saturday with visitors

We were up bright and early on this Saturday morning. Chalk it up to my mother's jetlag, as I would have been perfectly happy to lounge in bed all morning if left to my own devices. Anyway, by 9:30 we were sitting at Le Pain Quotidien drinking cafe creme and plotting our day.

We had planned on going to the flea market at the Porte de Vanvres, but since it was raining, we decided that picking through damp antiques might not be the best decision. Instead, we decided to meet Joleen at the Bon Marche, which is always a good decision. 

But first, my mother wanted to stop at Picard.

Picard is a chain that exclusively sells frozen foods. That may not sound terribly exciting, but believe me, Picard is a marvel. Whole roasted and stuffed ducks, peeled fava beans, macarons, pate brisee...truly, they have everything, frozen and ready to pop into your oven or microwave. My mother had heard tales of this miraculous place and wanted to see it with her own eyes. In the picture above, she is, I believe, holding a whole stuffed fish. 

Anyway, after Picard we hopped on the metro and beelined to the Bon Marche, where we met up with Jolene and oggled the foodstuffs for a while before stopping for a little break at Foucher, a charming chocolate shop with a tea room in the back.

Then we wandered around some more before lunching on salads and tartines at Le Cuisine de Bar. Next door to Le Cuisine de Bar is Poilane, the hugely famous bakery. My uncle actually worked there for a summer when he was a teenager, slaving away kneading bread well into the middle of the night or some such thing. The place is an institution, and of course we had to stop by.

And also buy some of their punitions- tiny butter cookies, perfect with tea.

After sampling cookies, we decided to check out an exhibit on the treasures of the Medicis at the Musee Maillol. The art was impressive, but the museum was unspeakably crowded, which made it difficult to take everything in in a measured way. As I've mentioned, I don't like being jostled.

Post-museum, we stopped for kir royales and a moelleaux au chocolat on rue Cherche Midi.

I love having my mom in town.

We're spending the evening in tonight, watching Marie Antoinette and relaxing before our trip to Fontainebleau tomorrow.

Chocolat Foucher
134 rue du bac
75006 Paris

Poilaine
8 rue cherche midi
75006 Paris

Musee Maillol
61 rue de grenelle
75006 Paris

saturne

Well. This weekend has been pretty much dee-lightful so far.

After my day off on Thursday, I had work on Friday and my mom spent the day lunching and seeing museums with her friend/neighbor Joleen who traveled from San Diego with her. When I got home from the office, we had a champagne and little appetizers at my apartment before going out to a late dinner at the brand new restaurant Saturne.

      

The restaurant is only a month or two old and the chef is a 23 year-old Swede. It's a beautiful restaurant- lots of blonde wood, very minimalist design. The menu was pre-fixed and we started off with an amuse-bouche of something that was like a cross between a donut hole and a soft pretzel with an sardine filling. The appetizer was raw scallops with finely shaved radishes and chervil. The main course was a lightly poached turbot with a delicate sauce I couldn't identify. After dinner came the cheese course, which was unusual enough that I actually snuck my camera out to take a photo:

It's a comte, shaved into long very thin strips. Ooo, aaaah!

There was also a delicious dessert of a chestnut mousse sandwiched between very thin discs of fragrant dark chocolate. 

It was a completely relaxed, leisurely meal. 

Saturne is also a wine shop/bar and after dinner, we spent some time looking at the different bottles they have lining the shelves along the walls. The restaurant has partnerships with a number of wine makers and the have some unusual bottles on their shelf (my favorite was labeled "Robert est un con"). Joleen bought a bottle of a wine labled "Chi Wah Wah" with an illustration of a chihuahua wearing sunglasses and a diaper.

After dinner, I took the ladies to Le Coeur Fou, a bar right around the corner from my apartment. I first came to Le Coeur Fou when I was studying in Paris in college and it's pretty much the reason I decided to move to this neighborhood when I came here for work. It's just a casual little bar, but it's fun and young and Parisian to the core. 

We went home a little after 1, tired and happy. 

Restaurant Saturne

17 rue notre dame des victoires

75002 Paris

Le Coeur Fou

55 rue montmartre

75002 Paris

french dry shampoo

Why didn't anyone ever tell me about this before?!

