Sunrise in Paris

The winter solstice is behind us and the days are getting longer again. Dieu merci! One payback of the dark mornings is that I sometimes get to see the sunrise in Paris. I'm unlikely to catch it in the summer months after all. The chances of me being up on La Butte at 5h30 are slim to say the least. 

I love to walk up the back of the hill towards Parc Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Dit Parc de la Turlure (a park just north/east of the Sacré Coeur at the corner of rue de la Bonne et du Chevalier de la Barre). This park was created in 1998 and was apparently the site of a former windmill called the Moulin de Turlure functioning between 1770 and 1820.

If I time it right, and the weather is good I see this as I enter the park.


And then this.

I love the way the Sacré Coeur changes colour depending on the weather and light. Here she, a warm pink.

Walking round the to the front of the Sacré Coeur I see the sun through the trees.


And then through a lamppost...to clarify, this lamppost is not on, the glow is the sun's work.

Looking back I was surprised to see the usually grey white stone of the Sacré Coeur glowing a warm orange.

Right, time for coffee, see you later!

Luscious Lemon Curd

Recently the parents of a friend of my daughter were talking of their initiation to lemon curd, or rather leemon courd. Their anglophone brother in-law had brought a pot of the stuff to their holiday home in Normandy. They loved it. Suddenly I had a craving for some lemon curd, a conserve that is not so easily available in Paris, certainly not in our immediate neighbourhood.

It should also be said that I'm a lemon curd snob. I can only really be bothered with the exorbitantly expensive stuff from delicatessen style shops. As we weren't going back to the UK for a while I decided to try and make some. In a few clicks on the Internet I had Nigel Slater's lemon curd recipe up on my computer. 

Time to buy some lemons.

The most labour intensive part of making lemon curd is squeezing the lemons. To lighten the burden I recommend 1 x amenable child to squeeze the lemons for you. Apparently is is GRRREAT, just like squeezing the juice out of brains. Who knew?

In the interests of preserving my child's fingers I grated the zest. The smell is so good!


Add the sugar.

Put the lemon zest and juice, the sugar and the butter into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (bain-marie), making sure that the bottom of the basin doesn't touch the water. Stir with a whisk from time to time until the butter has melted. 

Lightly beat three eggs and one egg yolk with a fork, then add to the mixture.



Stir the eggs into the lemon mixture. Let the curd cook, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes, until it is thick and custard-like. It should feel heavy on the whisk.

This mixture makes two small jam jars. So far we've sampled it on buttered toast, in plain yoghurt, a table spoon of it in an apple crumble and of course straight from the jar. All of these options are delicious.


Nigel Slater's lemon curd recipe

Makes 2 small jam jars
zest and juice of 4 unwaxed lemons
200g sugar
100g butter
3 eggs and 1 egg yolk 

Put the lemon zest and juice, the sugar and the butter into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (bain-marie), making sure that the bottom of the basin doesn't touch the water. Stir with a whisk from time to time until the butter has melted. 

Mix the eggs and egg yolk lightly with a fork, then stir into the lemon mixture. Let the curd cook, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes, until it is thick and custard-like. It should feel heavy on the whisk. 

Remove from the heat and stir occasionally as it cools. Pour into spotlessly clean jars and seal. It will keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. 

Skaters at les Grands Magasins

The other day when we went to les Galeries Lafayette and saw this heavenly glass vault, we also saw the Christmas windows in the Printemps Magasin. The Printemps Christmas windows are always animated, often with animals busying away getting up to mischief. This year there are no animals, but people skating and dancing. 

When I say people, there are mainly women. These gentlemen dancers are some of the only men there are. My son was not impressed with this uneven representation.

This woman's lollipop looked very tasty.


Golden barbe à papa, golden candifloss.


The masked ball.

My personal favourite was this poor woman who had taken a tumble on the ice rink. She was not happy that I'd seen her fall, she's practically giving me an eye-roll. No?

Magical Monday - Heavenly Light

MM: week 17
Heavenly Light

Every December we pull out our 'Christmas tree' from the loft, dust it down and hang it from the ceiling. It's made of plastic, but looks quite realistic and sheds needles just like a real tree....ahem. Once the fairy lights are in place we have instant magic.

A while back I wrote in more detail about the hidden bonuses of our polycarbonate walls.



Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected.

More photos from the Magical Mondays series can be found here.

Glorious Glass Cupola

I went to the Galeries Lafayette with the 8 Year Old a few days ago. This is not normally something I would choose to do a few weeks before Christmas, but we had to change a toy he'd been given for his birthday so I gritted my teeth and off we went. As it turns out if you arrive at 10am on a Wednesday morning, even so close to Christmas, the crowds are not too horrendous. 

