Shorter nights

 

 

And longer days. Today marks mid-winter.

Shut tight

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

Musée de Montmartre

12 rue Cortot 75018

Beyond the street

 At the end of a street sweeping views over the city.

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 "feast," and every holiday (Holy Day) is associated with good food and feasting. On this day, le jour des crêpes packages of ready-made crêpes and boxes of "crêpe mix" have been filling Paris supermarket shelves for days. 

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... and then the feasting cycle began all over again. - BPJ

Above: cidre accompanies savory sarrasin (buckwheat) flour crêpes that precede the more familiar white flour (froment) dessert crêpes. Their "crêpe-ness" - crispness - lies in their lacy crunch, and the Breizh Café gets it right

Mona Monday

Mona Lisa looks out from a gallery window with the reflection of a cobbled square behind.

Waffling

 

What better on a rainy day in Paris than an afternoon of homemade waffles, chilled apple cider and spiced coffee....

 ***

 The batter for these French gaufres, a family recipe of a friend's grandmother in Burgundy, is made with yeast. Their background flavor reminded me of my mother's delectable small Bohemian yeast pancakes that were usually preceded by a traditional vegetable soup with potatoes and cabbage. Accompanied by cinnamon sugar and melted butter, they'd disappear the second they flipped out of the pan. - BPJ 

 

Lone star

 Most Christmas decorations have been removed, but a few stragglers will hold out until the last day of January when the holiday season is officially over.