Famille Summerbelle

La Maison du Pastel, Paris

20 Rue Rambuteau in the 3rd Arrondissement of Paris is a magical tiny shop that has been frozen in time, the decor of the Roché sisters hasn't moved since 1930. The famous pastel Roché has been made in this place for the past 3 generations.


The story of La Maison du Pastel starts at the beginning of the 17th century, a time when working with pastel is very much in fashion. Henry Roché a chemical engineer, chemist and biologist is very interested in art. He decides to buy the old Maison Macle which sells at the time all sorts of materials for artists. In 1887 he proposes a range of around 500 colours. After the second World War, the shop has to be rebuilt (it has been occupied by the Germans and then bombarded).
Generations of skills and manufacturing secrets are carefully maintained by Dr Henry Roché's wife and daughters who work together at perpetuating the family tradition.
In 2000 the two sisters aged 80 years old decide to transfer their skills to their great cousin Isabelle Roché who is now in charge of the Maison du Pastel. She dedicates all her energy to the conservation of this wonderful national and family heritage.

Miam miam miam

I am heading over to this place ASAP. It's called Bogato and it's in the 14th Arrondissement in Paris. Anais, the super talented chef/mummy behind it used to work in advertising before she had 2 children and then got really hungry and decided it was time to do amazingly good looking and yummy cakes for children. I love cakes. Baking them and eating them. I need to learn to make them as nice as hers...:)

Patisseries à Paris

We went on Saturday to the launch of Edition Paumes new book 'Patisseries à Paris' in the culinary bookstore "La Cocotte' in the 11th Arrondissement (a treasure shop if you're looking for innovative and unusual cook books).

We're already big fan of their collection and we couldn't resist to buy the latest one about the best and most delicious Parisian patisseries. I love sweet things so just looking at the images makes me want to eat eat eat! Ok, it's still in written in Japanese, but it doesn't really matter as the address+website+phone number of the patisserie is mentioned in French/English, which is only what matters.I'm going to try them all!

Jacques Tati

When in Paris don't miss the Jacques Tati exhibition at the Cinematheque in the 12th Arrondissement. It's until August so no excuse!

Jacques Tati would have been 102 years old this year. He made during his career 6 long and 3 short films. Extremely modern for his time, Tati fought to impose himself (ruining himself in the process) The massive and ambitious set of Playtime left him destitute, explaining why we have so few of his films.

Just to name a few:Mon Oncle, Parade, Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Jour de Fete...
You can view his films at the Cinematheque and younger visitors have films and guided tour especially for them.

Check TatiVille website for more info on the man and his film. I love the designs.

Just for the story, the two men getting ready to play tennis are my grandad on the left and Tati on the right. I have this picture on my desk and it was just appropriate to share it with you!

Le Jardin des Plantes

We had a lovely Easter week-end in Paris with friends from London. We went to spend the day in the 5th Arrondisement, on the Left Bank in the Jardin des Plantes. It's the most popular botanical garden in Paris. The flowers were all in blossom with stunning colours, and there is the most fantastic merry-go-round with hand painted endangered animals.

We actually headed there to visit the Natural History Museum, which is located within the grounds of the garden. The Grande Galerie de L'Evolution is located at the far entrance of the garden, opposite the beautiful Mosque (a great place to relax with tea and oriental cakes).
The kids loved seeing the variety of animals on display. The only thing is they wanted to stroke them which was not really welcome! I love the architecture of the building and the very subtle lighting of the main gallery.

My Top 5 places in Le Marais

Some of my favorite places to visit if you come to Paris. One on the good thing about Le Marais is that it's the only place where you can found shops open on Sundays. So when it's a lovely day like last Sunday, we love coming there.

1. Best place for tea is Mariage Frere, the oldest tea house in Paris. You can buy loose tea from all over the World. The packaging is exquisite as well as the tea pots. My favourite is Earl Grey French Blue.

2. Next to Mariage Frere is a lovely retro shop called Cuisinophilie where you can buy vintage kitchen accessories.

3. Further along on the same road (Rue du Bourg Tibourg) is A.G Spalding & Bros, purveyors of elegant gentlemen's office equipment, high class leather goods, and men's watches, this is the place to visit.

4. Just for the eyes, go and see Hervé Gambs flower shop. The flower display is amazing as well as the vases and pots.

5. For lunch or afternoon tea, head to the Centre Culturel Suedois (this is not exactly in Le Marais, but just at the limit of it). They have a lovely Café in a courtyard where you can sit in the sun (if you're lucky) and enjoy Swedish sandwiches.

Merci

Merci is the latest 1500 square meter 'luxury charity shop' to open in Paris where you will be able to spend as little as 1 Euro for a Duralex glass or 1000 Euro on a designer handbag.
Set at number 111 Boulevard Beaumarchais in the 3rd Arrondissement, this massive space combine decoration, fashion (Yves Saint Laurent, Paul Smith, Stella McCartney sold at 40% of their retail price), literary coffee shop and a high end florist shop (like Christian Tortu).
The people behind this magnificent idea are Marie-France and Bernard Cohen, creators 30 years ago of the famous French children's brand Bonpoint (see my previous post on Bonpoint here).
The most innovative thing about Merci is that 100% of the profit will be sent directly to the Merci Foundation to help women and children from Madagascar. This will finance real projects: build schools, provide employment for women etc.
Marie-France became attached to this country when she was at Bonpoint. The beautiful textiles and embroideries of the latest label were the work of talented Malagasy women.
The shop is open 6 days a week from 10am until 8pm.