Tag: french

Paris: The Best Ice Cream Parlours

With temperatures reaching 28°C this week in Paris, you must be rummaging the streets for a cool and sweet delight. Sweat no more! Make your ice cream break a truly special, truly Parisian event by visiting the best ice cream parlours this city has to offer.

The traditional one: Berthillon

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Berthillon is all about tradition, creation and … passion. Situated on the charming Ile Saint-Louis, Berthillon has been hailed the best ice-cream parlour in the world. Founded in 1954, the fabrication process remains unchanged, under the caring surveillance of the founder’s granddaughter. The artisanal ice creams are created on the shop’s first floor, and this institution remains the go-to place for a traditional ice cream. The flavours are also on the traditional side, and the best sellers remain vanilla, chocolate, cafe or salted caramel. Somewhat oddly, the shop is closed in August, but you will easily find places around that sell these ice creams during this month. Keep your eyes open!

Address (closed in August): 29-31 rue Saint-Louis en l’Ile, IVe.

The hip one: Une Glace À Paris

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Head to the charming neighbourhood of Le Marais to taste the creations of Olivier Ménard, who previously worked for Pierre Hermé and Harrods (London), and Emmanuel Ryon, who has been elected Meilleur Ouvrier de France as well as World Champion of Patisserie. At Une Glace À Paris, the pair offers twenty-four flavours of artisanal ice creams and sorbets « à la française », made in the shop’s basement. What makes this place special is the mix of different perfumes you can find in a single spoon. If you are an ice-cream fan, try their different flavours in a single scoop such as buckwheat-nougatine or smoked vanilla-baba au rhum. If you are more of a sorbet fan, you can safely go for their best seller: orange, carrot and ginger. The menu extends to other types of patisseries glacées. To share with your family and friends, I suggest their vacherin cake, re-imagined with mango for a modern, fresh twist.

Address: 15 rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, IVe.

The rock and roll one: Glaces Glazed

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This time, prepare to be surprised by the striking modernity and boldness of the ice-creams and sorbets you can find at Glaces Glazed. Every ice-cream title is associated with a film or song, and here are a few examples of what you might expect. The Black Sugar Sex Magic is a surprising sorbet of chocolate, wasabi and ginger. The Mojito de Tokyo has a wonderful cocktail of rum, mint and organic lemon in it. Pump up the Volume contains mango and Espelette spice. If you like ice-pops, they have a nice selection as well, including their own Smell Like Teen Spirit, which contains absinthe and apple liquor. This year, you can go even bolder and try their range of wild plant flavours ice-pops. Oh, and they’re really pretty too.

Address: 54 rue des Martyrs, IXe.

The one with a twist: À la Mère de Famille

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Now that we are on the subject of ice-pops, À la Mère de Famille has also decided to take the plunge this year and make their own version. The shop is already a Parisian institution for sweets and chocolates, and a must-go for those with a sweet tooth who want to taste French sucreries. They do not disappoint with their ice creams and pops! The twist to their ice-pops is the addition of their own fruit paste, cut in chunk within the juice ice-pop. Un délice! Their ice-cream selection will be a fierce rival in your decision process against the ice-pops, with comforting choices such as my all-time favourite: chocolate-caramel coated with dark chocolate with caramelized almonds.

Address: 35 rue du Faubourg Montmartre IXe. 

Bon appétit!

 

 

Paris: Discover The French Impressionists

Interested in a stay in this cultural hotspot? Check out our latest apartments.

In the 1860s, when Impressionism first made its appearance on the Parisian art scene, Impressionist paintings were considered scandalous. The painters captured modernity by choosing subjects that represented modern life, and by using different painting styles from the ones traditionally taught in Parisian schools. Impressionists also symbolised a Bohemian life that many were opposed to. Let us take a little Parisian tour of the museums where you can admire Impressionist collections, and cafés where Impressionists used to « refaire le monde », in other words, think the world anew.

Many wonderful museums have extensive Impressionist collections in Paris, and I cannot imagine a visit to the city without going to at least one.

The Musée Marmottan Monet has 300 Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings. Among them, Impression Soleil Levant, the piece that gave the movement its final name. Interesting fact: the term “Impressionists” was first used by art critics as an insult!

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Monet’s “Soleil Levant”

At the Musée d’Orsay, the whole 5th floor is dedicated to Impressionism, with paintings by Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Manet, and many others. Even though many museums place paintings by Manet in the same room as Impressionists, it is interesting to note that Manet refused to associate with these new painters, and refused to exhibit with them in their time. The Musée d’Orsay currently hosts a wonderful exhibition. You can visit Beyond the Stars, The Mystical Landscape from Monet to Kadinsky which will run until 25th June. Even if you are only visiting the regular collection, make sure to buy your tickets in advance as queues to the museum get extremely long.

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Eduard Manet’s “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe”

Across the Seine from the Musée d’Orsay, in the Jardin des Tuileries, is the Musée de l’Orangerie, where the impressive Nympheas, Monet’s masterpieces, are kept in two dedicated rooms. Sit in the centre and surround yourself in this river of colours, of greens and blues. I could stay there for hours! On the bottom floor, 144 Impressionist and post-Impressionist pieces are also waiting to be admired.

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Have a sit down and enjoy Nympheas by Monet

Cafés were an important social place for Impressionists. There, they painted their modern subjects, discussed techniques with other painters, and discussed art with other artists: writers, poets, musicians…  Unfortunately, time and the requirements of urbanism have transformed almost all the cafés, but I still like to walk through the streets often frequented by Monet, Baudelaire or Renoir.

At the Café Guerbois, Emile Zola was a regular, and Manet started coming in 1866, when his studio was at 34 boulevard des Batignolles. Today, a shoe shop at 9 Rue De Clichy has replaced it. It is a known fact that, in 1870, Manet slapped his friend and art critic Edmond Duranty in the Café Guerbois because of an article the latter had written. They had a duel, but thankfully no one got seriously injured, and the two eventually made up.

The Café de la Nouvelle-Athènes at the Place Pigalle was a meeting-place for artists like Manet and Degas around the end of the 1870s. It was destroyed in 2004.

Last but not least, the Brasserie des Martyrs. It is the only place that has not been destroyed, and is in fact still a place where art is discussed. It is now called the Divan du Monde (the world’s sofa) and is a cabaret-restaurant at 75 Rue des Martyrs and is just a short walk from our Sacré-Coeur Charme Residence.

Enjoy your time in Paris, the city that witnessed and contributed to the development of French Impressionism!