Monday, March 27, 2017

Dijon Tartelette Citron

I had every intention of showing you the glorious Medieval architecture of Dijon, where I went to draw buildings last weekend.
But the first day I became obsessed with the beautiful pastries.
They too have a lovely kind of abstract architecture if you can look at them without salivating.
Wonderful colors
And oh the geometry!
Right in the middle of this lush display an owl was watching me...
Baby owls (chouette) filled the front window instead of pastries?!
Here's an old postcard of the patisserie/boulangerie.

And today. Note the owl painted large on the doorway of Aux delices de la Chouette.

The boulangerie is just to the side of Dijon's church, Notre Dame and it's famous carved owl.

You're meant to rub the owl with your left hand for good luck (thank you Chantal for filling me in), but these tourists were using both hands for good measure.

That owl is the mascot of Dijon, seen everywhere in all forms, some edible. Note the snail.

Burgundy is famous for its garlicky, parsley snails so natch I had them the first day.

If your not into crustaceans you can have your snails in chocolate

Dijon's trusty owl is embedded into the sidewalks leading on a trail of historic monuments.

I'll get to them soon I promise.

Meantime, would you believe I bought this 3 stunners with every intention of painting them. Major ahem. Its true I only ate the fruit topping off them, except for the rectangular cassis moussy thing in the foreground. Irresistible. And cassis IS the local specialty. The March Paris pastry letter is up on Etsy should you feel hungry. If you enjoyed this post and want to support it, Subscribe to Paris letters and maps or forward to a friend. Cheers!

27 comments:

  1. LOVE this post! You are like me, distracted by the wonderful pastries!! haha! Love your paintings of them, too!

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    1. Thanks Christina ;))
      It was not at the top of my list at all!
      But when beauty calls..even if it is edible only!

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  2. Those pastries are glorious & I love all the owls. I would have eaten both the Burgundian snails & the chocolate ones, such fun. Looks like the trip to Dijon was a success & look forward to your building watercolors.

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    1. OK I'm going back for the chocolate escargot which I neglected! How could I?

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  3. I have to make escargots ..in the shells now..we have had them for yrs:)Vintage.I have been lazy f late and make them in small ceramic or metal vessels..love these.
    Cassis:) Both the town and the liqueur.Even jam.

    Love the paintings..even the little matkers.
    The owl reminds me of Il Porcellino in Florence:)

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    1. Those patisserie etiquette are dreamy aren't they...

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  4. Oh, Carol! This post looks good enough to eat! But you had me at citron tartelette! Love the painting this month!

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  5. Mille merci. You make everything look delicious. Another quite lovely blog.

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  6. Beautiful paintings and photos! What a nice thing to wake up to.

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  7. Kathleen10:56 AM

    OMG - that cake!! Looks DIVINE!!!

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  8. Miranda11:01 AM

    Love the look of desperation on the blondie rubbing both hands on the owl!

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  9. Rich and Caroline11:03 AM

    Thank you for the delightful tour of Dijon! We have only been through there on the train but have wanted so to visit.

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    Replies
    1. Much more glorious Dijon to come once I get through my visa appt on Thursday!!

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  10. The pastries really are works of art. I'll have the tartlette citron please. :)

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  11. Owls? I have my mother's collection. Who knew they were a symbol of Dijon?
    Pas moi!

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  12. Ha! You do get distracted easily by pastry!
    You are NOT alone!
    Opened your Paris envelope just now after reading email - and - pastry map!
    Wicked!
    Thanks, Carol, for "sweet" start to my day!

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  13. Love your lemon tartelette paintings!!! One of my favorite pastries to eat in France! Look forward to more on the architecture !

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  14. Thanks for the lovely photos! Eating with my eyes :)

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  15. Chantal7:16 AM

    I really liked this post like all others in fact. While googling « la chouette de Dijon », I found out that the actual chouette is « fake ». A few years ago the original chouette was stolen!!! It has been replaced by a resin mould. On your pictures it looks very real to me.

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  16. You've hit a true note with architecture and pastry: wedding cakes must be strengthened with little wood dowel "columns" to avoid collapse!

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    1. So that's why they often have Doric columns!!
      Leave it to you Jeanette for wedding cake tivia. :))

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  17. I love the pastries AND the owls :)

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  18. Merci PB, We are going to Dijon in May so this post is Per-fect!!
    Tarte citron is my favorite and I love owls too....I'm excited!
    merci, merci, merci!!

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    Replies
    1. More Dijon to come now that my visa appt is over with. Hooray!

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  19. My grandmother was from Dijon!!
    Nice post!

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  20. Heavenly!!! We leave in 22 days (who's counting) for our first trip to Paris. Soooooooooo excited!

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