As I alluded to earlier in the week, The Girl and I headed out of town Sunday afternoon to enjoy a bit of a road trip. Things have been crazy busy the last few months with my work travel and for her with the cupcake shop, so now that she has employees – it’s nice to be able to do a bit more enjoying of Europe. Oh, and it’s finally warm out.

So Sunday afternoon after she baked a gazillion cupcakes we grabbed the rental car and headed out of town. We decided to rent a car instead of the train because it gave us more flexibility to take what we wanted (bikes), as well as go wherever we wanted. The train is great in Europe getting from Point A to Point B, but less ideal when you want to poke around at different places between Points A and B.

Our first stop would be Rennes, which was about 3ish or so hours outside of Paris by car. We got there just a bit before sunset and The Girl went off on a run around the city on some bike paths. I was going to accompany her via bike, but the bike vending machine wasn’t really cooperating.

The next morning we spent a bit of time exploring the city, mostly on foot. As with almost everywhere we’ve seen in France, the French take great pride in any garden space they can create. Everything is always near-perfectly trimmed and in order.

After wandering around a bit we found some food. Obviously, we’re all about the food. Especially when the prices are nearly half that of Paris. Appetizers for 3€, and full entrees for 10€? Dang! Everything we saw food-wise for the rest of the trip was like this. Awesome!

Unfortunately, it became clear that despite a well put together menu (and dish presentation), the food was definitely cooked the night before and microwaved. Not at all good. Never would have thought.

Don’t worry, we made up for it later on with dessert.

After wrapping up in town, we got back in the car and headed towards the coast. It was about an hour or so away to Saint-Malo. The majority of the town is along a long sandy beach, with the old walled in town (like castle) off to the left of this photo.

Yesterday’s post covered all of my swim related endeavors there, which you’ll want to check out to see more of that fort.

Despite being fairly windy on the main sections of the beach above, once you were protected by the old city’s castle-like walls, it was just like summertime:

We hung out for a while on top of the castle walls and just enjoyed sitting in the sun. It was while I was sitting there that I noticed these stairs to nowhere out in the ocean (in front of the sailboat):

At this point, we’d really only seen high tide thus far. So I didn’t realize how far the tide actually went out. The next day, upon returning – it was crazy. This is taken from the exact same spot:

Holy cowbells! There’s a swimming pool there! And a diving platform. It’s crazy! And this isn’t a small pool either. Look at the people. This is easily 100-200m across!

We headed out to explore the islands that weren’t really islands anymore. At super-low tide (we were about an hour or so late), you can walk all the way out. You can kinda see the stone path below the water to the right.

Instead, we just looked at the mussels. This area is known for them (as well as oysters up a bit further). I definitely had my fair share of them the next night. They don’t cheap out on some portions of them here!

On the walk out to the island there was a sign warning you that once the water was within 10 meters of the walkway you needed to return pronto, due to the incoming tides. From on top of the hill, we were only a 2-3 minute jaunt back across. So we headed back out before the tide washed over and returned it to island status.

However, as we did so, people were still walking outwards onto the island. It became clear this was going to turn into an awesome spectating opportunity. And in particular, a great time-lapse video one. The tide was coming in very fast – such that it would only take about 5-10 more minutes from the above photo until the walk-way was covered.

So we scrambled up a big rock and I set my phone to take a 20 minute timelapse. Obviously, the goal was to watch as those ignoring the picture signs had to get rather wet coming back (including all the cold-water screaming like a little 4 year old girl that would accompany it).

Unfortunately, the time-lapse app crashed upon processing. But, that didn’t diminish watching probably a hundred tourists get wet. Nor did it take away from watching as the remaining dozen or so had to be ferried back onto shore – where the boat captain made them jump in up to their knees (some wearing jeans). I thought that was fair punishment.

So, if you go visit here, be sure to check out the tide tables and then plan about 2 hours after high tide to watch the circus unfold.

After all this, it was clear there was only one thing to do: Eat some ice cream. Or rather, a lot of ice cream.

Don’t worry, I didn’t leave anything behind. And actually, on the scale of ice cream creations from this establishment – mine was somewhat tame. They had a 12-scoop version too! There was a cake place next door (with equally as impressive cakes). But we decided we were in more of an ice cream mood.

