We’ve told you about the Maison d’Honoré de Balzac on Monday. In order to encourage you to visit this museum, we’ve decided to telling you more about this author behind. Although he had been criticized for the most part of his books, playwright rejected, printer indebted, and committed journalist, he left a huge literary legacy behind him. In fact, he has inspired many writers, such as Gustave Flaubert for his masterpieces L’Education Sentimentale and Madame Bovary.

Honoré de Balzac was born on May 20^th, 1799, in Tours (France). After a more or less happy childhood he has obtained a law degree but renounced to a lawyer career. He prefers becoming writer. And he starts, from his 20 years old, to write his first works. He wrote some plays, but they were unanimously rejected, so he published adventure novels under pseudonyms, just to live. From 1825, Honoré de Balzac bought a publishing enterprise, huge mistake :  he was debt-ridden practically all his life. Highly conservative Royalist, he undertook a major literary project analytical and philosophical about the human condition, based on scenes from people’s lives. In 1841, La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy) was published unfinished. Because he was perfectionist, Honoré de Balzac was constantly correcting his manuscripts and provoked the publishers angry. In the same time he corresponded with Eve Hanska. They married in 1850, but the over-tiredness and his excesses led to his death few months later, without ever having children.

La Maison de Balzac
47, rue Reynouard
75116 Paris
France
T.: +33 (0)1 55 74 41 80
F.: +33 (0)1 45 25 19 22

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In the rue Reynouard, among an ocean of modern buildings, there is a little porch and a blue portal. Here, a small house differs with its garden full of flowers and its green shutter in the heart of Paris, perfectly located opposite to the Eiffel Tower. We are in front of the Home Sweet Home of Honoré de Balzac. It’s full of his personal memories, paintings, engravings, and a lot of original editions. Exhibitions are regularly organized. Ideal occasion to discover Balzac as you have never seen him.

The house of Balzac is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.

Free entrance for current exhibitions, from €2 to €4 for temporary exhibitions.

La Maison de Balzac
47, rue Reynouard
75116 Paris
France
T.: +33 (0)1 55 74 41 80
F.: +33 (0)1 45 25 19 22

See our other recommendations in the area of Passy.

On Wednesday, we swore to give you a selection of best gourmet books written by Philippe Conticini, chef of La Pâtisserie des Rêves . Let’s have an overview of his literary and gourmet works.

Thousand of recipes

Generous and passionate, Philippe Conticini likes to test our culinary skills and his many books prove it (a dozen at least). Creator of the verrines principle, he delivered his best recipes, using the ingredients in cupboards. Sweet or salted, you discover Les Verrines du Chef (2008) with delight.

A little bit more scientific but no less delicious, Propos culinaires et savants (2008) brings us into a dialogue about molecular cuisine between Hervé This, a physical chemist, creator of this cuisine, and 5 chefs, including our pastry chef.

In Croquez Monsieur (2007) and Original Speculoos (2010, his last one published), he strives to reveal all the aspects of the same product. On one hand, you have around thirty originals and brand news recipes around the croque-monsieur, on the other hand he gives us 50 ways, sweet or salted, to cook speculoos. We discover incredible associations such as the famous Beaufort cheese speculoos and nuts. Funny and modern recipes are for all food lovers of all ages. Now, you can’t run out of ideas for end-year celebrations!

Want to read more about La Pâtisserie des Rêves, click here!

Monday, we told you about La Pâtisserie des rêves the new temple of greediness. So, to give you further information, we met Chef Philippe Conticini.

For over thirty years, this great name of French cuisine has strived to amaze our taste buds. Since his childhood, Philippe Conticini has always had a passion for tasty food. This helped him to quickly find his vocation. He has been trained by Alain Dutournier, before joining the big names of gastronomy, as Robuchon, Gagnaire and Lucien Peltier. His experience pushed him to open his own restaurant with his brother Christian, La Table d’Anvers in Montmartre, and he won the title of Chef pâtissier de l’Année given by the Gault-Millau in 1991. Then, he joined Petrossian, and changed career in 2004 by opening a laboratory in Paris. 2007 marked his first television appearance, presenting Jeux de Goûts on Cuisine TV, in which he cooks simple recipes using what fills our closets! In 2009, he opened with Thierry Teyssier La Pâtisserie des Rêves. He has also written a dozen of cookbooks, that we will provide you a small selection on Friday.

