French Food Fête

This was how we started every morning while in Paris...

With a plate full of croissants and pain au chocolat that my BIL would buy from our local boulangerie. The kids became quite fond of pain au chocolat...

Our entire group had arrived in Paris by Christmas Eve so we spent a good part of the day shopping for our Christmas dinner, knowing that we planned to eat-in on Christmas night.

We started on the Rue Lepic in Montmartre which was walking distance from "home".

We were on the hunt for a main course.

The seafood looked delicious, but proved to be too expensive for the 9 of us.

And the fact that these mini-chapons (capons) still had their feet, heads and feathers turned the kids off a bit...

I thought the feathers were beautiful.

We were also on the hunt for a Bûche de Nöel, the traditional "yule log" dessert served around Christmas time.

A patisserie on Rue Lepic gave us our first glimpse of the many hundreds of versions that we would see over the next few days...

Though the traditional Bûche de Nöel is made from a rolled sponge cake with buttercream filling and is iced to look like a log, we learned there were many, many interpretations of this annual treat.

The Rue Lepic whetted our appetite for an extended shopping excursion to the Rue Mouffetard in the 5th arondissment, where we found most of our dinner.

It was a feast for the senses.

So we shopped...

And the fromagerie put forth quite the spectacle.

The cheeses were unbelievable but there's no way we could possibly try them all in just 6 days...

But we tried.

We decided on rotisserie chicken for dinner.

I loved how you ordered everything by telling the seller the total number of people who would be eating and when you would be eating it. The vendor then chooses the quantity and product for you.

So we ordered chicken and potatoes for 9 people.

This man gave us about 10 pounds of potatoes. You can see them below, the ones that had been roasting below with chicken juices dripping all over them. Yum!

I thought 10 pounds was a lot until the kids started eating them. The were a total hit.

Our last decision was to decide on a Bûche de Nöel. They all looked so good.

We ended up purchasing two.

A dark chocolate ganache version recommended by a local on the Rue Mouffetard and a more traditional sponge-cake version from our local baker.

And here's our shopping gang, heading home on the metro with our fête...

After we'd finished our feast, we broke out the two Bûches.

Though we enjoyed them both, we decided that the decadently chocolate version from the Rue Mouffetard was the taste-test winner, hands down...

Moreover, the whole Bûche-hunting and Bûche-eating exercise, led us to coin a whole new Bûche-cabulary:

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good Bûche!"

"If I knew you were coming, I'd of baked a Bûche."

"Everything's better with a Bûche."

"Bûche, there it is."

You get the picture. We can't help it, it's what we do.

Next post, I promise to show you all the embroidery in Marie Antoinette's bedroom at Versailles.

It's a fête pour les yeux!

It's the least I can do since I didn't bring you a Bûche.