No doubt, if I stuck my camera into stores in the USA, I would find delights for the eye equal to those I saw in Paris. Even in Fernandina Beach we have beautiful window displays, but it seemed that Paris offered exceptionally enticing displays that verged on art in my mind, many of them displaying the creations of artisans.
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| Patisserie in Montmartre |
I agree that this display of macarons is not necessarily 'artistic', but is very enticing. I don't think Nana Teresa in Fernandina comes close to its appeal.
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| Another patisserie in Montmartre |
The beauty of the products in the patisseries was charming. In general, I can't think of stores at home that display food in their windows - could it be due to the intense Florida sun, or the lack of foot traffic?
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| Maison George Larnicol, near the Sorbonne. |
We discovered these chocolates in the rain one afternoon. It was a delight to take refuge in this beautiful space. Apart from their price, it would feel like an act of destruction to actually eat them.
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| Maison George Larnicol, near Sorbonne. |
I thought this ladybug was particularly cute, even though she's a little bit Disneyish.
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| Le Village Royal, near L'Eglise de la Madeleine |
Does hanging a bunch of colorful umbrellas in an arcade constitute art? We spied this one from a bus on our way to visit the church prior to our performance. It was created by Belgian artist Patricia Cunha and is called "Un Ciel de Parapluie". With 800 umbrellas suspended in the air, it was a magical space and enticed us to drop more Euros for lunch than we would have done otherwise. That's the measure of a successful commercial art project I would say.
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| "Souvenir d'une Balade Parisienne" Le Village Royal, near L'Eglise de la Madeleine |
Inside were a number of bronze statues - this was a group of young ballerinas with innocent expressions on their faces. The title of the piece means "Souvenir of a Parisian Walk" - but to me they looked more like ballerinas than walkers. If they weren't ballerinas, they were stepping on each others heels!
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| "La Grande Chevallete", Le Village Royal, near L'Eglise de la Madeleine |
Another statue was of a more mature woman. She was riding an iron horse. The creator of these installations is Belgian artist Dirk de Keyzer.
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| Le Village Restaurant. |
We ate curbside at the restaurant in Le Village Royal. Upstairs was rather grand with Versailles style mirrors. (One discovers all sorts of things when in search for bathrooms!)
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| Le Village Restaurant. |
The upstairs perspective of the umbrellas was fun to see. The stores in this shopping arcade were very steeply priced. They were the type that led one to hold one's breath in case you had to pay for the air, too!
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| Le Village Restaurant |
During lunch here, we sat near two Middle-Eastern women who appeared to be very well-heeled. (I didn't manage a photo, sorry - just too rude.) The leather jacket and jewelry reeked of money and I suspect they had a pitiful view of Robin and me with our American casualness!
In this store window, the art showed up as exactly that. It is a most interesting print that we saw in Montmartre. I always wish I could think up things like this! Intriguing concept.
Another window display, also in Montmartre drew my attention. Apart from its beauty, I couldn't figure out what it was selling. There are price tags hanging from the base of the fish, so perhaps they really are the objects being sold. They looked a little too spiky for me....and as for the thought of dusting them......no thanks.
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| Restaurant Chez Prune, Canal St. Martin |
On the other hand, this restaurant in Le Marais, was very clear about what it has available. I don't associate cactus with prunes or Paris, but next to the Perrier, it seemed that it would be a good place to parch one's thirst!
A visit to Galeries Lafayette provided oodles of 'ohs' and 'ahs'. I'll leave the images of the spectacular store itself to another blog, but I was very pleased with this collection of lamps that I just managed to snap as we went up an elevator in the 'home goods' store.
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| Pate loaf at Galeries Lafayette |
Even the food was beautiful. This pate loaf in Galeries Lafayette looked too good to be eaten.......
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| Baguettes in Galeries Lafayette |
..............and this display of bread in Galeries Lafayette was very appealing.
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| Black salmon sandwich, Galeries Lafayette |
This is what a black bread sandwich looks like when it's ready to go. Pretty nice looking!
My last story that involved an attractive presentation of food occurred one evening when I was eating at the Café des Concerts opposite our hotel in La Villette. On the whole, I felt I had done a pretty good job of interpreting menus and ending up with food that pleased. This time I wanted to try something different, so when I saw a menu item that mentioned sardines and chardonnay, I became curious. It had never occurred to me that one could do anything with sardines other than eat them out of a can. To the horror of many of my friends, I actually quite like sardines, so I thought I'd give it a try, hoping to find them in a yummy chardonnay sauce, or something along those lines.
The first clue that maybe I hadn't nailed my decision correctly was when two glasses of chardonnay showed up on my table, with the waitress explaining that these were my two free glasses of wine. Oh, no! How does a slightly fancy French restaurant serve sardines?
This is how they do it!
Mind you, they were the best sardines that I've ever eaten! It was worth every one of the 16 Euros I paid, not only for the taste, but for the artistry of the presentation. The curl of the lid, the careful arrangement on the plate and the pretty placement of butter on the side. I regard it as one of the finest meals I had here - a true discovery of simple eating. In future, I will have to leave the curly lid on my cans and replicate this delightful, artistic presentation!
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