How was born La Pâtisserie des Rêves?

It all started in 2006. Thierry Teyssier asked me for advice, for one of his hotels in Portugal. He appreciated my suggestions and then asked me to open a pastry shop. It became a true friendship story. Each one has his own part. I deal with the creation of products and with making the work famous. While Thierry takes care of everything else including the history and design. In 2008, we opened a laboratory in which I worked for a year with Angelo, World Champion of Pastry and Meilleur Ouvrier de France, to create and display pastries. On September 1st, 2009, La Pâtisserie des Rêves opened Rue du Bac. This was a real success. Several months after the opening, we extended the sign with a bigger tea room perfect for greedy people in rue de Longchamp.

How do you revisit the classics of French Pastry?

I’m an extremely modern and creative person, and that led me to many misunderstandings. I must say that when I started in 1986, I was quite alone on the taste path, to work on it. I was in some way a revolutionary in this background. People used to say I was too complicated! Since 1995, I strived to do simple things. Finally, when Thierry asked me to open a pastry shop, I knew I was ready to revisit the classics, working on vanilla, pistachio, chocolate and so on. You should know that before, I used to combine 12 to 14 flavors in a single dessert. Finally, it is extremely complicated to do simple things, because it is about knowing his work on the fingertips, do it high-level, and once you master it completely after a few years, you have to go down to simplicity. With all this creativity, this experience of 30 years, I decided to serve a single flavor for a pastry, but careful, I try to sublimate it. For example, I add a bit of licorice, sea salt, cocoa butter to perfect a Millefeuille with vanilla, and I imagined the Black Forest cake, a cherry chocolate dessert, in cherry shaped. Besides, I need 3-4 months to prepare a pastry as simple as it is. We can do classic things but very modern with some style. What is really good, is consequently beautiful. The opposite is not always true!

What’s new?

About cakes, we just launched the Moka, a dessert with a coffee crisp, sea salt and butter cream lightened with milk foam, sponge cake soaked in coffee juice, and cocoa, the whole in coffee bean shaped. Otherwise, we will open a pastry shop in Kyoto in September and another one in Osaka in October 2012. We have lots of projects but for the time being, we turn to Japan. From a personal point of view, Cuisine TV asked me to think about a second season of Jeux de goûts.

Photo credit: Goût de News par Philippe Toinard

Philippe Conticini has accepted to participate to our 100% gourmet Chinese portrait!

1.Would you have some more…. ?
Liberty!
2.A feast is not a feast without?
Friends.
3.Your favorite salty delicacy ?
White truffle pasta from the Bistrot Napolitain.
4.Your best gourmet memory?
At Shangri-La, the dessert, small balls of rice dough, with inside a badly crushed sesame cream, a little bit grainy and sweet.
5.The taste you hate?
Lack of balance.
6.Your favorite dessert?
The Mille-Feuille.
7.The recipe that makes talk about you ?
The Paris-Brest.

La Pâtisserie des Rêves
111, rue de Longchamp
Paris
France
T.: +33.(0)1.47.04.00.24

Open from Tuesday to Friday from 2 pm to 7 pm. On Saturdays and Mondays from 12 pm to 9 pm.

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When entering the 111 rue de Longchamp, we discover an almost sacred place. La Pâtisserie des Rêves owns a cozy atmosphere and soft colors. No pastry invasion in that Olympian place, but the cream of the crop pastry, arranged under glass bell like in the high spots of gastronomy. The great pastry chef, Philippe Conticini, animated by an incredible sense of taste and emotion, revisits the great classics of French pastry to produce real sweet miracles. From the runny heart of the legendary Paris-Brest to the crunchy Mille-Feuille, passing by the extremely thin apples layers of the Tarte Tatin, this pastry shop makes us really dream.

