PARIS 101: BEST HOT CHOCOLATE IN TOWN

I want to tell you a little secret not many people know about: there's a small little cafe near the Sorbonne University where you can drink a heavenly hot chocolate made with pure dark chocolate and topped with the best whipped cream in the world :) Trust me, once you've tried this hot chocolate, you won't want any other...

[photo taken from here]

[photo taken from here]

The last time I went there was in 2007. As you can see, though my arm was crushed by my sleeping baby, I was in chocolate heaven.

The cafe is really very small and you might have to wait to get a seat but it's really worth it. They're closed on weekends so be sure to make some time during the week to come here (maybe when you visit the Latin Quarter or St Germain which are really close by).

3 WOMEN, 3 MUSIC GENRES

Thanks to The Cool Hunter website, I found these 3 music videos which are amazing, mind blowing.

Adele has an incredible voice. Listen to the song with your eyes closed and you'll realize how powerful her bluesy, gospel voice is.

Margo is a force of nature - a mix between Prince and Cindy Lauper. She has rockstar style and girl power written all over her.

Steed Lord is a musical performance art project from Iceland. The song is quite catchy but it's the music video that is out of this world unique, pure creativity.

Check them out!

STEED LORD - 123 IF YOU WANT ME from STEED LORD on Vimeo.

DIY PHOTO COMIC BOOK

Today's holiday resulted in Amal wanting to make a comic book out of photos. I had no idea what he had in mind, so believe me, I had no help at all in this project except for taking the photos :)

Amal had somehow seen an episode of Artzooka where the presenter made a comic like this. Also, he's currently in love with his crocodile hat and double-sticks so he invented "Krokedayl Man Superhiro".

The story starts with Krokedayl Man finding a trail and following it until he finds a letter from his archenemy saying "Wer You Never Go Bifor". So he goes to the place he's never gone before and lo behold, finds his archenemy the dragon. He fights the dragon and of course, wins the battle. "Di End"! Enjoy!

SMILE :)

Isn't this font just beautiful? I found it on Fontself.com, a website where artists make and share their fonts but they're not downloadable. This site is for people who want to send online messages but with a personal, visual spice added to that message.

I love this quote from Thich Nhat Hahn and thought this colourful font would make it look as happy as it sounds :)

Find more quotes here.

PARIS 101: LOST IN MUSEUMS

As promised, I'm going to write a couple of posts dedicated to Paris, starting with my favorite place to get lost which is the Musee d'Orsay. Paris has more than 150 museums around the city, but this one has to be my favorite because not only do I love the art inside the museum, but the museum itself is a piece of art in my view.

The museum is situated along the Seine river, beautiful, majestic. It was a former train station, which you can see in the picture below. Musee d'Orsay houses collections of art from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including many paintings from the Impressionist era, my favorite. There's something about the way the paintings were made, so colourful yet soft, and many were pastel colored. The subjects of the paintings are no longer religious nor history related, just every day scenes.

Below are just a preview of what you might find at the Musee d'Orsay, like for example the sculpture called "Woman bitten by a serpent" by Auguste Clesinger. I love how artists like Clesinger and Rodin can produce life-like sculptures out of stone. I also really love paintings by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Pissaro, among others. The paintings you see below are Manet's "The luncheon on the grass" and Monet's "Water lily basin, pink harmony".

Of course, I highly recommend you to go to this museum, but there are many many more to see and if I had to make a pick of my Top 5 Museums (besides Musee d'Orsay), they would be:

1. Musee du Louvre - must see this museum at least once in your life just so you can breathe art!

2. Musee Rodin - breathtaking, romantic, unbelievable

3. Centre Pompidou - crazy, modern art, warhol, modigliani

4. Palais de Tokyo - modern art exhibitions, super cool, close to great view of Eiffel Tower

5. Musee Guimet - magnificent statues from India and South-East Asia

Tune in for more great information on places to visit and things to do in Paris....

SHIRATAKI VEGGIE STIR-FRY

I just found out the greatest thing: there's a type of noodle, made in Japan, called Sharataki Noodle which has very few calories - only 40 calories for 2 cups!! Isn't that exciting for all us women who want to eat noodles without gaining weight?

These noodles can be bought in supermarkets. I found these in Citos Foodhall in the Japanese food section, close to the meats.

Ok, now for a really yummy recipe:

Shirataki Veggie Stir-Fry

1 cup baby kailan *

1 cup taoge *

2 cups shirataki noodles

1/3 cup soy sauce (kecap asin)

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp cornstarch (maizena)

1/2 red chili (optional)

1/2 tbsp sweet soy sauce (optional)

* you can use any kind of vegetables: mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini

* you can also add chicken and/or tofu for this recipe

In a separate mixing bowl, combine soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil, and garlic. When adding the constarch, you will want to mix it with a little water to avoid having lumps in your sauce. Mix in cornstarch mixture and keep sauce to the side until called for.

Spray a sautee pan with olive oil. Add chopped vegetables and sautee over medium heat. Once vegetables, are cooked, add the sauce.

Rinse shirataki noodles under cold water and add those to the pan. The sauce should start bubbling and thickening up. Continue to stir contents of the pan so the sauce completely coats everything. Once the sauce is thick and well mixed in, serve.

Inspired by this recipe...

By the way, this recipe is only 150 calories!!

PARIS OH PARIS

I'm so extremely jealous of Jordan from Oh Happy Day, because she and her family have decided to move from San Francisco and spend one year in Paris. She and her husband are both freelance artists so they have organized their work in such a way that they can continue working but in another country. Isn't that amazing?

I think I'll dedicate a couple of next posts to a few sights and places that I think are incredible in Paris... Who knows, they might inspire you to save some money and go visit them :)

The photos you see here are from around Montmartre, which is in the north of Paris, where there is the Sacre Coeur church. This area is known for it's cobbled pavements, sidewalk cafes and artists gathered at the Place du Tertre. Many artists have lived in this area including Claude Monet, Picasso, Amedeo Modigliano and Salvador Dali, who has a museum next to the Place du Tertre which you should definitely go and see :)

[photos seen via Oh Happy Day]

FLEET FOXES - HELPLESSNESS BLUES

Love love love this new song by Fleet Foxes... Enjoy!




Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues by subpop

PS: If you have difficulties viewing this video, just refresh your page and be patient :)

LOVE QUOTES FROM LOVE LETTERS

♥ "Don't you think I was made for you? I feel like you had me ordered—and I was delivered to you—to be worn. I want you to wear me, like a watch-charm or a buttonhole bouquet." —Zelda Sayre to F. Scott Fitzgerald

♥ "I dust [your photo] carefully every morning, for to do so gives me the pleasant feeling that I'm caressing you as in the old days. I even touch your nose with mine to recapture the electric current that used to flush through my blood whenever I did so." —Nelson Mandela to his wife, Winnie

♥ "What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart...."—Héloïse to Abelard

♥ "I want to do things so wild with you that I don't know how to say them." —Anaïs Nin to Henry Miller

♥ "Open your life wide, and take me in forever. I will never be tired—I will never be noisy when you want to be still...nobody else will see me, but you—but that is enough—I shall not want any more."—Emily Dickinson to an unknown recipient

♥ "Out of the depths of my happy heart wells a great tide of love and prayer for this priceless treasure that is confided to my lifelong keeping. You cannot see its waves as they flow toward you, darling, but in these lines you will hear...the distant beating of its surf." —Mark Twain to Olivia Langdon

Love reading these! Vive l'amour...

[photo from unknown source (forgot to note down!) and quotes seen on Oprah.com]