My first weekend in Paris has passed. Paris, being a lovely city with its dainty alleyways and meandering little lanes, is just one of the few places in the world where you really need to get off your bum and aimlessly walk.
Just plain simple walk: no directions, no destinations, nothing planned, just plain old good walking. You don't even have to worry about getting lost because in Paris, there's a metro (subway) at every single corner to take you back to square one.
You know how the French have an art to nearly every single thing? ie. the art to tea, the art to coffee and drinking it, the art to drama, drawing, etc.
Well, did you know they even have an art to walking?
The Parisiens call it: Flâneurie (pronounced FLAA.NEW.REE)
Coined by the French and ultimately Parisien writer Charles Baudelaire (1812-1867):
You know how the French have an art to nearly every single thing? ie. the art to tea, the art to coffee and drinking it, the art to drama, drawing, etc.
Well, did you know they even have an art to walking?
The Parisiens call it: Flâneurie (pronounced FLAA.NEW.REE)
Coined by the French and ultimately Parisien writer Charles Baudelaire (1812-1867):
a "flâneur" is defined as a "gentleman stroller of the city streets" or a "detached pedestrian observer of the metropolis". *
The term is now widely used, especially in the context of achitecture and town planning. But Paris - with its village-like backstreets, its riverbank paths, its parks and gardens and its arcades - remains the ultimate place for a flâneur to meander without any particular destination in mind.*
*definition from: Lonely Planet's Paris Encounter
And last Saturday, this is just what I did! Having met up with a friend, we became flâneurs and walked aimlessly from Champs-Elysee to just... somewhere. Where did we end up? All the way under the Eiffel Tower. :)
the view of the eiffel tower just opposite the road
It was a nice walk, although the weather was a tad bit cold for our liking. During our walks, we discovered a few nice food boutiques (yes, in Paris there even have luxury gastronomic boutiques) and inside they were brimming with an assortment of fine quality teas, spices and chocolates to name a few! In our walk, we also came across Paris's Museum of Fashion which sadly due to renovations, was closed to the public :(
the entrance to the museum
On our way back from the Eiffel tower, my friend got hit-on by a flirty vender trying to sell his key rings. Hahahahaha. Poor girl!
The weather started getting gloomy towards the evening but a cold weather always makes coffee sessions much more pleasant: hot drinks in a warm and cosy cafe, watching people eat Tarte Tatin (something we recently learnt) and the tourists walking about in hoards.
Towards the evening, we even walked our way back to our apartments (on our way back, surprisingly we both discovered that we live within walking distance of one another!)
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Sunday was a more relaxed day for me: as majority of the stores were closed (aside from Champs-Elysee).
So along with the daughter of a family friend, we decided to bake the Normandy Tart I learnt from demo - which I didn't mind because it gave me a good opportunity to practice my dough skills.
On our way to buy the essential ingredients for the tart, we stopped by to buy ourselves this:
The weather started getting gloomy towards the evening but a cold weather always makes coffee sessions much more pleasant: hot drinks in a warm and cosy cafe, watching people eat Tarte Tatin (something we recently learnt) and the tourists walking about in hoards.
Towards the evening, we even walked our way back to our apartments (on our way back, surprisingly we both discovered that we live within walking distance of one another!)
----
Sunday was a more relaxed day for me: as majority of the stores were closed (aside from Champs-Elysee).
So along with the daughter of a family friend, we decided to bake the Normandy Tart I learnt from demo - which I didn't mind because it gave me a good opportunity to practice my dough skills.
On our way to buy the essential ingredients for the tart, we stopped by to buy ourselves this:
MACARONS By Pierre Hermé
In the following flavours:
Rose
(Rose & Rose Petals)
Truffe Blanche & Noisette
(White Truffles & Slivers of Grilled Piémont Hazelnuts)
Mogador
(Milk Chocolate & Passionfruit)
Olive Oil & Mandarin
(Olive Oil & Mandarin)
Marron & Thé Vert Matcha
(Brown and Green Matcha Tea)
Infiniment Caramel
(Caramel with Salted Butter)
6 unique varieties of Macarons, which I was more than delighted to share with the family I'm living with... and they were good!
I think my favourite at the moment has got to be the: Olive Oil-Mandarin Macaron (yup, you read right: OLIVE OIL AND MANDARIN!). The buttercream filling of savoury subtle and well rounded taste of the olive oil and in that was a small filling of tart mandarin confiture. SO GOOD!
For some reason, the macarons here in Paris taste waaay much better and less sweeter than those out of France. Hmmm... are the French keeping something away from us? lol Just kidding. I know further on in my course, we will be having a demo on macarons (and boy, oh boy, i can't wait!!) but I realised that in that same week we won't be doing macarons for practical (booo!)
Hmmm.... if only!!
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