La Galette du Coeur, La Galette des Chefs, St Germain des Près

 

Every January, I look forward to the annual Saturday morning pastry chef soirée. 

It’s always held outdoors at Saint Germain de pres. Usually quite chilly and yesterday rain was predicted. 

But that didn’t stop dedicated galette seekers from showing up.

Its a chance to get your paws on some of Paris' top pastry chef’s galette des rois/Epiphanie kings cakes, all funds donated to the charity OPIC. 

Every year there is a giant galette des rois made by major Paris catering company, Potel et Chabot . Take a look at their website. Wow!

This year’s big galette had a chocolate filling rather than the usual almond frangipane. Kids get it free and grownups pay 2€. The translucent crown 👑 was made of a sucre/sugar a kid told me…after I touched it and got sticky fingers 😮

The variety of fillings and decoration on the kings cakes is daunting. 

These were the biggest gold 👑 crowns I’ve seen yet. 

There is a limited number of cakes from each chef or hotel on offer so competition can get fierce. 

Some interesting ‘lewks’ at the gathering…most toute en bleu marine with a some exception. 

This year a fève/charm dealer showed up. The bear 🐻 was calling my name but I resisted 😬

Every year they serve up steaming bowls of traditional garbure soup, a warming, hearty soup/stew from the Pyrénées.

These two gents will tell you (in French) how to make it yourself. 

Of course during the week I was running around gathering galette research, mainly at Lafayette Gourmet, since so many pastry shops have stands (Yann Couvreur, Pierre Hermé, l’Eclair du Genie, CinqSens Paris, La Glacerie, Chez Meunier, Dalloyau, Marcolini, Alain Ducasse, Jean-Paul Hévin to name a few). 

As hinted previously January’s Paris map is on the Galette Des Rois. Tadum as the French say. Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast! If you like this post please support it by buying my Paris letters and watercolors. Pass this on to someone you think might enjoy it. Happy Sunday and stay dry please Seattle readers🙏👑🫓

Last Christmas windows, Lapérouse Cafe

 

Yes you read right. I was running to buy stamps as usual and noticed Printemps still had up their Christmas windows!

Is it too late to show you?

Probably.

And probably they will go down end of the week…

The theme is busy Santa’s elves chicly dressed in blue velvet and gold stars. 

Elves usually wear green…never mind. A little late Christmas cheer never hurt anyone 😊

As I rounded the corner I discovered 

A new cafe Laperouse in Printemps decorated toute en bleu.

Isn’t it lovely? I’m a busy elf myself doing Galette des rois research for the January map. 

When the sales person offered me a gold crown 👑  along with an individual (small) size galette (this never happens) how could I resist?

Some days are full of surprises.

When I got home there was a porcelain fève/charm inside the galette! This just never happens!!

A Big merci to the Galette des Rois gods 🙏 I really needed another mini feve to add to my collection…hmm. More galette drawings coming soon on Etsy.

👑🫓🥂🐻😊❤️🍾❄️💋🍒🐌🦪💌📮🐓🤸‍♂️👑

Marché couvert de Passy and Moule Marinières

 

It’s a classic French tradition to have platters of fresh oysters, shrimp, lobster, crab known as fruits de mer on New Years Eve.

I went looking for moules/mussels in the 16th arrondissement at Marché de Passy on New Years Eve day. The covered market is open every day but Monday, so if you need of some good seafood take the Metro to Muette.

I was surprised to see as many as 3-4 Poissonnière stands.

Teams were madly filling New Year’s Eve orders 

Of the most gorgeous platters of seafood. 

The place was buzzing with last minute customers buying luxe goodies for their soirées.

Beautiful displays of caviar.

And smoked salmon. Did they sell out?

Gillardeau is one of the top brand of oyster producers in France.

This is an upper crust marché and the veg are just as stunning.

I cleaned them out of the Bouchot mussels from the bay of Mont Saint Michel.

Moules Marinières is one of the easiest French dishes you can make.

2 pounds of mussels rinsed and de-bearded.

Throw the chopped veg (chopped celery, 4 chopped shallots, some chopped parsley and a couple of thinly sliced garlic cloves) into a pot with a lump of butter. Sauté a few minutes. 

*Include 1 bay leaf 

But NO ADDED SALT. 

The mussels will be salty on their own.

Add a cup of white wine🥂 or French cidre…nothing fancy

Add your mussels and cover the pot

In about 5+ minutes the mussels should be fully open and the broth steaming.

Et voila. À table.

Or you could have fruits de mer on Etsy…

❤️😊🐻🍾🥂Have a very Happy 2022 dear PBers🥂🍾🐻😊❤️

Musee des Arts Forains, Life is a Carousel

 Living in Paris, its hard not to fall in love❤️ with carousels. Last Sunday I went to the Musee des Arts Forains (museum of fairground arts) in Bercy, open specially during the Christmas holidays through 2 January,2022.

 I promised myself I’d ride the carousel this time. Instead, like this little girl, I watched.

Search results for Snow in Paris, January Paris letter

 “Let it snow, let it snow ❄️, let it snow ❄️” Its the day before Christmas and the Paris letter was sent out yesterday🤸‍♂️💌📮

Paris, as a rule, rarely receives any snow ❄️ at all. At most, 24 hours in the odd year. Never mind. Snow ❄️is an essential ingredient for the winter holidays. Most Parisians left town last weekend in search of snow ❄️. Solli even went to Sweden. True she is Swedish, but never mind that. 

I was inspired by the snow❄️ falling on Hotel de Ville (night time only svp).

The Christmas marché at Hotel de Ville this year is truly a lovely one.

Across the street department store BHVis a having their own snow ❄️celebration. 

Snow ❄️ wass shipped in fresh from Switzerland to fill the windows! 

Plus Swiss red🇨🇭flags. On the 3rd floor you can get Lindt chocolate balls in many colors. True, you can get them everywhere else, but never mind that.

They do have a real Swiss coucou clockavailable! Tic Tock

Back over at the Christmas marchè, cute French kiddies are objecting to having their winter scarves tied correctly. People are lining up 

For rides on the carrousel like mad. 

Big lines for the snack chalet too. This French mom is teaching her kiddie how to eat ‘barbe de papa’/candy cotton. There is a correct way to do everything in France.

I spied a dad with 3 flickering lit-up balloons.

He directed me to the lit-up balloon 🎈 man on the edge of the marché

Now I have my own lit-up balloon flickering away - my Christmas 🎄 tree of sorts 😊 *If you are not a letter subscriber you can get your own Snowy ❄️ Eiffel Tower on Etsy. 🐻Bear wishes you a lovely 🧣 holiday🎄  where ever you are dear ❤️ PBers ❤️💋🍫❄️🎁🎄🇨🇭🇫🇷🍷