Christmas in Paris

Happy Holidays!

It's been so hectic during the Christmas season with the travel and hosting a 3-day feast for 6+ people so I haven't had the time to update the blog. I will do the rest of Prague post after this holiday post.

I spent my Christmas in Paris for my boyfriend's family. I literally got off the plane, dragged a tree among the streets of Paris, set up the lights and decor on my own, bought gifts, grocery shopping for 9 meals, and started prepping for 6 people. Talk about feeling rushed!

I get one 'I am a host on hardcore mode' gangsta pose with the tree.

Most of my pre Christmas shopping around the famous Lafayette/ Printemps since they are the biggest malls in Paris. The gift shopping was not nearly as hectic this year due to recent drop in tourism thanks to the terrorist attacks, but the malls were no less gaudy than previous years. Sometimes there are more lines than the museums to take a photo of the decorations. This year there was a tribute to Star Wars.

I visit these areas often because there is also a lovely grocery store called Lafayette Gourmet. It's probably the best and the most touristy grocery store in Paris with the best butcher and seafood selections as well as several old prestigious food 'houses' such as Petrossian and Pebeyre.

I didn't get to take the photo myself due to the crowd of people, but here's the annual Christmas tree at Lafayette. Breathtaking!

Before I describe the dinner, I should probably talk about the cake first.
The highlight of our 3-day celebration was this one cake from Pierre Herme called Perpetua.

Only 50 made in the world, 25 reserved for private customers like high end hotels, making only 25 available for the public. We happened to stop by Pierre Herme on the opening day of its sale and sure, I was smitten, but the 15-people serving size as well as the whopping 600 euro pricetag threw me off. But we were eventually overthrown by their marketing team and reserved one for Christmas Eve. The handmade golden chocolate log itself is a work of art, they said.

Yes, we were compelled enough to make a video of the cake unveiling.

It's huge, enough to feed 15 people. But the cake portion is only the inside of the solid gold chocolate log. They are separate pieces and the chocolate portion can be kept for a few weeks. The cake portion is a moist chocolate cake with salty-sweet dots of chocolate crumble on the top. It's pretty good, although I wouldn't call it life changing.

And finally, dinner is served! I went with the super traditional French dinner with a purebred French chapon (castrated rooster). We started off with a bit of champagne, Jeff Koons edition Dom Perignon - it's basically the same thing with a fancy box - a bit of smoked salmon from Petrossian and goose foie gras. Yum!

I made my own stuffing with toasted bread, celery, apples, leeks, figs, and chicken stock. Oven baked with plenty of herbs and butter until golden crispy on the outside. It was a hit :)

 

Baked bird > naked bird! I also made ratatouille and deer meat with garlic, thyme, and wine sauce. Chicken thighs for those who find deer meat too gamey. The wine sauce with butter and leftover meat juice overpowered any strong deer meat taste.

Some meat pies were eaten as also. This one is pre made from the butcher because, well, pies are WAY harder to make. After preparing all those meals, I get one break, right?

And even more cakes! We had 6 cakes in total. My favorites were from Hugo Victor.

Chestnut cream pie

Cherry, chocolate mousse, vanilla cream concoction. My favorite!

La Maison du Chocolat chocolate/passionfruit buche. Very dark and creamy with a sour kick.

The star of the night! Pierre Herme Perpetua. 

Showing you the size of cake, in contrast to my tongue.

Perpetua inside. It's a bit like standard roll cake.

Cherry/chocolate. The square cake is lodge inside the cream. So velvety and moist!

We also opened a special dessert wine, icewine from Canada. It's a rare type of wine which can only be made in cold climates where grapes are frozen with frost on the vine before it's harvested and made into wine. It was difficult to find, but so good!

After that enormous feast, we had a nice walk around the Louvre area and La Seine. With a lack of crowd and the beautiful lighting against the buildings, it's the perfect walk after dinner and a remarkable end of Christmas.