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I adore modern art. The days Anna and I have spent at the Musee l’arte Moderne and today at the Pompidou Center were amazing. But I realized several things:
1. It is work to understand modern art. See example below.
I would call this piece “Hey, I lost my Wheel” or “Motorcycle Skeleton.”
2. Maybe I’m a little slow. When I saw a piece that was an entire wall of telephones, cell phones, chargers, cords, computer cords, I had to ask myself “what does it mean?” Anna shouted out “ too much technology”. I thought it was a message that electrical items need recycling. When I read the exhibit notes it was about how technology is taking over our world.
3. Modern art is noisy. At the exhibit today we heard a saw, a bathtub being filled, a static-y radio, a tantric choir. At other museums, I’ve heard tour groups talking and the random lone ring of a cell phone but they aren’t part of an exhibit.
4. Modern Art can use anything it wants in a work of art: video, twigs, pots and pans, wooden feet. See example below.
 Example of wooden feet In a special exhibition called “Paris, Delhi, Bombay”, one installation called Ali Babba took up a whole room. It looked like a stall you might find at a marketplace piled floor to ceiling with stainless steel pots of every size and shape. It was a cook’s dream. I watched a woman pick up a pot and turn it over. “Excusez moi?” a guard said kindly. (I was surprised she didn’t say it with more indignation like “Excusez moi!) The woman asked how much the pot was. The guard responded that it wasn’t for sale. I read the note card about the exhibit and it said it was modeled after the abundance of a bazaar, where so many come with their money to shop–so much excess–while millions in the world are hungry. I thought the artist would have been amused by the woman offering to buy a pot. But I have to admit, I wanted to buy a pot too.
When we walked back to our hotel from the Pompidou we saw a yellow balloon in the river Seine. It wasn’t moving like one would expect to see a balloon on the river float, more like a balloon that had an anchor on it. “Hmm that’s unusal,” we said as we watched it. Modern Art installation we agreed as we walked home.
 Fashion Designer Christian LaCroix listed his apartment for 2.6 million During my previous visits to Paris, I’ve rented an apartment—historic spaces with windows that you could throw open onto the street, light that streamed inside, a true Parisian experience. ( I did not rent Chrisitan LaCroix’s apartment but a girl can dream.) This time I decided to try a hotel. Although an apartment was nice for the extra room and the je ne sais quoi, it’s also work. You do your own housekeeping and cook your own breakfast.
 Hotel Saint Louis en L'isle The hotel on the other hand is not as roomy as an apartment but it has many advantages: an elevator to haul our large suitcases up five flights of stairs, car service from the airport, air conditioning, breakfast and maid service. Since we are only in the room to sleep or read, using the cafés of Paris as our living room, we haven’t been bothered by the lack of space—yet. I’m not saying I’ll never rent an apartment again—I may. However, the hotel is making my life easier and giving me more time to explore Paris with Anna.
Today we visited the Rodin Museum and I bought a four-day Museum Pass–a fabulous deal that saves money at museums plus allows you to skip the line and walk right up front. To make it even better, most of the museums in Paris offer free admission to anyone under age 18 so Anna’s ticket was complimentary. As we strolled through the museum located in the old Hotel Biron where Rodin once lived, Anna admired the building as much as the sculptures. We imagined what it must have been like to live in such a beautiful hotel. We walked through the rose garden and I took her photo next to The Thinker before admiring more sculptures. As we walked past them, Anna amused us by narrating a story about the sculptures in the garden about how one statue, a trouble maker, started a fight with the others and causing one statue to lose its head (Headless Hercules) while others covered their faces in shame. Before leaving the museum, we saw an adorable preschool class lined up for a picture in front of The Gates of Hell, an amusing contradiction, these cherubs smiling in front of Rodin’s tortured work.
 Rodin's Gates of Hell As we walked back to our hotel, down the Boulevard Saint Germain, a French woman approached me and asked “Ou est Saint Severin?” (Where is Saint Severin?) Anna was delighted. “She must have thought I was French too!” she said.
When we returned to our hotel room– cool and quie with beds neatly made–we realized, like Rodin, how we appreciate a nice hotel. We may never leave.
Paris rain is the most beautiful rain, humbling plain old wet raindrops worldwide. If you’ve seen Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, you’ll know that to truly embrace Paris, you must enjoy the rain. Today, Anna, my 17-year-old daughter and I set out on our first day of adventures on a morning with a small chance of rain. Our plan for the day: walk to the Luxembourg Gardens, followed by lunch on the terrace of Les Deux Magots, and finishing the day in the Rose Garden of Rodin’s Musee with an ice cream. But within the first block we felt sprinkles and by the fourth block we were caught in a lovely down pour. We marshalled our umbrellas and continued for several blocks but realized we needed to shift to plan B.
