Eclair Obsession

Talk about obsessions.

My 1st two days in Paris were spent taste testing chocolate eclairs. I'd read Amy's eclair smackdown and felt some important chocolate eclairs has been left by the roadside - neglected - overlooked... My idea of a tasting is small amounts of many, rather than large tastes of a few. I began at Fauchon - eclair experts par excellence. I was a tad disappointed :(
The chocolate icing was fine.
The pastry creme inside -too Sweet for my taste buds.
One down - 10 + to go.
Galeries Lafayette with it's plethora of pastry shops was the next stop and Dalloyau...

This was one of the most chocolatey eclairs sauf La Maison du Chocolat. The pastry creme inside and the icing were a happy marriage in my humble opinion.

Sadaharu Aoki does not offer chocolate eclairs, just Matcha and Sesame.

I adore his sesame, but not the Matcha - too sweet inside again, but a very pretty looking eclair as eclairs go - and exceedingly nice striations on the sides indeed.

Le Figaro, master tasters of Paris, have deemed patisserie Stohrer owner of the best eclair chocolat.

I do not - too sugary on the pastry creme again. Maybe something's wrong with me, but when I'm in Paris I do not want sugar as a top note. Much as I adore your shop Stohrer I can not concur.

In my opinion the best eclair chocolat resides at La Maison du Chocolat and it's residency is short-lived. Twice I went in the afternoon and all chocolate eclairs were gone gone gone.

Enfin third try lucky and I ate it in the street, just in case someone grabbed it away from me. It met all my expectations. Chocolate of the finest quality was the top note inside and out. Super fresh with a bit of crunch to the biscuity outside = Perfection.

But before I had this La Maison epiphany I had to try...

Thin slices of a few others - Stohrer, Lenotre, Gerard Mulot and an anonymous no-name eclair chocolat. None of them came up to La Maison. I didn't taste test M. Jean-Paul Hevin's chocolate eclair and I have a feeling his would stand up nicely to LMDC. After all they are displayed on the outside of his cookbook, but by this time I could not look another eclair in the face.

Just give me a plain old marshmallow milk chocolate nounours/bear and I'm happy as a clam. In future I'll let Amy do all the smackdowns she wants and keep my thoughts to myself. I learned my lecon. HMPH

BEAR says he's sticking with the religieuse

He can have it. I'm off chocolate for a while until tomorrow...

BONJOUR PARIS ECLAIRS!

HM Lanvin

 I was 'READY' for the HM Lanvin sale on Saturday.
I was NOT!

I arrived rather leisurely at 8:15 AM.

This sale was nothing like the Sonia sale.

I had not read the fine print nor seen the flyers nor carefully checked the HM website. Here's the deal: the 1st 320 people to show up get timed different colored bracelets (see above) with a specific time slot when they can shop. Twenty people at a time get to shop for 15 minutes is the deal.

People started lining up at midnight the night before. We were lucky to even get a colored bracelet at all Eeek who knew?

And to think I was worried about not getting my morning walkies in. I raced around to 4 different H&Ms to check out the situation. Thank you PBers for making me get my daily exercize in! If I didn't have to report in I probably would have stayed in bed and missed all the excitement.

Quelle zoo!

Actually it was well organized and thought out. Only TWO garments of each style were allowed to be purchased.

How come the staff always get to wear the best T-shirts? I offered to buy the shirt off his back but he said,  "Come back after 3 PM."

Here's a lucky ducky with all his goodies (Oh jealousie!) who must have arrived at the crack of dawn. I went into Prete a manger for a coffee to kill time until my time slot of 12:20 I chatted with Brit sisters Jean and Dorothy, visiting New York for 4 days, so I drew them a little map of NYC-not-to-be-missed highpoints on a napkin
 

Finally my chance to grab some Lanvin came!

