Friday, June 16, 2023

Jeudi 15 Juin, Jardin du Luxembourg, Gazpacho, Les Prés d’Eugénie

This is what we do in Paris when it gets hot. Close shutters early to trap the morning cool air.

I’m still in Liz’s teacup class, still painting teacups ☕️ 

Another Paris cooling solution: ice cream. La Mere de Famille has exotic flavors this year. 

I got yummy sesame noir & immediately got black spots on my polka-dot dress 😵‍💫 
Description: Cette étonnante crème glacée est élaborée à base de sésame noir. Directement importées du Japon, ces graines de sésame au goût fumé apportent une subtile tonalité de bois de réglisse/This amazing ice cream is made from black sesame seeds. Directly imported from Japan, these smoky-tasting sesame seeds bring a subtle tone of licorice wood. 
Have you tried black sesame ice cream 🍦
A dealer in the Saint-Sulpice antique marché (on thru the weekend) looked at my black ice cream & asked what flavor? He’d never heard of sesame noir ice cream
Very nice antique teacups in the marché if you have a spare 100€
I was on my way to the 
Luxembourg jardins
I’ve always wanted to paint the sailboat ⛵️ concession
Or sail a sailboat at Luco. What about you? 
I should have come in the morning. It was HOT 🥵 
One cool place 
I would like to be a duck 🦆 The reflections were knock-out 
One rule for Paris hot weather is carry a bottle of water 💧 If it’s empty you can refill it with l’eau de Paris.
Dispensers are easy to find at Hotel de Ville. Not so much in ‘Luco’ nickname for the gardens.
One Summer coolant I cannot live without is Alvalle Gazpacho🍅 
Add a few cubes, a squeeze of lime. 
And you have an Apéro 🍹 For a creamier texture and a more authentic Spanish gazpacho, throw some stale bread 🥖 + Avalle into a blender.
A wall of gazpacho in Monoprix - the next best thing to a transfusion when the Summer heat 🌞 hits in Paris.
I once had a green gazpacho in Amsterdam. Best looking gazpacho ever 👍
At
the Fete de Paris-Basque I wish I’d been more adventurous. White gazpacho (no milk, made with bread, almonds, cucumbers, grapes, olive oil, garlic) topped with black olive tapenade topped & anchovy. I wish they would bring back the Basque fete to Paris 🙏
Or should I go to la Fete de Bayonne in July for the full monty?
Thank Empress Eugenie de Montijo (formerly of Grenada, Spain) wife of 
Emperor Napoleon III, for the recipe that spread throughout Spain & the rest of the world in the 19th century. Gazpacho was originally eaten by poor peasants from stale breadcrumbs soaked in water, olive oil, vinegar, garlic. 
I once ‘took the waters’ for a week at divine spa, Les Prés d’Eugénie Created by Empress d’Eugenie in 1861. Then taken over by top chef Michel Guérard, 100 years later. Mud baths, massages, piped-in Mozart in the rooms + his fabulous cuisine minceur. That was back when I was a pharmaceutical illustrator
Once, during lunch service, Guérard was opening a Champagne 🍾 bottle for a guest and the cork went astray & hit me on the head 😵‍💫 
I did not sue €€€€ Talking about going astray I’m losing the day here..
Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast! 
If you like this post please support it by buying my Paris letters and watercolors

18 comments:

  1. Love le Jardin de Luxembourg….post entertaining as usual, as you describe yoyr adventures in a stream of consciousness way….thank you!

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  2. You really need to write a book with some illustrations. Who knew...a pharmaceutical illustrator! You have lived and continue to live such a full, interesting, and exciting life!

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    1. Anonymous8:40 AM

      My checkered past…☺️

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  3. Anonymous7:39 AM

    We have spent hours in le Jardin de Luxembourg watching children sail boats, play in the sand and jump on the trampolines. It is a great place to relax and "people watch" It is a place for the young, old and in between The gardens are beautiful.

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  4. Anonymous7:47 AM

    Love the teacups! My mom had a set with little pink flowers. I didn’t save it. 😢 when my parents were married, they were Canadians, my mother had a teacup shower. She used them all the time. Some were so stained I didn’t keep them. But the ones I have are a lovely teal color.

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    1. Anonymous8:39 AM

      Teal teacups! That’s unusual 👏👏

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  5. Bonnie L7:59 AM

    A wonderful glimpse into a Paris summer day…and the antidote, ice cream and gazpacho. ❤️

    Yes please to any and all Carol G watercolors of the Jardin du Luxembourg! The sailboat concession is SO charming. Yikes, 6€/30 minutes? What happens if your sailboat gets away from you? or sinks??

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    1. Anonymous8:38 AM

      All boats rise with the tide Bonnie
      No sinking boats at Luxembourg
      Stop thinking Titanic!

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  6. Anonymous10:45 AM

    Two questions: Do the vendors at the marche every sell out of everything on their talbes? And is the water cold that comes from the dispensers at the Hotel d'ville?

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    1. Anonymous11:47 AM

      At the end of the Marché at some of them…they practically give it away,shouting 1 Euro!
      2. Yes the free water is cold. I got some today. Wish they dispensed glaçon/ ice cubes 🧊 too

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  7. Anonymous11:49 AM

    What a lovely area. Everything is clean. Nothing thrown on the ground Lynne

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  8. Sukicart5:09 PM

    I hope you got a glass of champagne for the "injury". I love gazpacho and the best I ever had was a green zebra tomato gazpacho at Moulin de la Galette.

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    1. Anonymous1:28 AM

      I am ready togo to your Moulin de la Galette Suki for green gazpacho in Montmartre immediately ! Yum

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  9. Anonymous1:29 AM

    ANOTHER SENSATIONAL BLOG!!! AS ONE OF YOUR PBers REPLIED, YOU NEED TO WRITE YOUR BOOK. I BELIEVE YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU ARE!! HOPE SO!! CARLA

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  10. All the best keeping cool!
    A good type of water bottle is a double walled/insulated metal one as it will keep the water cool all day, getting one with a handle makes it easy to carry around if you don’t want to take a big bag.
    I would like to send you paint the little sail boats too 🙂

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    1. Anonymous12:36 AM

      Thanks Kirra
      I am playing with those sailboats ⛵️
      My waterbottle is plastic 😵‍💫
      I put it 1/2 full into the Freezer for a big inner ice cube 🧊

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  11. I enjoyed the Luxembourg gardens..Loved the sailboats and Littles..I had a great picnic there..Love gazpacho:)

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  12. Anonymous9:54 AM

    Loving all your gorgeous teacups. They’re so happy and beautiful colours 💕
    Look forward to tea soon I hope. July will be calmer. Jill, Mad about Macarons

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