Paris Hearts Tetsubin Teapots

Tea and chocolate are a natural pair for Parisians and you'll see giant tins of tea in most chocolate shops. The idea is you take an afternoon tea and nibble a few chocolates. 

All over Paris I kept seeing Japanese cast iron tea pots (une théière japonaise de forme plate) called TETSUBIN. In specialty tea shops, in chocolate shops. These red enamel tea tins are inside La Bonbonnière de la Trinité in the 9ème. Note cast iron tea pots sitting on top of tins.

I passed this shop window on rue de l'Odéon rushing to the Metro and was smitten. An entire window full of Tetsubin tea pots and inside too!

Each teapot is hand cast. The best are made in the Iwate district and called Nanbu-tekki. They were first produced in the 16th century for tea ceremony use.

This Japanese surimono woodblock print by Teisai Shuri has influenced my still life watercolors, so it was a lovely surprise to see the same teapot 🫖 all over Paris.

I would stop by M.'s for a cup of tea after my morning swim and admire her teapot. Finally she lent it to me.

Hokusai used a tetsubin to heat his tea -- note the blackened bottom in both prints. *Never put your pot directly over the fire. Only brew your tea in the Tetsubin and it will retain the heat for a long time. I bought this Tetsubin when I got home on the Bowery at Leader's, a Japanese restaurant supply house. I'll paint it soon.

Tetsubin watercolor on Etsy 

La Petite Chocolatiere

La Petite Chocolaterie make their chocolates in Asnières where Seurat painted his Bathers.
I read there are over 1200 bakeries in Paris...but how many chocolate shops I'd like to know? Parigramme guide, PARIS CHOCOLAT, describes 120 chocolate shops + the 20 I added.There are many more small shops with no web site, only the size of a large closet in each arrondissement. They take great pride in their product. Family owned, their quartier supports them as they do their local boulangerie and pharmacie.La Petite Chocolatiere are known for their palet amer 70% (thin bittersweet disks of chocolate) and rhum ganache.Infused ganache, chocolate-covered dried fruit, assorted palets (thin chocolate disks) of different cacoa percentages. The variety of choices is staggering in even a tiny shop.If you see the sign, fabrication artisanal, you know they have less than 50 workers and use traditional methods to make their product whether it's chocolate, bread, paper or whatever. It's designed to protect and support small producers in France.When you buy something in most small shops, often they will invite you to taste a chocolate gratis!

Jardins du Luxembourg

At the end of my street, rue Vavin, is the Jardins du Luxembourg in the 6th."TAILLE HUMAINE" of artworks integrated into the park was on-more here.
A mystery nose emerging from the Fontaine Médicis by Jacques Brosser.I've no idea who these legs belong to... No matter how idealic and perfect the gardens are...You always hear the patter of jogger's feet on the gravel.Still the artists keep drawing. For all events and exhibits going on in the gardens.

Toute en Verte

Pale, pale green is unique I thought...

 Then I looked in Amandine Guisez Gallienne's beautiful book, COLORFUL WORLD. Delicious pale green exists on the walls in Mexico, Finland, Mali, Rajasthan, on the Burmese border and elsewhere. I'd like to visit all these green, but I'm quite content to go back & have some more macs. Colors are always effected by what's adjacent to them.

 Ladurée has put a band of pink around their tea cups to enhance the napkin's greeniness.

 A mixed color can look perfect when wet. Then it dries "down", much lighter and all wrong. Greens can be especially tricky to mix. It's not so easy to match a color exactly and takes a lot of experimenting..

Punch a hole in the color you want to match. Then hold it over the painted swatch. When you no longer can distinguish between cut hole and the paint swatch you've got a match.

 First time on rue Bonaparte just to browse. Next in Galeries Lafayette for a look but it seemed small and crowded. And 2 times I sat downstairs and had afternoon tea on Rue Royal. Upstairs is no-smoking but you miss all the action in the macaron shop nextdoor.

 I ordered a plate of 4 macarons (Citron, Caramel, Framboise, Chocolat). And a chocolate Religiouse (mainly to photograph & then paint) I took only one bit - it's enormous!

 The waiter offered to box the rest and I refused. Idiot! I didn't want to walk out with a doggie bag so I missed out having one of their green boxes for my own.

 

Mint green, moss green, celadon green, terre vert, Granny Smith Apple green - where did they come up with this shade of pale green? Off the underside of a rose leaf? A bientot!

rue Vavin 75006

If I go out my front door on 33rd street in NY, walk 3 minutes I can catch the N train.If I go out my door on rue Vavin in the 6th arr. walk 2 minutes I could be inside Jean-Paul Hévin's chocolate shop.The display cases seem lite from within.On the opposite wall there are giant Royal blue tea tins as in many chocolate shops in Paris. Most chocolatiers have their own distinctive brand colors. Hévin's colors are a combination of Royal Blue and a soft Marrón brown.
Here I can buy lunch - a salmon quiche and a framboise petit-four. Plus deliciously intense chocolates. I walk across the street and buy an ice cream cone from Amorino. A few steps further down and across rue d'Assas and I'm in the Jardin du Luxembourg (nicknamed Le Luco). 

Before I go catch the N train in the morning I have a cup of chocolat chaud from the Royal blue tin.
Add 2T of Hévin chocolate powder + 8T of hot milk.
= My 'madeleine'

La Vie En Rose 2

Chocolate Bouchee in Paris, 9"" x 11",

You see no end of PINK in Paris.

Particularly in shop windows (vitrine).

Patisserie shops love to throw PINK around liberally like Gérard Mulot and Dalloyau. Pierre Hermé is the king of PINK in Paris.
Fauchon is another king of pink and even gives you a pink receipt when you make a purchase.
 The cows have come to Paris. You can vote for your favorite Vach'Art here.

Is there so much PINK because of the constant grey skies (ciel gris)? Is PINK added into the mix as a cheering factor like ginger in a recipe? Of course it was the week before La Fête des Mères and a long weekend at that -- much to be happy about.
Me, I went next door and bought one pink Peony bud (la pivoine). I painted it in WN Permanent Rose over the next 7 days as it opened and bloomed.

Dans Un Verre D'eau 2

I fell for this carafe d'eau last year and still yearn for it. It belongs to Angelina's. This trip only increased my love for the everyday things of Paris. Not just French glass that has me smitten. Those grey overcast skies that everyone complains of,

create the most beautiful lighting.

Low contrast lighting that makes for soft shadows with a hint of blue to them. Edges are softer too and more difuse.

I met this carafe at Fauchons for afternoon tea.

At L'as du Falafel, this bistro glass - I did bring two of these home last year.

I was passing café Dome in the Marais and spotted these simple drinking glasses on rue Saint Antoine.

I love these pastel cups and saucers and they look perfect on the deep Burgundy cafe tabletop.

Even though I paint all day with water, I still can't get enough of it.

Every other morning I rushed out at 6:45 am se jeter à l'eau - to throw myself in the water of the Piscine Saint-Germain. The pool is only open to the public between 7 - 8 am. The rest of the day belongs to les scolaires.I was trying keep ahead of all those chocolates and croissants gaining on me. I lost, but it was a refreshing battle.