I Prefer Paris

Happy New Year 2010

Snow covered statue in the Palais Royal

Wishing everybody a warm, wonderful, happy, prosperous, magical, and glorious New Year.

I want to thank all my loyal readers and subscribers for taking the time to read Eye Prefer Paris this year. I have received the loveliest, kindest, and inspiring emails and comments from you. I hope you will continue to do so in 2010 and I can't wait to bring you more of my special Paris in 2010.

Love,
Richard

Parisian of the Month: Apollonia Poilane

Apollonia Poilane is the owner of the family-run, legendary boulangerie Poilane. I met her at the incredible smelling shop on rue du Cherche-Midi and it was the most delicious interview I have ever done, since Apollonia generously gave me a whole loaf of the bread and a bag of my all time favorite butter cookies to take home.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born to a French father and American mother in NY. But I grew up in France, where my father had his business, a traditional French bakery.

You said you did an apprenticeship at Poliane when you were a teenager. Tell us about that experience and how long the process was.
Poilâne is a traditional French bakery. We make the centuries old French country loaves. French bakers are not taught to bake this kind of bread in bakery schools so we developed our own training program for our bakers. It takes 9 months for someone to become a baker! I did that apprenticeship during high school holidays and finished it after I graduated high school.

Your grandfather started the boulangerie in 1932. Tell us about how he started, why he chose this special kind of bread, and what the neighborhood was like then.
My grandfather – Pierre Poilâne – opened a first shop in 1932 in the heart of St Germain des Prés, 8 rue du Cherche-Midi. He had grown up in Normandy where breads were big enough to feed the whole family and kept for a few days. Encouraged by his friends and neighbors he started making this traditional French sourdough loaf. At the time, St Germain was filled with artists and bistrots were appearing on street corners. The artists paid for their bread in paintings and the bistrots started serving sandwiches using our bread.

If you were stranded on a desert island, which Poilane product would you choose?
The breads to feed myself! Some sourdough bread, some walnut bread, some rye bread, some rye and raisin bread and some ‘pain de mie’...

I noticed your office the walls are lined with lovely paintings of bread and a chandelier made of bread. Is there any significance to these?
The walls of the office right behind the shop are covered in paintings. They are lit by a bread chandelier.
The paintings were gifts to my grandfather, and later my father, from artists to whom they would give bread to. The chandelier is a replica of the one my father made for Salvador Dali. The artist had commissioned a whole bedroom made out of bread to know if he had mice in his house!

Ahhh, those butter cookies

The bread chandelier

Your parents were in a tragic accident about eight years ago.What happened and how did it affect your life?
My parents died in October 2002 in an aircraft crash. Subsequently, I took over the family business. Something I had planned to do in the longer term.

How was it to go to school at Harvard in Cambridge and run the Poilane business 5,000 miles away at the same time?
When I took over my family’s business, I had just graduated high school. I was taking a year off before college. So, I had 10 months ahead of me to decide what I was going to do with my college admission. Since American colleges encourage extra-curricular activities, I decided to try to do both: study and take care of my business. During the school year, I would be in Cambridge, MA. I had daily contact with my team to check on things and deal with that days’ businness. I also returned to Paris every 4-6 weeks for a few days or a week to attend meetings and appointments that required my presence.

Your mother also owned the IBU gallery in the Palais Royal. How and why did she open the gallery?
My mother, IBU, was an architect with a passion for design, ‘functional sculptures’ and jewelery. In 2000, she opened a gallery in Palais Royal. The gallery features her work, as well as the works of other artists. Cyril Ermel, her assistant, takes care of the gallery on a daily basis. Together, we choose objects, paintings, drawings, jewelery that can “have a conversation” with my mother’s work.

Walk us through the process of how the bread is made and how long it takes to make one of your perfect loaves.
It takes 6 hours to make a loaf of bread. We start with the sourdough – a piece of dough from the previous batch – which serves as a starter for the dough. We add flour, water, and salt and mix it in a big mixing bowl called ‘pétrin.’ Then, we let the dough rest. After the dough has risen enough, we weigh it and shape it in a ‘boule’ - a round shape about the size of a hug. And we place the dough in a wicker basket covered in linen to let the dough rise a second time. Just before it is cooked, we draw a ‘P’ - for Pain Poilâne – on our loaves. 

