Love and Do What You Will (while I'm in Paris)

It's nearly 1.30am and if I was a sensible girl, I would already be well in bed catching a few zeds before the alarm goes off at 6am. Sensible, however, is a word that's been banished from my vocabulary due to its palid shade and boring, flat heeled, black shoes. 

Tomorrow is a mission of LOVE - and we all know that LOVE overrides practical sensibility by a long shot. LOVE prevails. LOVE lifts us up where we belong . Oh Goodness, stop me before I start singing the Moulin Rouge soundtrack and wake the newly arrived messmonsters, would you be so kind?

Paris is reputed to be the city of Lurrrrrrrrrrve n'est ce pas? I've decided to whip up there on a whim and verify that for myself for a week. Ok - not really on a whim… but definitely  on a mission of love. Chickpea has landed on the home shores of Paris at last and is waiting, safely and patiently (Even a little too patiently for my liking: MUM DON'T COME TOMORROW PLEASE BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO GALLERIES LAFAYETTE!!) at her best friend's place for the remaining messmonsters and excited parents to drive up and drag her home kicking and screaming reclaim her.

It's a seven hour drive… which will get us there just in time for afternoon tea at Dalloyau and a wander round Boulogne Billancourt where we used to live. There's a great Lebanese restaurant there which is handy so I don't have to plan dinner! Excellent, that's tomorrow's food taken care of ;-)

Then it's four days jam packed with Angelina's on the rue de Rivoli (for the bona fide best hot chocolate in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD), Berthillon Ice Cream on l'Ile St Louis for the bona fide BEST mango sorbet and chocolate ice cream in the WHOLE UNIVERSE. Honestly, if chocolate grew on trees - that's what it would taste like! And KOBA for the best Japanese meal outside of Japan or Australia in the rue Michodière.  You may be wondering why I am going to Paris and not thinking of escargot or cuisses de grenouille...

Dash the frogslegs. I shall heed St Augustin's words once again and indeed do - or in this case EAT - what I will.  May I suggest you have a wonderful time doing the same :)

Should I reassure you that we are planning to do things other than eating? Like visiting the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, Jardin des Plantes for the paleontology department -blame that on Pokemon and his dinosaur craze, Notre Dame... We may even take a ride on the Bateau Mouche and OH GOD! NOT. eat the food!

I've an extra little secret to share with you. Funnily enough, every time I go on holidays 'back home,' coincidence would have it that another Aussie blogger happens to be holidaying in the same place. On Saturday I should be lucky enough to meet up with Julie from Being Ruby in Versailles. where we will see the Grandes Eaux Nocturnes (you can find out more about what it is if you click on the Versailles link). Sigh...  Fitting! The paper that inspired this phrase in Roman Capitals is an old ledger dating from 1715. I must look more closely to see if it isn't the deed to a magnificent chateau! ;-)

Au revoir and see you in a week all chubby cheeked and eyes a sparkle with the late putty recipe. Gloups :( sorry - you'd rather I go to Paris wouldn't you? ) 

Love and Do What You Will: Even if it's Inedible ;-) 10th photo post

Is it Sunday again already? 

Just the right day for some inspiration from a Saint!

I promised Jeanne (as well as you!)
that I would post my 10th photo and corresponding post.
What a blast from the past! 

So here it is... 

Aime, et fais ce que tu voudras...

One of my favorite pieces, sold last year to a lovely psychologist for her office

Tonight between cooking the kids' dinner, cooking lasagne for the kids' lunch tomorrow, and whilst I was full on into messing up the kitchen, what the hell! cooking up a baked cheese cake for my calligraphy class tomorrow - I had a flashback of baking my first (and consequently last) carrot cake during my first  year in France.
 In spite of the spectacular patisseries overflowing with delicious cakes and pastries that peppered my 'quartier,' I was determined to cook a fair dinkum Aussie/kiwi carrot cake. Must've been a lust for orange in me even way back then. ;) Beaker was the only one around at the time to witness the result and up until now I had sworn him to secrecy. At nearly 40 I throw all self respect to the wind and say, 'it's time to bare my soul!'

Anyway, there I was, landed in Paris with this burning desire to cook a moist, juicy carrot cake. So off I went into the city to buy the ingredients.
First obstacle? The language barrier. Second? 14 years ago there was no self-raising flour in France, nor could you buy baking powder (except for a rather dodgy article whose name loosely translated into 'chemical yeast' ... yoook). To top it off, you could buy baking soda, but only at the chemist... Don't even ASK me about the cream cheese. Philadelphia was some obscure place in the US but certainly 'not a CHEESE mademoiselle.'  I obviously confirmed the prevailing suspicion that Antipodeans were little more than savages, so off I trotted  home, a little desolate but none-the-less determined to make my cake.

Under the bemused eye of Beaker, I diligently grated my carrot, mixed it with approximate amounts of sugar, flour (no cup measures at the time and I didn't have kitchen scales...) and a small packet of the 'chemical yeast' that I had finally bought in desperation. One hour later I was the proud mother of .... a carrot pancake.  Only people who know how magnificent a carrot cake normally looks like will see the tragedy and/or humour in this.

It was a beautiful colour mind - all golden on the outside and orange on the inside. However, completely inedible it was, even for the upstart pigeons for whom I had gracefully decided to leave it on the window ledge outside.  It stayed forlornly on the ledge outside for three weeks. Its only virtue was that it didn't go mouldy, inspite of the relentless Parisien drizzle. Thinking back, I should have varnished it and used it for a frisbee. Boulogne had great parks next to the ample patisseries...

Needless to say, I buried the incident waaaaaaay back in some irretrievable memory until I was strolling around Toulouse recently and saw, wait for it, A BAKED CHEESECAKE in the window of a very cool café. Deduction: if they could buy the cheese locally, then so could I!!

And here I am tonight, waiting for my baked cheesecake to come out of the oven, deliriously happy to have found a cheese suitable to make the icing for my next attempt at ...CARROT CAKE. 14 years later I am ready to create my second one. But is Toulouse???

 With all this cooking for family and friends (plus mess monsters, plus housework etc) I have had no time to paint. But my reflection today was that life's a lot like cooking; if you don't have all the ingredients, then the fun essentially lies in making do with what you've got, and making it up as you go along.

Love, And Do What You Will 

as St Augustine says...

PS. Now, you can buy English baking powder and (I'm in HEAVEN) Buderim Ginger in the local supermarket! Now that's progress ;-)

And now it's time for me to pass this one on. I'm normally a bit iffy about passing on awards and tags but this one is so much fun, not too much work and a real blast from the past that I'm passing it on anyway ...

But because I want this to be published before midnight so I can officially count this as Sunday and keep my promise, you'll have to come back  in 5 minutes to read to whom as I'm going live incomplete hehehehe!!

Me revoilà

Told you I'd be back!

Now - for my victims candidates (who are under no obligation to comply of course!):

Keith@ A taste of Garlic

Sophia @ Blue Chair diary

Millie @ The Laurel Hedge

Gigi @ The Magpie's Fancy

Angie @ Angie Muresan

Friends,

if you're up to it, re-post your 6th or 10th photo (and post) or both ...

Let's see where it all began!

Don't forget to drop in for a read of their blogs too ...

enlightening, highly entertaining and often humorous reading

Back around Wednesday - time to translate my website into French