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Eating Experience Helpful Information Holidays

How to choose the perfect teapot

The perfect teapot – Grosche Budapest

If you stay with me at 52 Clichy almost everyone gets to see my ‘perfect teapot’, the Grosche ‘Budapest’.

Put the tea in the centre chamber, lower it into the water and wiggle it about a bit if you want to speed up the brewing process.

The real perfection for someone like me who doesn’t like strong tea is that when the water gets to the right colour you just lift the lever which raises the tea above water level so the tea stays your perfect strength and doesn’t stew.

On first introductions, practically every guest wants one or knows someone for whom this teapot would be perfect and for a while I had supplies I could sell to guests who had enough room in their suitcase on the return journey but, oh horror, the shop closed.

To the rescue came delightful guests from Australia who found a near-perfect solution but, drumroll, gorgeous English guests found the real thing!

Grosche Barcelona

So now, never fear, you too can have the perfect teapot, my ‘Budapest’ or, am I being disloyal here, maybe one that has a sleeker design, the Grosche ‘Barcelona’. In this design the glass doesn’t touch the table surface.  At $35 each, and cheaper on other sites, I might allow myself both!  If you can’t get hold of Grosche, alternatives there are a-many.

Oggi teapot

What about this one?  Does it resemble anything? At around $20 who wouldn’t plump for the  Oggi 6577 teapot  I’m not sure it isn’t a Grosche in sheep’s clothing? Or how about the €20 Rosenstein & Söhne branded version that is available is Europe.

There’s also a Scandanavian teapot design by Norm Architects and this one from the HappyLuckys website looks fun too.

My lime green teapot in my 52 Clichy Paris apartment

There are choices out there! But for the moment if you stay in the apartment you have to put up with my adorable green teapot (I love lime green). Do tell me which you prefer or what you use.

Maybe I don’t have the perfect teapot – although I think I do! In any case, come and stay at 52 Clichy and test mine out by clicking on the link and checking out my Availability.

If you haven’t already considered visiting Paris and staying with me, take a look at my website or read some of my zillion 5* reviews of the B&B or the Apartment from TripAdvisor and elsewhere.

Also do take a look at my suggestions of the best restaurants minutes from 52 Clichy or find out lots more information about French food and where and how to eat it in my blog page on  where and how to eat well in Paris.

If you’re getting ready to visit Paris you might also want to dive in with my in-depth Guide to Living Like a Local.

Hope you found this informative and I look forward to your comments.

A très bientôt,

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Categories
2016 Eating Experience Great Exhibitions Great Touristy Things to do

Carambolages : take the kids

Check out tickets for Carambolages at the Grand Palais until July 4th 2016.  Just the kind of museum exhibition the children will enjoy too.

Carambolages – I had to look it up – means a pile-up in the sense of a train crash or someone playing billiards and ‘cannoning’ one ball into another.

In this exhibition there are 185 pieces, all mixed up, the only thread  is that each piece is connected to the next by an association of ideas or forms but at no time does the museum tell you how!   It is not structured by artist, country, date or medium, nor are there any explanations typed by each piece giving you any clues.

There is a line of paintings, sculptures and videos and it is left to the viewer to figure out what the connections are and as there are no answers provided, everybody is right!   If you need a hand take a look at the video screens in each room which give you the name of each work which may help a little.   Some well-known artists are on show; Rembrandt, Man Ray, Giacometti interspersed with anonymous ones.

I don’t know any young children who could go but if you do please leave a comment on whether you or they found the connections easier.   The exhibition also has a workbook for children and a downloadable app (not sure if it is in English).

Open from 10.00 am to 8.00pm on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays et Sundays and late nights on Wednesdays from 10.00 am to 10:00 pm.  Closed on Tuesdays.

Pricing : Full : 13€   OR    Tarif ‘tribu’ (4 people incl.  2 between 16 et 25 years old) : 35 € (When did they start this !!)

For more information in English : click here

 

The perfect eaterie in walking distance is the Brasserie le Grand Palais, just hang a left past the Palais de la Découverte, also a good choice of Museum for children, and it is across the road opposite the Aston Martin showroom. There is a smart part with sunny terrace and a large café part with wicker chairs. There are at least 2 menus and the lunch food is very reasonable: bagels, sandwiches and gi-normous hotdogs in half a baguette, cheaper in most cases than drinking there!

Hope you enjoy it.

 

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Categories
Great Touristy Things to do News Special Offers

For fans of Marie-Antoinette – a new ‘ticket’

For those who have ‘done’ the Château de Versailles, this new ‘Pass Marie-Antoinette’ enables you to visit 4 other monuments that also have a strong connection to the life and death of the young queen.

Le Chateau de Rambouillet is an impressive royal residence Louis XVI bought for her. Later she was imprisoned and held for several months in the Conciergerie up to the time of her execution.
La Chapelle Expiatoire was dedicated to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette and was built on part of the Madeleine cemetery where most of the bodies of those executed in the Revolution were buried in a mass grave. However, Marie-Antoinette’s body was moved to the Basilique Cathédrale de Saint Denis, a gothic masterpiece and final resting place of all bar 3 of the French kings and queens, in 1815.

 

Ask for the ‘Pass’ when you buy a full price entrance ticket at any of the 4 monuments. The entrance price to the other 3 is reduced by at least 20%. The Pass lasts 2 years, you can take your time !

 

Look forward to seeing you.  BOOK HERE…

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Want to read what previous guests have said ?  CLICK HERE.

Categories
Holidays News

Name Change to 52 Clichy

52 Clichy had a name change from B&B Wonderful to 52 Clichy in 2013.   Unfortunately in the Frommers Guide 2013 for Paris printed the old name in their 2013 guide “Paris Day by Day – 23 smart ways to see the city”.  You can still tell from the description it is us, 52 Clichy, under its old Facebook page name, B&B Wonderful.

 

“Try B&B Wonderful, 52 rue de Clichy 9th from €115, a fabulous B&B for two, with a separate flat that sleeps four people.  breakfast is copious; the balcony views over Paris’s steely rooftops picturesque; and the welcome, by expat owner Rosemary, perfect.  She can even give you a makeover (prices on request), as she’s an image consultant by trade.”

 

The Frommers guide ‘Paris Day by Day’ 2014 cited only one B&B in their whole book.  Me!

 

Alastair Sawday’s is also cited, a wonderful, highly reputed and award-winning website who take the time to verify every person / listing accepted on to their site (you can’t pay to go on).  Check them out not only for France but the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Want to read what else people have been saying about 52 Clichy ?   CLICK HERE.

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Categories
2016 Great Exhibitions Great Touristy Things to do

A MUST DO before it ends – Picasso.mania

Dont’t miss this Must Do : Picasso.mania.

Picasso’s works have had a profound impact on contemporary art. This exhibitions presents some of his most emblematic works taken from the Picasso museum, the National Museum of Modern Art and from the artist’s family collection. It sets them alongside contemporary creations, grouped by artist; Hockney, Warhol or Basquiat etc, or by theme; still life, Cubism…  

The works are presented in a way reminiscent of his own studio arrangements and include not just paintings but a variety of other media such as video, sculpture, photography and installation art.

Picasso.mania is showing at the  Grand Palais until February 29th. Tickets still available.

Come and stay at 52 Clichy. BOOK HERE.

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Want to hear what previous guests have said about 52 Clichy ?  CLICK HERE.