Chéri and I stumbled upon this little tea room one evening as we wandered around the Île Saint Louis. It drew us in with its warm colors and promises of chocolat chaud à l’ancienne (old fashioned hot chocolate), and the neatly arranged cakes and cookies on the counter top.
This place is everything a hot chocolate and cake shop should be, warm and friendly! There is a piano on one side of the room and two other little cubby spaces where tables are set, which allow customers a little more of a “homey” space.
I also enjoyed how the kitchen was visible at the back of the boutique and was the perfect place to make an old fashioned hot chocolate, with tiling on the walls and a window that opens out on to a lovely little courtyard, and a smiling lady busy over the stove. Kinda makes you want to move right in!
And as I discovered on our way out, they have storybook reading events for kids on Wednesdays! From 5 years old and up. Wednesday November 23rd, is Pierre et le Loup, one of my all time favorite childrens’ stories. And in December there will be Christmas tales… I wish I had a kid to bring!
This place should be a great little stop for warmth and cheer all winter long!
Sweet! It’s Spring! And this is Paris, were the eyes are quenched with stunning scenery and the tastebuds are tempted with treats.
One of my favorite places to find the later of the two is the Sugarplum Cake Shop (68 rue Cardinal Lemoine). And yes I know, I know, we should be thinking about those bathing suits we have to don in a few months, but sometimes I like to replace a meal with a few fun and caloric mouthfuls from the Sugarplum fairies, Laurel, Krista and Taylor. And by the way, they now have terrace space! So you can enjoy your tea and scone in the sunshine too!
Here’s just a tease for you!
And then there is of course, the first ever cake that I ordered from the shop! And man was it INCREDIBLE!!!
For my boyfriend’s mother’s birthday, who also recently retired (from a long career as a dental surgeon) and I wanted to celebrate that as well. SO! I asked the girls if they could make a cake in the shape of a giant tooth, with a couple of mice cleaning it… they went above and boyond my hopes for this special cake. And the expression on the face of chéri’s mom was the confirmation that it was pure success! Merci les Sugarplums!!!!
The Salon du Mariage gave me this uneasy feeling that I was walking into the realm of that horrible reality TV show Bridzillas. It is a venue that perhaps useful to some, I found to be an atrocious institution of grotesque commercialization of what should be one of the most special days of your life : your wedding. It seems to merely be a manifestation that the wedding day focus no longer lies upon the union of matrimony or the love between two people, the attention is on every single minute detail that can be primmed, purchased, packed and posted to you, from the toenails of the bride to the napkins on the table to the way you dance with your new spouse. As Kasia Dietz put it, « I found a lot of things that I don’t want at my wedding, there. » And I saw a spectacle that made me swear to never ever make myself or my sweetheart go through that kind of wedding planning torture.
Krista of Sugarplum Cake Shop making cakes with love
The Salon was full of “bling-bling” and “tappe-à-l’oeil,” ruffles and pink and sparkley things, for each of the stands and products and services.With each one trying to sell you the “best” thing for your wedding that’s better than the rest. You could have blackjack table at your reception…Ooo how cool, or you could have more flower arrangements than you ever thought you needed, you could even get married, sleep in and hold the party at a real château that may cost a year’s salary, or you get personally printed M&M’s (okay well I like this idea)… In fact all of these ideas and products and services ARE wonderful individually and would make a splendid ceremony and celebration. What I felt I was choking on was overload, the checklist of things that one apparently needs in order to have a good wedding, it’s the sheer abundance of it all, and the way vendors would pounce on attendees like vultures, in order to sell them something, ANYTHING! And every vendor’s booth promised the wedding of your dreams. Yuck! It was like choking a piece of candy that I thought I was going to get a lot of pleasure out of but it ended up being waaaay too sweet. And all this without even mentioning the gowns. There were maybe two in the entire salon that I would ever consider wearing, the rest would make any woman look like a pile of Chantilly cream. What is wrong with society these days? There is so much attention on the table settings and bride’s maids dresses and party favors that it seems like people are forgetting what this is all about! It’s about spending a life together. Who is going to really care in ten years if the napkins had your initials embroidered on them, or if you had roses or petunias at your wedding?!? Who!?!?!
But, there was an oasis of authenticity. At their first ever Salon de Mariage, the Sugarpum Cake Shop was THE cake reference of Paris. They hosted a small subdued stand, with simple black walls and a table laden with cake confections and photos of their previous creations. No frou-frous, no ostentatious overdone over-the-top extravagant display… just cake. Just a lady, a schedule and her cake. And she filled up her schedule with brides-to-be for tastings and design sessions, where the bride gets to decide what her cake will be like, because in spite of what everyone is trying to sell women, what they really want is simply a cake, a white dress and a husband who loves her.
Sugarplum does not only make wedding cakes, they make cakes for all occasions in any shape or design. If you have an idea they can make it edible (and delicious). I personally am addicted to their chocolate cake.
Laurel of Sugarplum Cake Shop
The only other stand that I was impressed by was the event planner Jean-Luc Blais stand. It was literally a decorative pièce montée all on its ow. And he of course, commissioned the Sugarplum fairies to make him a cake. So we like him!
If you go this weekend (it ends the 17th of Oct 2010), make sure you stop over to say bonjour to the ladies with the cake… and watch my video posted here to see the progress of their work on the cakes.
When chéri-amour (sweetie-pie) is coming home from several days away on business what does any self defined parisienne, do in anticipation?
1. Clean house…okay fine but the ironing can wait.
2. é-pi-la-tion… in other words undergo the torturous ritual of tearing the small hairs off of one’s legs. Oh joy. But the smooth skin après is a temptation tool with incredible powers!
3. That old golden rule that our grandmothers told is is still true…the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. A little love-cake baking is in order.
4. Determined not to be defined only as a maid, temptress and fée de cuisine… the parisienne heads out to see an art expo that not only is quite interesting to her and at the top of her to-do list, but can add a little more to her conversation. She doesn’t want to bore chéri with a recount of the socks that have missing pairs. Not that she actually counted them herself while doing the laundry. Really! She didn’t. I promise.
5. Pilates class… to um stay in shape… Oh and it helps maintain a nice level of flexibility! Which is good for… for…, for many things. (Address shared by the always perfectly shaped, Dita Von Tease, in Vogue août 2010).
And then finally at 9:30pm he arrives and the parisienne is in an exhausted slumber on the couch, spent from too much anticipation! Good thing it’s Sunday tomorrow!
