I Prefer Paris

Courtyard Week 8: 50 Rue du Roi de Sicile

Last but not least to complete Courtyard Week 8 is this charming and romantic courtyard just around the corner from me. The door was open to this courtyard, as there were workmen doing some repairs on the building, so I just ambled in and took some photos.

Did you enjoy Courtyard Week 8?

Click here to see former Courtyard Weeks.

50 Rue du Roi de Sicile, 75004
Metro: St. Paul

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: 195 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 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

 

 

 

Courtyard Week 8: 22 Rue de Picardie

Last summer I received a photo assignment from France Today Magazine to photograph some shop and gallery owners in the Marais. Galerie Glenat was on the list and when I went to photograph the manager, I peered into an open door leading to a most enchanting courtyard filled with white and pink hydrangea bushes and asked if it was okay to walk through.

This was one of the more unusual courtyards I’ve encountered because it is a shared courtyard of many buildings that extend the whole block and the entrances are mainly from the shops and galleries on the block, not one central door.  

Click here to see former Courtyard Weeks.

22 rue de Picardie, 75003
Metro: Filles-Calvaires

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: 195 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 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

 

 

 

Courtyard Week 8: 28 Rue Charlot

After discovering the courtyard at 28 rue Charlot, I stumbled on another one right across the street at number 33.  I have to say I was partial to this courtyard because there’s an awning company called Establishments Richard.

Again, I couldn’t find any historic information about the building and from the architectural characteristics, it looks like it was a hotel particulier from the 1600s. This courtyard is little more industrial than the others this week with little or no greenery but it has a grand marble stairway and some great rustic red doors. Many of the ground floors of the hotel particulier’s in the Marais were converted into factories and workshops in the late 1800s/early 1900s and have now been replaced with art galleries or design ateliers.

Click here to see past Courtyard Weeks.

28 rue Charlot, 75003
Metro: Filles-Calvaires

 

 

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: 195 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 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

 

 

 

Courtyard Week 8: 33 Rue Charlot

I know many of you have been suffering through one of the coldest and snowiest winters the U.S. has ever recorded, so to give you a ray of hope and sunshine I present Courtyard Week 8, with photos from last summer when the temperature was in the high 70s Fahrenheit. (Don’t you wish it was like that now?).

I haven’t done a Courtyard Week in almost three years and I decided it was high time to post a new series. In case you are new to the blog, Courtyard Week is a series I started way back in 2009 where I visit/sneak/ cajole my way in/ rush the door when someone opens it into a courtyard and take photos. They have been some of my most fun and sometimes daring moments in Paris and I was even chased out of one once.

The courtyards in series eight were all in the Marais and two were on the same street. Today’s courtyard is on rue Charlot in the northern Marais/NORMA. I especially like this one because of the lush greenery and potted plants plus the lopsided marble stairway with an ornate ironwork banister.

I couldn’t find any historic information about the building but from the architectural characteristics, it looks like it was a hotel particulier from the 1600s. A hip women’s clothing shop, AB33 is one of the store fronts and is next door to the Marche des Enfants Rouges, the oldest food market in Paris.

Stayed tuned for the rest of Courtyard Week 8.

Click here to see other Courtyard Weeks.

33 Rue Charlot, 75003
Metro: Filles-Calvaires

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: 195 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 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

 

 

 

Mesdemoiselles Madeleines

After working up a hunger shooting Notre Dame de Lorette church last month, I headed to rue des Martyrs, one of the great food shop streets of Paris, for a snack.

Many new gourmet shops have opened on the street and it seems as though a new one pops up every few weeks. I stumbled upon a most adorable pastry shop, Mesdemoiselles Madeleines.

A recent trend in pastry shops in Paris is taking a classic pastry, such as éclairs and cream puffs, and ramping them up with unusual flavors and fillings and also creating mini versions of them.

Mesdemoiselles Madeleines takes the beloved Madeleine and gives them bursts of new flavors including salted caramel, hazelnut, grapefruit/pistachio, raspberry/rose, and chocolate/mint.

I’m a pushover for anything with salted caramel, so I sampled the mini version. (I was trying to be good and not go the whole hog and have a large one). It was moist and chewy and the caramel was subtle. I’ll have to go back and indulge in one of the large ones that are filled.

The flavors have old-fashioned French female names such as Henriette, Antoinette, Fanette (I love that name, I want to be Parisian Fanette in my next life), Albertine, Capucine (there was an French actress named Capucine in the 1960s, who was in the Pink Panther films with Peter Sellers), and Apolline.

37 rue des Martyrs, 75009
Metro: Notre Dame de Lorette
http://www.mllesmadeleines.com/images/MLLES_MADELEINES_PARFUM.pdf

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: 195 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 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

 

 

 

French Cooking with Wini Moranville: Pasta with Piment d’Espelette

I’m crazy about Piment d’Espelette, that famed spice from the Basque country. It’s made in and around the town of Espelette, from chiles that have a subtle heat tinged with bright fruitiness.

The spice brings richness, intensity, and a gentle heat to dishes, and is great for revving up fish, chicken, and especially eggs.