Actually, it was interesting. Normally in France portion sizes are small compared to American portion sizes. And we’ve grown used to that (it’s probably a good thing!). But in Saint-Malo, everything was a big portion (yet still relatively inexpensive). I’m not 100% sure of the reasoning. However, the region has three high-speed ferry routes to the UK, which is just over an hour away by boat. Thus, the majority of the tourists here are from the UK.

We did find that when we went out of town a bit to a more local place to eat, portion sizes returned to French normalcy. On a totally unrelated note, our salt shaker that night was made by a French car company:

Given our ice cream, we headed out the next day for a bit of an easy ride/wander up the coast for a few hours. Not a workout, just a ride. Don’t worry, we got in both runs and bikes on other days too – attempting to even things out (and Mr. Scale said they were even at the end of the trip, woot!).

(Note below, big portions again – we split this salad)

On Thursday we started working our way out of town. We ended up stopping in at a grocery store, mostly to try and pick up some stuff for the CupCakery. All of our grocery stores in Paris are the size of a 7-11 in the US. So this looked massive from the outside.

And indeed it was massive on the inside too. On par, if not bigger than a typical US Walmart, but half-grocery, half-not-grocery.

We picked up a few things, but I did marvel at the selection of mustard here (and I don’t even like mustard!). Note the huge tubs at the bottom:

And, I also couldn’t help but notice the Paris themed toilet seats. Fear not, this is not installed in our apartment.

And then we have the Tour de France themed ‘tubular’. Pay particular attention to the 14 recommended methods to wear it, including bank-robber biker style.

After leaving behind the bank-robber, we made our way to one of France’s most famous sites – Mont Saint-Michel. The focal point of it being the church. For anyone who’s ever watched the Tour de France on TV, this always seems to make the television promos.

Here it is, from the parking lot – several miles away still.

Wait, parking lot you say? Here, let me help illustrate:

Oh, and that’s only perhaps 25% of it. In effect, we had arrived at Disneyland and didn’t know it. I guess I thought we’d just sorta drive up to the thing and walk across the tidal lands and enjoy a quiet afternoon in the walled island.

I was wrong.

Instead, we walked for a while, and then boarded a shuttle bus (which, btw, had two fronts and could drive forward or backwards).

After getting off the bus, we joined a few dozen-thousand others marching to or from the castle.

Now, the castle looking thing (well, technically a church) actually sits out in the middle of the tidal lands. So at high tide it’s completely surrounded by water. Up until about two years ago, there was a large parking lot at the base of it, some of which would become submerged. Around then they started a project to completely return it to its original state – ultimately removing the road and the parking lot. Much of that is completed already (hence the massive parking lots back on land).

At this point they are building the elevated bridge platform that will connect the main visitor area (way off in the distance to the right). Once completed water will be able to freely flow under/around the bridge. Completion is scheduled for roughly spring of next year.

Once we stepped inside the walled island, it was crazy packed. There’s tons of places to eat, and even about 8 small hotels on the island. A few thousands of tourists.

We wandered around a bit, but decided that we’d prefer to come back and really explore the place in the winter when nobody is around. One of the perks of living here is being able to explore when it’s low-season.

With our stay there complete, we got the car pointed towards Paris and started the drive back. About a mile later though we noticed a windmill amidst a bunch of bright yellow flowers. In fact, these fields of yellow flowers literally blanket the French countryside right now. I’d love to know what they are.

With that, road trip over and back home. Thanks for reading! And hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!

Yesterday celebrated the installation of the new bells at Notre Dame.  Though, the process has taken a wee bit longer than just one day.  A little over a month ago they paraded the bells through the streets of Paris, en route for display within Notre Dame itself.  I poked over one quiet day (this was before it got all busy here), and took a few photos.  Here’s a bit more of the backstory.

In total there are 9 new bells.

The bells were ordered by size, starting with relatively small, like below – about the size of a fridge:

Each bell is named individually:

And all of the bells were unique, with some having intricate details carved into them:

All the bells did have this etched into/onto each one however:

It was actually fun watching the older crowd checking out the bells.  Out of most people I observed (I popped in a few times over the time they were there), it was actually the older crowd who’d ding (tap) the bells.

And, it was the older crowd who seemed most enthralled by them.

Each bell weighed a crapton.  Well, actually, some literally did weigh a ton.  The smallest was 782 kilos (1,724 pounds), and the largest new bell was an astounding 4,162 kilos (9,175 pounds).

