Friday, December 14, 2007

Fruits Rouges

Someone wrote yesterday:
One thing I simply cannot understand, is the fascination (obsession ?) that you and many others have of macarons.
What exactly is it that is so delicious about these ?

So I thought I'd focus on the French obsession with Fruits Rouges / red fruit desserts today.

This from Gerard Mulot, who loves colorful fruity desserts.

Another Gerard Mulot - a fraiser, full of strawberries of course.

These squares of raspberries are from Fauchon and the touch of green pistachio around the edges only heightens the redness of the fruit.

Individual RED tarts. Are they to cheer up the Parisian grey skies?

Here French painter Fantin-Latour included a lush plate of fraises / strawberries with a canister of sugar...just in case.

We saw these drink-your-red-fruits smoothies at the Beaubourg museum cafe

Giant fraise tagada strawberry-shaped candies at the Odeon candy shop.


Here's a fab RED scarf that says Je T'aime...I love you.

A red cow bag at the boutique PYLONES...

 
I don't know where I saw these child's red slippers but I couldn't resist shooting them for posterity...

Certainly RED is a French favorite color and for those of you who still like your macarons, a pink one to munch on...

20 comments:

  1. Oh my.. It all looks so lovely. To pretty to eat tho. I see why Fantin-Latour immortalized food in his paintings. His work is wonderful. Wonder what he would have done with the Macaron? Besides devour them. ;)

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  2. Rouge, passion, and the incontrovertible artistry on display...these are not hints enough? Oh dear PB what does this person live on? Does the reader merely eat for sustenance, and never soar? Poetry and paintings and really red red treats...send them quick, your reader is at risk...of just existing, not giving into bliss.
    :)
    All best, Jan

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  3. Who is this person that questions our love of Macarons? Is this not an offence that you can be imprisoned for?
    I know why we love them - the colours and the bubbles in their surface.
    I actually tasted one not long ago, made by a Michelin Star restaurant in our area - they wouldn't win awards with them but the pistachio colour was to die for.
    I feel a bit shallow now!

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  4. Anonymous11:39 AM

    Oui, et rouge est la couleur de l'amour! To question the existence and pursuit of the perfect ethereal macaron, is to question French culture. Macarons are to France what apple pies are to Americans. The nerve of some people. Gros Bisous, Ms. Glaze

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  5. Anonymous11:40 AM

    oops, I didn't mean to post the above comment anonymous. Sorry

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  6. Beautiful reds for a cold gray day. I needed that!
    Three more months till my first box of macarons! Will you count down with me?! lol

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  7. I think to love macarons, one must discover them in France, like I did several years ago. Munching on one while walking the streets of Paris is one of the great pleasures of life. (Perhaps the first taste of a macaron must be mixed with Paris air and exhaust fumes???)

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  8. Anonymous3:55 PM

    Dear Paris Breakfasts, Carol, if I may,

    I did not read the comment.

    But I do, I am able, I kind of, understand the sentiment.

    Sweetness and only sweetness can become cloying.

    :))

    PS: of course I am just pistachio or peppermint green. My ONLY nearby French boulangerie and general grocer has been sold to an English outfit and they just CANNOT produce those tartelettes, those meringues, those slices of pissaladier . . .
    They produce a travesty of the original, sob, sob. Ah, idea! can you persuade a nice Mulot or Fauchon to open another shop. The best road is Great Portland Street, London West One. Thank you.

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  9. In my mind--no other color could be more French than Le Rouge. All those red, ripe, raspberries make Laduree green pale in comparison.

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  10. all this red is so cheery! go go macaron!

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  11. I don't think I tasted a single one of these...Unlike some people who are forced to eat their subject matter..
    Just gazing through shop windows and trying not to get blurry berries...

    Carolg

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  12. Anonymous7:00 PM

    Sorry for you, anonymous, that you "simply cannot understand" the macaron thing.

    If you've tried Mulot and don't get it ... well, perhaps that says more about you than macarons.

    That's like saying, "What's the big deal with goat cheese?" Or "Who really likes Cote du Rhone wines?" Maybe Oreos or Fig Newtons are more your speed.

    Stay with what you know.

    Monsieur P.

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  13. Anonymous2:51 AM

    I keep saying I haven't got a sweet tooth... but, when watching all those fruits rouges, I can feel my tooth getting sweeter and sweeter !

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  14. Anonymous4:14 PM

    These are sooooo beautiful!!!
    It made me so hungry for wonderful fruit desserts!!! Thanks!

    Linda

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  15. Anonymous4:16 PM

    Tres colore - j'adore ca.
    Joyeux Noel!

    Jolie

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  16. Anonymous4:19 PM

    The French seem obsessed with red berries!
    Maybe the French are just OBSESSED! :)

    L.C.

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  17. lol :) I'm still patiently waiting to try my first macaron carol. I shall have to make sure that when that day comes I will have a red one!

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  18. I must say that red cow pocketbook is one of the oddest things I've seen in a handbag. Although I did have a pink pig face pocketbook when I was a kid.

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  19. Anonymous4:50 PM

    Oh my goodness your doing it too me again all this gorgeous delicious food I'll never loose a few lbs before Christmas. Oh well....
    cd&m
    http://catondarlingandmoore.typepad.com

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  20. Mary Hadda7:17 AM

    Really useful information, thanks for the post.

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