desperately seeking the best macaron in paris

as a follow-up to my dizzying day at "salon du chocolat", i decided to find the best macaron in paris. of course, this research is all for you, my dear readers. a completely selfless act on my part.

the french macaron, not to be confused with the american coconut macaroon, is a light, delicate creation of a flavored meringue sandwich cookie filled with a sweet flavored creamy ganache center. it doesn't matter where you buy these cookies -- whether the local corner bakery or someplace fancy -- they are always expensive (about one euro per cookie). i decided to do a head to head taste test with two of the best known macaron places in paris...pierre herme and laduree.

laduree has a very beautiful, almost girly, interior. it's very traditionally french in its decoration, all done in pastels. i decided to purchase three cookies and one pastry (the pastries are so pretty, it was hard to resist). pierre herme has a much more contemporary interior. it's done in dark hardwoods and porcelain tile. very american in style, in fact. here i decide to just purchase three cookies, even though the pastries and chocolates were also tempting (after all, i do have a limit). even though it was raining outside, both places had very long lines. i must not have been the only one with a hankering for macarons.

at home that evening, with rain pouring outside, i made myself a cup of vanilla tea and began my tasting. i looked at my purchases...six cookies and one pastry at a cost of just under 20 euros...and thought i'm definitely in the wrong business. although i didn't eat everything in one sitting i made my decision that evening. the cookies from laduree, supposedly the best, were smaller and had less ganache than the cookies from pierre herme. both are equally delicious and both companies have equally interesting flavors. it wasn't too difficult to decide. my recommendation: pierre herme all the way.

and the pastry? well, that was delicious too, but not part of the taste test. i ate it just for you.

a festivus for all of us

parisians enjoy their festivals and expositions. i am enjoying participating in them. i recently enjoyed two, fete des vendenges and salon du chocolat.

fete des vendenges celebrates the different wine regions of france with a parade and tasting booths in montmartre. i was invited by my friend jason to join him and a few other friends to watch the parade and enjoy the festival. the parade was very small town in feeling. the participants represented different wineries and regions and were dressed in traditional garb (men in long robes with large hats or maidens with large bosoms in low cut blouses) while others wore crazy giant animal costumes. it was all very quaint. after the parade we headed towards the booths. some had wine for a taste, some had food. it was all packed with thousands of people. i took the photo of the steps of the sacre coeur as i was leaving. all those people were taking a break from the festival, while twice as many were still imbibing.

while i enjoyed fete des vendenges, i am not much of a wine connoisseur. chocolate, on the other hand, is my weakness. salon du chocolat was a convention of all things...well...chocolate. there were stacks of chocolate bars, macarons of all flavors (including chocolate, of course), chocolate fountains, chocolate covered everything and even a fashion show of chocolate garments. i went with my friend melissa along with a group of other expats. we had a wonderful, tiring and chocolate filled afternoon.

he went to paris

those of you who know me well know that i am a parrothead. for those that are unaware, that means i am a big jimmy buffet fan. i had been to many a concert on los angeles and always enjoyed the lively crowd and great show.

it was may, and i had been in paris for just a couple of weeks when i learned that jimmy buffet was coming to town at the end of september. i was quite surprised, because i didn't know he toured in europe at all. but i was also quite happy so i bought two tickets. i didn't know who i would be going with and i didn't know what the note "access libre" meant on my ticket.

suddenly september 24th rolled around. time really does fly, doesn't it? i still don't know many people in paris, and certainly don't know anyone else, american or european, who even knows who jimmy buffet is, so i still didn't have anyone to go with to the show. through a series of events i was connected with a guy in holland who wanted to buy a ticket to see the show.

matt took the train from holland to paris yesterday. we met for the first time when he came by my place to pick me up so we could go to the venue together. the show was held at l'olympia, a small concert hall that is iconic in paris. built in 1888, many great artists have performed there over the years, from edith piaf to bob dylan. my "access libre" tickets were for standing room only, which was the whole bottom floor holding about 1,000 people. another 1,000 people were upstairs sitting in the balcony. i was so happy to be downstairs, even though it meant we were on our feet for hours. because we got there early we were center stage, with just four or five rows of people in front of us. it was thrilling...i've never been to a concert before and been so close to the artist.

yes, some people were drunk and yes, some were just annoying (you know who you are, girl who was flipping her hair in my face while dancing like a crazy person). but after a while most people calmed down and the whole thing was quite enjoyable to watch. most of the crowd was american. people came from the states just to see the show, while expats like matt came from countries all around europe. pretty impressive.

fins to the left! fins to the right! a fine time was had in paris last night!!

i'm a travelin' (wo)man

one of the great things about being a member of the european union is that when you are in europe you can just pick up and go to any other european union country without much planning, because there is no need for a visa. we are all just one big happy family. since i am here, i decided i that i need to take advantage of this perk.

