Day 519 – In Search of Aux Merveilleux de Fred in the Marais

December 13, 2015Leave a comment

Aux Merveilleux – each a bit of meringue clothed with whip cream topped with anything from cherry to coconut or chocolate or coffee. Seven flavors! We had been told they were incrediblé! A true taste experience.

We only had time to press our noses against the glass and marvel at the Merveilleux marching in rows upon rows of many colors as we marched toward the Hôtel de Ville. ViTe ViTe!

Just time to snatch a quick photo of the name and address Aux Merveilleux de Fred Rue de Rivoli and Rue de Pont St Louis Phillippe. ViTe ViTe! Here’s the website! http://www.auxmerveilleux.com/home_en/ 

A moment more to longingly gaze into the interior of Aux Merveilleux de Fred. Quelle chandelier! Fantastique! ViTe ViTe! More to see! Time is running out on our tour!

We made it our mission to return and BUY some Merveilleux. Do you know how many Aux Marveilleux de Freds are in Paris alone? Which one had we drooled over? En le Marais! That narrowed it down.

What address? Thanks goodness for the photo with the street address.

TEN metro stops from our HÔtel?

Three blocks past the Hôtel de Ville into the Marais and turn right on what? Pont St Louis Phillipe! Toward the river?

There it was just where we had seen it! On a corner teeming with people.

Would there be any left for us? Did we have time to stand in that line? Mais oui, the line also moved ViTe ViTe!

Our clerk spoke English learned from Saturday morning tv! A miracle. We got a box of six assorted lovelies and off we went! To the Louvre to l’Orangerie, then to the Seine where we enjoyed our Merveilleux as we dreamed above the river.

So why post one more photo of Aux Merveilleux de Fred? The line.

All those people out front.

Never ever eat at a restaurant or, as in this case, a patisserie that does not have a line. The line tells you that what is inside is delicious, worth the wait, worth your money, worth the search for Aux Merveilleux de Fred.

Bytw there’s one in NYC now! Watch out Fred. We may be making a field trip! Christmas in NYC with Aux Merveilleux de Fred?!

One more reason short walk in the Marais tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 517 Walk walk WaLk!!

December 11, 2015December 11, 20152 Comments

Is what you do on a tour…I do wish we could have gone in all these fantastic places. It took us three days to figure out how to get back to the Marais. By then we were out of time to look.

Carnavalet Museum. Such beauty. A statue of Louis XiV the Sun King famous for his lavish lifestyle his mistresses and his palace Versailles. And I thought this was a woman!

Haussmann the designer of the wonderful Paris we all love today asked the city to dedicate Hôtel Carnavalet as home of the Paris city museum.

The Marais is becoming upscale with fancy boutiques and shops lining the quaint narrow streets but the integrity of the old facades must be maintained. An expensive clothing store in an old patisserie. Hmm I think I would rather have a tasty treat from a Patisserie than clothing.

Fantastic carvings over the Guerlain store. The wrought iron is not bad either. No time to sniff the famous perfume!

A random building on a random street corner in le Marais. So man beautiful building …so little time to do more than looks and run. Zip zip zip on we charge to Carnavalet. So much to see no time to linger.

Around the corner from Carnavalet this impressive building was built for the illegitimate daughter of the one of the French kings. I think it’s the museum of locks and keys but I am not sure. Zip zip off we go. Be careful not to trip over gate locks cobblestones slopping sidewalks.

Just in case she forgot a bar sis inter was added to her royal coat of arms…..the diagonal line between the fleur de lis.

Lucky Parisians can rent one of these electric cars for 150 euros a year. They can drove them 150 miles from Paris but no more. Hmm I could not drive to Atlanta in one but….there’s no gas. The solar panels charges them. You reserve one via the Internet were its flagged and held just for you. I think you can also just rent it for one trip. Incredible to think you have access to a car for a mere 150 a year.

We are rounding the corner to the old Jewish quarter. Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 516 Place des Vosges en le Marais

December 9, 2015December 11, 20157 Comments

The Hotel Sully is a royal gateway to Place des Vosges. There was an enormous palace Hotel de Tournelle at Place des Vosges back in the 1500s.
The shop arcade that runs around the park on every side.