What do you prefer about Paris?
Each city, each place has its specificities. I like Paris’ cafes where you sit early in the morning and see the city wake up. I like strolling along the river on a sunny day and see the river’s course. And I enjoy the last-minute dinners you enjoy with friends on bridges and in parks during the spring and summer.

Poilane

8 rue du Cherche-Midi,6th arr.

Metro: Saint-Sulpice

Open Monday to Saturday 7:15AM -8:15PM

Tel. 0 1 45 48 42 59

www.poilane.fr

Hot out of the oven

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Restaurant Review: Le Pamphlet

Le Pamphlet is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and they have much to celebrate.

I was invited by their publicist to have lunch two weeks ago and was so happy to finally have the opportunity to dine there since it's been on my must try list for years. Located in the northern Marais, Le Pamphlet's windows are covered with white drapes so its hard to see what it looks like and once you are inside it feels almost like a private club/dining room. The decor of the two rooms is tasteful enough with stone walls and contrasting flaming red high- backed chairs but what pleasantly struck me was how far apart the tables were set. I said it once before, but one of my pet peeves about Paris restaurants is how closely packed the tables are, to the point that its uncomfortable to sit for entire meal.

We were warmly greeted by the maitre d' and seated at a table by the window in the smaller, more intimate room. First we were poured a rosé Champagne which was dry and crisp and a perfect way to prepare our palate of for the five course tasting menu.

The first dish was a silky as velvet, satisfying split pea soup with croutons in a glass terrine. Avocado, Parmesan, and crab with diced mango garnish was superb with the sharp Parmesan giving the creamy crab a bite.The Coquilles in the Coquilles St. Jacques with truffle butter and squash puree in a foam was tender and juicy but the squash was over-salted. I thought the tasting menu was going to be all small dishes but the three hearty lamb chops with wilted Swiss chard and olives was heftier than a regular main course. The meat was cooked to perfection, just the right combination of juicy and flavorful without being the least bit tough.I find lamb chops one of the hardest dishes to get right and these were some of the best I have had in a while. Raspberry religieuse is a cream puff filled with raspberry cream and surrounded with edible rosebuds. Even though the rosebuds were an intriguing idea and I was game to try them, the texture was too dry and brittle. The shocking pink enamel like icing and pistachio piped ring around it made it look fake and cheap, and even though I liked the taste of it, I thought it was the least successful dish of the meal.

Split pea soup

Avocado, Parmesan, and crab with diced mango

Coquilles St. Jacques with truffle butter and squash puree in a foam 

Raspberry religieuse

After the meal,Chef Alain Carriere came to our table to introduce himself. He was modest and affable and he explained how he changed the menu every week according to the seasonal market ingredients that are available. I asked him who designed the beautiful and unusual china he used, specifically the black rectangular platters, and he said they were by Deshouliéres, a French china company that was started in 1826.

I wish that Alain Carriere continues his terrific, inventive, and creative cuisine for 10, 20, 30 years more. I know I will be back.

Le Pamphlet
38 rue Debelleyme, 3d arr.
Metro: Filles du Calvaire
Tel. 01 42 72 39
Lunch- Tuesday to Friday 12PM-2:30PM
Dinner Monday to Saturday 7:30PM-11PM
Closed Sundays
35 euros for 3 courses, 65 euros for 5 course tasting menu 

Bravo Chef Carriere

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Eye Prefer Paris Tours: Isabel & Mirielle

I met Mireille Sorg a few years ago on my first visit to Marseilles and she was kind enough to show me her special corner of the city. Mireille recently contacted me to say that she was bringing her 12 year old daughter Isabel to Paris for the weekend and she wanted me to show her and Isabel my Marais. Although Isabel had been here before, this was her first time in Paris as a young lady and seeing the Marais, with the weekend planned just for her.

I met them at the St. Paul metro on a gray Saturday and Isabel was such a cutie, stylishly but appropriately dressed for a twelve year old in a soft wool cap, white jacket, and chic gray suede boots with knee socks folded over the tops.