If I was a bell-maker, I’ve gotta say, I’d have been most worried about the little piece at the top that holds the bell up.

Here, the biggest bell in the flotilla:

Then, after they were done being on display they started hoisting them up about 3 weeks ago.  It was usually done late at night, like 12AM-3AM type late at night.  A few times when coming home from the CupCakery (if she had a big custom order), we’d see them with the cranes moving them in and out – and the large doors open.  It was funny just how much security (police) they had guarding it all (albeit sitting in cars).  Not exactly sure who they thought was going to run off with a  multi-ton bell.  But I suppose when ya need a bell, ya really need a bell.

Over the last few weeks they’ve been testing the bells.  We’ve long since gotten used to the bells here, so any change in the bells is quite noticeable.  They’d do all sorts of tests, sometimes for considerable time.

Then finally, yesterday was the big bell installation celebration.  They managed to luck into the nicest day we’ve had weather-wise this year, and completely packed the place!  I walked over to check it all out.

The place was swarming not only with people, but with media as well.  It’s been sorta a big deal on the news here.

They had these massive screens up to broadcast to…well…the masses.

Additionally, there were people everywhere on the grounds of the church as well – just hanging out waiting for the bells:

The ceremony was nice and short.  Essentially the main man spoke (Archbishop of Paris):

After he was done there was a video showing how the bells were made, along with highlights of their journey to Paris.

Then, they ding-dong’ed the bells.  For a while.  A long…long…long while.

Here’s a small video clip of what they sound like.  Ok, it’s actually two clips I pieced together…and, somewhat long. So you can skip around and stuff.

As I sit here and write this, the bells are apparently on extra credit ringing.  All day today (Sunday), when there is normally just the hour/quarter-hour chimes, they’ve been going at it for 3-5 minutes per quarter-hour.  Thus, a lot of ding-dong today.

But, we enjoy it – part of the experience of living so close to the church.

Thanks for reading!

When we were living in the US, we didn’t eat at fast food places too frequently.  And when we did, it generally trended more towards ‘healthier’ fast food variants (i.e. Subway, Quiznos, etc…).  And then there was Chipotle.  Chipotle was our go-to after long 20 mile runs or 80-100 mile rides when we wanted to do nothing else other than get instant fullness via a massive burrito that was relatively healthy (in moderation).

Last spring when we were picking out houses, we had heard there was a Chipotle in Paris, but never paid it a visit during our house-hunting.  In fact, never even looked it up on a map.  Probably a good thing in retrospect, as otherwise we might would have just lived across the street from it.  There’s only one Chipotle in France, and it’s here in Paris.  There are also a handful of Chipotle’s in London – but that’s it for spots outside the US.

But since moving here last summer, we have wandered up there about 2-3 times now.  The reason for the lack of visits to it is simply that it’s a bit of a haul to get to.  Here’s a quick map of Paris, showing where it is, and where we are:

The few times we’ve gone, it’s been via Metro (subway).  And due to the way the lines are, there’s a handful of train switches.  Not terribly efficient.  Getting there on bike isn’t too bad however.

At any rate, once you arrive, here’s what you’re looking at:

Once inside, you’ll have the counter just ahead of you to the left.  You’ll want to pick-up a menu along the way (obviously, completely unnecessary for me).

We’ve lucked out in that out of the 2-3 times we’ve been there, it’s only been busy once.  Likely because we have only gone on ugly rainy and cold nights – pretty late too.  I hear that during the day at lunch the line is out the door crazy.

Menu-wise, it’s virtually identical to the US Chipotles.  You can go with Burrito, Tacos, Burrito Bowl, or a Salad.  It’s not clear to me if you can also get some of the off-menu items like Quesadilla like you can in the US.

And the meat selection is the same here.  No horsemeat option or snails here.  Just Beef, Chicken, Pork, and Veggie.  Unlike the US however, all fillings are the same price.

And then finally, pretty much the usual toppings.  And of course, there’s wine on the menu here (as well as beer).  Though, that’s in the US too.

For those doing the math at home, 9€ is just under $12US.  A pricey burrito!  Though, just about everything is more expensive in Paris (except Baguettes).

Ordering is essentially the same as the US.  You first get your burrito wrap warmed up, and then choose the type of beans before moving onto meat:

It’s notable just be how much smaller the kitchen space is compared to most American Chipotles.  The area behind these guys to the left where the knives are hanging are the only cooking surfaces.

