Paris Pistachio Shop and more - Brand New

On the Rue Quincampoix, a cobbled pedestrian street near the Centre Pompidou, is an adorable little pistachio shop called La Pistacherie. With the wood paneling, fancy packaging, and the colorful nuts and dried fruits presented in big glass jars like candy. You can assume a shop called La Pistacherie is going to have a good selection of pistachios. They have roasted ones, amazing raw ones, chocolate covered ones, sugar-coated ones (in little balls, wrapped in cellophane like candies), and different blends with other nuts and dried fruits. There's one whole counter for the raw nuts, including walnut, almond, pine nut, and macadamia, which are hard to find. The second counter has roast nuts of every kind, even roasted chick peas and corn nuts. The dried fruits were pretty exotic, including dried blueberries and dried pomegranate kernels. The friendly owner and his staff give people tastes, which is nice considering that these are not cheap products. But Its was worth it for the quality, the variety, and the novelty of the flavors. Although it has the "look", this is not a chain and has only been open for three months. Do check it out for some original gift ideas for others (or yourself). La Pistacherie 67 rue Rambuteau, 4th Tel 01 42 78 84 55 Open daily.

Charlie Chaplin Still Lives in France Today

Its a tradition in French schools ( elementary especially) that at the end of the school year, the children put on a show for their parents. At a school outside Bordeaux, some friends sent me a photo of their kids and other students putting on a school show and whom did they imitate? None other than Charlie Chaplin. Funny, his spirit still lives after 122 years since his birth. Do you suppose any American school would put on a show and dress up as Charlie Chaplin?

Under The Bridges Of Paris - A Song Written in 1914 by Vicent SCOTTO

..........greats songs span the era's.....................

Paris Metro Entertainment

In the Paris Metro, one always stumbles across entertainers that run the gamet from a single player to a full orchestra and everything in between.

Fete de la Gastronomie, Frances First National Food Festival

We all know that the French love their food, but they've never tried anything like this before. On Friday, there will be 3,000 food events across the country.

For a country whose cuisine has been officially recognised by Unesco as a "world intangible heritage", it seems only right it should have its own festival, and that is exactly what will take place all over France for the first time this Friday, 23 September. The organisers are hoping the Fête de la Gastronomie will have the same kind of success generated by the Fête de la Musique, and with more than 3,000 events planned, excitement is mounting as the big day approaches. You could turn up at any of the venues and eat well, but of course even if you can not make it, you always eat well in France.

Provence - St-Didier - The Best Nougat In France ...Maybe In The World

Nougat( the T is silent in French)is a harmonious blend of honey, egg white and sugar, flavored with vanilla and studded with almonds and sometimes pistachio nuts. When you mentioned Nougat in France, you think of Montélimar. Correct, but here is the hitch. Montélimar is the largest producer and you find their products on many supermarket shelves around the world. Unfortunately Nougat from Montélimar has become a mass product and quality can be erratic, to be polite. So let's focus on those artisans in the Provence, who continue to produce Nougat the old fashioned way, my favorite is Silvain Frères Paysans Nougatiers in St.Didier just 15 minutes south of Carpentras. Not only do they produce their own almonds, but have 100 bee hives that produce two kinds of honey: – one is dark and produces what they call 'Black Nougat' and then a Lavender honey (produced in the Luberon Valley) that produces a white nougat'. Silvain Frères Paysans Nougatiers in St.Didier, a lovely village and a favorite of mine, is 6km south of Carpentras. Pierre and Philippe Silvain are Nougatiers in the 6th generation.. Silvain Frères makes one of the best nougats in France. Their retail store has a wide selection of nougats, candied fruits and - when in season - quince paste. You can watch the production process through a glass window in the store. They also sell their products on various markets in the region. Route de Vénasque, 84210 Saint-Didier, Traveling north from Carpentras, you first pass through the town of Pernes-les-Fontaines, a lovely town of hundred of fountains, many historical. Then up the road to St-Didier, a lovely village home to the best Nouget in France. After leaving here, a spectacular way to enter the Luberon valley is to continue to Venasque high on a hilltop then down hill towards Gordes thru a most scenic roadway past the famous Abbey at Senaque and then into Gordes and down into the Luberon Valley.



One of my Guiltiest Pleasures of All Time...................

