ParisBreakfasts at Les Editeurs

This is Paris at 7:15 am when I left for the pool. Seeing this is enough to get me out of the house even if it's pitch black out.
 

My 5th straight day hitting the water at Art Deco Piscine Pontoise (built 1934).
 

Still the time slots can be rough if you're not an early bird.

7 - 8:30 am

12:15 - 1:30

4:30 - 8 pm

Post-pool I was remembering my tourist days when I used to hit the cafes for a lovely petit dejeuner...

The Breakfast Diet

Boulangerie Petit Dejeuner

Petit Dejeuner at Patisserie des Reves

Les Deux Magots

Café Flore

Breakfast in Paris

Now I rarely go but it seems a better choice than hitting the boulangerie. And I've always wanted to stop in Les Editeurs. An early dip gave me courage.

And a coffee and croissant didn't look so steep.
 

I could pretend to draw or something.
 

Inside is glorious, tres chic.
 

I know zip about coffee even though I once visited Cafes Richard's coffee plant near La Defense and I've painted a mountain of coffee cups.
 

Ordering a cafe creme is not the done thing evidently but an espresso would have me spinning.
 

So I had to get the 'Petit' Petit Dejeuner. Sometimes you really miss being a carefree tourist in Paris, back when  you didn't have to think about electric bills etc. 

*By the way I forgot to mention I FELL MADLY IN LOVE IN VERSAILLES!
 

With this 17th century-style type face. It was on the awning of the worst possible tourist snack bar but so what. It's pretty fabulous no?
 

Even if I don't know how to order coffee in a Paris cafe.
 

I know how to get out my pen and start scribbling like a possessed calligraphie maniac.
 

The waiter was very forgiving when he saw my attempts at French script.
 

The typeface on the windows at Les Editors is tres elegant.
 

And even better when you flop it to get the full effect.
 

Outside I kept seeing French script. Just look at that S! It's classy.
 

At Monop I swooned over these cans of Cassoulet. That's what happens when you fall hard for a typeface in Versailles. And it helps you cope with Paris' irresistible pastries. There are worst things that can happen no?
 

E comme ecriture française

 We all take endless lecons in française before heading to France for our vacance.

 But no one tells you if you want to eat in France particularly pastry and chocolates you'll need lecons in ecriture française, something every French kid learns in school from early days.

 Like learning French isn't tough enough without seeing it everywhere in all manner of flowery script.

 Sasha Finkelsztajn in the Marais, famous for their cheesecake and strudel has covered their entire egg yoke building in ecriture française.

 Translation: Tropezienne - a famous dessert from where?

St. Tropez.

This kind of hamburger bun-like pastry is filled with a giant pile of super rich whipped cream.

 Just to confuse you from the same area - a sandal by the same name.

 Almost edible Repetto ballerinas announces it's sale in ribbony ecriture française. This we can all read.

 Lenotre tops their luscious charlotte in ecriture française but helps you out with good old Helvetica as a window sign/porte etiquette.

 A confiserie in Nancy (where everyone can easily read ecriture française backwards and forwards) pairs Belle Epoch fonts with  plain caps.

 Not to worry...almost all boulangeries shout out their presence in big capitols any tourist can deceifer. It's when you get inside the challanges arise.

 I, myself have wasted endless hours trying to write ecriture française like your average 8-year old French school kid.

 I even tried putting it on a mug at Zazzle but I think I have to practice much more before I do this...

PBers, you are being tested.

Can you read the ecriture française on this package?

Fortunately they put a picture on the outside for us idiots...

Cahier d'Ecriture

 I'm always on the lookout for examples of French cursive to bring home.

 I love this postcard by illustrator Claire Franek.

 My attempts at her delightful curvy handwriting, ahem

 More Fr cursive practice.

 Lurve the handwriting on Chez L'Amie Jean's biz card - easy to bring home.

 Big fruitbox with nice writing - not easy to bring home.

 Adorable bonbon/candy jar - too cumbersome to bring home.

 Page ripped from Lenotre's catalog - easy to bring home. Shhh-they keep them by the cash register.

 I Love the handwriting on Michel et Augustin's yogurts.There was a promotion at La Grande Epicerie and I happened to sit at a communal table where Michel et Augustin were eating lunch. I was dying to say I LOVE your packaging, but the cat got my tongue.
Go figure.

 You can find plenty kid's how-to-write French cursive on Amazon.fr and FNAC for kids #19 rue Vavin.

 I bought this cahier/notebook at L'Ecritoire but it's a counting book.

An important ardoise/blackboard

Announces gouter/snacktime 3-6pm
I won't forget this handwriting in Paris.

Chocolat et Thé

I was walking along rue de Rennes, looking for a hairdresser, when par hasard/by chance I found instead tiny Duo Trio, 88, rue de Rennes 75006. The ultimate chocolat et thé shop...

Their l'ardoise/blackboard sitting out in the street stopped me in my tracks. I love to check out the écriture française. This one was titled Mariage Frères? Ah, they are allowed to carry Mariage Frères thés.

In the vitrine/window - Mariage Fréres tablettes de chocolat. Who knew they made chocolate? And so chic in their black wrappers. And what a beautiful red Tetsubin. I saw Japanese iron teapots all over Paris in May.

Another petite magasin filled with treasures. On your left sit tall red tea tins in a beautiful comptoir de magasin /display case. I asked the vendeuse/saleswoman how long they'd been there, thinking it was years and years. Just 1 year she told me!

In the case are what I call the "sniffing jars". Do tell if you know the correct name. You help yourself and open as many as you want, till you find your dream tea. Just don't mix up those lids.

The vendeuse will weigh out your choice into a small tin or packet. So how come it's perfectly normal in France to take thé with your chocolats? Milk + cookies and apple pie + vanilla ice cream are a given combo in the US. But drinking tea with chocolates? Never heard of it. 

Chocolate connoisseur,Chloe Doutre-Roussel filled me in. Thé is a gourmet's drink in Europe and has been for 5-10 years now. More and more gourmets are choosing tea over coffee. We're talking really good teas, not flavored teas.

The tea connoisseur will seek out the subtilities of the greens, the oolongs, the oxydated (fermented) teas. French chocolatiers secretly agree coffee kills chocolate as does alcohol. Even though they may display alcohol-filled chocolates, well they sell easily.

But coffee bean aromas are too strong for chocolate. No way will you find coffee beans in a chocolate shop. The delicate aromas of tea do not interfere with chocolate. Et voilà. Americans are just getting into fine dark single origin chocolate bars and fine teas are becoming more prevalent, so perhaps it's just a matter of time.

Thé et chocolat is waiting for you in Paris. I hope we won't have to wait too long till we can find this wonderful combination stateside. Meantime I'd like to be one of these théieres/teapots sitting in a chocolate shop gazing out at rue de Rennes.