The adorable glasses I'd dreamed of owning were gone the first 2 minutes after opening I heard tell. Wouldn't it be spectacular if all of New York was walking around wearing Alber Elbaz nerdie glasses? What were you thinking Lanvin putting out so few pairs...sob...sob

I passed on this bracelet but did find a Lanvin lipstick, not even mentioned.
 

Ah the beloved glasses/lunettes again....sniff

I walked away with quite adorable T-shirts ($39.95) with a bow/noeud attached.

A shopper asks last minute advice from the sales girl..."Should I or shouldn't I?"
 

The shopping bags alone were worth the trouble. And they did have tres charmant cotton bags with Elbaz drawings scrawled on them for a mere $3.95 donated to Unesco - I got a few as gifts etc.
 

So not a bad haul all in all, though I am still pinning for those AE glasses. Will trade a painting or just about anything for THOSE lunettes!

BONJOUR H&M LANVIN!

Are You ready?

Are YOU ready? 7 AM manana at HM for the big Lanvin blowout?

I thought I'd check out the stuff in their vitrines. I DEFINITELY WANT these lunettes!!

Malheureusement I am not ready to fit into this mignon number... And this red cutie..?
Forggedaboutit! Meanwhile over at Bloomies (nextdoor) they're almost ready... Doing up their Xmas windows... They were having some kind of Xmas window opening 'do' with velvet ropes and cops and... Inside Bloomies they're getting ready...

To shop shop shop till you drop...

Bergdorf Goodman's Xmas windows are in process...

Some are hidden and some you can see...

The big snowflake at the corner of 57th street and 5th avenue is waiting for someone to flick the switch...

Ta-da!

At The Plaza they were getting the wreaths up and lit.

In London, IN MID-OCTOBER!? I was a teensy bit surprised to see all the Xmas decorations strewn around...

Hello?

Santa's mailbox up and ready and waiting!

Can't they wait just a little bit..?

Galeries Lafayette had their BIG tree up and lit like a christmas tree! Oh wait...$#@! Are YOU ready for Mr.(Monsieur) Turkey? I am not!

BONJOUR WEEK-END and time to get ready!!!

FYI: Where is Lanvin HM in NYC?

435 7th Ave. at 34th St

505 731 Lexington Ave. at 59th St

1328 Broadway at 34th St & 6th Ave

150 East 86th St btwn Lexington Ave. & 3rd Ave

French Bows 2

I know I keep harping on how the French love their bows.
Well they did invent ribbons/rubans so big woof right?
Where would the French ballerina be without a bow pray tell?

A bow on an evening shoe?

The perfect feminine accompaniment non?

Bow training (preferably pink) starts early.

And continues ever after.

Without cease.

A French woman of any age can wear a bow plastered on her chest.

A bow plastered on the candy box has become a universal tradition.

On the other hand, French pastry chefs spurn the bow as decoration for some unknown reason.

The Russian pastry chef does not, as witnessed by these gateaux at the Printemps' Ruskie cafe, Patisserie cafe Pouchkine.

The French dog is not obliged to wear a French bow?!

L'eschape - oui! Le noeud - non.

What's up with that?And what an unpronouncable word is Le noeud (which can have some naughty slang meanings, but we won't go into that).

Is it NEW-ya or NEW-A or what?

YOU tell me SVP.

Bears everywhere, not just French Bears, are perfectly happy wearing bows, usually rouge...

French Girl rarely leaves the house without sporting some kind of bow worn hither or thither.

Should I too start eating GOBS of beurre/butter for petit dej', so I can wear a bow regularly? One does wonder.
 

A napkin tied as a bow?

Perfection to advertise a French café.
 

Did Miss Kitty influence French fashion?

Non,non, non...this has been going on way too long before she arrived on the scene, though she may have given the French bow a little nudge
Here's a shining example of the hair bow worn on a giant pin from savvy French jewelry company, N2. They have a stand in Galeries Lafayette as well as a new concept store on 3, rue Bourg L'Abbe, 75003. I bought an all-macaron bracelet that is 2-die-4, even though it has no French bows...

BONJOUR FRENCH BOWS (again)!