It is the first planned park-then known as Park Royale and was built in Paris by Henry IV but the reason its inception was sad.

Henry II who built Tournelle palace died from his wounds in a jousting tournament there. His wife Catherine de Medicis had the palace razed after his death replacing it with this beloved Parisian park. Bytw Catherine knew how to hold a grudge waiting ten years to capture and kill the knight who mortally wounded her husband.

Four fountains splash in the summer while Parisians sunbathe often in their swimming suits. The buildings surrounding the park are different in that they all have the same facade. At their bases is an arcade with shops and apartments over the shops.

Sadly all the Paris fountains were turned off for the winter.

A statue of Louis 13th dominates the center of the park. A large carrousel once commermorated his marriage in the park.

A Parisian water fountain. Yes I drank from it.

Victor Hugo who saved Notre Dame with his Hunchback of Notre Dame lived here on Place des Vosges. You can still visit his abode which is now a museum.

I love the Parisian street lights. No mere pole will do for Paris!! The varieties are infinite.

Tomorrow off to the Jewish quarter of the Marais with more sightseeing on the way.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 415 – Marais

December 9, 2015December 9, 2015Leave a comment

Back to Paris to the Marais. A quick trip on the metro from FDR on the fabled Champs Elysees to Place de la Bastille.

Our tour started at Place de la Bastille where the first French Revolution started on July 14, 1789. There were two more revolutions. La Bastille was an infamous prison before then.

All that is left to mark where la Bastille stood are the red cobblestones.

Off down the Rue de Sainte Antoine. Did you know the street names are posted on the buildings at each corner. You know exactly where you are.

Our first French statue Pierre-Augustine Caron de Beaumarchais was a notable early revolutionary supporting both the American and French Revolution. We owe him for acquiring the rights to Voltaire and publishing it in Germany. Banned in France Voltaire would have been lost to history’s for not for Beaumarchais. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Beaumarchais

Originally a swamp or Marais this was the Jewish section until WW 2. You know how that ended.

It was also the home to many royals before 1600. After the revolution it became a working class neighborhood. The area still has more prevolutionary buildings than the rest of Paris.

Le Nôtre. We drooled over the Patisseries. Did you know you have to have a baker with an advanced degree to use the name?
A fabulous le église aka church in the Marais.

The entrance Hotel de Sully on Saint Antoine.

The courtyard of the Hotel de Sully built in 1634. A mansion for the Duc de Sully superintendent of finances to King Henry IV. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hôtel_de_SullyThe four seasons are carved into the facades on each side.

Enter the hallway to the gardens de Sully.

A panorama of the building. They lived on the second floor.

The formal garden with l’orangerie- similar to a conservatory. French gardens are as formal as they consider English gardens wild and carefree.

From here you have easy access to Place des Vosges, the home of the kings.

More Marais tomorrow. We saw a lot on that tour.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 514 – bored yet?

December 7, 20152 Comments

A bit more Rouen. How fancy is this for a postcard shop on the Rue de la Gros Horlage? Nothing like that here.

Am art nouveau shop front? No not here either. I wish.

A leaning 700 yr old house. We only had wigwams then. And yes the posts are that crooked leaning at 85 degrees? They straighten the insides and square the floors and Windows but keep the lean in the old houses! No idea how.

A door a couple of houses down from the leaning building. That lean must be so contagious.

Where else would you find this charming old French car parked in front of that awesome green door. Not in America who we need everything brand new.

Bytw we waited for Audrey Hepburn to show up but she never did. We thought it might be her car from Sabrina or Charade.

Turn another corner and you can buy fresh scallops for your dinner.

And some fabulous fresh flowers nearby for your table.

Wandering back to the boat the way I came I decided to change course. One left turn and there was the back of Notre Dame. Not a bad sight to find by accident.

You know they added that spire recently – in the last 100 years – to make it the tallest French cathedral? These things are important! Oui?!

