Il Fait Froid!

Pieplate said yesterday...We'll be in Paris in quinze jours, and we're hoping that the temperatures will be up a bit.

What's the weather report on the ground?

When you start learning French,

one of the first sentences you learn is,

"La plume de ma tante est sur la table..."

Well long ago it used to be so.

Then you learned how to say,

"Il fait beau" The weather is fine. This trip in Paris, il fait FROID! Il pluie! ! ! B E A U C O U P ! It also used to be that starving artists in Paris... (something I can't claim to be for sure) Would now and then throw themselves out the windows of their unheated garrets... (something I'm not about to do for sure!) But I surely wish I'd brought my long johns (if I had any...) La Louvre is nicely heated by the way.. Inside anyway... Mustn't grumble about Paris grey skies... After all I AM in Paris. Now repeat after me: "La plume de ma tante est sur la table."

Chicken Little?

There are no little chickens in Paris!
M. says her father would take her to see the giant chocolate chickens at Hediard and they're still there. Inside they're filled with little chocolate eggs of course. There are lines everywhere in Paris for Easter chocolate.

Some of these hens look like they have a coat of shellac or wax, they are that shiny.

 Gerard Mulot's masterful hens.
They rule the roost in Paris and will not be ignored.

Same goes for his speckled hens. Dozens of hens alaying.

This hen is sitting on a bed of daisies and Eiffel towers. Conveniently placed nearby - French eggcups.

Surounded by hay as any respectable hen should be and found sitting on an egg bigger that herself at Lafayette Gourmet.

Also at Lafayette Gourmet multi-colored multi-hens. They have eggs to match. You can never be too well coordinated in Paris bien sur.

Sadaharu AOKI has big green Matcha tea chocolate hens
.

Alaying big Matcha green eggs.

This hen seems to have produced marron glace 'eggs'. A Fr hen will always surprise you with her creativity.

And don't forget all the chocolate bells or cloche. I asked M. why bells?
Because the bells go ding..ding..ding at Easter. OK.

Do you want to see Paris bunnies?

Easter is almost over and there are turtles, fish, ducks and bunnies waiting in the wings!

Oui o non?
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

La Grande Chasse aux Oeufs

I'd love to know how many miles of ribbon are used on French chocolate eggs this Easter.Is this the biggest chocolate egg in the world? At Marquise de Sevigne on rue de Seine it's 2,800 kilos of chocolate (6,160 pds) and only costs 180,000 euros. Some choc eggs are decked out in pale green ribbons for the holiday. An egg within an egg at La Maison du Chocolat on rue de Sevres. The tiny boutique was so jamed-packed with shoppers they were selling chocolate eggs in the street as well. Never happen in New York :) My favorite old fashioned candy shop, Les BonBons on rue Brea had eggs up the whazoo and the shop was packed. Well every chocolate shop was packed on Saturday in Paris. Patrick Roger had giant a "Stone Henge" of chocolate eggs in his window.

Plus he used the shells as containers for even more chocolate eggs.

A miniature tableau of a mini chocolate shop on Ile St. Louis.

Fauchon, always the innovator, showed faux egg yolks in a verrine looking much like prairie oysters.

Here they are.

Your everyday egg crate filled with some of the best chocolate in Paris at Patrick Roger and costing a tad more than the average dz.

Jean Rachoux had little Piu-piu/chicks hatching in his window.

More hatchery going on in a children's boutique - non-edible this time.

A very sweet egg on rue de Rivoli - a Faberge enamel egg.

But perhaps the sweetest eggs of all.
The eggs these children found in the grass at the egg hunt at Chateau Vaux le Vicomte today!

 

Jour du Macaron 2008 part 2

Vienna for Beginners said...Free food for our starving artist!What more can you wish for? Did you manage to get a second helping? Well a girl has to do her research doesn't she?

Yes, I admit it. I went to Pierre Herme's other boutique on 185, rue Vaugiraud to report on the JOUR DU MACARON goings ons. Here I'm checking my watch. How long will the wait be? Not long but the tension is palpable!

We even had a traffic director at the door.
Inside, it looked like pandimonium.

It wasn't. Perfect order. You even got a list of all the flavors to help you make your choice. Young people, old people, chic people. Everyone was there to taste the free cookies - sweet!The prize, plus a ribbon to wear for La federation des Maladies Orphelines.
Admiring glances from the street.

Back outside the kids, tons of students wait excitedly.The happy faces tell the story.

ARNAUD LARHER's patisserie was also participating JOUR DU MACARON, on 53, rue Caulaincourt in the 18th. Beautiful bins of macs filled the windows.
A rainbow of colors.The tasting or degustation at ARNAUD LARHER. Just me and 2 students, gobbling up delicious samples.

There is something genuinely heartfelt about Pierre Herme sharing his incredible goodies with all the world who come to his door on one day a year. True, it's for a very good cause, but the generosity of heart and thought is touching - a giving back to the people..

BIG MERCI PIERRE HERME for JOUR DU MACARON!