Open from Tuesday to Friday from 2 pm to 7 pm. On Saturdays and Mondays from 12 pm to 9 pm.

La Pâtisserie des Rêves
111, rue de Longchamp
Paris
France
T.: +33 (0)1 47 04 00 24

See other gourmet places recommended by the Gavarni Hotel.

Shifumi. This name hides four big children, Marie, Etienne, Antoinette and Marie-Laetitia. This brand of ready-to-wear is fun, original and organic! From Sportswear to loungewear through the timeless classics, Shifumi plays on all styles. Minimalist cuts of collections are embellished with vintage details. In addition to respecting the planet by choosing organic or natural materials for most of the clothes, the ethical brand’s production is based in Europe and Madagascar, employing women returners in Paris suburbs. Come on, we run to Eme & ISA, their point of sale in Paris, to get the must-have of the season: the quilted short in organic cotton!

The store EME & ISA is opened from Tuesday to Friday from midday to 9 pm, on Saturdays from midday to 8 pm and on Sundays from midday to 7 pm.

Photo credit: Paul ROUSTEAU

Photo credit: Paul ROUSTEAU

Photo credit: Paul ROUSTEAU

Photo credit: Paul ROUSTEAU

Shufumi in sale at Eme & ISA
38, rue Quincampoix
74004 Paris
France
T.: +33.(0)6.21.85.47.64

See other green good places on the Gavarni’s blog

Paul Rousteau

Last Monday, we told you about the Musée National de la Marine. Because the hotel Gavarni is located right next to it, it was decided to present its current exhibition, dedicated to Guadeloupian painting, and in particular Georges Rohner (1913-2000). The opportunity to think something different for a change, leave the hotel and discover Paris!

Affiche de l’exposition – conception graphique Romuald Maurel
Georges ROHNER, La rade de Basse-Terre, 1935
© photo Philippe Virapin / ADAGP Paris 2011

The French Antilles: a land of inspiration

Georges Rohner is one of the greatest representatives of the Guadeloupian painting. Inspired by his uncle, sculptor George Stugocki, the artist registered in 1929 as a student in the free workshop of Lucien Simon. There, he met among others, Robert Humblot, Jacques Despierre and Jean Lasne, with whom he founded the group “Forces Nouvelles”, which advocates a return to drawing and figuration in response to the rise of abstraction.

Georges ROHNER, Coupeur de bananes ou Le porteur de bananes, 1935
© photo Philippe Virapin / ADAGP Paris 2011

During his military service, Georges Rohner was sent to Guadeloupe. During his two years of service, he created more than 80 paintings, sketches and drawings, representing the Caribbean landscapes and scenes of daily life in warm colors and idyllic lines, as he is seduced by the tropical beauty and intensity of light. While 2011 is the year of overseas territories, the Musée National de la Marine has decided to pay tribute to those who had actively participated in the development of the artistic creation of the French Antilles in the first half of the twentieth century.

Full price: €9 for permanent exhibitions + current exhibitions.

“Georges Rohner et la Guadeloupe (1934-1936)” Exhibition, at the Musée National de la Marine until the January 16th, 2012.
Open everyday from 11 am to 6 pm, on Saturdays and Sundays until 7 pm.

Palais de Chaillot
17, Place du Trocadéro
75116 Paris
France
T.: +33.(0)1.53.65.69.69
F.: +33.(0)1.53.65.69.65

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Known as one of the oldest maritime museums (with the Saint Petersburg), the Musée National de la Marine contains a large collection of ship models, navigational instruments, paintings, sculptures and art items. From the Napoleon’s Imperial barge to the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, via the stern decoration of La Réale, the museum offers a detailed view based on more than 350 years of French shipbuilding. It reveals the greatest technological advances as well as all generations of ships designed by the maritime engineering. Punctuated by temporary exhibitions as diverse as varied, we sail to all skylines, both in the universe of Jules Verne, as in the pirate boats or toy boats. Professional, amateur or enthusiast, museum attracts all generations attentive to maritime heritage. A whole new world where we begin to dream, sailing on the ocean in search of an island still untouched.