 Since it was a day suited to indoor-activities, we decided to visit the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville without knowing whether the museum was open or its current exhibitions. It was our lucky day—the museum was open. We shook off our damp umbrellas walked up stairs in the cavernous white entry-way eading to a temporary exhibit hall with a sign Raoul Dufy. Inside was la fee electricite a mammoth painting,624 square meters, floor to ceiling, three walls, with so many intricate details that its hard to imagine how long it took to paint. I stood with my mouth gaping for a while, and then just basked in it’s lovliness.
Below are a few photos taken without flash and including Anna’s shadow.
 Raoul Dufy  Anna's shadow in front of Raoul Dufy We also enjoyed the retrospective of Kees Von Dongen, remarkable in its depth. Each salon is devoted to a different period of time and stylistic period of his art. A Dutch rebel, Von Dongen moved to Montmartre in 1898 where his first success was a showing of drawings and a new series of pictures. Through the years, as he developed his talent as a painter, he worked in a neo-impressionism style, portraits and nudes in primitivism, and exotic paintings from travels to Spain and Morocco.
After the museum, the rain had stopped so we walked down George V to the Champs Elysee, strolled down the wide boulevards, and ate lunch at an overpriced outdoor café. We took the metro back to Hotel de Ville and walked over Pont Marie to the Isle Saint Louis to our adorable hotel.
At the end of the day, quote from Van Dongen is on my mind. “Living is the most beautiful picture. The rest is just painting.”
I’m preparing to leave for my Paris sojourn and making a list of priorities during my stay. After seeing Midnight in Paris this week, at the top of the list “Drink wine in cafes.” Below are my favorite literary cafes and I plan to take a seat and watch the world go by:
Café De Flore today is a popular hangout for the publishing and glamorous world. However, it still retains authentic Paris charm and on a recent visit I observed a french husband and wife sitting on the patio with their petit chien in an animated discussion with a friend who met them for lunch. (The petit chien did not participate in the discussion, however, content to sit underneath the table and hope for a bite to eat.) My favorite lunch choice is the Salade Flore–how do they make a simple chef salad taste so remarkable?
Les Deux Magots: Named for two superb Asian statues inside the café that have been watching over the terraces on the Place Saint Germain des Pres for over a century, Les Deux Magots has been a watering hole for the intellectual set of Paris since 1914. Auguste Boulay, an ancestor of the present owners, created the café “Les Deux Magots” and soon it became the place to “see and be seen” as legendary figures of the world began frequenting the cafe. In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway stopped by the café to talk with Jean Paul Sarte, James Joyce or Janet Flanners. The club sandwich is the best club sandwich in the world and I like to pair it with a glass of vin blanc and sit on the patio.
Closerie de Lilas: Located in Paris’ Montparnasse, at the tip of the Luxembourg Gardens, is La Closerie de Lilas, the lilac arbor. It has attracted everyone from Henry James to Leon Trotsky to Gertrude Stein and Hemingway—who wrote the Big Two-Hearted River and The Sun Also Rises while sitting in the bar. My favorite “Parisian” literary café–maybe because it is less frequented by tourists and very popular with Parisians–I could sit here for hours. On my last visit I was surrounded by Parisians taking long lunches, drinking wine, and discussing politics—I felt so french! The food is fantastic—from the jumbo shrimp cocktail to the jambon and melon salad, I was in heaven.
 Citronique In the Washington Park neighborhood of Denver, a lovely-french inspired petite coffee shop La Belle Rosette makes the best lemonade, ever. They call it Citronique and it’s herb-infused–this month’s variety is lavender but the herb infusion changes each month. Next they will offer Citronique Tarragon and additional future flavors include Rosemary Lemonade, Ginger Lemonade and Mint Lemonade.
The delicious lemonade is served in a one-quart mason jar for $4.99 and if you return the lid and jar, you’ll receive one dollar off your next quart of lemonade.
The folks at La Bell Rosette have to work hard to keep it in stock because it is so popular. In fact, it is so popular that they are working to bring Citronique lemonade to a market it near you—you can follow them on this journey on Facebook.
If you can find a more delicious lemonade on the planet, I will eat my lavender
 In just four short months I will be flying to Paris to spend June in the City of Lights. This year, I’ll bring my teenage daughter Anna for ten days followed by ten days with my husband Ken. Last summer when I left Paris, I had planned to rent the gorgeous apartment on St. Louis en L’isle—light streamed through the large windows opened onto the street while hard wood floors and high ceilings provided historic character. Located in the heart of Paris—the location was ideal. And our landlords, next door, attended to all the little issues that arose like the refrigerator door that wouldn’t close and the internet code that didn’t work. I vowed to rent the apartment again this summer.
