Paris in Windows #2

Girl in the Beaubourg bookstore window. 

Odd reflections and half a neon sign (it reads mezzanine). 

Centre Pompidou (aka Beaubourg). 

This radio, I want for my living room. 

Cute candles and sign. Love the font. 

I wish the colors had been prettier. 

Why not yellow or light blue, store?

Warhol hanging out in the Pepe window. 

Paris in windows: Food & Tea

I would need to have an enormous appetite to be able to sample every dessert that looks appealing when I'm walking the streets of Paris. And since I'm usually not hungry by the time I set out with my camera, I forego going into each bakery and sitting down with a plate of their most delicious looking pastries. Instead, I take pictures of those pastries in the window. It's better for my waistline and my wallet, though not nearly as exciting. 

Sernik is Polish cheesecake, made from curd usually. 
It's more filling than New York cheesecake, doesn't 
usually look as appetizing, but it's terribly 
tasty and is a great comfort food. This one is from
my favorite Eastern European bakery in Le Marais. 

Fauchon, the luxury deli on Place de la Madeleine, 
always has the most interesting looking cakes. 
They make you wonder how you can slice them and
stuff them in your mouth, though I guess Fauchon's
customers don't stuff anything into their mouths.
They're much too refined for that.

Ever since I took this photo, I've been wanting to
replicate the base of this cake. It looks like it's
made of some sort of chocolate praline mix. I don't 
know if I would make it with strawberries, but it's
worth considering. Next Food Friday effort, maybe. 

The displays at Hédiard always make me want to go 
somewhere tea is part of a ceremony.  
Next on my list of green teas to try is this one
from Hédiard's window. I wish I'd found out what tea it is, 
though I suspect it's their Sencha Cerisier tea. I'm in
love with those red tins. They're such a lovely color. 

It's highly impractical to have at home (hello, dust!), 
but wouldn't you love a basket of tea? 

Shakespeare & Co

One of my favorite bookstores in Paris is Shakespeare & Co. I tend to gravitate towards Saint Michel to check out their new and of interest display. You see it's a great bookstore the second you spot the building it occupies. There's something about their signs, and the green window frames. 

And that table with the chipped paint. 

On the left hand side of the store is the antique book store.  

Where they sell books like these. 

The main bookstore is the one I always go to. It's straight out of a dream. They have great windows too. They promote independent journals, like the one below. 

They like birds in windows.

Upstairs are reading rooms, the children's book section, the literary magazine collection, and a piano that a customer was playing when I was there. 

There's also this really cute alcove with a typewriter and lots of notes that I've never read. It's on my to-do list to sit down and read them next time. Maybe I'll find my friend's note too. 

They have books for everyone. 

If you get lucky, you can see really cool buildings reflected in their windows. 

And sometimes, even men with trees coming out of their heads. 

They have a very cool history. 

Basquiat & Ladurée

Last weekend, I went to Paris to do some Christmas shopping and see the Basquiat exhibit. It was really cold, and I was really glad that we'd booked our tickets online three weeks prior because waiting in line in the cold for three hours wouldn't have been doable. 

His anatomy drawings. 

A portrait shot by Warhol. 

Album cover for a jazz record. 

Über expensive Basquiat sneakers. 



The neon sign says "en finir avec ce monde irréel", 
but I thought it read "avec ce monde réel", which I 
found to be a lot more interesting. 



The façade of the building as seen from the first floor. 

Christmas decorations everywhere. 
This was taken on or near Rue du Faubourg St Honoré.

My parents had never had Ladurée macarons, so after the exhibit, my mother and I waited in line for over 20 minutes for 6 mini macarons and brought them back to my sister's. Mine was supposed to be a chestnut macaron, but I couldn't taste the chestnut at all. 

I bought some Marie-Antoinette tea for Brent's mother.


They let me take a dozen photos inside until  I got 
to the cash register and was told  they have copyrights 
on something or other and I wasn't allowed to take photos. 

But really the best thing to came out of that weekend in Paris? It starts in "in" and ends in "fluenza". And it's been kicking my ass for the past week. I came back from Paris with a sore throat. The next day, I was a mess at work, and when I was grocery shopping, I started shivering. At home, I shivered even more and that night I spent sweating and getting up to drink water every hour or so. A fantastic night I spent. I thought I would be able to go to work on Tuesday, then realized it was very unwise. I haven't left the house since then except to go to the doctor's on Tuesday night. The coughing hasn't subsided either, and it might be more painful now. At the very least, it's tiring. 


Oh, and that cough syrup? It hasn't soothed my throat in the least bit, and made me nonsensical and susceptible to freak outs of the highest order. Case in point, yesterday, Skype froze on my ass, and then there was a 2 minute lag between what Brent was saying and what I was seeing. In normal conditions, I would have been mildly annoyed. Instead, I flipped out. I laughed like I was off my rocker, and was generally very confused by what was happening. Also, sweeping the floor was a much more daunting task than it usually is because I'd stop sweeping and wonder how in the world I'd be able to make a neat pile because I just couldn't tell what direction I was supposed to sweep in. Who needs illegal drugs when you've got cough syrup, right? I checked the side effects last night and they read "confusion, agitation". No kidding. 


So now I've wasted an entire week, and I have a few days to get presents for Brent, his mother, father, sister, grandmother and aunt. And I have no idea what to get. 

A Weekend in Paris with Shosh

 The last week or so was a little hectic, and I'm too tired to write much about it, so I'll let these pictures speak for themselves. They were taken during the two days I spent with Shosh in Paris. In Paris, too much food was had and money spent, much walking was done, and my right foot was twisted in two places.

Ladurée Champs Élysées storefront. 



Kusmi Champs Élysées




Renault Champs Élysées mini exhibition






Place de la Concorde


Adorable kiddie clothing store near place de la Madeleine.


Shosh's Madagascar and hazelnut praline macarons at Ladurée Royale.




Thé Earl Grey Fleurs and Thé Marie-Antoinette at Ladurée Royale.


Maille storefront, Madeleine


Fauchon display, Madeleine






Angelina restaurant & café, rue de Rivoli






Love is the new currency




Jardin des Tuileries