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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday morning I had a "private" visit to Pierre Herme on 185, rue Vaugirard to take as many pictures as I wanted from both sides of the counter. YAY!
Later I decided on a late run to my photo shop in the 6th - camera problems. It was dusk in the Marais. Irresistable for marching around on foot.
I passed a Starbucks on rue des Archives and peeked in. Starbucks is hugely popular in Paris with the French to my surprise! They love the big loungie chairs and relaxed atmosphere.
The banks of Velib bikes everywhere is a delight! These stations were empty during the strike/ greve last week. Next time I'll get a Navigo card so I can use one. I'll bone up on my biking skills too before I come...ahem
I passed the glorious Hotel de Ville enroute to the left bank -always spectacular at night.
Cross the Petit Pont...
To the other side where Notre Dame awaits...
Awaits every tourist in Paris. Sometimes it's nice to be a tourist...
A small art galerie on rue de Petit Pont with large, mysterious Medieval style paintings...
A shop window nearby with tiny, adorable Limoge snuff boxes...
At St.Michel I popped into the Metro and came out at stop Vavin facing my favorite bistro - Le Select. You can't go wrong here for tons of old Parisian ambience. The food is irrelevant.
Another night I took this shot of the L'Opera Garnier. No flash required.
Walking around Paris at night is a delight.
The streets are not so crowded and perfect for leche-vitrine / window shopping with no chance of maxing out your credit card.
Late shoppers at the Bonaparte Laduree can still max out their credid cards. Lines, lines, lines plus you feel the tension and anticipation - will there be any macarons left?
Here winners of a box of Laduree macarons enjoy their booty at nearby Cafe Le Deux Magots...
A pretty "boutique" hotel I spotted walking around another night in the Marais...
I hope you enjoyed all my Paris "bla bla bla"
Please don't ask me where you can buy this product.
I couldn't leave you without some Paris macarons could I?
Walking around Paris at night is a delight.
The streets are not so crowded and perfect for leche-vitrine / window shopping with no chance of maxing out your credit card. Late shoppers at the Bonaparte Laduree can still max out their credid cards. Lines, lines, lines plus you feel the tension and anticipation - will there be any macarons left? Here winners of a box of Laduree macarons enjoy their booty at nearby Cafe Le Deux Magots... A pretty "boutique" hotel I spotted walking around another night in the Marais... I hope you enjoyed all my Paris "bla bla bla"Please don't ask me where you can buy this product.
Or if I can buy one for you and your mother in size 8.
I shoot and run.
And I forget ALL names and addresses instantly.
I am neither a personal shopper nor a tourist guide.
I'm an artist who loves to look at everything.
I'm an artist who loves to look at everything.
I couldn't leave you without some Paris macarons could I? Please take a bite from my collection...
I'll be on AirFrance 0008 tonight coming back to you.
A bientot!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
I can hear you now...At last she's finally giving us a watercolor on her last few days in Paris! And a Pierre Herme watercolor at that!
The "Surprise Plenitude"!
HOORAY!
Well I just happened to be passing by yesterday in the rain on rue Bonaparte...and the ever present line of worshippers was nonexistent. Who could resist entering?
The usual suspects tried to seduce me with their intense, shiny colors and glossy textures...but I was looking for something different. Something I hadn't tried before. And something that would survive the rain and the Metro...
The Surprise Plenitude caught my eye and my tastebuds... Plus I will go through hell for anything containing CARAMEL and all 12 versions of the Plenitudes do! Along with dark chocolate, marscarpone cream and a touch of chocolate macaron - irresistable.
Did you know that "plenitude" connotes:
1 : the quality or state of being full : COMPLETENESS
2 : a great sufficiency : ABUNDANCE
This baby lives up to all expectations and more...
For your information...
Along with that essential information, this baby will survive the Metro and Paris rush hour happily.
The box did not do so well, malheureusement...ahem Another sticker or auto-collant would have aided survival enormously...
Have you ever been to England during Xmas and had the mad experience of British party poppers. Wearing a paper party hat is bad enough...hmmm
Well let me reassure you, opening the Surprise Plenitude is nothing like that.
I had to dissect this baby...
Still the mysteries elude me of what makes this melt-in-the-mouth extravaganza such a delight. Inside lurks a surprise soup of caramel and a macaron base to support the lusciousness. All desires are satisfied here.
