Halloween cookies.

Happy Halloween! It's not really a holiday we celebrate in South Africa - but I did make some effort by baking the above skull cookies. Remember this post? Well, I gave in to some of that skull mania when I spotted a skull cookie-cutter at Kinderfeestwinkel in Amsterdam.

Cookie Boy.

Cookie Boy makes the most fantastically intricate iced biscuits. Attention to detail and the most steady hands called for here.

Tea at Mariage Frères.

You may be excused for thinking that all I do in Paris is have afternoon tea. Not true, although there are many, many amazing places to sip the infusion. Mariage Frères was recommended by my SIL (although she cautioned against ordering the green tea tart which she described as tasting like silkworms). I just hope she meant it tasted how she imagined silkworms would taste otherwise there's a story I need to know more about. 

Silkworms aside, I really didn't need much encouragement to add this tea house to my list of places to go. The brand is centuries old and at it's salon in the Marais the brew is celebrated beautifully from it's packaging to the tiny museum on the second floor. It's a challenge to decide on a flavour from the menu of countless different options.

Tea from Mariage Frères is sold in Cape Town for a small fortune and DH once brought me some home from a trip to the South of France - but this is one tea that tastes even better when sipped in Paris. 

Macarons might be overrated.

Shock! Horror! I can hear the reaction in the blog world to the title of this post. But really, I haven't been as impressed by macarons as I was expecting. Admittedly, we've only tried the above macarons from Laduree, but they're supposed to be one of the best. 

Or perhaps my underwhelming taste experience was because I (like a true Art Director) selected my macarons by colour rather than flavour. I hear that some other houses - Pierre Herme, for example, are really experimental with their flavours. They offer Huile d'Olive et Vanille (olive oil and vanilla) or Chocolate and Foie Gras. Or a Wasabi and strawberry combination. Hmm, not so sure. 

The redeeming factor of my Laduree experience was certainly the packaging. It didn't actually matter what the morsels tasted like - they looked so fantastic. The French are really great at packaging things beautifully. Some of the best advice I've been given was that each time you buy something in Paris and the sales assistant asks if it's a gift - say yes! The item then gets specially wrapped. But then, I am easily seduced by a bit of ribbon and paper.

Maybe I just need to keep trying macarons until I find my nirvana? There are enough patisseries here for that to be a full-time occupation. But then I'd need a few more months and and insulin on stand-by. 

 

Haute couture of food.

I've always liked the bold pink and black branding of Fauchon. It's a colour combination that usually reminds me of lingerie or boudoir styling, but some how it works really well for this food emporium.

The luxury gourmet store has been open since 1886 and serves up a variety of perfectly arranged delicacies. We had a coffee at their rose-tinted café. It's on Place Madeleine in the 8th. The interior of the café is designed by Christian Biecher. It's worth checking out his site - the interior images are far more beautiful than anything I could snap. My photography style in these places is subtle (in a 'lets try not get chucked out' kind of style).

Any colleagues reading this? You may count yourself lucky, you have chocolates from Fauchon to look forward to.

Lunch at Chartier.

C&J introduced us to Chartier five years ago when we visited them in Paris. We had a great lunch at this Parisian institution at that time and so decided a return visit was in order. The restaurant has been around since 1896 - it's even classified as a historical monument. Frequented by locals (but now in all the guidebooks I'm told) it's said to have fed over 5o billion bellies since it's opening! Thinking back, I could recall the decor of the vast dining hall and the brusqueness of the waiters. But not what I ordered. I wasn't sure if that meant that the food was forgettable or that we'd all had too much wine to drink at the time.

It might have been the former. Our lunch experience this time around was great for atmosphere and charm - perhaps only added to by the fact that we were seated practically on the laps of the couple next to us - and 'okay' from the food point of view. It's billed as classic, 'home style' French fare and is a welcome change from the fussy morsel posturing on a plate that looks as if some chef has had his hands all over it for far too long. But perhaps these particular plates could have done with a little more attention. Regardless, the wine was great and the bustling ambience ensured it was worth the visit. Especially as it's inexpensive. 

I'm just not as much of a fan as the man who has been eating there every lunch for the last 20 years! 

Sunday brunch at Le Germain.

Brunch seems to be a big thing in Paris. Numerous restaurants offer their brunch menu until 6pm on a Saturday and Sunday. And said menu includes a selection of hair-of-the-dog refreshments and a myriad of different ways to order the simple oeuf. We did brunch at Germain this Sunday and found ourselves amongst the well-heeled but casually chic of the left bank. A couple of Janice Dickenson look alikes who've obviously overindulged on the collagen and a more than just a scattering of LV bags casually slung over chairs (these were the real thing, baby) completed the picture. 

But the interior stole the show.

A massive bright yellow sculpture of a woman in a coat and heels breaks through from the café floor to the lounge area above. It's by artist Xavier Veihan. Interior architect India Mahdavi.

With spaces like these in which to while away your weekend, it's no wonder brunch is trés popular.

La Terresse.

We've been visiting a lot of churches.  Their age and beauty is quite staggering. In fact, I'm so inspired by these spaces that I've even pulled out my water colours to engage in a little creative project of my own. 

Gallaries Lafayette, on the other hand, is the ultimate church to consumerism. Seven floors bursting with merchandise and an annexe for the 'Homme' and 'Masion' sections. It's shopping deluxe. But the highlight of our visit to this shopping mecca wasn't carrying out bags of goods - I was actually  forcibly extremely restrained. Rather, it was our lunch with a view of Paris. 

The eighth floor has a recently opened restaurant called La Terresse. It has an amazing panoramic view of the rooftops and monuments of the city. Unfortunately when we stopped by for lunch they had had a recent power failure so we could only order a salad (and a glass of champagne) but by the time our lunch ended electricity was back up and a coffee rounded it off nicely. 

Definitely much nicer to store this experience in my memory bank than the pair of shoes I was eyeing in my closet. 

Credit: Top three images used with kind permission from thepariskitchen. Perhaps I drank too much champers as my own snapshots weren't that great!