Here’s one of my favorite recipes using Piment d’Espelette. It’s a quick pasta toss modeled a little bit after the famed Italian quickie, Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (pasta with garlic and olive oil). In my version, the Piment d’Espelette replaces the traditional red pepper flakes. For the cheese, use any great cheese you like—but to remain true to the Basque country, an Ossau-Iraty cheese would be great. Other good choices include Pecorino Toscana and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Garlic-Olive Oil Pasta with Piment d’Espelette

This is from my e-book, The French Pasta Cookbook: 25 délicieuse recipes from bistros, cafés, and home kitchens.

Makes 4 servings.

8     ounces dried capellini or angel-hair pasta
1/4     cup top-quality extra-virgin olive oil
4     large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
1     teaspoon chicken base paste, such as Better Than Bouillon
1/2     cup minced fresh parsley or chives, or a combination
1/2     cup freshly grated aged Pyrenées sheep’s milk cheese, such as Ossau-
        Iraty or another hard-aged cheese (2 ounces)
1     teaspoon Piment d’Espelette, or more to taste.

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain well, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Set the pasta aside to keep warm.

2. In the same pot in which you cooked the pasta, heat the olive oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the garlic and cook, watching constantly and stirring often, until it starts to turn golden. Using a slotted spoon, remove the garlic from the oil. Set aside. Off the heat slowly add the pasta cooking water to the pot—stand back, it will spatter. Add the chicken base paste. Bring to a boil, cook until reduced by about half, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the cooked pasta and the garlic slivers to the pot. Toss well. Off heat, add the fresh parsley; toss again. Let the past stand for a few minutes for pasta to absorb some of the liquid. Divide into shallow bowls. Top each serving with some of the grated cheese and Piment d’Espelette.

For more ways to use Piment d’Espelette, check out my recent blog post, How to Use Piment d’Espelette.

For more ideas on how to bring easy, everyday French cooking to your table, follow me on Facebook at Chez Bonne Femme.

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: 195 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 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

 

 

 

Debutonner a la Mode at Musée des Arts Decoratifs

What I love about France is it’s probably the only place in the world where a collection of buttons is classified as a Work of Major Heritage interest by the Consultative Commission on National Treasures.

Loic Allio, a button historian, collector, and author of the book Boutons (with forward by Hubert Givenchy) has lent his collection of over 3,000 buttons to the Musée des Arts Decoratifs for the exhibition Debutonner a la Mode.

The knockout show tracks the history of the button in chronological order from the 1800s to present day. Artisans including embroiderers, glass makers, ceramicists, jewelers and silversmiths produced these mini-gems and also inspired painters and sculptors such as Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Sonia Delaunay, and Jean Arp to create unique collections for the great couture houses.

The first floor ends in the 1910s with couturier Paul Poiret returning to the Empire line and it also has a fabulous collection of side button boots. Upstairs continues with the 20th century and the designs of Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Mme Grès, Givenchy, Balmain, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Yves Saint Laurent all sumptuously decorated with richly detailed buttons.

What I appreciated most about the show was so much history and art is packed into something the size of a coin.

Put this show on the top of your must see list if you are coming to Paris this spring or summer.

Till July 19
Musée des Arts Decoratifs
107 rue de Rivoli, 75001
http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/en/exhibitions/current-events-1322/deboutonner-la-mode/

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: 195 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 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

 

 

 

March 2015 Eye Need to Do’s: Singin’ in the Rain, Jean Lanvin, David Bowie is.., and The Tudors

Singin’ in the Rain
On the heels of the smash hit An American in Paris last December, Theatre du Chatelet presents another stage version of a beloved American movie musical, Singin’ in the Rain. Robert Carsten is the director with choreography by Stephen Mear, set design by Tim Hatley, costumes by Anthony Powell with the Orchestre de Chambre Paris conducted by Gareth Valentine.

March 12-March 26, 2015
Theatre du Chatelet
1 Place du Chatelet, 75004
Metro: Chatelet
http://chatelet-theatre.com/en/event/singin-in-the-rain

Jeanne Lanvin
Celebrating the oldest French fashion house still in existence, Jeanne Lanvin, the Musee Palais Galliera has put together the first full scale exhibition of the designer with over 100 garments from its own archives and Lanvin Heritage. Alber Elbaz the current artistic director of Lanvin, has worked closely the with museum to curate the show.

March 8 to August 23
10, rue Pierre 1er de Serbie, 75116
http://www.palaisgalliera.paris.fr/en/exhibitions/jeanne-lanvin

David Bowie Is…
The highly touted new classical concert hall, Philharmonie de Paris, designed by Jean Nouvel, opened in January. Their premiere exhibit is the international sensation David Bowie is…, a multi media extravaganza following his astounding career as pop culture legend and innovator. A large portion of the exhibition was taken from Bowie’s personal archives with previously unreleased documents and recordings, photographs, videos, costumes, set components, handwritten pages, drawings and instruments.

March 3 to May 31, 2015
Philharmonie de Paris  
221 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019
Metro: Porte de Pantin
http://p0.philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/a-flagship-exhibition-david-bowie-is

The Tudors
One of the greatest and most powerful royal dynasties of all time, The Tudors, is getting their French due with an exhibition of excavated portraits of its five kings and queens.

March 18- July 19
Musée de Luxembourg
19 rue de Vaugirard, 75006
Metro: St. Sulpice
http://en.museeduluxembourg.fr

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: 195 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 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour