A Passel of Parisian Pleasures: from Massages to Madeleines

Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. From the Ides of March until month’s end, my life was a whirlwind - of guided museum visits and solo ones; of casual lunches and an elegant tea. And presents from Ginevra and Nicolas and Alain Ducasse and Palais du Thés!

The fortnight marathon began with a simple lunch at one of my favorite nearby bistros, Bistrot des Vosges which has the most amazing aligot I have ever tasted. Granted I haven’t tasted that many, but this bistro’s version is outstanding. Aligot you may know, although I didn’t until a few years ago, is a specialty of the Auvergne. It sounds simple but I have found that the fewer the ingredients, the more difficult it is to get right. Aligot is mashed potatoes mixed with cream, butter, and Laguiole cheese. (Fig 1) The cheese is an unpasteurized, hard cow’s milk cheese that gets its name from the same village that Laguiole knives do. The mixture must be worked for a long time to get its elastic texture just right. Usually, crushed or chopped garlic is added to the potatoes. But the Bistrot des Vosges, not knowing what you’ll be doing after your meal, discreetly serves the garlic a côté, in a little pitcher of melted butter. You can add as much as your onward plans permit. You can order the aligot with anything although it comes with the sausage, which is also as good as it gets. And finally, hoping this doesn’t sound like more of a promotion than I intend - on weekdays at lunchtime, there’s a changing daily menu du jour.

Figure 1. Alight and Sausage, speciality of Bistrot des Vosges, Paris

I was at Bistrot des Vosges for lunch with Allan who I met a few years ago at a rather disappointing Proust Book Group at the American Library. The group did not survive but my friendship with Allan does. Two Californians, in addition to lamenting the state of affairs in the country we both love, we mostly talked about the tax that anybody, including foreigners, must pay (after living here for 5 years). It’s a tax on property owned anywhere in the world. Macron initiated the tax, presumably after consulting his best friends (the wealthiest people in the country). There are no comparable taxes on paintings or yachts or jewels. And no extenuating circumstances - like for example, that the price of a palace in Pittsburgh is the same as a studio in San Francisco.

That was Monday, on Tuesday my Mystery Book Club met at the American Library. Unlike the Proust Book Club, this club is a success. It’s been going strong for 17 years. I joined when I arrived in Paris 8 years ago. We’re a group of smart women who bring many talents and a range of expertise to our discussions of a wide variety of murder mysteries. In February, we read A Trail of Ink by Mel Starr. It takes place in medieval England. Book club members who know about such things, confirm that the period details are accurate. I recommend it. The book we read for our March meeting was The sweetness at the bottom of the pie by Alan Bradley. The main sleuth is a precocious 11 year old girl. Which is usually not my thing but her relationship with the local constabulary was nicely developed. In addition to my book club mysteries, I just finished reading Ann Cleeves’ Telling Tales. It’s one of the early Vera Stanhope mysteries. I love the television adaptation starring Brenda Blethyn and as I read the book, the character described and Blethyn’s Vera are the same person. And Cleeves writes really well.

Do you know the murder mysteries by Robert Galbraith, J. K. Rowling’s pseudonym. Before I left San Francisco, I read the most recent book, Hallmarked Man. Last week, I finished an earlier book in the series, Lethal White. The books are long and complicated with sometimes too much violence (which I just skip). Well written of course, they draw you in, both the mysteries and the relationship between sleuths.

Lest you think that all I read is Proust in the morning, art history in the afternoon and mysteries at night, I just read a book, recommended by Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air. Allegra Goodman’s The Family Markowitz. Really good.

On Tuesday, after our book club meeting, Maureen and Alison and I had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant near the American Library. They way they fry the rice gives it a nice crust and when they bring out your plate, the rice is hot enough for them to crack a raw egg onto it and scramble it at the table! (Fig 2) Alison lives nearby, so Maureen and I walked the 4 miles to my home, Maureen’s metro. My routes are based on museums. From the American Library, the first landmark is the Musée d’Orsay, then it’s through the Luxembourg (Fig 3) to the Louvre. And through the door to the left of the Pyramid, along the rue de Rivoli past the Fondation Cartier and past the Bourse de Commerce. The final push is along a street that begins as Gravilliers, turns into Pastourelle, becomes Poitou and winds up and ends up (at Blvd Beaumarchais) as Pont aux Choux.

Figure 2. Raw egg being cooked in dish of very hot rice (rose I found along our route)

Figure 3. Passing through Luxembourg Garden on the way home, March 17

The next day was my birthday. What did I want to do, Barb asked. Go for a long walk, I said. And have lunch. She suggested a walk along the Canal St. Martin. The lunch spot was just as easily determined - Bob’s Bake Shop just beyond the Canal - for a sandwich with all the works - smoked salmon, red onions, thick slices of tomato, even thicker slices of avocado, cucumbers and capers on a bagel smeared with cream cheese with a dollop of salad on top. (Fig 4) When I got back to my flat, a company called Bergamotte delivered a bouquet of flowers from Ginevra. (Fig 5).

Figure 4. My smoked salmon bagel sandwich and Barb enjoying hers at Bob’s Bakeshop, March 18

Figure 5. Bouquet that Ginevra sent me for my birthday. The card was a photo Ginevra selected, us in Scotland

Not done yet, I walked over to Alain Ducasse Chocolatier on rue de la Roquette for my chocolate bar birthday present and then to nearby Palais du Thés for my 15% off tea purchase. My end of week walks were to the Jardin des Plantes and the Coulée Verte to see the how spring was coming along - my verdict: arrived in the Jardin, delayed on the Coulée. (Figs 6-9)

Figure 9. Jardin des plants, from inside

The week after my birthday was even fuller! Monday I enjoyed another birthday present, this one from both Nicolas and Ginevra. A massage and facial at the newly opened Caudalie Spa on rue Pavée. I walk along rue Pavée often, on my way from the Place des Vosges to the Ile St. Louis and beyond. Like the new Fondation Cartier, I knew something was happening because of all the scaffolding and workmen. But since Caudalie’s spacious new Parisian headquarters was formerly two private mansions and an industrial building, all the action was on the inside. The spa opened, just in time for my birthday. The exterior is stark and pristine, the interior, soft and luxurious. (Figs 10-12)

Figure 10. Caudalie on rue Pavé not quite finished when I arrived

Figure 11. The entrance to the Spa was ready!

Figure 12. The massage rooms were ready, too

Have you heard of Caudalie? It’s a 30 year old skin care company that was born at the Château Smith Haut Lafitte, in Martillac, just outside of Bordeaux. Mathilde Thomas (whose family owns the winery) and her new husband Bertrand, discovered that the by-products of wine production (aka pips and pulps) had properties that were beneficial to the skin. And so they created skin care products made from extracts of grapes and grapevines and called it Vinotherapie. There are several lines of products catering to what different skins, mostly faces but bodies too, need at different times of life - from gentle scrubs to anti-tache serums. That was in 1995. Four years later, in 1999, Mathilde and Thomas opened a spa on the winery’s estate, Les Sources de Caudalie. Not long after it opened, I read an article about Les Sources de Caudalie in the San Francisco Chronicle magazine. I brought the article with me to the Dordogne. The first time I went to the spa was with two friends who were visiting from San Francisco. It was fun but we were rushed. The next year and for years after that, Ginevra and I went to Les Sources de Caudalie at least once every summer. We would book three ‘soins’ and go for the day. Between massages, scrubs and facials, we enjoyed the thermal heated soaking pool, the sauna, the hamman and relaxing on the chaise lounges. (Fig 13)

Figure 13. Soaking pool at Les Sources de Caudalie, Martillac, France

And we ate lunch at La Table du Lavoir. I loved the look of this restaurant and its name. Lavoir is the French word for wash house. Where women came to wash their family’s laundry on the banks of a running stream. The women knelt on stones against which they would pound their laundry clean. In the center of La Table du Lavoir at Caudalie is a lavoir which, according to the spa’s website, was “rebuilt stone by stone, paying tribute to the winemakers’ wives who, in the 19th century, would gather here to wash their linens.” The lavoir closest to our house in the Dordogne had stones on which were carved the initials of the women who used them. (Figs 14-16) The timber frame of the restaurant was constructed from 18th-century wood salvaged from the cellars of Lafite Rothschild. The shape of the building reminded me of another familiar building type in the Dordorgne, tobacco drying barns which also dot the countryside. Before the southwest corner of the Dordogne, the area closest to Bordeaux, became the ‘Perigord Poupre’ the wine growing region, it was the tobacco growing region. (Fig 17)

Figure 15. The Lavoir in La Table du Lavoir

Figure 16. Lavoir near Eymet, Dordogne, France

Figure 17. Tobacco Drying Barn with tobacco drying in it

The spa on rue Pavée may not be quite as luxurious as the one in Martillac, there’s no pool or sauna, but I felt terrific after my soins. As I walked home, I made a birthday resolution - to treat myself to these sorts of pleasures every so often.

