L'Amour Fou

 Everyone goes to Paris looking for love in all the wrong places.

 I found my true own love across a crowded room at Chef Marthe's.

 I fell hard.
Truely, madly deeply in love with her lemon zester.

Has this happened to you?

Un coup de foudre/instant attraction.

 In a town with easily 50,000 tarte citron on almost every street corner surely a good lemon zester shouldn't be hard to find.

 Alas, c'est pas comme ca.

Even Galeries Lafayette Home is sadly lacking in a good variety of lemon zesters.

Pink dishwashers? Oui.

Lemon zestors? non pas trop.

 Chef Marthe suggested I try Eva Baz'Art
53 rue St. Andres des Arts.

Ferme :(

And the vitrine was filled with coccinelle!

 Macaron earrings? They are at Anne Maisonneuve.

 Pretty Ballerinas in every color of the rainbow?

Oui bien sur.

 Want go swimming (nater) at Pontoise?

There are 38 public pools in Paris.

I visited 4 this time - 34 more to go.

 Lapin in Paris?
Oui beaucoup.

Muguet...de trop

 I felt like this devoted dog waiting..

Where is the lemon zestor of my heart?

 In the end I made do with a plain number from Monoprix.

Quelle disastre.

 This morning I went to look on Amazon.fr but I found my TRUE LOVE!  right on Amazon.com!!

A Chef'n PalmZester!

 You might be wondering what does she see in this guy?

Especially when there are hot high-tech Microplanes a plenty. With Microplanes the zest goes ALL over - impossible to measure.

And they're so sharp you get more white stuff than zest.

With this cutie the zest collects INSIDE the handle.

What's not to love?

So now that my love quest has been fulfilled do I start looking for a scooter to fall for?

What do you think?

Paris Pinks

 Thanks to you I wasted easily an hour this morning pinning Pinterest pinks. (An hour I don't have since I am NOT packed and this trip I would like to remember to take my makeup so I don't have to replace it for a lot more $$$ in Paris!).

We made these gorgeous pink framboise macaron shells at Chef Marthe Brohan's private class at her home.

More to come another time...

 Paris pink renoncules on rue Vavin.

 Pink French writing at Boulangerie Secco

 on rue Jean Nico

 Sooo pink.

 Spring pink yaourt at Monop!

 Put a pink ribbon on it and you know you're in Paris.

 At parfumeur Annick Goutal.

 On rue Oberkampf an R-rated pink bow.

 Hot, hot pink scarf goes on anything in Paris.

 Green leaves are essential to make your pinks PINKER on rue Raspail at Sunday Bio marche.

 A touch of green makes a marsipan bun from La Mere de Famille pinker.

 See, it's universal. 
Bears love ice cream!

 A pink gateau mold that looks surprisingly like the cover of Pierre Herme Pastries book.

What do you think?

 Along with inspiring me to make ice cream and showing me how to put a PIN IT button in my browser(!) my darling niece suggested I might...ummm...work on my posture.

This is a pink reminder.

Merci Louisa!!

Practice practice practice

Then I might look like this gorge Printemps watercolor illo by Aurore de la Morinerie TOMORROW in Paris! Please pray I get packed in time and I don't forget my MAKEUP etc.

Cheers, Carolgxxx

Chef Marthe - Meeting The French

 Last Friday I had the rare experience of taking a cooking class thanks to Meeting The French in a French chef's home.

 And what a gracious home it is indeed.

 Chef Marthe Brohan, formerly taught in her own bistro's kitchen in the 11th. Now she opens her door and shares bistro trade secrets. Before cooking we go off to the marche Raspail for essential ingredients.

 Chef Marthe shows us her favorite purveyors for olive oil and olives of Nylons/Provence. I buy some too. Irresistable.

 Back in her apartment, it's all hands on deck to make the 3-course menu:

Mediterranean zucchini

Chicken with two vinegars

Citron Madeleines

 I fall in love with these special shears for cutting herbs.

 I find them on Saturday at the Bio marche on Raspail as directed.

 On to our main course, the chicken with two vinegars + a touch of honey and rosemary.

 While the chicken is cooking we move on to dessert - lemony madeleines. Marthe makes it easy as pie.

 Marthe shares her favorite cookbooks...

 Who knew the American Embassy had such a terrific cookbook? Marthe has marked up many pages for reference. I must get this book!

 You can find it in English on Amazon as Elegant Entertaining, Seasonal Recipes from the American Ambassador's Residence in Paris.

 Another of her favorite books..

 And just out in the US,

 French Bistro, with recipes from Bistro Paul Bert and L'Ami Jean etc. Looks gorge.

 Enfin a table!

The poulet is fragrant and delicious - so simple too.

 Is there anything like eating madeleines right out of the oven? It will spoil you forever. And so easy using Marthe's methods. She explains a French expression to us -

'it is the madeleine de Proust'

meaning this is something I ate as a child. Nostalgia for dishes of one's childhood is so much a part of French taste/gout is it not?

Truly the highlight of my Paris trip to cook in Marthe's cuisine.
Merci Meeting The French.

You must try it too!