A number of folks have inquired about the progress on my apartment.

So here is a picture of the kitchen:

And here is the bathroom:

As you can see, it doesn’t look like much has been done…although I am considering leaving the bathroom like that, since I won’t have to worry about cleaning it. The last few weeks months have been the “discovery” period. The time when you pull things out and unearth all sorts of surprises – which for some silly reason, are usually bad. I’m still waiting to find a wad of euros (or francs), a forgotten bag of jewelry, or some bars of gold.

Continue Reading The Ceiling’s the Limit…

This Sunday, February 12, there’s going to be a get-together to celebrate the release of the Paris Pastry e-book (a clever ruse to drink wine and eat macarons…) at La Cuisine cooking school in Paris. The event will take place from 2 to 4pm.

In addition to fun, frolic, and macarons made by the student of the school (did I mention the wine?) there will be copies of Ready for Dessert, The Perfect Scoop, The Great Book of Chocolate, and The Sweet Life in Paris, for signing if you’d like a personalized copy. Or you’re welcome to bring books you already have to sign as well.

If you plan to come, you are welcome to RSVP at the Facebook event page.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

-david

Notes

-Because this is a cooking school, and there will be other programs taking place before the event, please do not arrive early. It’s cold out there and we don’t want you standing by the Seine freezing your derrière off until the doors open.

-Credit cards and cheques cannot be accepted for book sales.

-The Paris Pastry Guide e-book is on sale for just $2.99 until February 14th through the Paris Pastry website only.

I’ve been going through my kitchen cabinets, and refrigerator…and freezer…and desk drawers, which has meant unearthing all sorts of odds and ends. Some were long-forgotten for a reason, and others brought back fond memories. Like the Pyrex glass container in my refrigerator encasing some remarkably well-preserved slices of candied citron. When I pulled the sticky citrus sections out, I realized that they don’t look quite as pretty as they did last year – which is okay, because neither do I – but they still tasted great. And the flavor of candied citron prompted me to make something I love: panforte.

Continue Reading Panforte…

I just learned a few more words to add to my French vocabulary while in the throes of remodeling this week. I already wrote about the five or six words in French for sink. And I finally got the difference between a mitigeur and a robinet (a mitigeur has one knob “mixes” the water, and a robinet has two knobs). Fortunately the word is the same no matter what size sink you have. Well, unless you have a commercial sink, in which case it’s a mélangeur. So if you ever come to France and want to find a faucet for a hospital sink, you can thank me for saving you three weeks of work.

Speaking of work, my quest for regular floor tiles finally came to an end last Friday. I was looking for off-white tiles that had to meet three criteria; 1) They couldn’t be insanely expensive (which wiped out about three-quarters of the tiles I saw), 2) They couldn’t have beige in them (Why would anyone want white tiles tinted with beige, which right out of the box makes them look old and dirty?), and 3) They couldn’t be ugly. (I know they’re just going to see the bottom of your shoes, but why are the majority of tiles ugly?)

Continue Reading Pear-Fennel Soup…

Ever since I heard word it, I’ve been anxious to try Helmut Newcake, what’s been heralded as the first gluten-free bakery in Paris. While a couple of bakeries and natural food shops offer gluten-free bread, they’re invariably made somewhere where other breads are made (risking cross-contamination with wheat flour), or the salesclerks simply stack the gluten-free breads with the regular ones, which is little comfort to those who can’t tolerate eating gluten.

Continue Reading Helmut Newcake, Gluten-Free Bakery in Paris…

“Three weeks?! Is that all?” they laughed uproariously, as a response to my telling folks at a dinner party the other night about how much trouble I was having finding things like sinks, tiles, light fixtures, and so forth, for the renovations of my apartment. I literally spent weeks and weeks combing plumbing catalogs, scoping out a myriad of stores devoted to kitchen fixtures, and relying heavily on our friend, the internet, in search of a plain, large, white sink.

I don’t want swoops and swirls, (and I only have one more Ikea visit left in me, and I’m banking that for something really important) – I want a generous basin that’s large enough to hold a few pots and pans. And I’m not interested in a purple or green one. You wouldn’t think it would be all that hard – and neither did I – but after three solid weeks (and I mean, twenty-one days and twenty-one nights), I finally found one in France. The only problem? It was in Lille.

As I’ve shown many friends here, tout est possible, so we decided to make a day trip up to the city in the North, just a few hours from Paris, and while there, eat some of the local fare. Because things are so frantic right now — imagine if I took me three weeks to find a sink…then I really need to get cracking on a toilet, a towel bar, kitchen cabinet handles, a soap dish, and light bulbs — so I don’t have a huge amount of time.

Continue Reading Lille, Aux Moules, and a Sink…

I’m excited to announce the release of the e-book of my Paris Pastry Guide!

With over 300 addresses for the best places in Paris for chocolates, pastries, and other confections, this comprehensive guide is the perfect sweet companion for your trip to Paris. But even if you’re not planning a trip, there’s plenty of pictures to so you can enjoy the scrumptious pastries of Paris – wherever you are!

The Paris Pastry e-book is available in three formats:

Mobi: For Kindle, MobiPocket, and Calibre.

During my first week of French class, many years ago, one of the very first words we learned was râleur, or complainer. Back then, I wasn’t sure why our teacher was making sure we understood that particular word, but I’ve come to realize why it’s so important now. I’m not one to râle, or complain (although there are likely scores of people I’ve worked with over the years who would say otherwise), but this last week has been really hard.

At the beginning of the week, I walked into my place under full construction – everything covered with plaster dust, tarps strewn everywhere, random wiring in tangles all over the place, big gaping holes that one could easily fall through, with a lone toilet lurking in the corner. In short, the place is just able to accommodate only the most basic of human needs. (Food was represented by an empty package of cookies, and sex..well…Iet’s just say in its present condition, the place doesn’t exactly lend itself to romantic interludes.) But let’s not rule out any for the future, okay?

Continue Reading I’m not complaining……