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.

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.... [Update: it won't re-open. Thank you Wuhan carelessness]

Unsurpassed wine selection; all wines from Burgundy  

MILORD

69 rue Lepic 75018

Sacré bleu

Beautiful blue skies. Spring is on its way.

 

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

 

Spiraling

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

Over his head

 Graffiti on a Montmartre wall matches a city poubelle.

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"

 

 

Flashback Friday

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

***

Recently I came across some old photos that triggered a flood of memories about a trip I’d made to Dubrovnik years ago when, traveling from London with daughter Danielle and British writer and explorer Michael Alexander. We'd stopped in Trieste to visit Miramare, Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian's beloved castle, 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 at the first sunny cobbled café terrace we saw and were having a last espresso for the road, Michael said, "Barbara, where the devil is that bridge they're always talking about?”

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

 ***

3 hours (or less) from Paris

 PARIS - DUBROVNIK

 Direct flights daily + car rental at airport

Chasing horses

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

The break

An espresso and smoke before getting back to work.

 

Paris pink

A silky pink morning from the top of the butte.

Surprise delivery

 

When you walk into your building and an enormous bouquet is waiting.

 

And it's not for you.

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 -

 

💘

 

•  

Light snow #2

 

 

The Basilica of Sacré Coeur shimmers after Wednesday's light snowfall.

Light snow

 Yesterday Paris awoke under a light blanket of snow. 

Quiche and run

 

 

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

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

Corner graffiti

A touch of color on the corner of a building.

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.

 

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 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

Mona Monday

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