Paris: Le Café de Flore (Saint Germain)

  

Azi am avut o întâlnire de lucru în buricul târgului, la una dintre cele mai șic cafenele din Paris, Café de Flore, cu o tânără doamnă corporatistă, căreia am să îi spun Mitzi din motive obiective - pentru că aproape așa o cheamă.

Paris: Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre

În Montmartre, scot capul de la metrou, ca o turelă, la stația Anvers. Iar plouă în orașul ăsta. Asta e, îmi zic și-mi desfac umbrela, apoi o luăm pieptiș pe Rue de Steinkerque, către Sacre Coeur. 

  

Paris Bits: Montmartre in the Rain

 

Yeah, yeah, shabby, overrated Montmartre is one of my favorite places in Paris; even if it's packed with pickpockets, although you have to pay to use the restroom of the cafe where you spent your last dime on 2 milliliters of coffee or your wage per hour for a small bottle of beer, I can't help loving it. Why? Here is my top 5:

Food Mood: Couscous, Berber Deli

There is nothing simpler than this food. Or tastier. Or versatile. Buy a pack of couscous - fine or medium grain, it doesn't really matter. Put 250 g in a large bowl.

Paris Bits: Pont des Arts

   

It seems I've been growing fond of bridges lately. Especially pedestrian ones. After Charles Bridge in Prague, now it's Pont des Arts in Paris, crossing the Seine River and linking Institut de France and Palais du Louvre square.

Paris Bits: Les Galeries Lafayette on A Rainy Day

 
If you happen in the 8th or 9th arrondissement in Paris on a rainy day, Les Galeries Lafayette are the best place to go to. Even if you're overwhelmed by the prices or you're not a fashion enthusiast, there's still something for you to do...

Food Mood: Crepes with Cheese and Herbs

To me crepes are the most versatile kind of food. They are easy to make, easy to fill, easy to please your guests with. Or your husband. When you don't feel like having meat or something sweet, and all you have in the fridge is cheese and vegetables, you can try your hand at this dish.

Montreuil - Marché Croix de Chavaux

 
Yeahhh! One of my favorite places in Paris. The market in Montreuil: Croix de Chavaux. One of the most colorful, positive, cheap, crazy, awesome places ever. Enjoy! (or Yalla!)

Paris Bits: Arc de Triomphe et les Champs-Élysées

Our adventure in France starts at Place de l'Étoile, with stunning views of Arc de Triomphe. Quite triumphant, I would say. We circled the square and took pictures of this huge monument from all possible angles. On a sunny, warm day like this one, Paris looks absolutely stunning.

Paris Bits: Serious Wine Needs Serious Stuff

 

I mean serious corkscrews. It smells like it was made 200 years ago and works like magic on the wine bottles. No bottle can mess up with it. And God forbid you drop it on one of your toes.

Pippa Middleton on Vélib'

 

So it's not only me who wants to tell her Paris story walking or by bike. Pippa Middleton used Vélib', the bicycle sharing system in Paris. Good for her and for Vélib' - a nice publicity win. 

Food Mood: Croque Monsieur vs. Croque Madame

If you visit Paris on a budget, the Croques are the most affordable food for you, except for the Turkish or Moroccan hole-in-the-walls. The average price is 6 euros. This basically very simple, popular food imbued with the French influence brought by the Bechamel sauce is a favorite among both locals and foreign tourists. But what's the difference between these two?

Croque Monsieur. (c) Premshree Pillai via Flickr.

10 Reasons Pro-Dining-Out-in-France

1. They call this a bistro, not a shack, because they know how to do it and they do it well.

Food Mood: Pain, Amour et Chocolat

  

Pain au chocolat. Thank God I will have finished my diet when I arrived in Paris. This sweet roll, similar in texture with puff pastry, has melted chocolate at the center and made it quickly in the top 5 on my To-Eat-until-You-Explode list. No wonder, Sherlock, you have buckets of love, now all you need is piles of pain au chocolat to justify the title of the post. Hope it is not going to take me weeks until I figure out the difference between a croissant and this. 

   

Food Mood: Macarons. Colored Macarons.

  

Fragile and precious, colorful and temperamental, macarons have been lately the queens of cookies. Had you asked me about them three months ago, I would have told you I would refuse to touch them, as I hate glitzy

Vintage Posters on Paris

Optimism

JolieBox Paris

If you are in Paris and feel like spending money on French cosmetics would be crazy, then... do not despair! You can subscribe to JolieBox, an affordable beauty box subscription service in France. For 10 Euro a month, you get between 4 and 6 travel-size beauty products, Le JoliMag (their beauty magazine), and exclusive invitations to JolieApéros. They have one month, three month, or year-long subscriptions - the 1-year subscription helps you save 20 euros. More details here: http://joliebox.com/.

Good news for the British - JolieBox has recently entered the UK market: joliebox.co.uk. 

Paris, My Sweet - by Amy Thomas

 Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas came out February 1. Besides being a successful advertising copywriter, popular blogger, and largely published journalist with articles in The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, Amy is also a self-described Sweet Freak. Her book winds its way through the City of Light in search of perfect pastries and [read the rest of the article on paris (im)perfect].