Foie gras is an important and traditional fod of France and a link to their ancestry. In 1920, Pierre LaFitte started selling game: partidge, woodcock, Ortolan, hares and foie gras  from his home town in Landes. For me the only area for great foie gras ( its my opinion and since it's my webiste, I am always right ) . On the Île Saint-Louis, you’ll find Lafitte, purveyors of foie gras.  All of their ducks and geese are grown on small farms within 40 km of their headquarters in southwest France. All the birds are raised with strict farming methods: grain-fed and free-range. Although most foie gras is made with duck liver, their foie gras d’oie (made from geese) is a luxury that should not be missed. 
Everything her eis made by hand without any preservatives
8 rue Jean du Bellay, Ile Saint Louis, Paris 75004

A Secret Find on the Left bank................

One of the joys of having the time to meander in Paris is discovering a hidden garden, a tiny vest-pocket park or a building you’ve never seen before. One of my favorite finds in the 7th, is avenue Rapp and this asymmetrical Art Nouveau apartment house at 29, avenue Rapp that was constructed in 1901. It was designed by Lavirotte, The artist Salvador Dalí stated he thought the façade was the most erotic in Paris. There are a few on this street that have the Art Nouveau desings on the door fronts.

                        ( The MGM Film "Gigi" used ave rapp for one of It's Locations)

Painted Walls Of Lyon

                ( Lyon favorite son, Chef Paul Bocuse)
Home to Guignol (the famous French puppets) and gastronomy, Lyon is also famous for its “trompe l’oeil” painted walls, and there is nearly one hundred mural frescos painted on frontages of buildings. All of these frescos have been carried out for 25 years by the artists of the workshop “Cité de la Création”. They signed more than 380 monumental works in the world.
Take a look below ( click on) to see many of these fantastic wall paintings and next time in Lyon, ( between fabulous meals) take them in.
http://www.cite-creation.com/eng/wall-paintings/frescos-lyon-painted-wall.html

I'm Old Fashioned ( as Johnny Mercer Once Penned) and Proud of It...

If you love old fashioned things, then one must visit a wonderful sweet shop founded in 1761....
A la Mère de Famille

Paris’s oldest sweet shop, founded in 1761 and still operating in its original location, is a marvellous little store that hasn’t changed much over the past 250 years.
Here, chocolate lovers will find ice cream in several enticing flavors, among them chocolate sorbet, chocolate-mint, and chocolate with candied orange and a hint of vodka.
Of course, there are lots of chocolates, candied fruit, calissons and other confections too!
The company now has several other locations in Paris, but a visit to the original shop is a must for lovers of Paris and chocolate alike.

A la Mère de Famille

35, rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, 75009 Paris

Métro: Cadet, Le Peletier or Grands-Boulevards

Hours: Mon. to Sat. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Souvenirs From Another Time When Perfume Was The Symbol of Absolute Luxury

As a magical place in Paris at the foot of the Sacre-Coeur of Montmartre, The Belle de Jour  gallery shows an amazing collection of old perfume bottles, atomizers, powder and cream boxes.

Belle de Jour at 7 rue Tardieu, in the 18the near Metro Abbesses) is open Monday to Saturday 10:30 to 1 and 2 to 7. Here you'll find a wonderful collection of antique perfume bottles and glassware ( from the 18th century to the 1940's). Just after you enter, you can definitely catch a whiff of perfume in the air, and during my visit, a French woman was at the counter putting her collection of antique glassware on consignment in the store. When you look for the store, go to the middle of the building front since there is another store in the same building using the same number (which is fairly common in Paris).
The prices are not for the faint hearted, as they start at Euro 200,  but Oh! what beauty they posses. .
http://www.belle-de-jour.fr/

If I could eat at only one restaurant for the rest of my life......

Since George William Wilton opened “Wiltons” in 1742, I have always enjoyed great oysters. and today ,The 1^st of September marks the start of the native oyster season.
If I could eat at only one restaurant for the rest of my life, it would be Wiltons ( I do love France, but oh! Boy! In London it’s..) . Of course, I would need very deep pockets because it has never been exactly given away. But hey, you get what you pay for: gull’s eggs, the finest langoustines, Dover sole, grouse with all the trimmings, sherry trifle. The hugely experienced and respected Andrew Turner is wearing the whites and GM James Grant runs the show with extraordinary attentions to detail. Tory MP’S ( English Senators) , heads of state, the odd actor and teenagers on a half-term treat are all served equally at this fine old aristo that has a highly developed sense of noblesse oblige.

The Seafood bar, my favorite hangout...............