4 Days in Paris
Pack Your Romantic Mind, Rose Cake in a Rose Garden, The Ladies' Paradise
I just came back from a quick holiday to Paris, tagging along on my husband’s work trip to Fondation Louis Vuitton. Below are some highlights from the trip, including my packing list, eating notes and an exhibit I loved.
I’m going to do a second Paris letter in the coming days for paid subscribers. This will have a more extensive list of all my favourite places, highlights from past trips and what I like to shop for (and window shop for! I love the French expression faire du lèche-vitrines), including what I bought this trip.
Pack Your Romantic Mind
I spent next to no time planning outfits for this trip and instead took some inspiration from what I wore in Mexico City and past Paris packing lists. I looked back in my notes app and found my 2019 trip’s packing list was titled Pack Your Romantic Mind. On that list I had included pieces like my Simone Rocha lemon meringue skirt, Dream Work shirt and what I called my ‘clown outfit’. This trip I went a little more practical. This is what I brought this time:
Outfit photos from this trip came via my husband snapping pics of me taking pictures of flowers. Below I am in the soothing Water Lilies room at Musée de L’Orangerie wearing a Cristaseya sailor knit (this lucky sweater took a trip back to Paris after my friend Lee brought it back for me from her recent trip there), Pleats Please trompe-l'œil denim skirt, black ballet flats, and vintage courrèges bag.
Next, in the Luxembourg Gardens in a very simple outfit of black Pleats Please pants , a cream Lemaire boatneck sweatshirt (hidden beneath Bill Blass gingham jacket) and chocolate Belgian loafers. I bought all of my Pleats Please years ago, secondhand on ebay. The vintage navy courréges bag is a more recent etsy purchase and was the perfect bag to accompany me on the trip as my additional carry on: long straps, zip-top, fits a camera, book, umbrella, pistachio pastry etc. etc. In 2019 when I was in the Luxembourg garden with my friend Ai He Mei, she remarked to me that the gardens are full of ordinary flowers (at the time it was pink dahlias and golden grasses) but planted in extraordinary arrangements. I loved this observation and thought of it again this visit.
Below, peering into another garden in Le Marais - this day it was mostly rainy, so I wore a white cotton long sleeve as a base under my black Lemaire coat (conveniently waterproof) with navy jeans and ASICS. I was pleased with how the bag matched the jeans and jacket perfectly.
Eating Notes:
A few eating highlights below, more in the next letter.
Mont Blanc at Angelina
First things first - after a visit to the Luxembourg gardens a necessary stop at the neighbouring Mademoiselle Angelina for a hot chocolate and their iconic Mont Blanc. We were seated right next to the pastry case, the best view in the house ;) I love Crème de Marrons and especially love the vermicelli style placement atop Chantilly cream and meringue. A perfect dessert.
Chez Georges
For dinner on our first evening we went to Chez Georges (emailing directly or calling is easier to get a reservation than booking online). The ambiance here is simply incredible - warm and cozy, the dessert cart is out of time, the host walks around on a land line carrying a giant, overflowing reservation book… We arrived for an early dinner at 7pm and were told to enjoy the silence as it was about to fill up, which it did.
The standout of the meal was the soused herring and potato salad, which although isn’t particularly photogenic, was completely delicious and unlike anything I’ve ever eaten. We were invited to serve ourselves from the dishes until satisfied - the crisp white onion with the herring was incredible! Just wow. I’ll be thinking about this dish for a long time. Not pictured - green beans and steak frites. Joel and I split a rhum baba for dessert, to which they plunked down a big bottle of rum for drenching (I skipped this part) and a dish of creme fraiche to spoon on top.
Fancy Sour Cream and Onion Chips
As a dedicated chip tourist, I didn’t eat nearly enough chips on this trip! However I did get a bag of these Brets Fromage Frais & fines herbes for snacking on in the hotel room. I love Brets chips and this flavour tasted like a slightly elevated sour cream and onion (luckily they can also be found in Toronto).
Urfa Dürüm
I didn’t think we would have time for this stop, but we made it work for a quick lunch after a visit to Paul Bert Serpette. I came here on my last visit too and just had to have this Kurdish sandwich again - chicken for me, lamb for Joel - wrapped in delicious hot flatbread, with tomatoes, parsley, lettuce and red onion. With a coke, the perfect lunch.
Fruit Sorbets
We came across this frosted fruits shop after a ham sandwich (very good ratio of lettuce to ham - a lot of lettuce, not a lot of ham) at Ten Belles and en route to La Grande Épicerie. Obviously we had to stop. They have so many sorbet-filled fruits to choose from including full cantaloupes, coconuts and pineapples - and also dates, walnuts and chestnuts! We shared a bergamot lemon and a passion fruit (sublime).
Sweetbreads at Parcelles
For all that I don’t like about Instagram, connecting with people I might not have otherwise had a chance to meet far outweighs the negative parts. I met Zélikha Dinga on my last trip and had such a lovely time with her (after being a long-time long distance admirer of her indelible creations). I was so looking forward to seeing her again this trip - she made us a lunch reservation at Parcelles and it was a heavenly few hours of wonderful company, white asparagus, creamy olives and the most amazing sweetbreads (which Zélikha orders every time). The dish was so tasty and comforting, with crispy sage, capers and the best mashed potatoes. Pure warmth all around.
Rose Cake in a Rose Garden
After lunch at Parcelles I visited The Museum of Romantic Life - I was a little tired by this time so the museum itself, although beautiful, was a bit lost on me. After a quick spin inside, I opted to visit their on-site Rose Bakery, which was more my speed for the moment. I had a slice of rose cake in their rose garden full of the most fragrant flowers I have ever smelled. The clientele were all chic ladies with french twists, cantaloupe coloured scarves and pearl earrings. A 10/10 sensory experience.
The Ladies’ Paradise
I took a quick look at current exhibitions before my trip and saw one at MAD that I knew right away I wanted to see: The Birth of Department Stores: Fashion, Design, Toys, Advertising from 1852-1925. I immediately thought of Émile Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise, a novel about the development of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. It was no surprise to see the exhibit reference this novel as well and I learned there that Zola “was directly inspired by Aristide Boucicau, the founder of the first Parisian department store, Au Bon Marché, which opened in 1852.” One of my favourite parts of the exhibit was learning about the invention of sales and seasonal exhibitions (and seeing the product - some of which is pictured below) -January: linens; February: gloves, lace, perfumes; March: new seasonal items; April: suits and dresses; May: summer outfits; June: country wardrobes and bathing suits; July: general sales; August: back-to-school items and saddlery; September: carpets and furniture and so on.
The exhibition runs until October 13, 2024 - but if you can’t make it, read the Zola book instead, it’s great.
Honourable mention to the Brancusi exhibit at Centre Pompidou - the room with the Bird in Space sculptures displayed against the Paris skyline was completely breathtaking (pictures can’t do it justice).
More in the next letter!
Thank you for reading <3
WALL OF PEONIES POSTSCRIPT from a Sunday morning market near our hotel by the Bois de Boulogne.
I absolutely loved the Brancusi exhibition and couldn’t believe the gorgeous view 🥲 I could have stayed in there for hours more!
is this my sign to reread zola's The Ladies' Paradise?!