The next day, Tuesday 24 March, was a day that I had been anticipating since the end of last year. On that date I had a date with Shiao-Ping, (Fig 18) who lives in Brisbane, Australia. She found my website one day when she googled Proust. How flattering! We have been corresponding ever since, mostly but not only, about Proust.

Figure 18. My new friend, Shiao-Ping in the lobby of the Ritz Hotel, Paris

Shiao-Ping had been planning a trip to Europe. Paris was one of her destinations. She invited me to be her guest for a glass of champagne in the Salon de Proust at the Ritz. Who could resist an invitation like that - an opportunity to meet and chat with a fellow Proustian in a storied place which Proust himself often frequented. According to the hotel’s website, Proust was “(a) loyal guest from the very beginning, (he) made the Ritz his haven for writing, dining, entertaining, and above all, a vantage point from which to observe the vibrant life of the hotel. Discreetly positioned in a corner of the lobby, the writer would spend hours watching the guests in the grand gallery. His favorite spot was right by the fireplace. It was in this setting that his characters came to life on the pages of his work, including (of course)….In Search of Lost Time.” (Fig 19)

Figure 19. Salon de Proust, Ritz Hotel, Paris, taken from the table by the fireplace, Proust’s table, our table

I was looking forward to enjoying a flute of champagne with Shiao-Ping but she had something else in mind. She had booked Afternoon Tea! It began with a pre-dessert, a frothy little something, served with our champagne. (Fig 20) Then we were handed a menu to select our tea and choose an individual tart. We both decided on an infusion rather than a tea and the one named after the first volume of Proust’s opus, Côté de chez Swann was an obvious choice for both of us. The waiter explained that he would happily refill our tea pots with fresh tea as often as we liked. A much nicer experience than the one Ginevra and I had elsewhere for her birthday when our tiny teapots were whisked away after we had barely drunk two tiny teacups of tea.

Figure 20. A flute of champagne and our pre-tea palate teaser

For her tart, Shioa-Ping selected chocolate/raspberry. I chose a citrus meringue. (Fig 21) We each ate a quarter of our respective tarts and a quarter of each others. We put them aside when the étagère arrived. Shiao-Ping had warned me that Tea at the Ritz was sweets only, I was surprised but prepared. At the top, in a cup that reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, were Ritz riffs on traditional French childhood cookies - langues de chat and écoliers. It especially tickled me since they were the cookies Song Dong chose for the village he created at Le Bon Marché for us to destroy. (Figs 22-23)

Figure 23. Eating the City performance piece, Song-Dong, Le Bon Marché

The next two layers on our étagère had more sophisticated fare. And yet, just like in Alice in Wonderland, not everything was what it appeared to be. What looked like a Madeleine was not. (Figure 22, middle, right) Here’s how the restaurant’s website describes it, “Though shaped like the celebrated French cake, it is made using the same batter as for babas. Soaked with coffee, tea, or cocoa nib syrup depending on the mood of the moment, then iced with vanilla-tinged cream from Étrez, this trompe-l’œil Baba is bliss for the palate.” Here the hotel’s website doffed its hat to the Ritz’s much celebrated pastry chef, "François Perret poured all his generosity into creating … a timeless moment: a memorable Proustian rendezvous with something sweet.”

Proust explained his preference for the Ritz this way, “I prefer to be where there is no jostling." And I can attest to the fact that we were not rushed, we were not jostled. We sipped our champagne, drank our Marcel Proust infusions and made our way slowly through the sweet biscuits and cookies and cakes. After two hours, we were less than 1/2 through our goodies. We had eaten all that we could. The waiter came by and we chatted. He told me that François Perret, the pastry chef who had become famous for his riffs on French classic pastries, was no longer at the Ritz. His departure was announced last August but I missed it. I was in Normandy with Nicolas enjoying the bucolic life.

