Ooh la la!

While up in Paris for the cadaver dissection, Jonathan picked up a gift for me - and no, not a liver in formaldehyde. I got chocolates! Not just any chocolates though. These exquisite chocolats are from Debauve & Gallais.


And the bag inside it containing les chocolats

In 1800 Sulpice Debauve, a pharmacist and apothecarist to King Louis XVI, opened his first chocolate shop on the left bank of Paris. This is the very same shop that Jonathan went to yesterday. On their website you can see a 360° tour of the shop. Look for the building across the street, which you see out the big window. This is the Faculté de Medecine René Descartes for the Université de Paris V where the dissection was held. It's located a few blocks from the Seine River.


Photos from the Debauve & Gallais website of their shop on the Left Bank

Back to the chocolate and away from the cadaver experience. Jonathan picked out four chocolates for a very good reason. Although we're approaching our fourth wedding anniversary, that's not why. The reason is that at $150 per pound, four chocolates says 'I love you enough to pamper you, and also enough not to blow our budget this month'. So I'll be enjoying chocolates made by the same shop that served as Napoleon Bonaparte's sole provider. Ooh la la.


Les Masson

Debauve's chocolate creations and innovations were immediately praised by the most influential figures in France. Debauve quickly expanded and by 1804 had more than 60 shops throughout France. In 1823, he was joined by his nephew Antoine Gallais, and became Debauve & Gallais.


Ready for the first taste!

Debauve & Gallais was appointed the official chocolatier of Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe. Among their illustrious fans were Brillat-Savarin, Proust, Baudelaire and Hugo. Today, Debauve & Gallais enjoys a cult following and is regularly cited as one of the finest chocolate makers in the world.


A wee bit of drama

The chocolates are handmade in small batches by expert artisans who mold them by hand into fanciful shapes. I read up on the process on their website and learned that their chocolates are very low in sugar, relying instead on high percentages of the finest quality cocoa available. To be honest, I kind of just thought they'd taste like good chocolate. Was I wrong.


Mmmm...heavenly.

I've had only one of the four so far, but if the other three are anything like it - bliss. I had a ganache-filled chocolate that I really can't describe well enough to attempt, but I will say that I was amazed at the levels of flavors that kicked in as it melted slowly. I do have three more to look forward to, but am still relishing the one I had a few hours ago. Actually, one of the chocolates Jonathan selected for me was silkscreened using thin gold foil. So technically, I got chocolate and gold!


Choco-bling

A day out of the 'ordinaire'...

Four thirty in the morning is early. Just ask Jonathan who had to get up at that time to catch his TGV train to Paris this morning. Or you could ask me, the one who mumbled 'havagooday...I love you too...mmmbye...' and then rolled back over to partake in a couple more hours of beauty sleep.

Anywho...we both have days out of the ordinaire on the schedule today. I took the morning off and will be leaving shortly for a session at the recording studio. I'd love to tell you that I'm the new voice for a cartoon princess , or even the American voice announcing awards for a conference like last time. I think it's safe to say that I won't be bringing the sexy laugh back. But other than that, I can't tell you a word about this voice-over job. It's not a secret or anything - they just haven't told me yet. All I know is that I have an 11 am appointment with a headset and microphone in a little tiny soundproof room. Place your bets now as to what will ensue.

What about Jonathan's day out of the ordinaire, I hear you ask. Well, at this very moment he is attending a cadaver dissection at a medical school up in Paris. Today they'll be examining and studying the thorax, so I expect some lovely stories when he gets home. (If you haven't heard the one about the sciatic nerve coming alive during the leg amputation, it makes a great dinner party topic.)


In other news (literally!) my friend Holly was awarded 11 Alive's Class Act. You can read the article here. Congratulations, Holly!












Also, my sis-in-law Kate's video was chosen and is featured on the Cooking Light website! She enlisted my brother, Chris, to help her and they made aa video habout lessons she'd learned from her mother and grandmother. It's great. And if you know Kate, it's so Kate. I loved watching her - mug in hand - just as if we were chatting in her kitchen.

The sounds of spring...

With the arrival of spring, our windows have once again returned to a state of perma-openess. Along with the breeze, we also get to hear the sounds we'd forgotten existed on the other side of the double-paned glass.


The 10pm bells from Hotel de Ville (and other sounds of France)

Some are beautiful sounds, like the singing birds and chiming bells from the Hotel de Ville and the church. Some are a bit disturbing, like the man yelling at his wife or the cars screeching to a halt, realizing too late that there's a stop sign on our corner. They must yield to the two kids on scooters, crossing yards ahead of their mother with the stroller yelling, "Don't you cross without me! Arrêtez vous deux! Mais ça suffit!"


The Thursday morning market on our street

We hear the sounds of glass breaking, but there's no need to worry. It's just responsible citizens dropping their empty bottles of wine or artisanal juices into the glass recycling receptacle.



A softer sound is the click of pétanque balls colliding, if the player has good enough aim to break the group apart, like in billiards. Later we'll hear either hands clapping congratulations or just a disappointed sigh.

Late at night, laying in bed, we hear the sounds of eating, drinking, laughing and...kids' voices. Little kids. Toddler kids. They are awake eating dinner with the family and friends as I can barely keep my eyes open. Amazingly, they are not crying or fussing.


The moon above our bedroom

From the window in our bedroom we are sometimes treated to a piano performance from our neighbor. On our walks we occasionally go past an apartment where a woman gives piano lessons. The kids' plunkety-plinking is nothing like the beautiful music we hear from next door. And we are very, very thankf - HONK! HONK!

Good grief. HONK! Another HONK! traffic jam. HONKETY HONK! Can't they just go around another way? Oh wait. HONK! That's right. That's honking for a wedding processional. That's so romant - HONK HONK!

Nevermind.

Photo du jour...

Late afternoon coffee window-side

You say tomato...

Jonathan has been reduced to laying on the couch by a vicious headache ever since coming home from school. Kari, overtaken with wifely sympathy, has agreed to work on the presentation he has to give in class tomorrow on 'Lymphatic Drainage of the Neuraxis in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Hypothetical Model for the Cranial Rhythmic Impulse'. Multi-tasker that she is, she alternates between creating Power Point slides and researching possible causes of his headache online.

Let's see how it unfolds...


K: Does it hurt on one side, or all over?

J: (mumbles an answer)

K: When did it start?

J: (mumbles an answer)

K: And how frequent are these headaches?

J: (mumbles an answer)

K: You said you've been drinking plenty of water...Ibuprofen doesn't help...let's
see... Aha. I think it may be a tension headache.

J: Actually, I think it's intracranial hypertension.

K: Yeah, or that.


*Note to Penni and Mom: Don't worry - he's feeling much better now and is back to his usually rambunctious self.