Last month on a rainy afternoon I popped into the exhibit, THÉ, CAFÉ OU CHOCOLAT
Always dependable for intimate, informing exhibits
Beautifully presented and rarely overcrowded.
If you love fine Sevres or Meissen china or tea, coffee, or hot chocolate you'll be delighted.
Exquisite drawings of the earliest cups and tea pots. Loads of history on these exotic drinks we now take so for granted as a daily essential.
A perfect Chardin still life to remind you how precious the bean once was in the 18th century.
Quite the elegant pastime drinking tea and coffee once were
Though perhaps not here. Drinking coffee from the saucer? Pas bon bien sur.
Artist LOUIS CARMONTELLE's watercolor graces the exhibit poster. Famous for painting portraits (6,000 portrait of which over 480 reside at Chantilly) in two hours or less of the renown of his day, even Mozart at the piano was captured. A witty and astute eye.
Naturally I flipped for the craftsman cross-sectional diagrams of teapots
And teacups. Exquisite no?
Such a perfect cup to sip fine tea from...
The setting is lovely and airy in an open courtyard.
Speaking of exquisite, have you tried TEA FORTÉ? Vanilla Pear, Lemon Lavender, Orange Jasmine from their new Lotus group. The names are enough to get you dreaming. I was given a box to taste. The design is perfection with a tiny green leaf attached to a silken pyramid. They are in fact American but suit the French to a T... Do try.
My berry trifle at Costes
Cost the same as this bouquet of roses from marché President Wilson.
Luxe is the word for Costes if you're into deep Burgundy velvet
And low lighting.
The Cognacq-Jay exhibit is on till September 27.
If you can't make it, get THE FREE APP and a French leçon to boot in the spoken descriptions.
You will never look at your coffee or tea in the same way je te promets.
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