Friday, November 03, 2006

Salon du Chocolat Cure...

La Maison du Chocolat petit fours, 12" x 15" Watercolor
I went to hear Mireille Guiliano last night chat about her new book, but Paris-induced jet lag hit me hard. I woke up midway in Barnes & Noble's to hear her say "I cut everything I eat in 1/2". I got home ready to hit the sack tout suite with my clothes on at 8PM, but first I thought I'd try "1/2" a chocolate "Mireille style".

Chocolate's Theobromine isn't just a cure for heart disease and heart ache or persistent coughs or whatever they're claiming this second...
It cures Jet Lag too!? YAY!


I learned last May in Paris, when I was painting a ton of chocolate boxes, how to remove the inner contents without disturbing the ribbon on top. This is not a good skill to acquire! But last night I found out the inner contents of a La Maison chocolate box will help delay bedtime till 11PM!

I had to buy the box for my New York Chocolate Show display next week, so resisting the contents was not easy.

The true test will be if I can eat just 1/2 of one chocolate every night to overcome the ever present Jet Lag. I'll keep you posted.. These gorgeous displays are from the Paris Salon du Chocolat - all La Maison du Chocolat. Their new holiday "Cubism" collection colors are red and brown! All the shapes are square, circles, cubes - again Chocolate geometry!

Librairie Chantelivre on #13, rue de Sevres 75006, is just down the street from La Maison du Chocolat shop. Their window was a beautiful homage to La Maison during the show. The French are rightly mad for their chocolatiers - they are the best in the world!

Here's another chocolate cure from Bernard Cassière at the show. I was invited to have a choco mask done..hmmm. I passed and just took the picture below...

Mireille has a How French Are You test.
I clocked in at You're Almost French! (37-47 points)
Here's a sample question:
1. Your idea of the ultimate chocolate fix is?

a. A chocolate Entenmann's donut.
b. A Hershey bar.
c. Godiva truffles.
d. 1 or 2 pieces of high-quality dark chocolate.
This is easy if you've been reading Paris Breakfasts for a bit...
Have fun!

56 comments:

  1. OH YES - I must have a bit of Frence in my Italian blood -- your chocolates make me swoon!

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  2. Anonymous8:24 AM

    Carol, your posts are as good as chocolate and I don't have to split them. In fact, I keep looking at them more than once a day. Merci pour les gâteries.
    Kris

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  3. Ooh, I'm almost French and about $15 lighter in the pocket, LOL.

    I giggled pretty hard at the first part of your post....

    Thanks for starting my day with good entertainment :)

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  4. Anonymous10:46 AM

    I LOVE Maison du Chocolat truffles!!! And their packaging is so elegant :) I would definitely opt for a good quality piece of dark chocolate...preferably enjoyed with eyes closed and toes curled :)

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  5. Anonymous11:25 AM

    Dear Carol,
    I´m still laughing at myself..Sorry,lots of things in my head,so I thought it was December the month begining so I realize(wrongly,obviously)that the 4th Thursday of November went away without congratulating Thanks Giving day to all my friends in the States.Today I´ve found dozens of mails asking me if je suis foule ou quoi...;D ;D
    Now´I´m the fist in congratulating you arond the world(I´ll phone Guiness Records...).
    Did you take the chocolate massages too??In Seville we go sometimes to a Spa(placed in an old Arab Palace)where we take chocolate massages and also(that could interest you)wine body therapy...C'est superbe!!!
    I wait some photos from the Autumn in New York(you need no castles in Spain..):O
    Ciao,cara
    Smila

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  6. Anonymous11:27 AM

    Pd-First/around :) :D
    Smila

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  7. Hey, nice blog, nice paintings. nice views ;)

    If you like chocolate, you should check this out: http://www.festivalchocolate.cm-obidos.pt/en/ - it's a famous Chocolate Festival in Portugal, in the very beautiful medieval town of Óbidos.

    All the best.

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  8. Anonymous12:05 PM

    Carol, Wonderful choc painting and photos. In hopes you got your rest.
    I need more of your art!!:)
    Cant wait to see what tommorow brings.
    More on artists travel sketchbooks please and art supplies:)
    Have a wonderful day,
    Linda

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  9. i love both the ideas (a) removing the chocs without the ribbon (b) eating 1/2 of everything

    btw, i live in india and have spent a sum total of 10 days in paris in my life. but i do know enough french to say chaud chocolat s'il vous plait!

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  10. Anonymous12:29 PM

    I don't b uy Hershey Choclates in any form or shape. It has to with the store ershey has on Broadway in New York in the most crowded part of Broadway (late 40% or early 50%). Hershey clerks has the whole crowd enter the store by starting handing out a pice of hershey chocolate and when all the crowd is in the clerk stops handing out the chocolate and starts telling about how the crowd can buy a bucket of chocolate. This not what Hershey advocated. Hershey gave a tour of the Hershey factory and every person, who came, got a Hershey Bar.

    Instead of this kind of tease promotion Hershey could do a budget promotion by renting out 3000 Pixels at PIXELS HOMEPAGE or at NEW ERA WISP for $30 for a month.

    I'll not buy Hershey Kisses or Hershey Bars. Instead I'll buy Nestles. I buy Nestles better anyway.

    To bad. I'm a proud American. I've to root for Swiss Chocolate bars. It is all the fault of Hershey store Clerks.

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  11. Found you via Blogs of Note on Blogger. I took the test and came out Une Vraie Francaise! Quelle surprise! I do have this obsession with Marie Antoinette that goes back to when I was 8 or 9...maybe that explains it un peu. Looking forward to exploring your blog further!

