Who Knew?

Seriously, I never would have guessed that there was a chapter of the Hell's Angels in Paris. Or that I've walked by it several times without ever noticing it. Granted, it isn't as if it is in a highly visited area of Paris. I would even go so far as to bet most people who live here never venture to that specific area (it's in the Indian grocery area past the two big train stations), but I go there a lot. As a matter of fact, I go shopping there for English, Indian and American products at least twice a month and I have honestly never noticed this building. Isn't it strange how we can be so oblivious to our surroundings? Now I am totally curious as to the type of people who are members of this club and what they do. I didn't think the Hell's Angels advertised their existence so, um, proudly.

Musée Jacquemart-André

It is still a bit chilly to do the neighborhood visits. I started on the 11th on Saturday but after three hours, I had to come home and warm up. I hope I never live anywhere arctic! Until I can do the visits, I guess you'll just have to be entertained by my little museum visits and/or my bitching.

I went to the Musée Jacquemart-André for the first time last week. I wanted to go because they advertised this exhibit all over the metros for months and for some reason seeing visiting expos advertised has the same affect on me as seeing food advertised has on most people.

The museum, in olden times (like early 1900s), was actually a private house and it is a fantastic work of art itself, complete with a garden room, a wonderful staircase and lots of fresco. I think the museum is worth visiting on its own.

The actual exhibit I wanted so desperately to see was of the Spanish masters from El Greco to Dali and I must admit, it was quite good. I particularly liked the way they organized the works. Instead of grouping similar artists or time periods, they grouped them by theme. I appreciated this organization because I am not that knowledgeable about art so I was forced to actually look at Dali next to El Greco and Picasso next to Goya. It was really rather eye-opening.

The price is a bit steep (11 euros), but you get an audio guide free and considering you don't hear that word a lot in Paris, well, it made me not focus on the price gouge quite so much. FYI the Louvre is only 10 euros and it is MUCH bigger.

Happy Easter (Damn Chocolate)

Thank goodness Easter is finally here. Now, hopefully all of those beautiful, tempting chocolate eggs, bunnies, ducks and fish will be removed from the display windows and the boring ol' bars of chocolate will find their rightful place, out in the opening, tempting the masses.


I have no idea why Easter chocolate makes my mouth water so much. For the most part, I am not a big chocolate eater. I might have some chocolate once every two months and when I do, it is rarely just a chocolate bar, more often than not, it is a dessert with chocolate as an ingredient. I almost never crave it and when I do, I can usually forget about it before I actually get to a store to purchase some. And believe me, Paris has no shortage of specialty chocolate shops, so it isn't a lack of product that keeps me from consuming cacao, I just don't NEED it like some people do.


But this year, I couldn't help myself. I had to have one of those eggs. I mean, just look at how tempting they are! And of course, I couldn't buy one from Auchan or Monoprix or one of the other grocery stores. No, I had to have one from an artisan. So I ended up paying 14 euros for about 100 grams of chocolate only to be pretty disappointed (as I stated earlier, not a big fan of it). But it was absolutely necessary.

I hope everyone has/had a Happy Easter. I promise those neighborhood posts are coming up real soon, well as soon as the weather learns how to behave itself. We've had rain, hail, wind and unseasonably cold weather the past two weeks.