Let Them Eat Bûche de Noël

 You can not go two steps in this town
 

 Without tripping over a log
 

 A chocolate log or a bûche de Noël
 

 Which evidently extends its welcome well past Noël into the celebration of Epiphany with a French king cake or galette des rois featuring yummy almond paste frangipane stuffed puff pastry and a surprise lurking favor inside but that's for a later post.
 

  
The variations on a theme are endless in Paris. Traditional bûche is made from a genoise or other sponge cake, generally baked in a large, shallow Swiss roll pan, frosted, rolled to form a cylinder, and frosted again on the outside. The most common combination is a basic yellow sponge cake, a rolade, frosted and filled with chocolate buttercream; however, many variations on the traditional recipe exist, possibly including chocolate cakes, ganache and espresso or other flavored fillings.

  
This macaron-decorated bûche de Noël looks like a kid's choo choo train to me.
 

  
Two choo choos meetup at a crossing.
LOOK OUT!

 Most of them resemble a bed with a headboard, footboard with stuff thrown on top...

 A marron glace serves as a pillow from elegant des Gateaux et du Pain.

Inside:La châtaigne en jeux de textures, amertume d'un miel d'arbousier : biscuit moelleux à la pâte de marrons, châtaignes entières « cuisinées », caramel et fleur de sel, crème douce-amère au miel d'arbousier, mousse de châtaignes.

 You can easily buy just a slice from a boulangerie

 An Austrian bûche slice at Angelina.
 

 Complimentary colors red + green for this single slice. Pastry chefs are artistes and have a color wheel onhand I'll bet.

 There are even whole mini bûche de Noël(buchette) for mini Parisiennes.

I have yet to taste a bûche de Noël but when in RomeParis...

Have you eaten bûche de Noël? Did you love it?
Should I?

76, rue de Seine 75006

I had planned to post on something else entirely

but I came across these lush Gerard Mulot pastries

and didn't want to deprive you this morning...

Or myself for that matter :)
I keep coming back to Mulot...
Here's repeat performance by these Chantilly lovelies...
For one thing Gerard Mulot opens at 6:30 AM !
AND open on Mondays.
AND his patisserie is on a corner (rue de Seine and rue Lobineau)
So there are two banks of windows to browse before entering!
(An important factor if you want to leche le vitrine)
Unlike secretive Pierre Herme, who keeps his treasures inside.
His doorway is a sort of curtain you push through

No sneak peeks there.
Here Mulot's marron glace...
I couldn't not show Mulot's macarons again could I?
He's got a book out too..
I always have my eye out for anything lemony...
Here the Tarte au Citron Meringuee.
If you go earlyish, they wheel out these carts of petit fours for you to gaze at longingly...
Well, some people are gazing at them longingly :)
I'll WILL taste this next trip...

An Old Chestnut (pun intended)

Yesterday I marched into La Maison du Chocolat fully intending to shell out  $4-5 bucks for just one marron glace (chestnut). I decided in the name of research I'd must try one of these.

And a very special chestnut it is too - a Marron Glace / glazed, candied chestnut takes 4 days to prepare, two spent soaking in a syrupy sugar solution. I saw these in Reims in October but resisted temptation.
I was also informed that there were none left at La Maison!
SOLD OUT.

They were sitting politely on the front counter at La Maison during Christmas, but I procrastinated. I thought too sweet, I'll pass. But their Marrons are not too sweet (ont la particularité d'être très peu sucrés). The Marron glace I saw all over the shop were just "dummies". I felt like a crash test dummie. The French are completely nuts (no pun intended) about chestnuts. They do a whole slew of "faux" chestnuts for autumn. The windows were full of them. This marzipan version was sitting in Patrick Roger's window.

I compulsively took pictures of every chestnut that fell across my path (no pun intended). And I passed up every one. These were part of La Mere de Famille's Fall display. All edible.

Marrons are the fruit of Le châtaigner tree and here's a little movie on them. "Chatain" is also the name of chestnut hair color...like blondinette /brunette. The meat is quite nutricious too. Just don't eat too many. Elle peut provoquer des gaz intestinaux si on en fait une grosse consommation. My New Year's resolution - I will not pass up any French chestnuts that come my way in 2007 next Fall. An old chestnut" is a subject/joke which has been repeated so many times that it isn't funny any more.