Les Petites Douceurs de mon Enfance

 Les Petites Douceurs de mon Enfance/Little Treats

 While the French may be very clear about having 'Adult Time', they certainly don't put away childish things in doing so...

 I bought this book on traditional French bonbons in the musee des arts decoratifs bookstore. Would you find candy books at the Met book store? I doubt it...

 I ordered this charming book from French amazon - it has all kinds of pull-out, die-cut silliness plus real recipes for old time French sweets.

 Like old-fashioned Berlingots/hard candies. Does anyone still eat hard candies wrapped in cello twists? The French do.They never stop. Displays of lollipops are in most tabacs and they're not just for kiddies.

 You can order a T-shirt with old-fashioned hard candies from Anne Maisonneuve. I did...

 Silly toys for adults? Pylones' specialty is totally goofy chatchkas.

 Pylones paperclip birdie

 So many French sweets are from one particular region or another, perhaps that's why the French are so attached to les petites douceurs de son enfance.

 'Mangez des gateaux plus souvent!' Eat cake often! Certainment deprivation is not on the menu.

 And of course ice cream!

BON WEEKEND!

Tuna Birthday!

You don't plan on spending your birthday doing hand-to-hand combat with a tuna sandwich. But life is full of little surprises. And when the challange is to paint a tuna sandwich. And you have a deadline, the tuna sandwich takes precedence over champagne et macarons. I'm always saying I never eat birthday cake...
 Last weekend I took myself off to Soho to do chocolate cake research for the same illustration project.

First I went to very 'Frenchie' Ceci Cela patisserie.

And got this layered affair to practice on.

I did manage to get a sketch out of it before I was compelled to eat it. It was melting under the table lamp. What else could I do? Next I headed to Francois Payard's new patisserie.

Tres mignon.

Payard's little Sacher cake didn't even make it to the sketch page.

But it did help immerse me in essence of chocolatie cake research. Just what a pastry artist needs...

The tuna sandwich will not be eaten. It has dried up under the lights. But there is nothing like having real props to work from. The new Ladybug kitchen timer is from the Soho Pylones by the way.

BONJOUR TUNA BIRTHDAY!