We started by taking her to the Andre shoe shop on rue St. Antoine where she picked out an adorable pair of glittery ballet flats. I already liked her taste. After we went to the Village St. Paul to warm our cockles with the rich, sinful hot chocolate at Comme a la Maison. We toured some of the beautiful hotel particulier's, the Place des Vosges with its colorful art and sculpture galleries, and made another chocolate stop at the Josephine Vannier shop.

Isabel was too shy to pose for this photo in the Hotel Sully

Flying with the butterflies

Village St Paul

My favorite moment of our afternoon was when we went to the Merci shop, where Isabel decided to model a white marabou stole for me and her mom. She looked just like a little princess in it as she twirled around and around.

It was a most delightful day and I believe Isabel had marvelously fulfilled her expectations of Paris.

Princess Isabel rules in her white marabou cape

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Christmas in Paris 2009

My Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas!

I wish you a wonderful and joyous holiday and hope you are spending it with family, friends, and loved ones.

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Meredith Mullins: The Spirit of Snow

The last time I was in snow ecstasy was in February. The photography gods were thoughtful enough to shake me awake at 5 am, and I went forth into the darkness, camera in hand, to capture the spirit of the snow. That morning, as I wandered alone in the silence, I understood the meaning of pure joy.

 
Such a euphoric moment (and the images created as a result) would have lasted me for life, truly. But a few days ago, Paris was graced with another breathtaking snow—my ecstasy (and photographic) cup runneth over.
 
This time, the snow started at 8 am. The photography gods were off somewhere having coffee so I was grateful that a friend called me out of my slumber. Snow was swirling everywhere, changing even the most familiar of Paris scenes into something completely new.
 
This time I was not alone in the silence, nor were my footprints the first. Business people were bracing headlong into the swirls to get to work, children were wide-eyed as they went to school with hands and tongues extended to feel and taste the snow, usually invincible motorcyclists were skidding this way and that, and the Paris snow patrol was out in full force (a team that consists of a few good folks with snow shovels and salt).
 
Despite all the activity, everyone seemed united in awe, transported back a few centuries to a Paris outside of time … simpler, softer, and silent.
 
 Meredith Mullins is an internationally exhibited American photographer who currently lives in Paris. She is a recent winner of the Grand Concours Photo sur Paris and the author of the award-winning book, In A Paris Moment (click here to order). Visit www.meredithmullins.artspan.com to see more of her images. Original photographs are available directly through the artist.
 


Meredith will be teaching several new photography courses and workshops beginning in January 2010. She is also available for private photography instruction/exploration in Paris. Sign up for an information-filled, creative half-day lesson! Contact: meredithmullins@earthlink.net 

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Door of the Month: 14 rue de Chomel

    I found this splendid black iron and glass door in a courtyard of a sumptuous Art-Deco building in the 7th arr. behind Le Bon Marché department store. I also like the decaying mosaic fountain and the elegant portico above the door. 

14 rue de Chomel, 7th arr.
Metro: Sevres-Babylone 

 

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

The Angel of the rue de Turbigo

I am most pleased to post an excerpt from Rosemary Flannery’s upcoming book, Guide to the Angels of Paris: Looking up in the World’s Most Beautiful City.

Soaring over three stories at 57 rue de Turbigo, the smiling, colossal stone angel seems to stand guard over the human comedy unfolding at its feet.   Wings unfurled with a span rivaling that of the Louvre’s Winged Victory,  its feathers  brush against the fourth floor apartments’ windows of this building designed by architect Eugene Demangeat in 1860. 

Demangeat was a key player in the building boom of Paris, orchestrated by Baron Haussmann under the aegis of Napoleon III. The goal was to aerate, beautify and unify the capital city, until then a medieval maze of dark, insalubrious, winding streets. Extended by decree in 1858 from the rue St Martin, the rue de Turbigo cuts a diagonal axis across the city, changing names along the way to the boulevard Magenta in an efficient route to the pride of the Second Empire, its new railroad stations, the Gare de l’Est and the Gare du Nord. Its name celebrates an 1859 victory over the Austrians.

