I know it has been quiet round here…I wanted to start posting in my new place but there was so much to do!!!
Come and join me there…and make yourself at home

image courtesy of Steve Keys

Bits I collect along the way – bottles with a second lease of life, shells, stones…my little treasures…

BTW – I am moving on soon…you will have to wait and see…x

They could not get over how blue these berries stained and nor could I…the pleasure of temporary supporting a black smile is greater than the taste itself!

If only time could stay still…

4kgs of these turned into 6 pots of jam…bit disappointed…

I am finally facing up with the fact that I am crap at making birthday cakes.

Hear me out – I have thrown myself with great dedication (usually allowing a whole set of 24 hours prior to the event with total lack of planning) and determination – my ambitions know little boundaries…

Came my daughter 1st year: one that deserved a cake to surpass ALL THE CAKES!!! with so much at stakes…I was going to give it all – une pièce montée was what she deserved..so a pièce montée I set myself as a goal…

One tier was delivered wonky as hell, I had run out of choux pastry… I blamed the English custard of course…

Years passed, my ambitions grew bigger and my skills got challenged to the limit…they brought a set of perky boobies, Barbie cake, Cinderella castle cake, garage cake, Spider Man cake, Tintin Rocket, make-up bag cake, rabbit in a hat cake, mouse in a bed cake (no I am not making this up…) all furthest from the original than you could begin to imagine…

This week when attempting to make a Super Mario cake which turned slowly into a Wimbledon  cake ( cause I only had green food dye left) I suddenly realised that I did not need to suffer and worse make anyone else suffer for the sake of my unrealistic abilities to make birthday cakes. I shall not put my children and loved ones to shame anymore and will simply enjoy the trip in town, the hardest part will be to choosing which cake to pick from the professionals…

All I can say is thank god for 100 & thousands…

Carnavalet is the most Parisian of all the museums in Paris. Set in the the Marais area the prestigious hôtels offer 100 rooms dedicated to the history of Paris.
Best visiting it in warm days were the place feels deserted and all the more eery. My inside spy tells me that the place is full of ghosts…

Hôtel Carnavalet
23, rue de Sévigné
75003 Paris

I walked down the streets I used to walk everyday to go to school – Read “Il faut se mefier des mots” on the familiar building thinking – how many times before had I walked by these words and read them out loud in my head as a teenager? They made sense then, they make sense now, nothing has changed.
Stopped for lunch in Lao Siam for the usual coco rice noodles, boeuf séché and salads…nothing has changed.

Nothing lasts, there are no certainties, we grow to accept that but it is so refreshing when little details remain unchanged.

This picture below is a view of Belleville in 1740…Paris looked like a village then and Belleville pure countryside!

It can be seen in Musée Carnavalet.

At the very end of the Island of Ile De Ré Trousse Chemise is a little paradise and if you get bored of the sea, the woods framing the beach are just as enchanting.