Bee yellow, tarte au citron map

 I decided I was not going to do a tarte au citron 🍋 map 🗺 It entailed too much citron tarte eating.

Then I found this old pastry doodle. I love drawing ✏️ round shapes.

L'Amour Fou

 Everyone goes to Paris looking for love in all the wrong places.

 I found my true own love across a crowded room at Chef Marthe's.

 I fell hard.
Truely, madly deeply in love with her lemon zester.

Has this happened to you?

Un coup de foudre/instant attraction.

 In a town with easily 50,000 tarte citron on almost every street corner surely a good lemon zester shouldn't be hard to find.

 Alas, c'est pas comme ca.

Even Galeries Lafayette Home is sadly lacking in a good variety of lemon zesters.

Pink dishwashers? Oui.

Lemon zestors? non pas trop.

 Chef Marthe suggested I try Eva Baz'Art
53 rue St. Andres des Arts.

Ferme :(

And the vitrine was filled with coccinelle!

 Macaron earrings? They are at Anne Maisonneuve.

 Pretty Ballerinas in every color of the rainbow?

Oui bien sur.

 Want go swimming (nater) at Pontoise?

There are 38 public pools in Paris.

I visited 4 this time - 34 more to go.

 Lapin in Paris?
Oui beaucoup.

Muguet...de trop

 I felt like this devoted dog waiting..

Where is the lemon zestor of my heart?

 In the end I made do with a plain number from Monoprix.

Quelle disastre.

 This morning I went to look on Amazon.fr but I found my TRUE LOVE!  right on Amazon.com!!

A Chef'n PalmZester!

 You might be wondering what does she see in this guy?

Especially when there are hot high-tech Microplanes a plenty. With Microplanes the zest goes ALL over - impossible to measure.

And they're so sharp you get more white stuff than zest.

With this cutie the zest collects INSIDE the handle.

What's not to love?

So now that my love quest has been fulfilled do I start looking for a scooter to fall for?

What do you think?

Where M I?

OK U got it. Mignon non? At Monoprix with matching glasses, cups, plates et pas cher...
I love the reflection in Christian Constant's ice cream ardoise
The REAL thing is nice too on rue de Rennes near Monoprix..

I'm sitting in MIYOU - Guy Martin's quickie lunch place on the deuxiem etage 2nd floor in Le Bon Marche

And eating a designer layered salade of quinoa bien sur with shrimp + pomegranate seeds = miam :)

No ones going to mind if I bring out my tarte au citron meringuee of the day, since I bought it next door at La Grand Epicerie, right? Louise says it's No.#4 (3.60 euros) on the best meringue list. I'm working my way through the list this trip. Fortunately I've already eaten Patisserie des Reves last trip so I am a little ahead.

3 down with 9 more tartes to go in 10 days.

wish me luck :)

Rick Tulka, famous Brooklynite-expat cafe artiste waits for me at his fav cafe Le Select. Out comes the chocolate mac Louise says is the best in Paris (I meant to get the mini size but was trop blase when La Grand Epicerie vendeuse burbled something and I just nodded back oui) - quelle idiot moi. Next time I'll note the bag is awfully big for two little macarons. Rick asks me to stop embarrassing him and hide the mac...ahem

We both doodle in unison - great fun.

Afterwards a stroll down my old haunt, rue Vavin.

An 'Older French Girl (OFG) leche-vitrine/licks the windows browsing.

Perfectly severe yet charmante clothes pour la bebe...

Pink scooters line up outside an ecole...

Giant pink meringues, formerly my dessert of choice before macarons came along - I love the way they crackle when you bit into them and then telltale crumble down your front. Chomp, chomp.

Pink ballerines - icon of Paris.

Only in Paris - DIY Whoopie pies in pink/rose

A final green tea Matcha domo dessert from Sadaharu Aiko just before bed instead of something pink. That green tea kept me up till 2:30 AM :(
Still...what's not to love about being in Paris?

Bonjour PBers!

Kindle Your Friendships

Photo by Flora Rocco 
My friend Sardi gave me this photo because she thinks I'm consumed with pastry.

I really should put it in a frame. Instead of sticking it on top of my stacks of book.

I have more books than you could shake a stick at. That's what I'm consumed with is BOOKS!

Books support me in so many ways. They even support my laptop... But though books are my best friends, I'm not nice to them. I chopp them up like coleslaw. I blow them up at the copy shop. I write in them with yellow markers. I have to. As an artist/illustrator, I'm constantly researching pictures of whatever I'm painting at the moment and my dear friends, books, hold the answers.

I'm not alone in this act of battering books you know. The NY Public Library used to do it. You could visit The Picture Collection to search for reference shots. You would see all your other illustrator friends pouring over mounted pictures (some ripped out of the finest books). It was a social event to go look at torn-out pictures. But that's changed. The NY Picture Collection is online, so no more chit chat with fellow artist. Quelle dommage. And there's Google bien sur. I needed pictures of a Roasted Shallot Tart Tatin yesterday et voila! Easy as pie/tarte.

I'm working on Maison Blanc's Fall Menu and I needed tarte au citron reference too.

That was a whole lot easier to solve than the shallot tarte. I just headed down to Payard Bakery. Course if I was in Paris I'd be falling over tarte citrons on every corner. They're common as lamposts...

If I was in Paris I wouldn't have to bring my own supply of lemon zest for the shot either. Just head over to M. Pierre Herme for super zesty lemon tarts. Back to my dear friends books. I'm wondering if I should break down and finally get a reader..?

I've been flirting with one for quite some time.

Do you LOVE your Kindle?

Wasn't it clever of Amazon to call it the 'Kindle' like you're curling up at a friendly, homey hearth? If I had a Kindle I could curl up too...

Along with not having a Kindle, I don't have an iPhone either. Shhh, I don't even have a cell/portable(!!!)

I'm probably the only one on the planet, but after seeing David Lebovitz post on iPhone Paris Apps I'm rethinking. Could I get an iPhone just for Apps? I'm in love with the Paris Metro App. It could be my new best friend, and I promise to be really, really nice. No chopping or blowing up or two-timing I swear.

Should I or shouldn't I??

Do tell all PBers. Do you have one? Do you love it?

Bonjour Post-Earthquake!

Angelina For A Day...

I've been sitting here fantasizing working at Angelina for a day... Just for one day. How bad could that be? I know I'd be really terrific in the pastry brigade - Just let me at em! Miam! Lift that tarte citron - tote that tray. But carrying heavy trays laden chocolat chaud up stairs does not appeal to moi...pas de toute!