my first adventure was in estonia, which i wrote about in a previous blog. at the end of july i went to london for a quick weekend getaway. i had only been to london once before for just two days, but that was almost twenty years ago. i met my roommate kathryn there (she went for a longer period of time). my first day i did the touristy bus ride around the city thing, just to get my bearings. saw the tower of london and went on a walking "jack the ripper" tour (macabre and fun at the same time). that evening kathryn and i went to see the show "billy elliot" which was fantastic. the next day i met up with an acquaintance from l.a. for breakfast, then kathryn and i went to the tate modern museum (i enjoyed the architecture of the space as much as the art). that evening we saw another show, neil simon's "prisoner of 2nd avenue" with (my future husband) jeff goldblum and mercedes ruehl. did a little clothes shopping (i bought a beautiful cream colored winter coat) and went home.

in mid-august kathryn, natalie and i went to lithuania for a week. why, you ask? first and foremost, it was cheap! and secondly, why not? another opportunity to see a part of the world none of us had been to before. my first impression: it was hot! we flew into kaunas and took a walking tour of the city. i learned that lithuania has more churches than just about anything else. came back to the hotel tired and sopping wet.

we then traveled by bus to the capital vilnius. this city has the most remnants of medieval times than anywhere else we visited in lithuania. took a walking tour of the city, a day trip to trakai to visit a medieval castle, and a visit to the national museum. the photo of the carnival was taken as we walked back from the museum. i thought it was funny to see a picture of uncle sam in lithuania. why is there a picture of uncle sam on a ride called "crazy show"? we also did some general shopping and eating. a favorite thing i like to do when in a new place is to try new foods. i learned that donuts are not sweet little cakes with a hole in them, but savory meat pies (not what i was expecting at all). potato pancakes are popular, which i had a few times. we also had dinner at a hungarian restaurant. i ordered the goulash, but it didn't even come close to my mom's. my favorite food is a "hot chocolate" dessert that is served in a cup with a spoon. it's basically just melted dark chocolate. delish! the three of us also visited a spa while in vilnius. the exchange rate was very favorable to us, so we all indulged. i was scrubbed and wrapped and massaged. what could be better than that?

after vilnius we made our way to klaipeda on the coast. we wanted to take in the ocean, which was quite nice. i didn't have a swimsuit, but decided to go sit in the water anyway because it was quite pleasant. we only stayed in klaipeda for a day because the city wasn't very impressive. we decided to switch plans a little bit and headed north to riga in latvia. the third of the three baltic countries, i have now seen them all. riga is similar to both vilnius and tallin (estonia) because they are all medieval cities. you can just imagine knights in their armor riding through the town causing mayhem and peasants bustling about, doing whatever it is peasants do.

riga was a bit more lively than vilnius but twice as expensive; we were there only one night. we did another walking tour, a boat tour on the river, ate (wasn't sure what some of it was, but that's part of the adventure, right?), and had another spa day (when in the baltics...). we decided to treat ourselves and go to a very beautiful, fancy restaurant. the photo of us (that's kathryn, myself and natalie) is in that restaurant, eating very delicious fancy food. yum.

back to kaunas, then back home. another couple of countries ticked off my list...how many more to go?

day trippin'

just outside of paris are various sites that you can visit in a day. i went to two places in recent months: giverny and versailles.

lat month my roommates kathryn, natalie and i went to giverny to see monet's house and gardens. the photos are of me sitting in front of monet's house and the other is his famous water lily pond. i'm barely dressed because it was one of the hottest, most humid days of summer. it must have been in the mid- to upper-nineties with at least 60% humidity. i didn't realize i had tan lines until i saw this photo. they are just from walking around paris in my tank tops.

giverny is a short train ride from paris. i really enjoyed seeing the gardens that inspired so many of monet's paintings. there isn't much to do there except look at all the plants and flowers, plus you can take a tour of his house as well. there are other things to see in the town of giverny: many souvenir shops, local artists selling their works, and places to eat. it's quite touristy, so we didn't participate in any of those activities.

another local venue is versailles. the last time i went to visit the chateau was about fifteen years ago. this summer they offered a special "water show" just on saturday evenings and just for five weeks during the summer. since it is a special show, i decided to go last weekend with my english friend chris. canned classical music played as you strolled around the gardens starting at 8:30 p.m. the "water show" wasn't a show at all; they just turned the fountains on. then at 11:05 they had a fireworks show (as i mentioned in an earlier post, the french do know how to put on a great fireworks show). and that was it. not a lot of show for kind of a lot of dough (23EU was the normal price, but luckily lola came to my rescue and offered discount tickets...merci lola!).