But since then I’ve had second thoughts. Paris is making it more difficult for tourists renting apartments in the city—Paris officials want these apartments available for Parisians to rent year round. According to an article in The New York Times, to legally offer short-term rentals, owners would need to have their residential properties reclassified as commercial sites, a complicated process that involves finding a commercial property in the same neighborhood that can be transformed into residential use.
“It isn’t difficult; it is impossible,” said Fabrice Luzu, a notary who has helped many international clients invest in city real estate. “The owner must apply for a special permit and there is very little chance he would obtain it.”
Without such a permit, any apartment classified as residential in a French city of more than 200,000 must be offered with a minimum one-year lease. The law, passed in 2005, has some exceptions for student housing.
I’m looking for a low stress answer to my Paris vacation and becoming entangled in the Paris apartment rental laws is not in the picture for me. After investigating hotels on the Ile Saint Louis I found what seems to be a perfect match. And the bonus of staying in a hotel is air conditioning, an elevator, car service from the airport and complimentary breakfast.
So as much as I’ll miss my Paris pied a terre, I’m looking forward to my pampered month in Paris at a hotel.
 Padlock on Pont des Arts NoLo and I were taking a cruise on the Seine, admiring the architecture along the banks when we came to the Pont des Arts and our guide pointed out hundreds of padlocks on the bridge. Lovers carve their initials on the padlocks and attach them to the side of the bridge, throwing the key in the Seine. Romantic! (The skeptic in me wondered, if you break up do you have a spare key to take down the lock or do you scratch out the old initials?)
 Lovers on a Park Bench Paris is synonymous with romance. The architectural beauty of the city, the park benches, the gardens and museums all inspire the mood for love. As I walked through the Jardin du Luxembourg one Sunday afternoon I passed lovers on a park bench passionately necking. How cute, I thought, a young couple in love—but as I approached I saw that these were not amorous youngsters but a gray-haired couple.
 Rodin's The Kiss Passion is unleashed in Paris’s museums where couples gaze dreamily at the cherubic paintings and nude sculptures. At the Rodin Museum, the sensuality and erotic nature of sculptures like The Lovers or The Kiss inspire imitators. (For an encore, watch the story of Rodin’s torrid love affair with Claudette Colbert sold on DVD in the gift shop. Spoiler alert—downer ending.)
Of course, a fabulous meal with wine is romantic—and easy to come by in Paris. Sitting at a café along the Seine listening to an accordion player is romantic. A picnic in Les Tuileries is romantic. But to me the most romantic thing to do in Paris is to walk somewhere, anywhere, holding NoLo’s hand.
 Pepe Le Pew We were standing on Pont Marie, called the Lovers’ Bridge–legend has it that if you kiss under the Pont Marie and wish for eternal love, your wish will come true. As we stand watching the boats float by, two lovers walked up and swoon in an embrace. Not to be outdone, in a scene reminiscent of the corny romantic endeavors of Pepe Le Pew, NoLo swept me backwards into an embrace. We almost fell down. Then we laughed until we couldn’t catch our breath.
After all, what isn’t romantic in Paris? (okay, maybe the Catacombs, graveyards or sewer tours?)
I’ve frozen the cake as the chef on the video instructed. Now he tells us to take the cake from the freezer and “roll” off the brown crust. Ha! There is nothing rolling off the cake. The crust is stuck so I’m going to cut and frost the cakes, crust and all.
 cutting the edges off the cake First I cut the edges off the cake using a level as a guide. For some reason my family doesn’t own a yardstick, just a measuring tape with a cow’s head on it, so I use a level. After I cut the edges off, I cut the cakes, always cutting in front of the level.
 The handy level I place the square on a wire rack for frosting per the video instructions suspended over a baking pan to catch drips.
 placing squares on a rack  Voila! Now I make the frosting:
Petit Four Frosting Ingredients
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• Food coloring (optional)
How to Make Petit Four Frosting
1. Add all ingredients except for the confectioner’s sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Boil without stirring until the mixture reaches 226 degrees and is the consistency of a thin syrup.
3. Remove from heat and cool to 100 degrees (slightly warmer than lukewarm).
4. Sift confectioner’s sugar over the syrup a little at a time, stirring to thoroughly combine after each addition.
5. The icing will have reached the proper consistency when it is just thick enough to coat a spoon.
6. Tint with food coloring, if desired
7. Use while warm; if it gets too thick, reheat in a double boiler until thin enough to pour.
The recipe says to cool the syrup to 100 degrees before adding sugar.
 syrup I cooled it until it was barely warm and even then I had to add twice the amount of confectioners sugar before it turned white and the right consistency.
 fondant Surprise! The hardest part of all is to ice the petit fours with the fondant (frosting.) You spoon the icing over the cakes completely coating them and letting the extra frosting drip down to a tray below. It’s harder than it sounds.