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  12. I really like your blog. I'll be mentioning it in my newsletter. I enjoyed today's post and I didn't know all of that about chocolate! I LOVE chocolate. I know, it can make people fat, but there is such a thing as moderation. Congrats on the "blog of note." Take care. :)

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  13. Cool blog, interesting post! I like chocolate :-)

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  14. Anonymous4:18 PM

    The mask looks tasty =)

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  15. Oh, it's funny, you love Paris and the Maison du Chocolat and i live in Paris 6th, near Pierre Hermé and Maison du Chocolat ....
    Yours pictures are really gorgeous !

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  16. God, I love your posts.

    Btw, you're listed as a 'blog of note' on the blogger home page today.

    xx

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  17. Welcome home!!
    You know Maison de Chocolate
    is my favorite
    especially in their Hermes like boxes!!
    I could never eat half a chocolate,
    and now you have given me another reason to eat them

    JET LAG!!

    You are a hoot Carol!!

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  18. Some great looking food there : )

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  19. a delicious post PB! that has garnered some much deserved attention, congratulations! have you seen? you are Bloggers "blog of note" today!!

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  20. Hey, congratulations on being chosen as a "Blog of Note" from Blogger! I think I am gaining weight just reading this latest post.

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  21. You've cracked it girl. You have been blog of note on blogger for the last day. Well Done!
    Loved these postings from Paris by the way.
    Di

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  22. BIG MERCI for stopping by to say "Bonjour" today.
    It's pretty thrilling to be a Blog of Note and the excitement has kicked my Paris jet lag right out the door, with the aid of some dark chocolate of course...
    A special thanks goes to Corey
    who dared me to start ParisBreakfasts 6 months ago.
    à bientot till Monday :)

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  23. Hello,
    just thought I gotta say - bonjour
    - as well.
    I was living in Paris and Nice,
    still have very good memories
    about this time.
    Ciao,ciao.

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  24. Bonjour Carol,
    This is definitively my favorite blog ever. So tasteful! And your paintings, oh I am lost in them. They really transport me.
    I shall be visiting.
    Merci!

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  25. Anonymous7:49 AM

    I´m from Brasil.
    Your blog is very beautiful.
    Kisses.

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  26. Congratulations on having a turn in Blogger's spotlight! Those are yummy looking photos, I must say. That isn't my stomach rumbling, it's my pancreas whimpering!

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  27. I love your blog and would like to buy some notecards. It sounds liek you are living a dream life.

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  28. woo hoo you are on blogs of note, well done. xx

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  29. An excellent post and blogg, u'll see me read it again, bye.

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  30. I will be reading regularly too.
    Chocolate is one of my favorite words as well. It just sounds good.

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  31. Chocolate, Yum! The chocolate flan I ate in Paris was the best.

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  32. good picture,my city love

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  33. I vote we all write to the government folks who publish those "healthy eating" brochures. We should lobby to make chocolate a new food group all by itself! What do you think?

    Andrew
    To Love, Honor and Dismay

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  34. Anonymous4:39 PM

    What beautiful work!

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  35. mon amie c'est trop bon pour couper en deux

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  36. Hooray for Carol!
    looking good as the blog of note!
    Love the chocolat masque!
    as always, yummy!
    --
    susan

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  37. *~*~Chocolate chocolate*~*~ everywhere! I think I have died and gone to heaven! Come see my *~*~chocolate*~*~ that came to me from across the miles!!Hurray before I devour it all!

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  38. I was just signing out of my blog after updating & on bloggers page it said Blogs of Note & listed yours.
    So, being nosey I popped along & OMG! Wall to wall chocolate!!!!!!
    I can come here & not get fat!!

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  39. Anonymous7:45 PM

    Mireille is my heroine. How many books has she written??

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  40. I can only imagine what it is like to have chocolate smeared all over your face. I would probably eat it before its "pretty-fying" properties kicked in.

    What happened to the good old Hersheys?

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  41. those chocolates look so delicious !
    ooh could u teach me how to remove the chocolates from boxes without disturbing the ribbon? x3

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  42. Hi, you have a very nice blog! I like so much. I think that you could visit my blog and give me any ideas. Thank you!
    http://yudokisenred.blogspot.com

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  43. Hi! very nice blog. Nice pictures. Love chocolates too. :)

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  44. You must be the size of a house......

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  45. WOW!
    That's a really nice blog!

    And I love chocolate!

    :-))

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  46. thank you for this absolutely fabulous blogsite.

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  47. Anonymous2:34 PM

    Great blog

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  48. This blog is delicious!

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  49. I just came across this great site so U R Linked. One of my buddy's from France (who died very young of Cancer in 1997) told me so many stories of "People Watching" at coffee bars in France with an accasional candy bar! FUN! Do stop by!!

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  50. Anonymous4:27 PM

    Fellow chocolate addict here!! I love chocolate so much I had to purchase a "chocolate" dog (lab that is).

    ~Kim

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  51. I hate myself to have found this awesome blog for two of my favourite passions too...
    Paris & Chocolate!
    I 'll be watching you!
    :))

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  52. Bonjour! Love your painings. Love your blogs. Love this whole package. Wonderful!

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  53. I enjoy your blog -- especially how you mix in the watercolors. Currently residing in Switzerland, I have to say the chocolate here is better than French chocolate, and a Frenchman I know who worked in the chocolate business for over 50 years believes the same. I need to cut everything I eat in 1/2 -- especially the chocolate! Hate to be the one to leave a pesky spelling correction, but it's tout de suite. I'm not sure of your level of French, French grammar and so on, but tout is just pronounced tou, so the second "t" you hear in tout de suite is actually the quick saying of de, not toute, which is pronounced toot. Well, anyway, I am a devout grammar nerd in English and French it seems. Keep it up with the chocolate and watercolors!

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  54. Anonymous2:26 AM

    All things are beautiful.

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