Photo Credit : MnM – S.Dondain

Photo Credit : MnM – S.Dondain

Open everyday from 11 am to 6 pm, until 7 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Full price : €7.

Palais de Chaillot
17, Place du Trocadéro
75116 Paris
France
T.: +33.(0)1.53.65.69.69
F.: +33.(0)1.53.65.69.65

From London to Tokyo via New York, Philippe Starck will take more than one person by surprise thanks to his creative genius. It’s in an Art Deco building in rue de la Pompe that the restaurant Bon opened his doors in 2002. Purchased by Philippe Amzalac and renovated in 2008 by the French designer, you can now have dinner in the wine cellar, modern and warm, in the very studious library room with its large shelves full of books in trompe l’oeil, in the ultra design fireplace room, or in the boudoir. As gastronomic as shifted, the aptly named restaurant prepares a fresh cuisine inspired by World Food, where Asian flavors dominate.

Chef Yannick Papin revisits a delicate universe marked by daring and sweet flavors. The result is striking: warm duck foie gras, bar tartare, fresh scallop snacked and Tom Yam sauce are all tasty delights to discover urgently! So are you tempted?

The big bonus: As the saying goes: When you love, you don’t count the cost! In few days you can read the interview of the Chef Yannick Papin on the Gavarni’s blog.

Open everyday from 12 pm to 3 pm / from 7.30 pm to 11.30 pm.

Restaurant Bon
25, rue de la Pompe
75116 Paris
France
T.: +33.(0)1.40.72.00.00
F.: +33.(0)1.40.72.68.30
reservation@restaurantbon.fr

After design, make way for cuisine! Yannick Papin has begun to work in catering when he was 15 years old. After having worked in starred restaurants, he became chef at 24 years old, in the Michel Rostang’s kitchens, and he stayed for 7 years. Ambitious and determined, Yannick Papin has chosen to work for a big firm. When he met Philippe Amzalac, by chance, owner of Bon since 2005, he became the chef of his restaurant. Concerned about giving a real culinary identity to the restaurant, they reinvented the menu, and suggested a fusion cuisine, midway between Asian tastes turn toward Thailand and European tastes. His dishes are as good as beautiful, inspired from his experiences in the starred restaurants but most specifically from his travels. Big lover of Asian culture, he goes to Asia twice a year.

His plans? In less than 6 months, another restaurant will be raised in the flea market at Saint-Ouen, near antiquarians. Of course, he will be the chef but the cuisine provided will be different. Don’t worry, we’ll talk until then!

To know him better, Yannick has accepted to answer to our 100% gourmet Chinese portrait. Pay attention, flood of secrets!

1. A feast is not a feast when…
Some people are missing, a feast is generous and consequently, must be shared with friends.
2. Your favorite dish?
A rib steak.
3. Your favorite condiment in Asian cuisine?
The Thai basil, fresh and a bit spicy.
4. The recipe that make talk about you?
My Truffle sandwich.
5. Your favorite dessert?
A coffee éclair.
6. Your best gourmet memory?
It was in 2007, during a stay at a friend’s home, starred chef of the Château de Germigney, in the Jura. He stewed a fowl with truffles, my father used to cook it this way. This day, I almost cried.
7. In my kitchen there is always…
Nutella!
8. I’m ashamed but I love it!
Sausage… It is fatal when I come home around midnight.
9. Last time that I cook to seduce…
Scallops with Truffles.
10. My next dining out…
At Guy Savoy.

Restaurant Bon
25, rue de la Pompe – 75116 Paris – France – T.: +33.(0)1.40.72.00.00
reservation@restaurantbon.fr

Read our article on the restaurant Bon here.