1. Pour the frosting over the cakes, moving slowly over each row, allowing the frosting to drip down the sides of the cakes.
2. You can scrape up the icing that accumulates in the pan, reheating it in a double boiler so that you can reuse it.
 Frosted cakes Allow frosted cakes to sit until they are dry, then remove the cakes from the rack, trimming any excess frosting away from the bottoms with a sharp knife. After the frosting dries, you can add a little holiday decoration—I added an impressionist sprig of holly.
Happy holidays!
Mes Amis,
In just six months I return to Paris. In honor of this great city, I am making petit fours this holiday season to share with my cookie exchange friends. Each year for the past 15 years we have exchanged cookies during the holidays.
Full Disclosure: I have never made petit fours before. Actually, I have never made a cake from scratch before. But I’m up for the challenge and excited to bake these elegant little cakes. The recipe says you can used pound cake purchased from the store but that seems like cheating . Afterall, how hard can it be?
 Professional petit fours
I found a recipe online.
• Petit Four Ingredients
o 2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
o 1 cup sugar
o 2 cups flour
o 2 teaspoons baking powder
o 1/2 cup milk
o 5 tablespoons melted butter
o Butter and flour for pan
• How to Make Petit Four Cakes
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter and flour a jelly roll pan.
3. Beat the eggs, yolks, and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take about 10 minutes with an electric mixer.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg mixture.
5. Add the milk.
6. Fold the flour and milk into the egg mixture gently.
7. Add the melted butter and combine until well blended.
8. Spread the batter in the pan, and bake for 12-15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Turn the cake out onto a cutting board, and cool completely.
10. Cut the cake into squares, rectangles or triangles.
OK first I assemble my ingredients.
 My ingredients are neatly assembled
I start beating the eggs, yolks and sugar for ten minutes but the phone rings, it’s my friend Anne and when I pick up the phone I have an accident and drop the blender on the floor. I wash it off and now have lost track of time.
 Blender on the floor, quelle disaster!
So I start over timing the blender ten minutes until the batter is “light and fluffy.” I’m not sure what light and fluffy looks like but when it sort of looks like meringue I stop beating.
 Light and fluffy
I add the flour but don’t have a sifter so I just dump it in. Someone in my family has taken my measuring spoons so I use a plain old teaspoon to measure the baking powder. Then I add the milk and butter but the batter looks like the texture of fudge. I watch a YouTube video by a professional baker for assistance.
The professional baker says this recipe makes a very dense cake batter—mine is the texture of fudge. So I must be o.k. I try to spread the batter onto the pre-floured jelly roll tray but there isn’t enough batter. I’ll be cutting off the edges so I guess this doesn’t really matter, I just spread it as far as it will go and cross my fingers. While the cake bakes I watch the YouTube video. Comments posted about the video complain that the chef touches the fondant (what I call frosting) but these are germaphobes. So what if I dropped the blender, I washed it thoroughly. I’m sure the chef washes his hands.
 Beautiful cake
The next step is to turn the cake onto a cutting board and cool. But the YouTube chef says to freeze the cake to make it easier to cut. Stay tuned tomorrow when I return to cut my petit fours. (I tasted a sample piece of cake and so far…delicious!)
 Pont Marie As I prepare to return home, I am packing my clothes which seem to have expanded, no longer fitting into my suitcase. Part of the problem is the Soldes, the sale in Paris that begins on June 26 and continues through August. Stores slash prices from 30-50 percent so it’s a great time for shopping. I bought a few souvenirs that amazingly are not fitting into my bag so I will need to buy a box at the post office for 40 E to ship back to the U.S.
As I pack, I’m taking stock of my favorite things in Paris:
The Sold Es
White Burgundy (chardonnay)
French Onion soup, Paysanne salad with quail eggs, roasted goat cheese on toast
Chilled Rose on a hot day
Flower shops that sell buckets of cabbage sized peonies
Bouquinistes along the Seine
Notre Dame Bells
Boats on The Seine
Pont Marie, the most romantic bridge in Paris where you can make a romantic wish and it is guaranteed to come true in the next year
Closerie de Lilas and Au Vieux Paris restaurants
The Orangerie and Musee Orsay
Lovers kissing everywhere
Ile Saint Louis
The petite chiens that remind me of Edward back home
Café society
Triple crème cheeses
Holding hands with NoLo E-hub
The Jardin Luxembourg and the Tuileries
Patisseries
Montmartre and Versaiiles
French children singing on their way to school
Shakespeare and Company
Farewell, Paris. Until next year!
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