It is nothing short of amazing, I assure you.  Perfect for a slouchy, just-got-out-of-bed-and-don't-give-a-damn look that manages not to look, you know, greasy. You just mist your hair with it, hang out for two minutes and voila. My new frivolous obsession.

jour d'armistice

So, today is Armistice Day and in France, Armistice Day= holiday = no work.

Lovely!

My mother arrived this morning after a very long flight from San Diego and is now fast asleep on my sofa. She has been a very good sport so far considering 1) I may have given her the wrong directions to my apartment. Oops. 2) It is raining cats and dogs AND windy AND freezing cold. 3) As it is a holiday, a lot of things are closed, which makes for a smaller selection of restaurants to dine in and shops to shop at. 

But we still managed to have a very nice day involving lunch at Ma Bourgogne on the Place de Vosges, new pair of boots from Ba&sh, and a mid-afternoon espresso on rue Caron. Around 4, my mother decided it was time for a petite sieste, so we headed back to my apartment. 

Usually I never take the metro between my neighborhood and the Marais because it isn't very far to walk  and I don't like switching trains in the rabbit-warren that is Chatelet, but since the weather today was so vile, we decided to take the metro. The bonus is that we got to hear a string group playing in the station- so good we actually stopped to listen for a few minutes.

Anyway, we have plans for drinks at Au Rocher de Cancale (kir royale!) and dinner at Pierrot (duck confit!) so I must beg off and wish you adieu until tomorrow.

fromage



NYTimes, Op-Ed November 9, 2010

I actually saw this cheese food pyramid in the paper today and thought "Hm. Yes, that looks about right to me."

Granted, the title of the article was "While Warning About Fat, US Pushes Cheese Sales" and it focused on criticizing the US Department of Agriculture for stealthily sneaking more cheese into already cheese-rich foods (such as Domino's pizza). Hypocritical and somewhat disgusting? Well, yes. But mostly I just looked at this pyramid and thought, mmm, fromage! 

The article stated that the average American eats 33 lbs of cheese per year. The French (according to Wikipedia) eat 52.9 lbs of cheese per year. Since I am an American living in France, does this mean that I can potentially average 85.9 lbs of cheese per year?

rainy day wear

It's been raining pretty much non-stop here in Paris for the past few days. I probably shouldn't grouse too much about it- it is, after all, November. But still, I'm from southern California and therefore spectacularly ill-equipped to deal with seasonal changes.

For example, I do not own a raincoat.



L'impermeable moderne c'est Blizzand
(Red Raincoat for Audrey Hepburn)
by Gruau Rene, 1965



I love this 1960's poster for Blizzand raincoats.

Still, I wouldn't go for a red raincoat. I'd choose something more understated. Classic.



Kate Moss for Burberry



As it is, I find it impossible to look elegant in rainy weather. Instead I end up looking more like something that got caught in a drain. But I think the perfect trench could go a long way in changing that. 

Also, my current umbrella was clearly designed for a child and thus offers scant protection for an adult. It is garishly printed with yellow and pink flowers.

I do not like it.

It would be much nicer to own something more polished.



Burberry Check Lined Walker Umbrella



Burberry is a bit more preppy than I would normally go in for, but for rain-wear, I have to admit that it is the ne plus ultra.

Oh well, a girl can dream.

gray day

Well, it's Monday.

And it's 41 degrees outside and the wind is howling. Oh, and also it's raining.

Daniel left this morning for San Francisco and my apartment seems awfully quiet now.

Now who will spoil me rotten by surprising me with flowers when I get home from work?

Or make me Saturday morning breakfast burritos while I lie in bed like a slug?

Or fix my wireless internet, or run out to the store to buy me soda, or tell me I look pretty even when I have a horrible mosquito bite RIGHT at the tip of my nose, or repair the heel on my new boot with super-glue?

Sigh.

You get the point. In 16 days, I was able to get very used him guy around. 

So now I feel like pretty much of a sad-sack, but the good news is that it's only about 5 more weeks until San Francisco for me. Which is very good news indeed.