THE ANSWERS!

"Dear" PB readers...Hmmm

What can I say after a night spent tossing and turning with intermittent beatings with a frozen macaron over the head...

You have not been taking notes or studying up on Paris trivia.

All of you recognized this mini contest.

It's true I have not done a post exclusively on Madame Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. I've been remiss in this area I admit it :( This guy was easy to Google. Even I don't know much about him. This was a reserche question. You did do fine here.
BRAVO!
The clue to this question lay within...a simple click would have taken you to a color theory lecon on green and red... A few of you got this one...
This hound prancing through the Metro was a give-away question.
Reader Susan went so far as to identify the Metro station as St. Paul.. Who knew?
Another give-away question..a pullover or cardigan as belt.
Some of you got this - YAY
Many missed this tricky one. Learn your French fashion brands s.v.p.
A black leather jacket, rather mannish in style
Neutral colors
Classic tailoring
All give-away clues to this distinctive French brand...
Agnes B.! The label told the story too.
Too many guessed Sonia Rykiel. Sonia is stripe happy, but in a more whimsical, inventive way than Agnes. There will be more lecons a la mode bien sure! By the way 3 got it. BRAVO!!!

MANY of you got this!!! YAY

Du 6 mars au 7 mai 2009
À l’occasion du 50e anniversaire de la création du Petit Nicolas, la Mairie de Paris lui rend hommage à travers la première exposition jamais consacrée à ce personnage créé en mars 1959 par l’écrivain René Goscinny et le dessinateur Jean-Jacques Sempé.
Petit Nicolas with art by Sempé and writing by René Goscinny.

Here class only one, Parisienne Anne, who got this right. More Paris department store education... PLEASE visit Peter's Paris post on Le Bon Marché

Le Bon Marché has a decidedly Art Deco look to it, unlike it's Paris sisters, Galerie Lafayette and Printemps which are very much in the Belle Epoche style.

Another give-away question - these are cafe coffee cups.

Another easy-as-pie picture- framboise macarons.

You got it!!! YAY

A classique tabac sign...most of you got this one.

NONE of you got this one and I blame myself. I should have been spent more time on your LA MAISON DU CHOCOLAT education :(

Class, we will be staying after school studying up on eclairs
I am fairly certain that before the macaron was king of Paris, the eclair held that title.

Here is a list, thanks again to Le Figaro, of the top eclairs of Paris. La Maison du Chocolat is neck and neck at #6 with Lenotre near the top. Please learn this list and eat as many of these as you can. This is a class assignment.

For Your Information, Pierre Herme can be depended upon placing a mini billboard on his desserts announcing his creations. Learn this symbol but watch the calories...
BONJOUR and better luck next time Class.

Do you want to do this again?

Should it be way easier?

Do tell PB readers.

Tarte Citron Yellow

After studying at length Le Figaro's best tarte au citron survey, I thought I better get out there and follow up. Who knew Fauchon's squared tarte would come in at #11?

I've hit on some of their best 10 in the past and a few I just didn't get to. Please forgive!

Numero uno at Carl Morletti was a surprise winner and I'd never visited this small patisserie before, exactly 1 block from the Metro Censier Daubenton (#7) in the 5th arrondissement...

More Croissants

#111 - Croissant from my boulangerie in the Marais

Last trip I made deep investigations into the Parisian croissant.

Previously I would take a bite and leave the rest...
I was not truly committed to crossanterie investigations sad to say.#110 - croissant and confiture

But closer study endeared the croissant to me.

The creme de la creme of croissants resides at patisserie PIERRE HERME. This croissant MUST NOT BE MISSED under any conditions!   

 Look at the multitude of fine layers here - dense yet so light and crunchy.."The noise of the croissant is also very important," said Pierre Herme. "I can almost hear them shout when people tear them apart."

 FAB CROISSANT

Truly an elevated tasting experience and often overlooked by the madness of the macaron obsessed.

Here is Stohrer's croissant...And Stohrer's innards - nice, but not in the realm of Le Roi de croissants. I was inspired by astute Parisian food critic Francois Simon (and possibly the model for critic Anton Ego in RATATOUILLE) by the Figaro team in their blind tasting investigations of Paris' BEST CROISSANT!.I tried to do my OWN tasting, but frankly I didn't do so hot.*Notice how they just taste BITES of croissant. THEY ARE NOT EATING THE WHOLE DAMN THING! I messed up and forgot this was a test, and not a feast. I will undoubtedly have to do this test over - not so bad as redoing one's SAT's.I reccommend you do your own croissant test next time in Paris.
Be guided by the Le Figaro's research.
You can't go wrong

Croissants!

Last Friday Merisi asked me to bring on the croissants 🥐 And I served up Paul Bocuse. So today you get croissants.

This pile of golden, perfect croissant pur beurre 🧈 are fromCADOR Patisserie.

Again Dalloyau's lovely croissant. Now I spy a lone almond sitting on top. Was it indeed an almond croissant peut-etre?

The arms-out-straight croissant from AU CHAI DE L'ABBAYE.The controversey of "the arms" has been resolved by both Kris and Jen .

In addition, Kris says,
Crescent-shaped croissants (hence their name) are croissants ordinaires, and you can eat them with butter.
AND you don't cut it open or slice it or anything,
No, you take a bite. Then you slap a bit of butter (I prefer "doux" or unsalted) on the bit where you've bitten,

Watercolor croissant 🥐 

And then you eat that, and so on.
The straight ones are croissants au beurre,

Petit Dejeuner at cafe Saint Regis letter 💌

Don't add butter 🧈 to them.
Just dunk them in your chocolat chaud, or cafe au lait. Are you confused?No need.
Any reasonably good cafe will serve the arms-out pur beurre croissant.
As well as some very nice Normandie beurre,
if you must put butter 🧈 on your already buttery croissant.

Les Deux Magot Paris letter

This half-eaten one is from Cafe Deux Magots.
Oh and don't forget to listen for the correct "CRUNCH" of your croissant.
They even discuss this at length in the new film, RATATOUILLE! Again Francois Simon and the Figaro testing team are out there helping us to find Paris' BEST CROISSANT
And PIERRE HERMÉ is the winner 🏆 This man can do no wrong.

I’m Carol Gillott, an artist living in Paris. Every month I send out beautifully illustrated letters that capture the true Parisian experience. 

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Thanks for reading PB ❤️

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This is my morning croissant 🥐

Just an imprint on a plastic placemat from China

Found in the $.99 cent store!
I shall wait for October in Paris to take a bite of the REAL thing👏