i hope to go back to versailles soon to see the interior of the chateau again. i am also planning a trip in a couple of weeks to another fairly local chateau, vaux le vicomte. lucky me.

to market to market

one of my favorite things to do in paris is shopping at the outdoor farmers markets. paris has a law that states that every arrondisement must have an outdoors market at least once a week. this is why these markets are so well known internationally; 20 districts means that you can pick up your farmers market groceries any day of the week depending upon where you are in the city.

my favorite market is at bastille. it's one of the largest markets with the most diverse products. fruits and vegetables are of course available, but you can also get cheese, bread, yougurt and other dairy products, meat, fish, plus other miscellaneous products like soap, dishes, clothing, jewelry and toys. it's truly a one-stop shop. the food is so fresh; everything smells really good. and as you can see from the characters i photographed recently, the hawkers can be fresh too!

eek! souris!

we've had quite a bit of action here in paris in the last several weeks. i am continuing to practice my french and take classes at the alliance francaise. sometimes frustrating, sometimes liberating, but i'm getting stronger with the language every day. yesterday i was mumbling to myself and realized i was mumbling in french! it's really starting to sink in. i've even received some nice compliments from people i'm meeting that my french is pretty good for only having studied for six weeks or so. that's always encouraging. but then of course, i run into people who, the moment i open my mouth and they hear an english accent and my poor grammar, tell me it would just be easier for both of us if we speak english.

kathryn, natalie and i have moved from the tiny 300 square foot one bedroom apartment in the 10th to an 900 square foot three level (two bedroom!) house in the 19th. the neighborhood is nothing to look at and a little rough (think venice, california in the 80's) but the house is very nice, open and airy and has a courtyard that tyrone and lenny like to explore. it almost feels like we are in the country when in the house. we are all very happy here. we have a contract for the summer but hope that the owner (who we all like very much) will be away longer. her name is assia and she is a travel writer.

i am continuing to look for work, which is quite a task here, especially in the field of architecture and design. kathryn has graciously translated my resume into french, so i am more confident in sending it out. i am also accepting every invitation for social events. i am meeting people in my french class and through meetup.com.

on june 21st all of france celebrates the summer solstice with "fete de la musique". musicians of all kinds set up in every neighborhood and just play all night long. i went with a friend from french class, milly, and her french boyfriend emanuel. we were in the st. michel area and it was crazy! thousands of people milling about the streets, breakdancers, capoeira dancers (the dance/athletic movement from brazil), people selling miscellaneous things and general mayhem. the sun finally set around 11:00 p.m. it was great! (the photo above was shot just a week or so ago of the seine. i was going home from a meetup event and it was about 10:30 p.m.).

paris celebrated bastille day on july 14th with a very (very!) rained-on parade that we watched online. it was thundering, lighting and even hailing. that evening i went to a dinner party at another friend's place (karla, also from the alliance who lives with her french boyfriend axel). there were six of us altogether and i did as best i could with my broken french. they were all very encouraging (and of course when the french say they speak just a little english they are really quite fluent). around 10:00 p.m. we headed out to join the thousands of people around the eiffel tower to watch the fireworks (the rain had finally cleared up). this is the only place in the city where they shoot fireworks, and boy do the french know how to put on a show. we were quite far from the center of the action, and yet it was magnificent! getting home on the metro was a challenge because of the number of people, but all was well. not much different than trying to get out of the parking lot after a concert at the greek theater.

just a few nights ago, i was in bed, kathryn was just getting out of the shower and natalie was downstairs on the computer. all was good in the world. then kathryn and i heard natalie start to squeal. we both ran downstairs, not knowing what was happening to find that tyrone had found a mouse in the house and was playing with it (the mouse would have a different point of view). yelling, arm waving and squealing ensued from all three of us (and a little from the mouse). i had the most experience with tyrone and live creatures that don't belong in the house (as, after all, he is my cat), so i tried to trap the mouse with the broom. but the little vermin was too quick and ran under the stairs to hide. with trepidation we went to sleep that night.

no sign of the mouse for a day or two. then last night almost the same scenario occured. kathryn and i ran downstairs. i grabbed the broom. kathryn moved stuff out of the way. natalie opened the door. with military precision the mouse was swept out of the house, door locked, yay! we were saved! back upstairs, relieved. not ten minutes later, natalie gave out her warning cry yet again! another mouse! we formed our brigade and again, the troops saved the day (and the mouse!). tyrone is now looking for his third catch. we hope he never finds it.

we are all taking advantage of being in paris and the fact that all three of us have dual passports (kathryn: austria, natalie: france, me: hungary) so we can travel very easily. we will be visiting london in a couple of weeks and then off to lithuania mid-august. this intrepid traveler will keep you posted.