Rungis au Grand Palais

Last night was the inauguration of RUNGIS AU GRANDP ALAIS! Its on all weekend. Who hasn't wanted to go to the big wholesale market (at 3-4 am in the morning)?

This is the first time RUNGIS has come to Paris. Hooray🎉If you're here definitely GO!

You'll get a free shopping bag at Pink Lady Apples but a granny cart would be useful. Loads of tastes and loads of fun. Demos, ateliers etc. yesterday I put the November PARISMAP in the mail📮 Hooray🎉

The line 1 decided to close down last night so I walked in the rain from the Louvre to Grand Palais. My feet were soaked but it was worth it. Line 1 was up and working by the time I left near 11 pm. Hooray🎉

Its now after 6 am and I'm waiting for the train to Clermont-Ferrand and my 4th RENDEZ-VOUSDUCARNETSDEVOYAGE! Hooray🎉

Bonne Week-End PBers👍🏻 Enjoy reading this with your morning coffee☕️ and keep Bear in Paris with a letter subscription from my Etsy shop. Bear 🐻 is staying home house sitting ❤️☕️🥐

Fine Arts Paris, Carrousel du Louvre

The 3rd annual FINE ARTS PARIS is on through Sunday in Carrousel de Louvre. These exhibits of individual art galleries are always a chance to see rare pieces before they're scooped up into private collections. 

Probably never to be seen again like this SOROLLA.

More from RAFAEL VALLS LTD. of 11, Duke street, London.Posh galleries from London, Brussels and Paris you might hesitate entering here are easily accessible.

I went on preview day and was consistently amazed.

There are walls of smaller, more affordable pieces to discover.

Experience the different flavors of each gallery.

In some you feel like you stepped into a chateau.

Others are starkly modern.

The range of art objects is extensive.

What a great wall of small pieces each framed in an interesting way. I spent 2 1/2 hours browsing. I needed to recoup.

A month ago a new Laduree tea salon opened in the Louvre's shopping carrousel. Stop in for a cuppa and some lovely macs. Enjoy PB with your morning coffee☕️ and keep Bear in Paris with a letter subscription from my Etsy shop. 

Bear 🐻 waves 👋 Bonjour ❤️from Paris☕️🥐

Imperial Chocolat Fontainebleau

Hurry up! Get out of bed. Its the last day for the annual SALON IMPERIAL CHOCOLAT in Fontainebleau just 20+ minutes by train outside Paris. Bear did it. So can you. 

The chocolate salon, like last year, is held inside the chateau and is included in the entre fee(12€). 

Bonaparte slept here, among others. The historic rooms are divine. 

I never noticed before this portrait of a dog fancier. Intriguing. Normally you cross an empty courtyard to get to the chocolate salon.

This year they added tents offering foie gras from the sud-ouest, drinks including warming coffee and rum and other goodies like flaky apple tarts just out of the oven.

Inside a chocolate feast awaits. Many of the chocolatiers are from the Ile-de-France area.

Lots and lots of degustations going on.

We tried the Champagne with a hint of dark chocolate.

Chocolate cake competitions and ateliers for kids.

Bear said bonjour to the head honcho and salon director, top pastry chef FREDERIC CASSEL.

We stopped in his patisserie in town on 71 rue Grande for lunch (quiche Lorraine and citron tarte eaten in the street on the way to the chateau). Instant love❤️ for the chocolate bear celebrating Frederic Cassel's 25 years in business. Enjoy reading PB with your morning coffee☕️ 🥐 and keep Bear in Paris with a letter subscription from my Etsy shop. Bear 🐻 waves Bonjour ❤️from Paris☕️🥐

Jacquemart-Andre Advent Calendar

I'm keeping up with the new PB tradition creating an annual ADVENT letter for November.

A true love story lies behind this wonderful house museum. Artist Nelie Jacquemart painted wealthy banker, Edouard Andre's portrait in 1872. They married in 1881.

Both passionate about travel and Italy, they visited every year. Together they amassed one of the great collections of Italian Renaissance art in their home on 152, bd Haussmann.

The Jacquemart-Andre is less crowded than most Paris museums and offers an intimacy and calm few others can claim.

When you enter the music room, immediately Vivaldi starts playing.

In its heyday for grand soirées, the walls lowered and it became one huge ballroom.

Right now 75 works of Italian painting of exceptional beauty from the ALANA COLLECTION is on till 20 January. They perfectly complement the rest of the collection on the 2nd floor.

Do not miss having an 19th century tea in the museum's period salon.

Why I decided to visit the museum after finishing the letter art is one of the great unsolved mysteries.

I was searching madly online for pictures while at the museum they give-away big Galeries Lafayette Paris maps with perfect reference photos. Just what I was searching for. Fontainebleau seemed a good choice but their brochure offered few artwork pictures. MUSEE JACQUEMART-ANDRE offered loads. The brochure comes along with the letter by the way.  More fun cutting up bits of paper and pasting bits of paper. You will have to cut open the windows yourselves. Does it matter? You tell me.

Can you find the museum's Paulo Uchello St. George and the dragon in the Advent letter? More Paris Advent posts coming. Christmas has begun fullspeed in Paris. Tomorrow is the 1st day of the SALON DU IMPERIAL CHOCOLAT AU CHATEAU FONTAINEBLEAU. The MADE-IN-FRANCE show is on as is the stamp show and...I feel like RUN LOLA RUN. What can I say? Enjoy reading PB with your morning coffee☕️? Keep Bear in Paris with a letter subscription from my Etsy shop. Bear 🐻 waves HELLO ❤️from Paris☕️🥐.

Marche au Puces shopping with V.

Yesterday Bear wanted to tag along when I gave V. an interior designer a private tour of the Marché au Puces. The last tour I gave there was eons ago to cookbook author Dorie Greenspan.

In 1920 Romaine Vernaison, a landowner, put up wooden sheds to rent to junkmen. Now the Puce covers 125 acres with 5 separate market and is the largest in Europe. You can get there with bus 85 or Metro line 4 to Clignancourt or of course Uber. We started with Vernaison, the biggest and most mixed Marché price and object-wise.

At the entrance, shop No.6 on the right is full of beads and ribbons. V. bought a meter of beautiful tapestry ribbon to match her bedroom while I flirted with a horseshoe buckle. Ines de la Fressange puts a stunning bead necklace together in the same shop on YOUTUBE.  

A terrific shop of just bakelite jewelry in Vernaison allée 7.

Pace yourself with a coffee midway at Italian Cafe A. Picolo at Dauphine on rue des Rosiers.

We booked lunch ahead at the famous old bistro, Chez Louisette. Great fun with singing and music and a hearty traditional boeuf bourgonion.

Very long ago I did an illustrated guide to STREET MARKETS still available on Amazon. Not so much has changed since then at the Puce. You want to plan ahead. Go early on Saturday mornings.

Afternoon the Parisian crowds arrive in droves. Dress warmly in layers you can remove if the sun comes out. V. a Canadian used to below zero temps didn't mind the chill but I did. More layers next time.

V. was looking for a specific type sculpture to match a piece back in Canada. It certainly helps if you're on a hunt rather than looking at everything in sight - exhausting. By the way most dealers spoke English and were consistently helpful.

In Marché Biron the shops are more upscale and set up as furnished rooms. Dauphine is 2 floors and a mixup.

I hope you don't mind I'm posting more often of late - so many things going on in Paris this Fall. Its hard to keep up. Next week is the MADE IN FRANCEexpo, the annual MAP FAIR, IMPERIAL CHOCOLAT AU FONTAINEBLEAU to name a few. Do you enjoy reading PB with your morning coffee☕️? Keep Bear in Paris with a letter or map subscription or a watercolor from my Etsy shop. Bear 🐻says Big Merci ❤️from Paris🇫🇷.