There are two items which are different.  First is the rice.  They have a brown-rice variant, and no white rice:

And on salsas they taste similar, but not exactly the same.  Still good stuff.  I would note that when we were up in London for the Olympics, we had Chipotle there and didn’t find the taste as similar to the US Chipotle.  A bit more variation across the board than we would have liked.  Not sure if that was a one-off day or not.

So we were a bit hesitant coming here it would be significantly different, and were happy it wasn’t.

Way back in November we actually ran into the owner of Chipotle France at a community event.  Ironically, he’s a pretty avid triathlete, cyclist and runner.  Especially cycling though – way into cycling.  He gave us two cards for free burritos (regrettably not for life, just two burritos).

(Translated: The gourmet restaurant where where you eat with your fingers)

Once you’ve paid out, the rest of the restaurant space itself is actually a bit bigger than most US Chipotle’s I’ve been to, at least as far as seating goes.  You’ve got seating on the main level facing out onto the streets (as seen in the glassed in picture up top).  And then if you head upstairs you have an entire level of seating that wraps around the staircase.

And then, it’s time to enjoy the burrito:

Regrettably, it doesn’t take long:

And yes, the Napkins are almost the same too…with the added France website bit.

And you thought this post made you hungry?  Just imagine me, I’ve been sitting here editing photos and text for the last 75 minutes.

Thanks for reading!

We typically go once a week to the gigantic restaurant-only store.  Sometimes less depending if the weather was crummy that week, since in the off-season, weather drives sales.  The store is only open to those with a food-business license and tax documentation, so it’s unfortunately not open to the public.  Nonetheless, I figured I’d give you a tour of a typical night there.  In case you’re wondering why we go at night, it’s really the only time both of us are free.  We both work during the day, with The Girl finishing up around 7PM or so.  Then a workout gets fit in, before heading there around 9PM – just before they close at 10PM.

The store is located about 2 miles away from the shop.  But, we first need to pickup a little Autolib car before heading over.

Just like at Costco, we scan our membership card in to be entered.  Though here, an automatic turn style lets in us.

Typically The Girl has a very set list of ingredients she picks up.  For the most part, there’s actually very little on the perishable side that we have to get every week.  When it comes down to it, it’s really just Milk, Eggs and Butter.  We get fruit too for cupcakes, but the quantities at Metro (that’s the name of the store) are simply too big for us.  We really don’t need 25 kilos (over 50 pounds) of bananas.  We can pick out smaller bags, but it’s honestly just as easy for us to buy these ‘on-demand’ at the grocery store a dozen yards down the street.

From the standpoint of ingredients the major ones that we buy virtually every week in large quantities are: Eggs, Butter, Sugar, and Flour.

For example, the flour and sugar we do buy in 25kg (50lbs+) bags:

And not just one type of sugar either, but multiple types – from standard granulated sugar, to confectioners sugar.

If it’s a week where we’re picking up chocolate, we swing by the chocolate aisle.  Yes, an entire aisle.  We get a few different varieties, from milk to dark, and then different varieties within that.  For example, some we use for melting into either the cake or the icing.  And others is used in shavings or other creations.

After the chocolate, comes the eggs.  We typically buy these in 90-egg boxes, unless there is an event coming up that week, in which case we’d buy the 180-egg cases.

I keep hoping I can come up with a reason to buy these little quail eggs.  Plus, they’re so cheap!

In fact in general, I’m sorta like the toddler in the supermarket when it comes to Metro.  I’m always wandering off finding interesting things I think we should buy.  Things that clearly have no relation to the Cupcakery.

This is especially true when I wander into the cheese aisle:

For example, an entire section dedicated to Buffalo Mozzarella (within the Italian cheeses):

Yup, added that to the cart.

And then there’s cheddar cheese.  Silly you might think, but you can’t find cheddar here in the grocery store.  In fact, this is the ONLY place I’ve seen it.  I mostly use it for tacos.  So I shred up a bunch and freeze it.  And then I cut up a bunch for little cheddar sticks in snack packs.  Then I still have a TON left.  So I seal it up and double-bag it and hope it stays good.

The funny thing is that it’s about the same price as a normal-sized block of cheddar costs in the US.

So at this point, we’re in the cold section.  Which is actually an ENTIRE portion of the store.  Like walking into a giant freezer the size of Riteaid.

