Pourquoi Pas?

Posted on August 21st, 2010 in Gourmandise

I don’t need a special occasion to buy something sweet, pretty and delicious. So I don’t see why I need one to share them with you either!

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! Love from Paris…

P.S. The winner of the Janelle Burger fashion prints giveaway is the lovely blogger Lady Moriarty. Check out her blog, it’s great! Click here to see the random number generation proof if needed

Thé Pour La Triste

Posted on May 19th, 2010 in Gourmandise

Hello my dears, I am so sorry I have been absent this week but I have some good news. I passed all of my exams this week, all of my papers, finished my classes and low and behold the Apple Genius were able to recover some files from my crashed hard drive. Unfortunately all my images are gone but they managed to rescue my music and video files so my important video production for work that I thought was lost was salvaged just in time! Last week though when I was feeling sad my Momma got me some treats and made me an evening tea party in efforts to cheer me up.

I have so many cute things for tea around the apartment and hardly ever time for the excuse to use them! This tea pot French-Kissed got me for Christmas this year.

This little Limoges cup is actually for espresso. It was passed on to me from one of my customers at the antique store where I used to work. He and his wife received it from an old lady who bought it in Los Angeles, moved with it to Paris to study, and then brought it back home years later. They thought it was fitting to pass it on to me to bring back to Paris when I leaving to study here. The top my mom found at the thrift so it makes it into a nice little sugar jar.

She picked up some large macarons from Mariage Freres, who I might say does quite a good job!

Mariage Freres tea for the occasion as well of course.

This day we were drinking White Elephant which is delicious.

Their macarons fillings are super creamy and buttery. The pink one was rose flavored and the purple one was violet flavored.

This is my ‘petal vest’. I am going to tell you guys all about it in an upcoming post!

We thought the brown macaron wasn’t so cute to photograph so we put this little ballerina bear on top…

…and decided to just take some pics with all my bears!

They are the Mariage Bears!

Posting should be back to normal now my lovelies, oh how I have missed the blogosphere this week. Hopefully this string of stress and bad luck is over and I have a few relaxing weeks ahead to look forward to! This weekend I am graduating and we have some big festivities planned that I can’t wait to share with all you! If you want to know more about what’s on tap for this weekend please visit French-Kissed’s post!

Gourmandise des Yeux

Posted on March 24th, 2010 in Gourmandise

In French gourmandise is defined as “un désir d’aliments jugés particulièrement agréables, que certains moralistes et certaines doctrines religieuses peuvent considérer comme un défaut ou une faute.” For those of you that don’t speak french that means something along the lines of a desire to eat particularly agreeable treats that certain doctrines consider sinful. Whoever decided that back in the church was on to something, because I do feel a little possessed when I look at all the beautiful desserts before in let’s say Laduree for example. However when they are so delicately crafted and pretty its hard to bite in and ruin it all.

My mom bought me this little Laduree cakelette when she was in town as a late valentine. It is appropriately named The Marie Antoinette.

As hard as it was to resist eating it right away, we decided it would be fun to take some pictures of it. Most people would think we were crazy for taking pictures of this silly little thing, but then again if you didn’t understand at least a bit you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog right now.

Of coarse Laduree does not just make fabulous little cakelettes. Inside this beautiful green gold lined box are six delicious macarons.

The perfect to go box for carrying around during a day walking around Paris. You could stop to sit on the banks of the Seine and eat a few just like I did the first time I visited Paris with my sister.

These cute little macarons beg for some photo staging as well. This citron flavor one is sitting inside one of my most prized possessions, an antique brass and glass jewelry casket with a blue satin cushion. I found it at an antique store I worked in. I stared at it for months in its case and then finally one day a woman came and put it on hold. I realized I just couldn’t let it go. I sneakily bought it before she could decide to come back and get it! It is one of my favorite things in the world.

Mouth watering yet?

Finally we gave in and cut into the little cakes. My mom asked for one but with her poor french the server conveniently thought she wanted two! So we each had our own.

If your wondering what flavor this little cake is, it was actually not cake at all! Inside its filled with raspberry meringue, lots of rose flavored cream, raspberry jam, and lychees for a surprise ingredient. The outside is covered in fondant icing.

We thought they looked perfect in front of my Fifi Flowers painting I got from French-Kissed for Christmas.

I am so sorry to torture your taste buds with pictures of all these wonderful treats but I just couldn’t resist sharing pictures of how cute they are! Of coarse Laduree is just one of my many favorite places in with delicious treats in Paris that you can read about in My Paris guide. What are your favorite spots to indulge in such delightful desserts? Share in the comments section! Also make sure to check in on the Inspiration Gallery from time to time as I am always adding beautiful images I stumble across that I find inspiring.

Alice in Printemps Wonderland ~ Part I

Posted on February 23rd, 2010 in Fashion, Gourmandise, Shopping

One of my favorite things about working in the 9th arrondissement is my close proximity to Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, also known as Les Grands Magasins. However this can also be quite a dangerous neighborhood as I often find myself spending my lunch break browsing the beautiful goods of these two famous department stores, and from what I can see during my lunch time shopping I’m not the only working gal with this bad habit. When I can resist the temptation to go inside, I still enjoy Printemps’ stunning vitrines. To celebrate the expansion of the Printemps Laduree and the release of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Printemps‘ window design has fallen down the rabbit hole. In this first part of this two part post, fashion meets fine patisserie and furry friends…

I was so tempted to share all the photos of the vitrines with you in this post, but decided you will have to wait for part 2. The other half of this vitrine series features the designer’s windows, in which different fashion houses were invited to give their interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. I won’t keep you waiting too long though…check back later this week!