27 February 2021

Snow moon


This weekend's photo is of last night's magnificent Snow Moon, so named for the amounts of snow that usually fall this time of year, enhanced by clear skies.

26 February 2021

Flashback Friday


 
- Nights of wine and roses -

🌹🌹🌹 
 
This delightful small wine bar, a Montmartre mainstay now closed, was one of our favorite nighttime neighborhood ports of call for years. Fingers crossed it won't become another Covid casualty, as many have in Paris. To be continued....

Unsurpassed wine selection; all wines from Burgundy  

MILORD
69 rue Lépic 75018

24 February 2021

Un chien à Paris

 

A new face has joined our small amorphous group that meets up for coffee and catch-up chats.

Above: a coup de foudre (love at first sight) moment

23 February 2021

Spiraling

Ready-to-take-home Portuguese chouriça a.k.a. chorizo entices from a countertop at a local boucherie.

20 February 2021

A pineapple in winter


Market stall brims with pineapples from Costa Rica.

***

If you bought me diamonds
If you bought me pearls
If you bought me roses
Like some other gents
Might bring to other girls
It couldn't please me more
Than the gift I see -
A pineapple for me.

From It Couldn't Please Me More (The Pineapple song)
Musical, "Cabaret"

 

 

19 February 2021

Flashback Friday


Stari Most, the Old Bridge of Mostar in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

***

Funny how an image can trigger a flood of memories. Years ago traveling from London with daughter Danielle and British writer and explorer Michael Alexander we'd gone to Trieste to visit Miramare, the beloved castle built by Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, for an article Michael was working on. The next morning, headed into Croatia on our way to Dubrovnik where friends would be waiting, we decided to stop in Mostar for lunch, which was on the way. As we sat outside at a sunny café terrace table having a last espresso for the road Michael said, "Barbara, where the devil is that bridge they all talk about?"

It wasn't until we drove away and saw it (this view) from a distance - Danielle said, "Look! The bridge!" - did we realize we'd been sitting on it the entire time. - BPJ

 ***

3 hours (or less) from Paris

PARIS - DUBROVNIK
 
Direct flights daily + car rental at airport

18 February 2021

Chasing horses

A tiny dog escapes its owner and excitedly chases after two horses as they make their way up a Montmartre street.

15 February 2021

Surprise delivery

 
When you walk into your building and an enormous bouquet is waiting.
 
And it's not for you.

13 February 2021

Valentime

 
 
In spite of everything bakers all over Paris are prepared for the annual onslaught of last minute amoureuses and amoureux in search of the perfect pastry for le jour de la Saint-Valentin, tomorrow.

***

- Happy Valentine's Day 2021 -
 

💘

 

  •  

10 February 2021

Quiche and run

 
 
A variety of scrumptious mini quiches, still warm, in a Montmartre boulangerie.

9 February 2021

Emily spotting


Emily wannabes are being spotted on the butte posing at stops made famous by the Netflix series, Emily In Paris.

  Above: bright pink heels at La Maison Rose despite icy wind and rain

6 February 2021

Standing order



 
 
Oysters and wine at 10 a.m.
 
Maison des Épicureans
46 rue Lamarck 75018
 
Only two or three tables.
 Standing only.
Get there early.
 

4 February 2021

Shut tight

 The small Montmartre Museum, like all museums in Paris, remains closed.

Musée de Montmartre
12 rue Cortot 75018

2 February 2021

Day of the crêpe

Just when you thought the holidays were finally over, today is the much-anticipated fête of La Chandeleur in France a.k.a. Candlemas in Anglo-Saxon countries. The root of fête is, in fact, "feast": every holiday (Holy Day) is associated with good food and feasting - and le jour des crêpes (packages of ready-made crêpes and boxes of "crêpe mix" have been filling Paris supermarket shelves for days) - is no exception. 

La Chandeleur was a way to use the last of the milled flour from the year before and, some say, the very shape of a crêpe represented the sun, as winter days began to grow lighter. Just two weeks before Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - it heralded soon-to-begin Lent when eating habits were curtailed for four weeks before Easter... when the feasting cycle begins all over again. - BPJ

Above: cidre accompanied savory sarrasin buckwheat flour crêpes precede froment crêpes, the more familiar white flour dessert crêpes. Their "crêpe-ness" lies in their lacy crispness and these, at the Breizh Café, got it right