And for the most part, about the only thing we get in here for the CupCakery is milk and butter.  Thus, despite the fact that I spend the majority of my time in the store in here, it’s mostly for me.

(Warning: This next section is not vegetarian friendly)

Within the cold section is also the meat section:

Or, the ‘leg of anything you want’ section:

I keep trying to convince The Girl that we should have one of these in our kitchen at home.  Just slice off a chunk of Serrano ham when you need it.  Perfect!

Or, you can get the entire animal and cook to order.

Sometimes we get smaller stuff here.  And sometimes The Girl recreates the Dancing Goose dance from this past fall.

There’s also a massive seafood section.  And while the prices are generally good by Paris standards, we find that stuff in this section is generally in the same range as Costco prices in the US.

There’s also a huge produce section.

You’d be amazed at how big the potato section is.  And, along with it, the French fries (frites) section is.  Literally an entire wall about 50 feet long of French fries.

Need mushrooms?

We are proud though that the Zucchini Blossoms are still WAY cheaper when we pick them out at the farm, like last fall.

Then we run around and pick up all sorts of other random things.  For example, 22 pounds of butter (10kg), and half a dozen Nutella containers. In case you’re curious, those giant Nutella plastic jars you see are actually more expensive by weight than cheaper containers, which is why you see them for show, but in reality everyone uses the smaller containers (watch the next time you’re in Paris and order a Nutella crepe).  After that, we head towards the line to check out.

Then we load up the little Autolib for the drive back:

When we get to the shop we unload everything and I go drop-off the car about 100 yards away.

Meanwhile, The Girl gets started on inventory.  Every item has to be inventoried in (from a food safety standpoint).  Which includes writing down serial numbers and dates of everything.

Once I’m back from dropping off the car, I get usually get the job of taking all the eggs out and putting them in large metal trays.  We’re not allowed to have any cardboard in the food production area.

Finally, after everything is done at the shop, we pile in all the good stuff for our house, and put it in a container to take back home.  This night, it was quite heavily Italian-focused.

So there ya have it – our Friday night date night.

Thanks for reading, and have a great Friday everyone!

When we got here this summer, we started seeing these little electric cars parked all over Paris – you literally couldn’t go more than a couple blocks without seeing a station of 3-5 cars parked and hooked up.  We started investigating it, and found out it’s actually a pretty good deal.  It works sorta similar to Zipcar in the US (though, I’m not super-familiar with that program).  We pay an annual fee – a little over 100-Euros, and then we pay by the half-hour.  The rates vary from 4-7 Euros per half-hour.  There are no fees for how far you drive.  There are some limitations – you’re only allowed to drive so far outside the city before some voice in the sky pops up on your dashboard and tells you to turn around.  Like the GM Onstar, but…Autolib instead.

For us, we pretty much only use the little car to go get supplies for the CupCakery at the restaurant supply store.  So on average, about once a week.  There are a few random trips too– such our trip to the u-pick farm to go vegetable/fruit picking.  These are places where the Metro doesn’t really go, nor would be practical (i.e. carrying back 100 pounds of flower/sugar/etc…).  And usually, it’s far cheaper and faster than a taxi.

Every time we go to pickup a car, tourists stop to watch how it all works (and even take photos of us).  So I figure if every person that visits Paris is interested in how it works – you might be as well.

First up, finding the cars.  There’s an app for that!  It tells me what’s nearest to me, and if there are open cars/spots.

From there, I grab my Autolib yellow card:

I’ll go up to the small machine that’s on the curb, or at the end of cars.  You can’t just randomly pick a car, you gotta take to the ATM machine of sorts.  I just swipe my card where those arrows are at the bottom.

It then tells me that there are indeed vehicles available, and I simply tap the button to go ahead and begin.  Now interestingly, the company behind Autolib is actually a British company, which means that I can display everything in English.  Additionally, if I connect to a human and ask for help – it’s a very friendly Brit.  Perfect!

Next, it asks me three questions – Monty Python style!  In my case, my license is tied to a valid US drivers license – which Autolib holds a copy of.  Beyond that, it ensures I’m not drinking, nor taking any performance enhancing drugs.

Once I do that, it then tells me which car I’ll get.  In this case, it’s car #2.

Looks like there were two cars to choose from that day.  It seems based on what I’ve seen that all things charge-wise being equal, it’ll actually give you whichever car is easiest to get out (from a parking standpoint).  Kinda nice!

