G-7 Meeting Goes Easy on the Salt--and Budget

The warning came straight from President Jacques Chirac’s office, and Paul Bocuse, the 71-year-old grand chef of Lyons, was not about to argue.

“We are under orders from the palace,” Bocuse said Thursday as his kitchen prepared a regional specialty, quenelles of fish in a crayfish sauce, for the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries. “Lighter meals, with less salt and fewer courses. Everything simple.”

Bocuse shrugged, adding impishly: “But we always do everything simply.”

So it was that the Group of 7 opened Thursday night with a “simple” five-course meal, easy on the salt, in the 17th century Hotel de Ville, the seat of government in Lyons that was equipped with its own kitchen just for the occasion.

Though the meeting in France’s gastronomic capital has been called the “sommet de la bouffe,” or the summit of grub, it is, in fact, the most austere of the four such gatherings hosted by France.

Chirac, as attuned to his image as any French leader in history, has tried to stage a more modest meeting of the industrialized powers here.

With his own poll ratings low and his country gripped by 12.3% unemployment, Chirac ordered his minions to go easy on the elegance.

And sure enough, by the time the guests depart on Saturday, France will have spent only $20 million, about a third the cost of a similar gathering in Paris in 1990.

For Lyons, though, the summit has offered an opportunity to emerge from the shadow of Paris, its big brother to the north.

Though separated from Paris only by a two-hour journey on the high-speed train, Lyons is France’s Chicago, a metropolitan area of 1.2 million with a “second-city” mentality.

“When people think of France, they think of Paris,” Christian Philip, first deputy mayor of Lyons, lamented Thursday. “Paris is a city that is, OK, pretty nice. But it isn’t France. And our ambition is to be the gateway to southern Europe.”

The experience of Naples, Italy, host of the 1994 Group of 7 summit, has fueled optimism here. In the two years since that summit, tourism in Naples has soared 40%, officials here say.

“The question is: Will it work here?” said Philip, a law professor and lifetime Lyons resident. “We don’t know, but we sure hope so.”

The G-7 was, in effect, a gift from Chirac to Raymond Barre, the mayor of Lyons, former prime minister and member of Parliament in Chirac’s ruling coalition. A short, portly man, Barre is known for his governing skills but also his undynamic personality.

Across France, he is often referred to as “the teddy bear.”

Lyons’ summit had a rocky opening when transport workers, demanding overtime pay for working on Saturdays, walked off the job.

But the strike had little effect. Thousands of Lyons residents already had fled the city, taking a long weekend to avoid the expected traffic jams and leaving taxi drivers and merchants to grouse about the scarcity of business.

As during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the result was a delightfully calm city for the 4,000 foreign visitors, with free-flowing traffic and perfect early summer weather.

In fact, this city at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone rivers is one of Europe’s hidden treasures.

As early as 43 BC, it was a thriving crossroads from which the Romans controlled the Gauls. To this day, its architecture reflects that Italian influence, with splashes of pastels unknown in gray Paris.

The first film was produced here by the Lumiere brothers 101 years ago (though, significantly, it opened in Paris). The silk and textile industries, which produced the Hermes scarf and the Jacquard weaving loom, still thrive. And Credit Lyonnais, France’s largest bank--and one of its least-solvent--was born here (though its headquarters today is in Paris).

The city has been making something of a comeback thanks to the decade-old French plan to decentralize governmental functions. Unemployment remains high, though slightly lower than nationwide. But the blurring of international borders in Europe has begun to help the city reestablish ancient economic links with Italy and Spain.

Lyons is best known, though, for its food, from the succulent volaille de Bresse, the locally grown poultry, to the quenelle Lyonnaise, an oval-shaped fish souffle in a creamy sauce.

Both dishes were on the menu for the private dinner Thursday, which was created by Bocuse and three other three-star chefs from the region. The meal was washed down with red and white wines from the Cotes-du-Rhone.

The G-7 leaders will dine tonight at the two-star Leon de Lyon restaurant. Bocuse is serving lunch Saturday for 25 spouses and aides, opening with black truffle soup, a specialty he created for the French presidential palace two decades ago and offers at his restaurant in Collonges-sur-Saone for $60 per bowl.

Before the leaders even sat down for their opening meal, Bocuse was apologizing for the quenelles.

“I usually serve them with more salt,” he said. “But I guess the whole world is becoming more prudent about what it eats.”

* TRADE GOAL: U.S. and Japan aim to resolve disputes before August. D2