Pierre Herme Tarte croustillante aux cerises

Pierre Herme Cherry Strusel Tarte, watercolor, 9" x 11"

Normally I wouldn't picked out a strusel-covered tarte at Pierre Herme, but Amy and I discussed having a 'crumble' taste test at Les Deux Abeilles.  I took a shot of the tarte before gobbling it down Sunday just a week ago - I usually forget. M. says cherries/cerise = June/juin. This being the last day of June it seems appropriate to do an homage of sorts to cherries.

PARIS NIGHT WALKS!

Paris window chaise,watercolor, 5.5" x 7.5"

Another Paris night walk since you enjoyed yesterdays post so much adn I am still busy now with the Jack Russells... There's nothing like strolling around Paris at night... You have all the windows to yourself... And you can redecorate entirely to your heart's content - like this inviting chair in a rare bookshop window.. Oh those trecherous, unending circular staircases in Paris! I'll take a mini model instead S.V.P. Bouquets of everlasting coral - perfection! Parisien children's shops at night are full of stories - a sad child neglected by teddy parents...dommage A little snack for your night time journey..? A few cerises peut-etre? Crunch...crunch At last! Bisquits...quelle dommage - made of porcelaine=no calories! My walk from the Right bank over to the Left bank. Que Voltaire is particularly good for enticing antique boutiques for the vicarious shopper.
BONJOUR PARIS NIGHT WALKS!

Macarons and Cerises...

A ParisBreakfasts reader requested a birthday-macaron watercolor.

Natch I had to throw in a cherry/cerise...

My 2 favorite things to paint = macarons + cherries!
I could paint cherries all day long...
I could eat cherries all day long...
Who couldn't?
Yesteday in the mail arrived this cherry necklace I ordered from La Fille du Consul!
Now I'll have beautiful cherry models even when the season ends.
Spoons are another good painting subject -
they add that bit of essential shine...
Macarons are the perfect geometric shape to draw and paint.
Some macarons are more geometrically fun to paint than others...
I counted in my Flickr pictures - They said;
We found 21 results for your photos matching CHERRIES.
We found 32 results for your photos matching macarons
This is my favorite macaron picture.
I never even went inside :(
But I think I remember where it is...
Next trip in October, I promise to take a good look and report back the details!
Matching macaron colors...
I could do this all day long :)
Back to painting macarons and cherries...

Les Temps de Cerises2

I'm painting a lot of cherries with the black cups -to add some playfulness. Besides cherries are fun to paint.

I was in Paris last May for the short cherry season..

The Burlat cherries from Provence are the first to arrive..

Cherry season in the states seems to last all summer.

Who knew the US was the world's biggest producer, consumer, and exporter of cherries?

Paris street cherries - note the green leaves!

Astoria street cherries minus the green leaves (from CA and WA)

We have CHERRY WARS between this corner stand

and the one further down on 30th Ave. And cherries are FREE for the taking enroute to work. Well, not really, but people just help themselves. An act probably worth a lengthy prison term in France.

Chocolate and cherries make a happy mariage.

That's a cacao bean in case you were wondering.

 

Mademoiselle de Margaux from the Medoc makes a divine chocolate-covered cherries - a blend of dark chocolate, preserved cherry / griotte and Armagnac called La Guinette. But they are only available in France - too perishable! Cherries in general have a short shelf life. They should be refrigerated quickly and unwashed. If you don't use your ripe cherries within 6 days it's best to freeze them. But then you'd need to pit them.

 

You really can't do a cherry post without including Pierre Herme's "Cherry on top" gateau. I've often wondered if the marks on the vertical side are a cutting guide? This is so tall, it could be used like the height marks your mom put on the wall.

If you eat the above chocolate + cherries your chances of fitting into Marseille's Le Temps de Cerises $200 buck jeans are practically nil.

On the other hand, take away the chocolate and you might make it.
Just 90 calories for 21 cherries makes a nice snack. Plus 2 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber! Did you know cherries are sized by rows? This dates from when the cherry industry packed the top layer of cherries in neat rows.  If 10 cherries fit in a row snugly, that size becomes a #10. A 9-row cherry (considered the largest and probably too large for the best flavor.)  A 12-row is the smallest.
Back to painting cherries.

Le Temps des Cerises

Cherries and spring come together in Paris. I found this pile of cherries on rue du Cherche-Midi. The green leaves add just the right touch. Greengrocers intuitively know complementary colors (a Red/Green combo) bring out the best in each other. Dreaming of ripe cherries is considered a dream of wish-fulfilment.
These Burlat cherries are in the Marché d'Aligre , open every day until 1pm except Monday. La Burlat is France's most common cherry and represents half the nation's consumption. Some other variétés de cerises: la Belge, Beltza, Griottes, Rainier, Napoleon, Reverchon, and Montmorency. Provence provides 60% of the production, then the Languedoc-Roussillon and the Eastern Pyrenees. Put fresh cherries in a plastic bag. eat within 3 days.

Candy cherries are made from almond paste or marzipan but the fruit is used in France in les crêpes, tartes, and the classic clafoutis aux cerise. Here are two recipes for cherry clafoutis from La Petite Chinoise (pitted) and Ms. Glaze (not pitted). Both have luscious photos. Meanwhile I sprinkled cherries in all my Paris still lifes.

"La Cerise sur le Gâteau" is the title Pierre Hermé gives this huge choco cake filled with: bisquit dacquoise aux noisettes croquantes, praliné feullieté, fines feuilles de chocolat au lait, ganache et chantilly au chocolat au lait...Does this title mean the same as the English expression, "the cherry on top" as in over the top? Oui.

The queen of cherries from the annual June Fete des Cerises in Westhoffen, Alsace is not far from Strasbourg. Lots of crèpes à la cerise are eaten and cerises à l'eau de vie is drunk.
I grew up with a Queen Anne cherry tree. They were sour pie cherries, but the birds didn't mind. Back then I was a slow eater. I spent hours checking to see if the inside color matched the outside. I never guessed I'd be matching cherries with watercolor paint years later.
Cherry Tea Pot, watercolor, 12 x 10"
Cherry red is not easy to capture or match. Cherries look shiny, almost translucent and reflect light. But the brightest, warmest reds in your watercolor box, the Cadmium Reds, are opaque and look dead on the paper. The cool reds like Alizarin and Permanent Rose are transparent but don't best capture the cherries' warmth. I've been working on these watercolors over the long holiday weekend. I'm not happy yet. Painting cherries is not piece of cake.     

Cherry Tin, watercolor, 12 x 10"