Next, I’ll go to the car and swipe my cardkey on the badge reader.  It’s just like at work, except, inside the window.  There are no keys for door entry – the card is my key.  If I want to park and leave the vehicle somewhere, I just swipe to lock it.  I can keep the car for quite a long time.  Not sure exactly, but we had it for 2-3 hours one day out at the farm.

Then, I go up to the little tower next to the car.  The tower contains the plug to charge the car.  In this case, it’s connected to the car.  The top lifts up when you unlock it from either the unit, or the ATM machine thing.

Here’s the cable in the car (charging)…

And here’s the cable unplugged.  It’s pretty much impossible to put in the wrong way.  Not sure how you’d do it the wrong way even if you wanted to.  But in this case, we’re taking it out.

We just stash it inside the little car-side tower, and then close it up.  It’ll lock automatically.

After getting inside the car, it welcomes us.  In theory it remembers settings like radio stations and the like – but, we don’t really use that piece.

In the dashboard I can see how far I’ve gone on that trip, as well as the battery level.  In this case, it seems like the trip indicator is a bit off (since I just got in the car).

With that, we’re off and driving.  As you can see, it’s not a terribly big car, so I don’t fit super-well.

The dashboard has a GPS built into it, so I can program an address as well as see where parking spots are.  If you look at the below, those blue numbers indicate open parking spots at Autolib stations.  When I want to navigate back (I can go to any station), I just type in the station name nearest me.  Makes it easy to get around parts of the city I’m not good at yet.  Though these days, I don’t need the GPS unless we’re going on the fringe of the city somewhere I haven’t been (for a cake/cupcake delivery).

If you notice the below, as I brake it’ll transfer that energy back into charging the battery.  You can kinda see it on the right side with the green arrow illuminated.

Conversely, if I’m ‘burning electricity’, you’ll see the arrow go from the battery to the car.

Otherwise, I just drive.  Yup, that’s me.  The Girl is taking the photos.

I don’t mind driving here.  I’ve driven enough in dozens of other countries that it doesn’t phase me.  And just for clarification – we drive on the right here – just like in the US.  In fact, I’ve found it easier to switch to driving on the left when I travel to countries that are left-sided.  I think it’s because I only drive once a week, so some of the habits wear off a bit.  Some coworkers were recently amazed at how fluid things were when I drove in the UK – despite being on the ‘wrong side of the road’.

The Girl isn’t as much a fan of driving here, mostly due to the city aspect (though she still does occasionally).  Driving here isn’t nearly as crazy as some countries I’ve been to (i.e. Thailand), but, it’s definitely a bit more ‘free’ than in the US or Canada.  Lanes are merely ‘suggestions’, and you must make a extra partial lane out of your lane for mopeds and motorcycles.  So getting used to the ‘extra lane’ concept can be a bit odd.  Of course, I’ve long since learned about extra lanes (again, in Asia).  Where a standard two-lane road (one in each direction) is actually a five lane road: The breakdown lanes are considered valid travel lanes (2), then the two regular lanes (2), and then the center-line is considered a lane (1).  Like 5 for the price of 2!

Here, more like 4 for 2.  No centerline lane.  At any rate…

Of course, our real talent here is packing in the goods!  We’ll go to the store and fit in a mind-bogglingly large amount of stuff into that little car.  This is one of the earlier trips we did back in October for supplies.  P.S. – That’s a LOT of chocolate….and butter.

And, same goes for our trip out to the farm:

The only bummer about the car is that the backseat is bolted upright.  So you can’t put it down.  This makes it slightly tricky to use for holding two bikes.  We can fit them in, but we have to take off both wheels to do so (on both bikes).  It’s also a bit expensive if you were going on a long-ride somewhere, but it’s not too bad if you pick a station outside the city – pay the 30 minute fee to get there ($4-$7), and then pick up a car again for the way home.  To date, we’ve just simply ridden our way out instead.

Finally, when we’re all done, we simply find an open parking spot at an Autolib station, and park the car.  All we need to do is tap the little tower with our card and then it opens up the charging cable to reconnect it.  Then we just lock the car and walk away!

For us, we tend to pickup the car nearest our house, and then drop it off nearest the bakery.  Of course, those two are pretty much only a few hundred yards away – but via car, they end up being about 5-8 minutes drive due to one-way streets.

