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

This is what we do in Paris when it gets hot - close the 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? It’s pleasantly not too sweet 👍

A dealer in the Saint-Sulpice antique marché (on thru the weekend) looked at my black ice cream & asked what flavor I was eating. 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

 For Paris letter research 🔬 

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 

Was by the fountaine Medici

I would like to be that 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 around town with l’eau de Paris.Dispensers are easy to find at Hotel de Ville. Not so much in the Jardin.

One Summer coolant I cannot live without is Alvalle Gazpacho🍅 Add a few cubes, a squeeze of lime & 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 that Basque fete back 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 It was originally created by Empress d’Eugenie in 1861 and taken over by top chef Michel Guérard, 100 years later. There were 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..

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