Sunday, December 27, 2009

december 1st : a nose problem

A Nose Problem


The 1st of December saw Paris under its permanent blue sky :




The purpose that day was a trip to the St Germain de Pres Pharmacy, an emporium where all parisian females
bring themselves at least once a week.


From the outside it looks like a regular pharmacy,








from the inside, it is more like an exciting turkish bazaar where you can
find all kinds of little organic creams, toothpaste, remedies from the most retired locations on earth.

There are slaves in white gowns to help you out






and you find little tidbits as specific as below in the blue package




where it says 'NĂ© Marin' which literally means "Marine Nose" and is sea salt solution
to wash your sinuses and escape " le rhume", the seasonal cold.

Then there is Cranberry + Bio





which shows our influence since cranberries do not grow in france.
It says below " Comfort Urinaire" which could be poetically translated by " Urinary Comfort"
leaves you to relish how delicate the french hints at healing.


And then there was the shelf which was the object of the expedition,






As you see the package on the left says " Silence " on top, which is the brand of the potion,
and under it says " Gros Ronfleur" which, if literally translated, means : " Fat Snorer "

A more merciful one could be "High Snorer" which takes a higher approach of the problem.

Your special envoy having a problem in her close vicinity, decided on the blue package,
"Douce Nuit", "Soft Night " on the right,
as was affixed below on the package on the orange sticker,
" 2 Nuits d'Hotel Offertes pour 2 personnes" an offer of two free nights in a hotel,
if the spray doesn't work.

This offer sounded very alluring so your special envoy decided for it.

It didn't say if the 2 nights were at the Crillon, or the Ritz.

But it did say when the package was read at home, that the offer was expiring the 31/10/2009
which means with the french system of stating the day before the month, that the offer had expired
at the end of October.

So here is a chance missed for the Ritz, or the Crillon, to be honored by the presence
of the special envoy of the Terroir-iste.
To celebrate this excellent choice, your scribe climbed the Rue Bonaparte and checked her little
favorite of favorite stores:













Then from across the street she could see her dahghter's favorite, YES, in Paris :






then a stop at the "Kiosque a Journaux " the little magazines booth,









Then through the Rue du Vieux Colombier the charming little red store: "Au parloir du Colombier" which means
"At the Nuns Parlor of the Dovecot" which is an antenna of "catholiques orthodoxes" or christian right.







And it is aptly located, to cool the over excited brains, next to " Les Pompiers"
the Fire Dept below:







Then to crown this all, I stopped at the ATM



where a little flyer was stuck which said :

" Le chomage, c'est la misere, le salariat c'est l'exploitation !"

Which resumes rather well the French attitude towards work, as it translates to :
" Unemployment is destitution, wages are exploitation !"





So I went on in direction of home and got some "marrons" ( chestnuts )
grilled and sold by a lovely man from Penjab,



and then I offered my Marrons to a group of lovely way too cute french 12 th graders who were smoking at the terrace of the next cafe,
and then before reaching home, it was so cold now that I had given up my Marrons,
so I walked through the Bon Marche to
recover some warmth and think how lovely, lovely life is,
even when it's cold, cold, cold




With all gratitude, and farewells,

flo chapgier
the terroir-iste special paris envoy

paris : at the coffee shop

Day 2 : at the coffee shop
November 30, 09



Ah girls and boys, this is the Nespresso shop at the corner of the rue du Bac,
in the very preppy 7th, where you get your capsules for your little adorable nespresso machine.









there is a line where you patiently wait, and are offered tiny cup of coffee to make sure that no one
gets too irate about the wait.

the staff is young and very elegant. You have to know what you want, no one wants an indecisive customer,
least of all the rest of the humble but ready to be arrogant queuers.

so this is a highly stressful environment.










because it is December, there is a special temporary holiday offering with subsequent flavors:
this year it is an assortment of three boxes of 10 little capsules each:
gingerbread, apricot spice, and chestnut cream.

needless to say the flavor is extremely subtle, we have none of that nauseous american vanilla coffee which stays ( reste ) on your tongue ( langue)
for the next two and half hours. This is a very delicate hint (allusion) that you taste when you finish your mini cup of coffee.


Refined.

flo the frog,
special Paris envoy

report from paris

So day 1
Nov. 28, 09

I am in Paris !!

The sky looks blue but it is in fact grey.









The wind is blowing furiously,










it is pretty awesome. They have lights of course on the Champs Elysees,










but most interesting, they have blue lights hanging in the very conservative and elegant Rue du Bac.






Went to have a dinette at a friend.
A dinette in France is a light small meal, sometimes called "sur le pouce" which means "on the thumb ". It means the food is small, done at the last minute, sometimes eaten with fingers, and you will probably leak your thumb because it is delectable. There is usually a fabric napkin, but it is small too, and you do not want to smear it with ugly stains, so you daintily and discreetly leak your little fingers.

So I went to the Champs Elysees, to get some food gift like Creme de Cassis, to make a kir, and macarons from LaDuree.

Well, do I have news for you. The Drugstore at l'Etoile, which is nothing likeWallgreens, but rather looks like a mini Bendel, sells... Pierre Herme's macarons, and that my dear readers, is to Laduree macarons like Captain D's Seafood fish and chips ( La Duree) to Le Bernardin Sole ( Pierre Herme).

After that I went for the dinette.
We had Kir Royal (Taittinger) chilled Shrimp and little toasted traditional ( slightly darker) baguette for the Tarama, Quiche au saumon from Dalloyau, Laitue with cherry tomatoes, and macarons.

Pistachio macarons, Chocolate macarons, and Fruit de la Passion macarons with milk chocolate filling.

The macarons are a little smaller than LaDuree, their domes are a little higher, the cream inside is way more buttery,
and some macarons have golden little tips on them. They are both croustillants but incredibly melting in your mouth, and the end result, though way more buttery than Laduree, feels like a cloud.

So LaDuree:







Pierre Herme:










That is what a Dinette is. So Simple.

from flo the frog

Friday, February 13, 2009


So this is about a year later and I am overwhelmed with the response to this blog which is why it took me so long to post again. All apologies.