How chic I felt walking home with a huge Ritz bag on my shoulder! But the doggy bag wasn’t all I brought home with me. Happy memories of a new friendship filled my heart and lightened my step. How grateful I was and still am to have a new friend and one who shares my appreciation for Proust and pâtisseries!

Intellectual delights replaced sensual ones for the rest of the week. I saw three exhibitions that had as their primary theme, 18th century (mostly female) fashion. When I taught at university, I told my students that a research paper had three parts. Introduction: Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Body: Tell them. Conclusion: Tell them what you told them. These three exhibitions, especially arriving upon the heels of the Marie-Antoinette exhibition I saw a few weeks ago in London, was exactly that. Except for the exhibition at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, which stuck to the 18th century, the others, at the Palais Galliera and the Musée Cognacq-Jay, included references to the 18th century’s on-going influence on fashion. (Figs 24-26) All of which are good preparation for the exhibition which will be held at Versailles, the Petit Trianon later this year, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sofia Coppola’s film, Marie Antoinette. (Fig 27) Not being a sexist, I finished the week at the Mairie of the 11th arrondissement, listening to a lecture on 19th century men’s fashions. (Figs 28, 29) More about all the things I learned at those exhibitions and that lecture, next week. Gros bisous, Dr. B.

Figure 24. Une Journée aux dix-huitième siècle, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, until 5 juillet 2026

Figure 25. La mode du 18e siècle, Palais Galliera, until 12 juillet 2026

Figure 25. Révéler le féminin, Musée Cognacq-Jay, until 20 septembre 2026

Figure 27. A scene from the film, Marie-Antoinette, exhibition at Petit Trianon, 22 September 2026 - 24 January 2027

Figure 28. Les Incroyables et les Merveilleuses, lecture on 19th century men’s fashion & influences

Figure 29. Modern incroyables, lecture on 19th century men’s fashions and their influences

Thanks so much to everyone who sent Comments, they are much appreciated.

New comment on Simple Pleasures become Sublime:

I love when you do an article about food. Of course I had a big smile on my face reading about the steamed crabs. Being born and raised in Baltimore I could really relate. Sadly, O’ Brekies is no more but there are still plenty of crab house doing well in the Baltimore area and on the way to the Eastern Shore or as we call it “ downy ocean” ( down the Ocean). I enjoyed your descriptions of all of the foods you enjoyed. Eating all of those cookies and candies kind of looked like fun too. Deedee, Baltimore

B-great story - Every word of today's piece is delightful and tasty - irresistible photos, you have such a gift for drawing us into your experiences. I'm drooling, have to go eat now. K, Paris

New comment on Marie-Antoinette, need I say more!:

what a treat!! love coppola × marie, and all the visual splendors that the queen inspired (also, I read that she said let them eat brioche, not cake, en rte to her decap) p.s. the robe a l'anglaise is very similar to one shown in the current fantastic exhibit at fashion institute of tech in ny on art × fashion, Elena

New comment on Mission Accomplished - Julie Manet as Champion & Collector.:What a treat, to read about these interesting artists and their times. Brava… MLS, Sarasota, Fl.

New comment on Church Lady:

Such a great article. This made me think of two things - first the Basilica form is essentially a covered market (covered colonnades), and was a Roman civic structure adapted by early christians. The second is the Dan Brown series, that Mary Magdaleine is married to Jesus and it is in fact she who is depicted in the Last Supper by da Vinci and the V shape they create in the painting symbolizes the importance of the matriarchy (not the patriarchy!!!). Ginevra, San Francisco

New comment on All department stores will become museums, and all museums will become department stores. (Andy Warhol):

Great article. Love this Warhol quote, he predicted everything. I love the moving floors and how Jean Nouvel wants it to be open. Unlike Renzo’s Science museum. Also the covered colonnade! this house of worship is dedicated to art! Love that you gave a shoutout to my man Rem. It also reminds me of the moving buildings at Berkeley, the buildings are on rollers for the next earthquake. I also love this fashion show, this man describing each piece is so cool. It looks like the old fashioned runways where only a very few are invited and each outfit is described. It also reminds me of making architecture presentations but this looks way more fun, probably because there is no jury to make obnoxious self-serving comments. #notbitteraboutarchitectureschool -Ginevra, former Architecture student at Berkeley