Did I mention I also got the packet of 3 chocolate pH3 Plenitude "bowling balls"? These too are loaded to the gills with caramel soup and other indeterminate but delicious goodies. I went back and bought extras so I could inhale them while painting to impart the full effect into the watercolor - for research purposes of course.
The usual suspects tried to seduce me with their intense, shiny colors and glossy textures...but I was looking for something different. Something I hadn't tried before. And something that would survive the rain and the Metro...
The Surprise Plenitude caught my eye and my tastebuds... Plus I will go through hell for anything containing CARAMEL and all 12 versions of the Plenitudes do! Along with dark chocolate, marscarpone cream and a touch of chocolate macaron - irresistable.
Did you know that "plenitude" connotes:1 : the quality or state of being full : COMPLETENESS
2 : a great sufficiency : ABUNDANCE
This baby lives up to all expectations and more...
For your information...
Along with that essential information, this baby will survive the Metro and Paris rush hour happily.
The box did not do so well, malheureusement...ahem Another sticker or auto-collant would have aided survival enormously...
Have you ever been to England during Xmas and had the mad experience of British party poppers. Wearing a paper party hat is bad enough...hmmm
Well let me reassure you, opening the Surprise Plenitude is nothing like that.
I had to dissect this baby...
Still the mysteries elude me of what makes this melt-in-the-mouth extravaganza such a delight. Inside lurks a surprise soup of caramel and a macaron base to support the lusciousness. All desires are satisfied here.I've seen perfectly respectable, well-dressed French women, around the corner from the Pierre Herme Bonaparte boutique, gobbling up citron tartes IN THE STREET! Oh how I longed to catch their image on camera for you. But shock and common decency stopped me. What is France coming to when everyday folks begin to eat in the street. AND on the Metro I might add?
Has Paris been liberated again?
Did I mention I also got the packet of 3 chocolate pH3 Plenitude "bowling balls"? These too are loaded to the gills with caramel soup and other indeterminate but delicious goodies. I went back and bought extras so I could inhale them while painting to impart the full effect into the watercolor - for research purposes of course. You MUST try a Plenitude for breakfast or you haven't lived...
"Plenitude est une experience 100% jubliatoire"
Monday, October 29, 2007
I thought you might like to tag along with me on Sunday/Dimanche for a tour around Paris...
A friend said you MUST see the new Branly Museum so I arrived at opening time - 11 - the line didn't look so bad...
After a 30 minute wait I got a real view of the line - there's a whole S-curve curling off to the left you can't see here. Not for me!
I headed over to the Galliera museum in the 16th for an exposition of French Twenties fashion
At the Musee de la Mode et du Costume de la Ville de Paris just accross the Seine.
Inside yours truly, the photo thief went to work!
Unfortunately it was very dark inside...
Unfortunately a guard spotted me...
Not that that deterred me in the least...
From taking you along. More French parfum bottles...
No cafe in the Galliera so I stopped in the Musee Guimet for a quick bite of green papaya salade and a very strange duck dish...hmmm
Next stop - the SALON CUISINEZ! sponsored by Kitchen Aid, Cuisinart, Krups and Elle a Table and held at the Carrousel du Louvre.
SALON CUISINEZ! is a 3-day cooking demo marathon with classes for kids,
As well as adults. Yours truly gets to attend as "presse" since Salon du Chocolat. THANKS Paris Breakfasts readers! Please note the sardine action going on -very crowded it was indeed. 
Of course there were chocolate bars lined up like sardines on sale as well as other goodies...
The classic French snack - a huge slab of Foie Gras on country bread...
Fairly exhausted by this time, I headed back to the Marais. Inside the Les Halles metro station I discovered a fabulous public swimming pool/piscine - something I forgot to do this trip and could certainly use to fight off all those macarons :( 
Never mind. I ended off the day with a gelato from Delziefollie on rue Montorgueil. It's impossible to pass a gelato shop without testing their pistachio. Here an excellent pistache + a little-too-sweet canella cornetto at 3 euros for a petite. I hope you enjoyed tagging along. I've begun to pack up for my return to the real world -> New York. But there is a little problem of a strike/greve at AirFrance..ahem It's supposed to end tonight but there are no guarantees (a Fr. word!) in France of anything. Please cross all your fingers and toes and say a prayer that I make it to seat 29D on Wednesday!A bientot!
Friday, October 26, 2007
This is not another post on all the grey fashions in Paris!Remember I was late to the Gerard Mulot MEETING THE FRENCH visit?
