Throwback Thursday

 

 

A stern yet festive Nutcracker keeps watch over merry crowds behind Tuileries gates.

Treeful Tuesday

 

 

Paris, where the Christmas decorations outlast your New Year's resolutions. 

Wednesday whimsy

 

 

 

A fairytale portal of twinkling holiday splendor.

 

Santa Sunday

 Santa traded in his sleigh for a vélo and was caught red-handed sneaking in some after-dark boutique pit stops before the big night.

 

*** 

 

Que cette saison des fêtes vous apporte joie, paix, et magie.

May this holiday season bring you joy, peace, and magic.

À bientôt! - BPJ 

 

- FocusOnParis returns after Christmas -

 

 

  

Foie gras Friday

All over Paris épicerie shelves are groaning under holiday indulgence.

 Above: artisanal foie gras de canard from Maison Barthouil, perfectly paired w/bottles of Château Rieussec Sauternes, the ultimate French fête combo

 

La Grande Épicerie

Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche

24 rue de Sèvres 75007

   

Window Wednesday

 

 

Tudor England, frozen in time from a pub window in an English country village.

 

3 hours (or less) from Paris

Eurostar

 

London 

  

Find-a-gift Friday

 

 

With no lack of shopping options and the holidays swiftly upon us shoppers head for off-radar small boutiques to find that unique something.

Above:

Galerie Vivienne

4 rue des Petits-Champs 75002

 

Window Wednesday

 

Holiday window displays are taking over Paris department stores, many with moving parts.

 

Above:

Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche

24 rue de Sèvres 75007

 

More:

Galeries Lafayette

 40 Boulevard Haussmann 75009

 

Printemps Haussmann

64 Boulevard Haussmann 75009

Le BHV Marais

52 rue de Rivoli

 

Samaritaine

9 rue de la Monnaie 75001

 

🎄

 

 

Throwback Thursday

 

A Christmas Eve feast, in Montmartre

Above: pit fire on the patio; granny's pink crystal (3 glasses per place setting - champagne, wine, digestif); foie gras; a fine old Sauternes - for starters

 

Holiday holdout

 

Paris can't seem to get enough of the holidays.

Place du Tertre

 

Merry Monday

A very Merry Christmas Joyeux Noël this Christmas Day

Monday December 25, 2023 - BPJ

 

Night before Christmas

 

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.... - Clement Clarke Moore

 

Above: La Maison Rose - The Pink House, Montmartre

 

Café Noël

A café-brasserie on Place du Tertre decked out for the holidays.

 

Francophile Friday: a good life in France

  

The book that started it all.

Recommended holiday reading

Into the weekend with 4 great reads by Janine Marsh, guaranteed to make any Christmas bright 

***

Besides photography enthusiasts my stats show that visitors to this blog include not only the curious but regulars, many of whom have followed me here from my USA Today writing days. Most are Francophiles, those ardent admirers of France and everything French. And while some reside in France, of those who don't some have confessed that they envision themselves pulling up stakes and settling in The Land of The Gauls.

 Well that is exactly what author Janine Marsh, creator/editor of popular online magazine The Good Life France, where I am a contributor, did, not all that long ago, now detailed in a first book, My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream that shot up to #1 on Amazon shortly after its release, beating out J. K. Rowling at the time.

 It all started on a dreary day with zero expectations - except to find some cheap French wine on a trip to northern France with her husband and father. That trip turned into a true life adventure, and Janine found herself returning to England “a few hours later having put in an offer on a rundown old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais.”

Eventually leaving behind both life and livelihood in London, she leapt into unknown territory of what was to become a completely new lifestyle in the French countryside that included a plethora of animals (another revelation), local characters and many other, sometimes perplexing, discoveries.  

The writing is light and keeps the reader turning pages. If you are expecting a "how-we-fixed-up-an-old-barn-and-made-it-liveable" manual, you will be disappointed. It is a story of survival in a culture that turns out to be surprisingly different than anything she knew, often bemusing. This book is evergreen that is, it won’t grow old, especially now, post Covid, as the world has changed and such forays have become the food of fantasy.

Since then three other books, the second two, sequels of sort and equally delightful, have followed:

Toujours La France!: Living The Dream In Rural France 

My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life in France 

Her fourth and quite recent (October 31, 2023) How To Be French: Eat Drink Dress Travel Love, is a toast to French l'art de vivre and what it means to be French, filled with useful advice, insights and tips à la française. - BPJ 

 

Janine Marsh is a British writer "living in the middle of nowhere rural France, with 72 animals and a husband." - From her Amazon page

 

 

 

Treeful Tuesday

 

 Christmas trees lined up for sale seem to be saying, "Me! Me! Me!"

 

Christmas blues

"Christmas isn't over until we say it is!"

 

In France, we love holidays and try to prolong the Christmas season for as long as possible. Decorations, cards, holiday wishes and even galettes des rois (so far we've had three) are tout à fait normale until the end of January. - BPJ

 

Above: Place du Tertre in Montmartre

🌲

 

Throwback Thursday

 

3 hours (or less) from Paris:

London, a skip and hop from Paris, makes a perfect Christmas getaway.

Above: reminiscing and fond memories of The Chelsea Wharf Restaurant

 ***

Eurostar

***

Reprint from "Throwback Thursday" 11/4/2021

Lobster and prawns Eggs Benedict on a Sunday morning

Hardware Société
(Paris-Melbourne)
10 rue Lamarck 75018 Paris

 

[Posted November 4, 2021] - The setting was 80's London, and Michael Alexander, who I've written about before on this blog, had opened a restaurant, The Chelsea Wharf, to much local fanfare in the media and otherwise, right on Chelsea Harbour.

In no time at all it became the talk of the town. In the cuisine was enfant terrible now celeb chef Marco Pierre White, the sole person, it's been said, who "made Gordon Ramsay cry in the kitchen." With regulars such as George Michael and Boy George streaming in one would think its success was guaranteed, but it wasn’t. Sadly, it was short-lived. Lax management let a party atmosphere take over and, as Michael would mention more than once over the years with a sigh, he was, after all, a writer, not a restaurateur.

 Sunday mornings saw a gathering of "friends and allies" - those dearest and nearest to him - occupy a very long table for breakfast. As Billy Churchill swayed away on piano and a soft light seeped in through gothic windows, we'd regale in bad jokes and good champagne.

Just across the Thames was Saint Mary's Church and almost everyone would order Bloody Marys and the house Eggs Benedict - or rather, as it appeared on the menu, "Eggs Benedict Arnold," so named for the notorious traitor of the American Revolution buried there. 

 The first - and last - time I pointed this out I was swiftly berated.

“Traitor? From our side of things, Benedict Arnold was a hero!” - BPJ

 

  

Floral Friday

 A poinsettia plant brightens a café counter. 

Throwback Thursday

The welcoming warmth of Carette, Place du Tertre.

 Takeaway coffee, chocolat chaud à l'ancienne, viennoisseries and, not usual, made-to-order crêpes at early hours.

 
Open 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. every day

Castle in a window

A Christmas tradition originating in Kraków, szopki are ornate castles that showcase Nativity scenes.    

 Above: a gleaming szopka takes up the entire window of a Polish bookshop on Boulevard Saint-Germain