Hope ya found it interesting.  Thanks for reading!

Hello from Bertie’s CupCakery!  Before I start in on all of the news, I would first and foremost like to thank all of the DCR readers who have personally visited the CupCakery or referred their friends & family to the shop during their travels through Paris. I can’t tell you enough how excited I am when a fellow reader pops in and says “Hi, I read your husbands blog and…”, I think it’s so cool and it means a lot!

As you may have read in an earlier post about our opening weekend, opening the shop was one giant adventure! We had lots of great friends who came through in the crunch time and helped with everything no matter how big or small the chore!

Now since some time has passed and I’m feeling more at home in my little kitchen thought you might appreciate some updated pictures of the shop, shop exterior, and my Christmas decorating!

The Little Shop:

Big celebrations took place when our signs were FINALLY installed! We had a big waiting game with the city for permission to post our signs. Because we are physically on the island with Notre Dame, rules and regs are much stricter here in effort to preserve the style and architecture. We were accepted without problem or revision, and now Bertie’s CupCakery feels whole!

A look at our flavors:

Currently I mostly focus on a predefined set of flavors daily.  Granted there are about 13 different options each day, but for the most part 10 of those flavors have been the same from day one. They are popular and the locals have come to know and love them! You have to remember that cupcakes are fairly new to these parts, so at first I had customers coming the shop simply to investigate what “cupcakes” were. If I had little cupcake labels titled “Chunky-Monkey”, “Rocky Road”, and “Half Baked” I may never have seen them again! Therefore right now, Pistachio-Chocolate, Nutella Banana, Salted Caramel, and Vanilla are flavors that they know and trust and therefore decided to sample these so called cups of cake.

Fighting for the lead of the top selling cupcake are three flavors. Salted Caramel, Pistachio Chocolate, and Nutella Banana. All, in my opinion, are fine choices!

Now that I have these locals hooked on my Americanized creations I have started slipping in a new “Flavor of the Day” or “Flavor of the Week”. This week the mint chocolate chip cupcakes have been a big hit! What I would do for a few boxes of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies to put on top!

But a real upcoming competitor to the top sellers is a formal “cupcake of the day” flavor who has made it onto the starting line up. Strawberry Lemonade! A strawberry based cake with strawberry and lemon buttercream!

And then of course, we’ve been doing all sorts of holiday related cupcakes over the last month!

Starting in the new year, I will be introducing some more new flavors that will hopefully catch on. I am particularly eyeing peanut butter. While this seems like an obvious flavor by North American standards, peanut butter isn’t quite the go-to flavor in the pastry world over here. I’m up for the challenge.

Events…we’ve been everywhere!:

December was a great month for the CupCakery as we attended several events and really embraced the Christmas cheer! We started off at the American School of Paris’s Christmas Boutique. I must say that the families I met from ASP are awesome! I suppose because we are all living abroad and experiencing similar issues (like lack of access to Blue Box Kraft Dinner) that it felt like there was an appreciation and understanding for each other. I was thrilled about the amount of positive feedback at the Christmas Boutique; everyone was genuinely excited about finding “real cupcakes”.

Later the month we were invited to a few events at The Shakespeare and Company Bookstore.

Creating custom cakes for a book release and magazine launch were more great opportunities to get the word out about Bertie’s CupCakery!

See who’s checked us out:

Being married to a blogger I am ever aware of how important media and social media is for a new business. I was so excited when I had a customer return after eating my cupcakes and said “I have to interview you for my blog”. Turns out my customer was a bit of a food critic, married to a professional chef, who also owns a local cooking school here in Paris “Cooking with Class”. I had researched this particular school over the summer when trying to decide what to do with my life! I could not have been more flattered that they had taken an interest in me! If you are interested in what she had to say follow this link to Feels Like Home in Paris.

New website calendar:

As you may have realized the CupCakery is currently a one man show. I am here early in the morning baking until later in the evening selling cupcakes five days a week. So there are some days or weeks that I might be off doing something else. Maybe I am at a big wedding show, running a marathon, or simply getting some R&R, regardless of what I am doing I might not be able to juggle two or three things on one day.  Shortly you’ll be able to check the calendar to see if I’ll be around when you are traveling through Paris, or want to place an order. For now though, just check the main page first.

I look forward to seeing everyone in the New Year!