The Normans still guard the bridge but the Quai out boat was moored at. Normandy was given to the fierce Norseman by the French kings back in the 900s to keep them from attacking the rest of France. 5% of the people that live in Normandy still speak Norman. Hmm who knew?
Guess that’s it for Rouen. I do hope to get back to try that sole meunière. What was I thinking not going there for lunch?

Thanks for reading

Margaret xxx

Day 513 A Little more Rouen

December 6, 2015December 7, 2015Leave a comment

Rouen brought us Julia Child. On the town square Sits the oldest auberge in France -La Couronnes founded 1345 – where she shook her first bite French cooking – Sole Meunière. The auberge sits on the old town square and still serves the sole for a mere 42 euros but maybe a taste of it could still change the world?

La Couronnes menu. Under La Mare on the right you will find the Sole Meunière an astronomical revelation that started Julia Child off on her quest at revolutionized American cooking and produced Mastering the Art of French Cooking as well made her the first tv chef superstar.

The lawyers practice in a Gothic spired cake called the Palais de Justice.

A panorama of the Palais De Justice. Fantastic glowing in the morning light.

Turn left and walk down Rue de Gros Horlage aka the big clock which runs from Notre Dame to the Market Square. The big clock complete with sheep dates from the 1600s when Rouen was a wool capital.

Accordion players on the street corners. They have to pay for a license. In Paris they even have auditions. Not everyone gets to be a street entertainer!

The town market square where you can buy candy or flowers or scallops, ride on a carousel, eat at a cafe or visit the site of Joan of Arcs funeral pyre.

More village square. For some reason they stuck a great modern church dedicated to Joan of Arc in the middle of it.

Magnificent old stained glass windows from a church destroyed in World War 2 were installed in Joan of Arcs new church on the market square.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret having ahard time being enthused about drawing her everyday life after France. Xxx

Day 508 – A Few Ibis

December 1, 2015December 1, 2015Leave a comment

I counted at least eight sketches of ibis that I drew at the Key West Wildlife Center.

The ibis were painted with cerulean and piemonite. Makes a lovely purply color. The beaks are cad red and Winsor yellow. The legs the same with more Quin red added to it.

The leaves are viridian Inathradone blue and Quin cold. And the ground. Any color I could use to give it texture.

Go find an ibis. Great fun to draw.

Back to my cold. Thanks for reading

Margaret xxx

Day 508 – Sketching the Smokies

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015Leave a comment

first you better have a good breakfast. We started with some of the best eggs and bacon ever cooked in a restaurant at the Little House of Pancakes in Gatlinburg near our condos.

I got there early and of course I sketched the perfect line up of happy Customers mere feet away from my table.

This is drawn with my brush pen in my Stillman and Birn zeta colored with watercolors.

I always love it when people sit nearby never noticing they are being drawn. These actually look like the couple eating.

Fun drawing.

Thanks for looking.

Day 503 – Grateful

November 25, 20152 Comments

To know Paris is as lovely as ever despite those who tried to blow it up.

A random street near the Champs Elusses
Les Invalides

The Eiffel Tower. I do t get tired of looking at it.

Chaps Elysses by rainy nite

In a mob or

Or early morning
Rue d’artois

Quai Greinelle Out our cabins window

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more French adventures

Margaret xxx ready to head back to Paris

Day 502 – playtime

November 24, 20151 Comment

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Really like this one of our chef Dimitris favorite Patisserie en Conflans. Evidently you have to have a lot of training to be able t use the name Patisserie and have a special pastry chef on staff.

Our first meal in France at L’ Artois on Rue de l’Artois around the corner from our hotel. The food was ok but the host and hostess were trés charmante as was the restaurant.

The Ranville church and cemetery. Love the colors of the flowers combined with the somber tombstones.

Cathedral en Vernon. Did I say I love all the gothic churches? Pregothic ones too.

One of my favorite was St Mclou in Rouen with Notre Dame that Monet painted 28 times in the background. St Mcclou was smaller and just lovely with all its encrustations.