Fu Castello, Pierre Hermé Infiniment Chocolat, Louis Fouquet, Laduree, Angiolo

 

New places open up every day in Paris. Who can keep up?

This past week by chance I fell into a few. Yesterday I past a green door with an unusual name, Fu Castello.

Parisbreakfast is in Vogue

While the mystery of how to make macarons alludes us, there's a new mystery. A Paris Breakfast's watercolor turned up in August Vogue announcing an opening.

Anyone know how this happened?

PB turns 4 Today!

Kiss kiss PB readers today!!! You send me the sweetest emails, like the one I got today:

I live in Australia and I’m 16 in 2011. I love art with a passion and I’m painting my own French piece for art class which you’ve inspired me to do. I’ve searched the internet and you’re art work is the best I’ve found! I really enjoy looking through your blog, paintings and photos. They’ve inspired me to go to France in my gap year to be an Ampere and to paint in my spare time. You’ve also inspired me to try a macaron! I’m getting a bit impatient, they look delicious! Anyway, just looking at your pictures brightens my day that little bit more. So, thank you for sharing your paintings and French experiences with me. J

May God bless you,

Philippa

 

So I'm getting out the candles.

U really bring me a lot of love & joy!

Because of you, I've started dolling up (Thank you H&M and Sonia!)

Even though I'm not always comfortable in the spotlight

Even though sometimes I rant on about buttercream etc. Grrrr

Really U put me on top of the world!

Really I can't live without U.

Only Paris is on my menu

And while Bear is having a virtual Perrier at cafe Le Select.

I'm having a virtual walze through the streets of Paris...

BONJOUR PB READERS & A BIG MERCI!

XXX

Superstition

When I was hanging my exhibit at the Boston French Library with galerie directrice Noémie.

I had to get under the ladder MANY times to hold the tape straight, while Noémie placed the pictures. An anathema for me. I'm superstitious from childhood. I have my father to thank. I'd sooner walk into oncoming traffic than under a ladder.

Quite a few of you suggested I visit Le Pere Lachaise.
Are you kidding? My father insisted anytime we passed a cemetery, funeral or hearse we had to spit 3 times (figuratively of course).  I still do it.

A PBers sent me this photo of a black cat in Le Pere Lachaise cemetery!

If my dad saw a black cat crossing the road.

He would turn the car around. No questions asked.

Whenever the family went off on a trip.

We had to repeat this travel incantation before my father would start the car:

'We're off in a cloud of dust,
In fact we've already left'.
I never go to Paris or anywhere without saying this. Once I tried to explain to a French woman in Provence that we could not go to Cezanne's Mont Sainte Victoire without saying the travel incantation.

Nous allons depart au nuage de bla bla

En effect nous allons deja depart bla bla.

But there are inconsistencies.

Superstitious as I am, the night of the Boston opening, I broke a small cosmetic mirrors. What of that?

I lived on 13th street for years in the village without a hitch. And the 13th floor several times. Go figure. 

Are you superstitious? Do tell all!

Very superstitious,
Writing's on the wall,
Very superstitious,
Ladders bout' to fall,

Thirteen month old baby,
Broke the lookin' glass
Seven years of bad luck,
The good things in your past

When you believe in things
That you don't understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain't the way
BONJOUR SUPERSTITION!

Sophia's Dollhouse Project

Macarons for Sophia, original watercolor,9" x 11"

Sometimes I get funny requests from PB readers, like a Mumbai CEO wants to order macarons for his bosses' private jet. I get a lot of orders for real macarons. If only I could bake and if only I had a patisserie like Sophia's dollhouse project.

voila Sophia's dollhouse project. 
"I am very pleased with the way it turned out and would be delighted for you to do a post. 

 I am making a very, very big dollhouse and was searching for French minis for it one day on the web. I found the facade on the website of La Boite a Joujoux, the miniature shop in Passage Jouffroy.

The picture on the back wall is the ceiling that I manipulated on the computer and then glazed with stained glass medium to add the brush strokes. The chef doll is by Marcia Blackstrom.

...for quite a long time and enfin.
 At 20€ I decided it was just too tiny to go with other pastries and returned it the next day with no regrets. I figured out how to make my own boxes happily.
Et voila!

 BIG MERCI Sophia for sharing your dollhouse dreams with us. 

Simply adorable!

Magnolia Bakery

New York Memories, original watercolor, 9" x 12"

I'm back on the streets of New York. I'm on assignment - I'm researching cupcakes at MAGNOLIA BAKERY for a painting commission from PARIS.

I looked in the Magnolia's window at 401 Bleecker Street at West 11th Street. It was Bedlam. Hands grabbing at multi trays of cupcakes. Was a bake sale going on ?

Do they mark down their cuppies after 4PM like at Eleni's NY? I better get in there and buy.

First you grab a box.Then you have to choose.Decisions...decisions.They brought out a fresh tray of cupcakes. YAY
I asked someone, 'are they on sale'?
They looked at me like if I was crazy.Magnolia Bakery is full of signs -CAKE RULES. It's a little bit like going off to summer camp once you enter the bakery.ONLY 12 CUPCAKES PER PERSON!(Or off with your head)ORDER WELL IN ADVANCE FOR HOLIDAYS!BE MINDFUL.
DO NOT REST YOUR PURSE OR CUPCAKE BOX IN THE CAKE DISPLAY WINDOW!

The CAKE DISPLAY WINDOW.

 Hey wait, these cakes are pretty.

Magnolia has very pretty Key lime cheesecakes.

AND chocolate pudding mini pies.

Not to forget this FAB peppermint icebox cake. Very traditional American old fashioned cakery going on here. You can make these if you get The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook.

Back on the street I noticed the cupcake icer applying her pastry arts skillfully to each cuppie.When she saw me taking a picture, she shook her finger at me...just like in France. Hey, I'm out on the street? It's true that there are BIG cupcake wars in New York City. And everyone guards their secrets like diamonds.

My one beautiful cupcake. I don't even like cupcakes, cake or icing, but I admit I gobbled it down. J'adore Les Cupcakes! Temptation is rampant at Paris Breakfast.

What's a girl to do?