SelectionWhile waiting for better days, it is possible to discover the world without leaving your room. With its wooded hills, cobbled streets and hidden patios, the Portuguese capital has retained all of its poetry.
Explore the city in a Super-8
A cargo ship mechanic (played by Bruno Ganz) deserted his post during a stopover in Lisbon. In the white city, Alain Tanner’s feature film released in 1983, follows in the footsteps of the hero, who, equipped with a super-8 camera, embarks on a sensual wandering to the rhythm of parties in seafaring bars and hidden corners. At the request of the Swiss director, not a script line: the rest of the story was improvised every morning at the shooting location. And on Sunday, the team’s day off, Alain Tanner set off to explore Lisbon with his own Super-8, to sprinkle his film with poetic images of the Lisbon city.
Give in to the sirens of the saudade
The saudade does not translate. Nor does it reveal its origins, which lend themselves to the most fantastic interpretations. In Mythology of the saudade, essayist Eduardo Lourenço writes that she is “The coat of arms of Portuguese sensibility”. Failing to be able to fathom it, we must hear it, this original melancholy, this cry of the heart which fado has inherited. One of the big fadistas, the Lisbon artist Amália Rodrigues (1920-1999), distilled it in her repertoire, from Fado Português at Gaivota. You can taste it by indulging in a listening session punctuated by the joyful notes of the song Lisboa Não Sejas Francesa, recorded in 1952. Resisting the influence that Paris then exerted on Lisbon, Amália Rodrigues declared her love for the Portuguese capital there.
Invite yourself to an art collector
The museum exhibiting the art collection of the oil magnate and philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian opened in 1969. Today, it is impossible to walk around freely and stop over in its modernist garden, but the place can be visited virtually, between collection permanent and current exhibition – dedicated to the Swiss master glassmaker Lalique. The page “New readings, new perspectives” crosses the eyes of artists, curators and researchers on the immense collection (which covers ancient Egypt, the Flemish masters or Impressionism) while “The choice of curators” exclusively puts in the light of works of modern art, pending the reopening of this wing in 2022.
Enjoy a cod fritter
Known as bacalhau bolinhos north of Portugal or pastéis of bacalhau in the center and the south, cod fritters are served in tascas country, at the counter or on a corner of a paper tablecloth. Their appearance would be linked to the importation of the potato in Portugal, in the XVIIIe century. But it was not until 1876 to find traces of the first recipe printed in the pages of The Art of Cooking, by João da Mata. This pastel bacalhau, cousin of the cod acra, therefore brings together potato, cod, onion and parsley, in a fine frying shell. In Paris, it is tasted at DonAntónia, a renowned Portuguese pastry shop and grocery store, near the Canal Saint-Martin.
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