-free degradable glitter. Note that this likeable shop keeps closed both, on Mondays and for a (rather late) lunch break.
Leaving the Quadrate for the eastern part of town the Wohnhunger gift shop next to Eddie's zero waste supermarket offers
a selection of organic delicatessen like coffee, soups, chocolates, liquors, herbs and spices,
some zero-waste items like natural soap and cotton dish washing clothes and a lot of other cosy things.
Unfortunately the organic coffee isn't used at the coffee bar, and the milk for the coffee drinks isn't organic. About three years ago the shop also offered an organic soup or stew for lunch, but these are songs from the past.
On your way you'll also pass Weinrefugium, an upmarket, carefully designed wine shop offering a good selection of natural and organic wines. (For more and only organic wines visit the Bittersüß delicatessen in Neckarau.)
More to try
Here's a list of shops which I had on my list for research but didn't manage to visit myself. Let me know about your experience!
Greenwashed
The city's
online tourist guide suggests to get yourself a "bio" picnic basket for a stroll at the embankments. Don't fall for it! The only organic items that come with this "Wellness-Korb für Vegetarier" are two bottles of the organic bionade soft drink:
- Die Metzgerei, Rheinparkstr. 4 (bistro in the Lindenhof neighbourhood)
Closed
The following places do no longer exist, although you still might find references to them on the web:
- Fairbrothers, C 8, 18 (fairly traded organic fashion)
2019-11-16 14:15:01
[Mannheim, organic, shopping, organic, fair, fashion, shoes, spices, delicatessen, gifts, bodycare, coffee, tea, cycling, zero_waste, wine, bicycle]
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