Put a Camellia on it, Chanel Auction/Bonhams Saint Cyr

 

ON ETSY
I missed out on Chanel at Fashion Week in January

So Yesterday I went to gawp

Chanel Fall-Winter 2025/26

 A huge downpour ☔️ started as I was about

To leave for the Fall/2025/Chanel show at Grand Palais.

Salon du Livre et de la Presse Jeunesse

 

“Happy 🦃 Thanksgiving ”, Brigitte, my bouquiniste said to me. I’d momentarily forgotten. When she lived in the states, the ex-pats would be invited to THREE Thanksgivings 🦃🦃🦃 in one day!

Yesterday I went to opening day of the annual children’s book 📚 fair in Montreuil and its FREE !

Chanel RTW Fall/Winter 2024

  Yesterday was bitter cold out - 43 degrees feels like 34 degrees + a chill wind.

The last Tuesday of Paris Fashion Week is always the Chanel Automne/Hiver show at 10:30 am

Put a bow on it, Mouna Ayoub Chanel Auction, Black Friday Sale

 I hope you all had a jolly Thanksgiving  yesterday, if you’re in the US. Ours is on Saturday. 

Monday, late in the afternoon in the rain, I viewed 252 pieces from the Chanel auction of Mouna Ayoub,the world’s biggest couture buyer.

Azzedine Alaïa Couturier Collectionneur, Palais Galleria

 

Monday morning I went to the preview at PALAIS GALLERIA of designer, Azzedine Alaïa Couturier Collectioneur. 

Alaïa was a passionate collector. It began in 1968 when Cristóbal Balenciaga's house closed, Alaïa was given fabrics and various pieces. 

Le Grand Numero de Chanel

 

Le Grand Numero de Chanel at Grand Palais Ephemere is pretty darn fabulous🎉 A Big Merci💋 to Daina for alerting me to get a ticket last month. 

It’s a complicated circus show to experience and share with you but so exciting and inspiring. 

Jardins Jardin 2022

 

The annual 4-day (on through Sunday) JARDINS JARDIN has arrived in the Tuileries. Aside for a torrential downpour the weather has been grand.

And very much missed after a 2-year hiatus.

Its a week or so until the start of summer in Paris. My recent obsession with painting glass 

Drew me to beautiful jars filled with fruit and veg. 

You can also buy very small green houses. Will they fit on my little patch of roof?

The bee 🐝 people with honey from Paris rooftops are here again, CITYBZZ with the latest in what to wear when bee-keeping.

Why didn’t I buy fresh 🍓berries at LA FERME DE GALLY instead of jam? 

Their nectar framboise looked yummy. I am definitely going back. 

You can buy cherry tomato 🍅 plants for your balcon. 

The fresh mint plants smells heavenly. 

There are the beautiful designer gardens for total immersion with steaming fountains and trickling brooks to make you forget you’re in the middle a busy city. 

Buy a ready-to-go picnic basket lunch and camp out on the grounds.

Chanel has again installed a garden presenting their latest red Camellia creations in 2 ‘red’ greenhouses. 

But first immersion into the scent of No.#1 as red flowers dance and flow over you. 

Then a visit to the lab for more details and pretty flower samples to make us forever young😊 I was inspired to run home and get out my red paints. 

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🐝🍓🌺🍓🌺🍓🌺🍓🌺🍓🌺🍓🌺🍓🌺🍓🌺🍓🐝

Sauteed Steak - Jacques Pepin / Youtube

 

Haven’t we all made surprising changes to our lives during the Pandemic. Me, I never watched cooking videos one after the other in a trance-like state until recently. 

Certainly Jacques Pepin is one of the best out there to watch. What a terrific teacher! What a terrific guy And I rarely ate or cooked red meat (no pun intended). I never bought a steak in the US. I ate mostly veg + seafood. Moving to France changed that fast. Under Confinement I’ve developed a hankering for hunks of red meat - needing more iron maybe? 

Watching Jacques Pepin sauté a steak it was clear I was doing it all wrong. Thank you Jacques 👏👏

I’m learning the names of French cuts of meat. 

Next challenge I’ll get the nerve to visit a proper butcher like Le Boucherie Gardil on the Île. 

I used to see Jacques Pepin now and then at the James Beard House, when I was a volunteer house photographer. We shot for our supper several nights a week and I sketched the chefs as well. When I had a Chef portrait exhibit at the house, I painted the chefs on a jacket to wear to the opening. 

Guests wanted the painted chefs jacket, not the portraits = my newest profession. The top chefs offered dinner at their restaurants instead of payment. I ate very well that year.

 I’m still sketching ‘chef’ bears for the January letter.

Along with watching cooking videos, I’m obsessed silly cat videos. Are you?

And painting their portraits among other things. 

Jardins Jardin

Last Thursday I went again to a favorite June Fete, the annual 4-day JARDINS JARDIN in the Tuilleries. Arriving just a week or so at the start of summer in Paris.

The second year in a row a CHANEL tour. This time through a camellia garden and into a mini lab to learn how they make their newest Hydra Beauty skincare line.

The camellia was Gabrielle Chanel's emblem, decorated her apartment on rue Cambon and adorned her first fashion collections from the 1920s.

Each flower has 65-80 petals. It takes 150 flowers to make a kilogram of flowers. 7 kilos are required to produce 1 kilo(2.2 pounds) of the Camellia Alba PFA active ingredient. Lordie.

And they gave everyone who took the tour tiny bottles of CHANEL Hydra Beauty Micro Serum, plus a camellia seed if we want to DYI.

The outfits of our Chanel guides were endearing, especially those red rubber rain boots. Not for sale sadly.

They would be perfect for strawberry picking at LA FERME DE GALLY just outside Paris.

Or do nicely whilst planting on your own terrasse if you had one rather that a tilted bit of metal roof.

For mingling with the French goats at JARDINS JARDIN? Perfection.

More rare elixir at Jardins Jardin, honey made from Paris rooftops called CITYBZZ.  

You don't have to have a garden, a bit of terrasse or a green thumb to get a kick out of Jardins Jardin.

Just plan on coming next year for the entire month of June to take full advantage all the fetes. Salon de la Patisserie starts today. I gave my free Jardins Jardin bag to PBer Pat and she kindly took this pic of my always messy desk. Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast. Share with a friend. Indulge yourself and Get a taste of Paris with letters and ROSE SALE watercolors in your mailbox📮. Why not?xxx💋Carolg and Bear🐻 in the jardin🌷