So I decided to do a repeat "make-up" session since I had missed one meeting by going off to Provence bla bla bla...
This is our lovely Macaron guide, Florence admiring the chocolat...
And here is chief macaron Chef Leclerc inside the kitchen/ cuisine.
Chef Leclerc happily shares his macaron secrets with us. The chef is present from morning to night making sure the macarons are PERFECT! And they are.
Here Chef explains that only some of the macaron tops or coques are flavored, such as cafe, chocolate...I have to check my illegible notes.
Chef adds raspberry/ framboise colorant to the beating egg whites.
Once the eggs are beaten to perfection, Chef Leclerc goes hands on and up to his elbows, folding in the sugar and the almond flour. This is quite unique I think...
The chef does...
The Macaron Dance! He knows exactly when the batter is mixed to perfection. He creates all the new seasonal flavors / parfums (18 at the moment). They get final approval from Mulot and the board. Wouldn't you just love to sit on that board judging the new flavors? :)
Here Chef gives a helping hand to the batter into the mac making machine. Sometimes the mac-maker slips up and messes up the macs. The chef is on it tout a suite throwing the batter right back in, till it behaves properly.
Have a look at the framboise-colored macaron batter...
A tray of perfect macs ready for the oven / fore...
At Gerard Mulot, they rest just 10 minutes, not 1 hour as at my Lenotre class...hmmm
This revolving oven is new at Gerard Mulot and can bake many more macarons. 80 kilos are made each day at Gerard Mulot! Let's see - 8 macarons approximately in 100 grams (I counted). 1 kilo should equal 80 macarons. You do the math and report back :)
Removing the hot trays at exactly the right moment. Many of the stagieres / workers are from Japan. There are (are you sitting down!) 18 Gerard Mulot shops in Japan just selling ONLY MACARONS!!!! WOW! They all come to Paris to learn the recipe and get the training. Hello? YOW American pastry chefs get off your duffs and get on!
Here the baked framboise lids get their beauty sleep for 24 hours but I may have gotten that wrong in my excitement. Don't quote me.
The lids are getting ready to be filled....
White chocolate ganache is piped into coconut macaron lids..YUM! This worker looks very happy :)
Macarons wait for their tops...
As a reward for our patience we get to taste a nougat macaron. Double YUM
Then we head into the chocolate kitchen to see ganache made. That's another post that will have to wait dear readers. Aren't you fatique from all the hard work you did just observing?
Out of the cuisines and into the shop we get another reward - a gift mini box of Gerard Mulot delicious chocolates! We worked hard so we deserve them, right? I hope you enjoyed your MEETING THE FRENCH visit. Would I recommend that you do this next visit to Paris?
Here Chef gives a helping hand to the batter into the mac making machine. Sometimes the mac-maker slips up and messes up the macs. The chef is on it tout a suite throwing the batter right back in, till it behaves properly.Have a look at the framboise-colored macaron batter... A tray of perfect macs ready for the oven / fore... At Gerard Mulot, they rest just 10 minutes, not 1 hour as at my Lenotre class...hmmm This revolving oven is new at Gerard Mulot and can bake many more macarons. 80 kilos are made each day at Gerard Mulot! Let's see - 8 macarons approximately in 100 grams (I counted). 1 kilo should equal 80 macarons. You do the math and report back :) Removing the hot trays at exactly the right moment. Many of the stagieres / workers are from Japan. There are (are you sitting down!) 18 Gerard Mulot shops in Japan just selling ONLY MACARONS!!!! WOW! They all come to Paris to learn the recipe and get the training. Hello? YOW American pastry chefs get off your duffs and get on! Here the baked framboise lids get their beauty sleep for 24 hours but I may have gotten that wrong in my excitement. Don't quote me.The lids are getting ready to be filled.... White chocolate ganache is piped into coconut macaron lids..YUM! This worker looks very happy :)Macarons wait for their tops... As a reward for our patience we get to taste a nougat macaron. Double YUM Then we head into the chocolate kitchen to see ganache made. That's another post that will have to wait dear readers. Aren't you fatique from all the hard work you did just observing? Out of the cuisines and into the shop we get another reward - a gift mini box of Gerard Mulot delicious chocolates! We worked hard so we deserve them, right? I hope you enjoyed your MEETING THE FRENCH visit. Would I recommend that you do this next visit to Paris? ABSOLUTEMENT!
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