I was excited to see the glass cupola dome and take some photos with my new camera. The odd thing is that when I first came to Paris and went to les Grands Magasins I don't recall noticing the glass dome. How I managed to not notice THIS is frankly beyond me!!!

Les Galeries Lafayette were built in 1908 and then extended to include the magnificent art nouveau glass cupola in 1912 by architect Ferdinand Chanut and glass artist Jacques Gruber.

The details are colours are exquisite.

More photos of the glass cupola can be seen here (thumbnails) and here (slideshow)

Good Morning City of Light!

A slight detour post school run brought me this. I am one lucky woman!

Place de Tertre in Blue

My camera finally wheezed its' last breath at my sons' 8th birthday party last week. I'd had it for nearly three years. I can't really begrudge the poor thing for dying on me, I overused it terribly. It had been playing up for a few months, and with its' gradual demise went my pleasure in taking photos. I was always waiting in tense anticipation for it to jam, and as a result often hesitated before taking it out at all.

Luckily for me my Other Half, and other close family members seem to have faith in my photography skills and think it's worth investing in a new camera for me. Let's just say that Christmas and birthday have come early for BB. For this I'm very grateful. Taking photos calms my soul, inspires me to look at my surroundings more carefully, to appreciate the small beautiful details that are around us all the time. 

Yesterday I went to pick up our daughter from a birthday party on the other side of the La Butte. Rather than walking around the back of the Sacré Coeur I decided to go over the hill, passing by the Place de Tertre, my new camera clutched to my breast. I think it would be fair to say this camera takes a good photo, and as ever this extraordinary city makes my job of capturing beauty rather easy. 

In December, at 19h30, the Place de Tertre more or less empty. The wet cobble stones reflected the light beautifully.

The dome of the Sacré Coeur peeked out at me through the lights...


...and called out 'Merry Christmas'!

Magical Monday - A Winged Angel Tightrope Walker

MM: week 16
A Winged Angel Tightrope Walker

Imagine my surprise when I saw a winged angel funambule tightrope walking away from the dome of the Sacré Cœur.

Don't you think funambule (tightrope walker) is a lovely word?


Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected.

More photos from the Magical Mondays series can be found here.

Magical Monday - Jumping over the Eiffel Tower

MM: week 15
Jumping over the Eiffel Tower

Those two pigeons didn't seem very impressed, huddled underneath those thundering hooves. But I was.

Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected.

More photos from the Magical Mondays series can be found here.

City birds

We went to the Square des Batignolles last weekend. This park in the 17th arrondissement, is designed in the informal 'English garden style' with small ponds, streams and curved path ways meandering  (sort of) along the length of the park. There are some vast plane trees which are apparently about a hundred and forty years old. Some of them even come placed in a vase. Thus.

Swimming in the interconnected ponds are an array of rather unusual ducks. Of course there are your standard Mallard Ducks.

And then more fancy types like this Wood Duck.

I'm in no way an ornithologist, but you can't help but be impressed by the colours on this duck. This duck looks more like it's been carved out of wood and should be resting on your mantel piece.

Here is a plainer duck, but unusual none the less.

I have other park-bird shots. A Canada goose I saw in Oxford Christchurch meadows.

A swan and some red sticks.


A family of swans in the Bois de Boulogne.

Some odd looking bald baby coots. Their heads start out red. Who knew?

A very cheeky sparrow.

My personal favourite, spotted in Square des Batignolles. Big Foot.

And finally a magnificent dove I saw in the Chateau at Chantilly.

Magical Monday - Lamppost Lovers

MM: week 14
Lamppost lovers



Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected.

More photos from the Magical Mondays series can be found here.

The last of the falling leaves

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

...

Extract from sonnet 73 by by William Shakespeare (1609)

As I walked up Rue Caulaincourt on Sunday I marvelled at the pavement which was strewn with fallen leaves. These small green leaves have been clinging on much longer than most, but now it's time to let go. The last of the leaves are falling. Winter is coming. Sigh.

Red leaves in the Montmartre Cemetery.




Red leaves and a cat.

Orange leaves in Oxford.



Yellow leaves.

Yellow leaves and a crow.


Yellow leaves and some spikes.


A beautiful tree in Parc Monceau.


A carefully swept pile of yellow leaves in our street.

This morning when I passed this tree I noticed that somebody has been playing with those carefully swept up leaves. The work of a Parisian road sweeper is never done.