Yesterday I went to Sévres-Babylon…

 

MAISON DE CHOCOLAT

Yesterday I took bus 63 to Sévres-Babylon, looking for some Saturday eye 👁️ candy 🍭 

Last week we received tons of snow ⛄️ were buffeted by 22 mph winds 💨 hit with plenty of rain 🌧️ 

12 things I love about living in Paris

"Everyone complains about the weather but no one does anything about it".

 

So what if it's grey skies in Paris most of the time. 

"Frankly my dear I don't give a damn".

I don't miss the verticality of living in New York City.

.

On the other hand I'm nuts Paris horizontals. Things are on a more human scale.

Pastries are lined up horizontally.

Same goes for chocolate bars and yogurts. They still put me in a trance-like state. Very calming. No need to buy. I get off on reading the labels.

I've fallen for vanilla beans. You can reuse them over and over in your hot chocolate in the morning (even when they dry up rock solid). 

And then put vanille in your tea at bedtime. Or anywhere else for that matter sweet or savoury.

Butter used to be one stick of Land O'Lakes sitting in my freezer 6-8 months. Not anymore thanks to Beillevaire Fromagere.

 

Vermont Cheddar, I've forgotten all about you. There are 300+ cheeses to love in France.

 

Seasonal fashion trends used to be more prominent at PB.

 

Now I'm consumed with what's to eat in season in the marché

 

I ate so many fresh, ripe apricots last Spring, I got a rash and had to wear long sleeves all Summer. It was worth every scratch. Will I ever learn moderation here?

 

GO TO THE MARCHÉ! If you want to see what people are wearing (Raspail on Sunday). What they are eating(far more important). 

What to eat in restaurants (they buy what's in season).
To practice your French.  For so many reasons the marche is one of the best, free experiences you can have in Paris.

 

As for the Metro, I've learned how to push with the best of them. It is the fastest way to get around Paris.
 

Till I learn to ride a bike.
 

Wednesdays are when new movies open in Paris. I read the Metro posters with great anticipation, then the reviews and sometimes I remember to go. Mostly I miss things. There is so much to do in Paris. DON'T miss 'Les Garçons et Guillaume, Á Table' Great fun.

Yesterday I BAKED. This is major milestone. Much thanks to Jill of Mad about Macarons. Her Tarte Tatin d'Oignon Caramelises was so easy and too good not to try. The other day I made Charlotte's Magret de Canard, also easy and trés delish. So yes, I'm still loving Paris for too many reasons to count.

BONNE 2014 PBers. Stay tuned.
 

Paris Bouleverse

 Sometimes in Paris things go completement bouleverse/upside down or do a complete reversal on you like the weather. It was gris gris gris/Paris grey skies yesterday.

 Yesterday sand was dumped on the banks of the Seine at Pont Marie. Today you can swim at Paris Plage and the sun is out.
WOW

 By 7PM yesterday the Paris soleil/sun decided to come out

 In full blast.

 It lasted till 10 PM!

 A very welcome reversal indeed.
THE COLOR OF CITIES is a fav book because it explains why we love Paris or any extraordinary city. For reasons often overlooked like longitude, angles of light, shadow shapes.
Paris' low-contrast light is softer, more atmospheric, more moody  the best for still life painting thanks to overcast grey skies. Author Lois Swirnoff conveys a powerful message about the angle-of-light's impact upon regional colors, design and materials.

 The #70 bus dropped me at Hotel de Ville, last stop.
The square was completement plein/full of people picnicing, drinking beer, waiting for a pop concert to begin.

Who knew?

 Yesterday I bought this pretty green dessert with plans to paint it.

When I got home I found my pretty dessert had gone completement bouleverse on me.

c'est la vie.

Color in Paris

 Oh the weather outside...

 Is frightful.

Well it has been in Paris for the past week, rain, rain, rain and going forward more rain.

 Is that why there are so many lashings of color scattered about like these colorful ballards near a kid's playground on rue du Bac?

 Colorful chaises sit out cheering one on as you wait for the #96 bus in the Marais. Merci chaises!

 Wildly colored legs I don't know where..?

 Bright plastic bagues/rings in the 11th.

 Same shop somewhere on rue Oberkamph had this Fab bracelet.

 Fauchon can be depended upon for serious lashings of color.to brighten Paris grey days.

 Colored dots galore.
Why not wear them if your feeling bleu?

 Paris grey/gris skies require au nom de la Rose for uplifting bien sur.

 A hopeful shop window in the upper Marais.

 I fell in love with this primary-colored kid's book, Couleurs Du Jour by Kveta Pacovska.

 It's a 2 1/2"  accordian thick book that opens both back and front = tons to look at and not a word written. Who could resist? I didn't. 

 A very narrow but bright little shop in the 15th.

Go paint Paris any color you want (but gris/grey) with this watch by AKTEO France Espace AKTEO
"A vous de plaire" Champs Elysées, 24 rue Marbeuf - 75008.

Hope the weather changes soon!

Paris Was Ours

The top book I'm reading this week is Paris Was Ours.I can't put it down and neither will you. 

It won't tell you what to wear in Paris, though there's a chapter on 'Understanding Chic' by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni but I haven't read it yet...

It won't tell you which patisseries to go to either...

It will tell you what it's like to be an ex-pat in Paris and feel lost. Editor Penelope Rowlands starts off the introduction with,

'I'm a PARISIAN of the recurrent, revolving door kind.'

Later she reveals, 'We hated Paris and loved it all at once, and when we headed back to New York (after a year) we did so reluctantly.'

32 writers contributed their experiences of living in Paris, so there's something for everyone here.

The first exerpt by Veronique Vienne, (a terrific art director I illustrated for at SELF Magazine) tells of her tres difficile return to live in Paris - she'd forgotten many French ways after years in New York. "Living in Paris is "priceless," but it will cost you."

Veronique created one of the best and earliest how-to books on 'French Style'. I wish someone would reprint it...

Alicia Drake (of The Beautiful Fall) writes of those grey, metalic Parisian skies - it's not always champagne and roses bien sur.

Patric Kuh, now an LA food critic and author,

Gives the best description I've read yet of what it's really like to work in a French restaurant kitchen. Put your knives back in the drawer. And I thought only women had a tough time over there...

Why are French women thin? Could it be the strict rules and boundaries French parents set up in childhood? Dessert comes at the end of dinner, never first. I loved 'Parenting French-Style' by Janine de Giovanni.

Valerie Steiker in 'Fledgling days' remembers spending a year in Paris at 23, with high expectations of reliving her mother's inspired year abroad at the same age. The pursuit of her mother's joie de vie eludes her. 'I tried to comfort myself by thinking of one of my mother's sayings for not letting things get to you - "Let it glide over the back of your indifference" - but it didn't work.' Her story is poignant and endearing...

David Lebovitz tells all in the last entry, 'Enfin.' And David Sedaris admits his addiction to books-on-tape in English early days in France.

These are the stories we wish we could tell, not the tourist tales. As Judith Thurman writes "one of the greatest charms of having lived in Paris is the Proustian glamour of being able to claim that one did so.”

If you read Paris Was Ours on the subway as I did, be aware your laughter may frighten the other passengers. Now I'm off to read 'Understanding Chic' Bonne reading!

BONJOUR PARIS WAS OURS!