jujubeezoo's birthday

Friendship established October 2009. 

Julie, you rock. 

le bon marche macarons (+macaroons)

Le Bon Marche is handsdown, the most luxurious grocery store in the world. Yes, the world. It puts all other grocery stores to shame. If I were Parisian, and had all the money in the world, I would spend it all on food here. I got yelled at, per usual, for trying to photograph all the goodies in this food heaven so you will just have to admire the corner shop front.

I came here specifically looking for shredded coconut to make Linnaea's chocolate macaroons for miss Julie's birthday. Here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 325 (170 C). In a stainless steel bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate.  Set aside. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and vanilla extract.  Stir in the coconut and melted chocolate, making sure the coconut is well coated.  If the mixture is too soft, refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Place small 1 tablespoon mounds of dough on parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing several inches apart.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.   

12 oz semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
9 large egg whites
¾ cup cocoa powder
2 ¼ cup granulated white sugar
¾ tsp salt
3 tsp pure vanilla extract
7 ½ cups sweetened coconutPlace small 1 tablespoon mounds of dough on parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing several inches apart.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.  

But just thinking about American macaroons got me craving some French macarons, so of course, I ordered three from the classy dessert bar at Le Bon Marche.

I will never get enough of these little guys.

driving with julie

It's one thing to take the metro and another to walk through Paris. But to drive is a completely different story:

I suggest watching this video twice, first to see the sights an second to understand the rules of road. Ha, good luck. Also 0:42 some mec tries to cuts us off:

Julie is a fearless French driver and I love that about her. Here we are driving through the huge roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe, notice how all the cars are coming from different directions. It's scary, I semi hyperventilate every time I go through it and I'm always the passenger. What's interesting is if you get in an accident in this roundabout it's automatically 50% your fault - 50% the other person's fault, no matter what.

Here we are driving through an underground tunnel from the Arc de Triomphe to the Grande Arche de la Defense:

aline's going away party

Laetitia's "historical friend" Aline is going to Canada for a few months for an internship so we attended her going away party this afternoon. This is the view for her terrace!

This is the terrace!!!!!!!

a panorama of the terrace at sunset:

Terrace + MamanOurs

This is Aline putting a homemade *wink* tart in the oven:

This is photo is by no means staged. At all.

Bonne chance Aline!

Laetitia la loutre

bon anniversaire ma loutre!

Mini Diane (Roll #3)

My third roll of Mini Diana. This roll was not so good, but here are the semi decent shots.

Centre Pompidou, Paris

Annecy, France

Pont des Amours + avec mes amours francaises

Annecy, France

Annecy, France

Annecy, France

Annecy, France

Talloires, France

Talloires, France

Talloires, France

Talloires, France

atelier

Today I ventured over to Laetitia/Julie/Constance/Madison's architecture school.

There she is coming out of the building!

Her atelier and studio mates. This reminded me so much of the arch studios at Cal Poly and made my heart ache for San Luis.

their library:

with an awesome view.

such a sweet design.

that is Constance in the green.

I quite like this structure.

This building back in the day used to make compressed air.....someone please explain to me how that works??

As I was walking back to the metro I took an alternative route and discovered some really awesome buildings:

And a super sweet park!!

stan + laetitia's apartment

Oh man, another great living space brought to you by Laetitia + Stan (the man). These photos were taken by Laetitia because this summer they might do a house-swap with a couple from New York.

The bedroom:

OH! It's important to note the wood framework everywhere, it was designed by Stan (he is an architect). I really like how simple, modern and classic it is. The holes serve as non existent knobs, does that make sense?

The living:

the bathroom:

the shower:

the kitchen:

the built-ins, also designed by Stan the man.

the view of the living via the built-ins:

an alternative view of the kitchen:

the little office:

more views of the living:

I love their apartment so very much.

He built this division to separate the larger space into a bedroom and living room. Quite clever.