The road bends gently precisely at number 57, creating an oblique angle which the angel in its gown, finely pleated like the fluting of a Corinthian column, rounds off gracefully.  But who designed the angel?  Certainly not Demangeat, who had already been awarded commissions for three similar, unadorned buildings in the lower end of the street and was busy with work all over the city. An unsigned drawing published in the 1853 Revue d’Architecture is widely regarded as a prototype for the Turbigo angel. It was submitted by a second-year student of the school of architecture for a lighthouse design competition. We can see why this artistic proposal was spurned. The awkward proportion of the angel to the lighthouse and its fussy base detract from the charm of the concept. 

Yet an exact replica of the angel in its 9 meters of glory would find its perfect match seven years later in the rue de Turbigo, located near the Sentier, the garment and trimmings center of Paris. The angel’s frilly details - the tassels on its ears, over its right shoulder and in its right hand, its bead necklace and long ribbon encircling its body - make it a virtual mascot for the passementerie, or trimmings industry, established as a profession under Louis XIV. Two hundred years later, the trade would experience a renaissance, reflecting the opulence and prosperity of the Second Empire. Pompoms, tassels, fringes and braiding embellished womens’ apparel, military uniforms and interior decorating –  the Apartments of Napoleon III in the Richilieu wing of the Louvre bear witness to the extravagance of the times. The eclectic trend of the mid-19th century is embodied in the angel’s neo-Grecian profile and Renaissance-style hairdo.

The rue de Turbigo is part of the St Martin district, not an aristocratic area like its neighbor le Marais; with few exceptions it is bereft of the ‘grands hotel particuliers’(private mansions) but is rather the bastion of beautiful homes to rent, known as the ‘palais collectifs’. The upper floors of #57 were graced with an antechamber, dining room, salon and three bedrooms with fireplaces.  Early residents included a textile trader, watchmaker, tailor, tie wholesaler, jeweler, doctor, corset-maker and milliner. 

One might think the frilly details of the angel betray the hand of a female designer – mais non, c’est impossible!  Girl power would not demolish the gender barrier of the Ecole d’Architecture until the admission of Californian Julia Morgan in 1901. (She would later go on to fame and fortune as one of the chief architects of the reconstruction of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and as designer of the Hearst Castle.)  So we know for certain that the creator of the angel was a young man, most likely French, of about 28 years of age, recycling a rejected drawing and working with the 43-year old Demangeat.  

The building is identified in records and bills of sales as the ‘Maison du Génie’, genie being the French term for any angel used in a civic setting. In spite of its fancy detail, the angel carefully respects the strict Haussmanian building codes, which forbade the use of projecting elements. Its unfurled wings are tucked neatly under the fourth floor balcony, its body flush with the wrought-iron grill work, without obstructing the passage of light into the 90-windowed building.

Next year, the angel of the rue Turbigo  celebrates its 150th year of alighting upon #57, a serenely vigilant guardian angel radiating happiness throughout the neighborhood.

57 rue de Turbigo, Metro: Arts et Métiers

Rosemary Flannery is an American artist and writer, based in France for the past twenty years.  She is currently studying architecture at the Sorbonne University of Paris.

www.rosemaryflannery.com

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Christmas in Paris 2009

This is the grande finale in my Christmas in Paris 2009 series. It was a clear, chilly night when I snapped these photos of the tree in front of Notre Dame, storefronts on the Ile St. Louis, and the tree and lights in front of the Hotel de Ville. Did you enjoy Christmas in Paris this season?

Fruit stand on Ile St. Louis

Tree at Notre Dame

Tree at Hotel de Ville

Ile St Louis storefronts

Hotel de Ville

BHV department store

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Christmas in Paris 2009: Ice Magic

I bundled up in my down coat and wool cap last week to see Ice Magic, an exhibition of 50 ice sculptures of famous French monuments and icons. The Eiffel Tower, Rodin's Thinker, Notre Dame and its hunchback, Mona Lisa, the Hotel de Ville, and Django Reinhardt bathed in pink, blue, and green lights, are all frozen in time. If you can brave the chilling temps, Ice Magic is a festive and fun holiday treat.

Ice Magic
Till December 28th
Admission 14 euros adults, 12 euros under 25
Open 11AM-11PM
Jardin des Champs Elysees
Avenue des Champs Elysées, 8th arr.
Metro: Concorde

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com