L’Île Saint Berthillon - Ice Cream Sundae

 

It’s Sunday afternoon & sunny 🌞 An ice cream day.

Therefore le vrai Parisian will be making their ritual trip to rue Saint Louis en l’Île

Fu Castello, Pierre Hermé Infiniment Chocolat, Louis Fouquet, Laduree, Angiolo

 

New places open up every day in Paris. Who can keep up?

This past week by chance I fell into a few. Yesterday I past a green door with an unusual name, Fu Castello.

Ice Cream in Paris in August

 

On Sunday I set out to go hunting 🔍 doors🚪 

Which turned into an ice cream 🔍 hunt 🍨 

Balade sur l’île de Berthillon

 Yesterday the temp hit 92 in Paris

After the pool 🏊 & the marché 🍒 I came home completely wiped🥵

More Summer in Paris

 

For Summertime they have freshly-churned ice cream outside Galeries Lafayette Champs-Elysées. But no one was serving 😳

Still I studied the flavors carefully…as always

Une Glace à Paris

June-July is prime ice cream time

Can one ever have too much ice cream?

I for one, believe in ice cream all-year round.

At last there's a fabulous new ice cream boutique that feels as I do.
They have been open just 1 week.

Une Glace à Paris

15, rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie 75004

Métro: Hôtel de Ville

Open Monday-Sunday 10 - 23h

In the Marais

RUN, do not walk to No# 15 rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie

Preferably in your Bensimons

Like my partner-in-crime, visiting New Yorkaise Stephanie R.

Chef Emmanuel Ryon, Meilleur Oivrier de France(MOF), formerly of Café Pouchkine is the magician-in-residence.

His boutique is 'sobre', a word meaning quiet elegance when the French use it.

Still we were all madly drunk with Chef Ryon's divine ice creams no matter the elegant decor.

A rapt, captive audience, we waited our turn, salivating. Miam miam

We plum forgot to study the menu, so caught up in the massive decision-making process.

And we totally missed the wonderful deal of a threesome of different Vanillas or chocolates going for a song. By the way, the shop is generous with tastes. I asked for a vanilla taste and was offered all 3! This is unheard of in Paris.

Later we dropped our spoons when we saw 5-flavors banquettes (boats) come sailing by.

Not that we didn't love our double dips of Griotte (cherry) + Matcha for Stephanie, and smoked pistachio with a touch of orange + Medovic (a Russian flavor with honey cake flakes) for me.

Granted we wished we'd gone all the way with the barquettes. A la prochaine!

Une Glace à Paris is a glorious experience you mustn't miss if you love ice cream. It's absolutely the BEST I've tasted here = Heavenly.
PS Please say Paris Breakfasts sent me!!

Chef Ryon introduced himself. He will soon have fabulous ice cream gateaux.
I've been painting ice cream non-stop since Thursday - a distraction to keep from running back for a glace for breakfast.
*If you'd like an ice cream watercolor + the shop's card, subscribe to the monthly PARIS SKETCH LETTERS.
It's the next best thing to being here.

Joyful June Letter and the Creative Process

You know it's summer in Paris when the ice cream cases show up in the street, even in front of the most ordinary no-name boulangerie. They could make fabulous ice cream. I found one on rue Monge yesterday...I must return and get the name and another dip of Praline.

Instant love for all the French ice cream accoutrement.

And the sweet little printed cups. Do you save yours too? Nuts really.

I decided in March to do a letter on Ice cream. I thought it would be easy peasy. Ha.

Seeking last minute inspiration at Berthillon. Paris' crème de la crème of ice cream makers is just a dangerous block away from me.

I tried to color match the cassis sorbet (and apricot) when I got home.

If you're going to do  an ice cream sketch letter it goes without saying you Must do your research.

I'd read a lot about Classico Argentina's helados/ice cream.

The vanilla/dolce de leche combo (2,50 euros) did not disappoint. I asked how it was different from other Paris ice creams?
"Our chef is from Argentina".
"Oh OK".
Still it was excellent.

I was forced to try La Mere de Famille's new tubular popsicles (4 euros) - pistachio covered in their divine milk chocolate = highly recommended.

Bet you haven't tried frozen food supplier Picard's double mini cups of almond ice cream (3,50 euros) with macarons and brandied cherries (I toss those out). Coco Jobard loves this too so it has got to be good. Try it.

Even with all the ice cream-eating I found myself still scratching my head how to translate French yumminess into watercolor.
Plus the boys at the copy shop said it should be 'joyful'.
Hmmm..

In desperation Sunday night I ran up to the Louvre Carrousel not for more ice cream but looking for joyfulness. I found it at Printemps. Yes!

Framboise-colored marshmallows = joyfulness.

This watercolor-splashed purse said 'Joy' to me.

Pylones is never short on joy and general silliness.

Back to the drawing board to sketch, sketch, sketch.

Pamela Druckerman has a terrific essay on the difficulties of the creative process, a must-read for anyone struggling with finding inspiration to creative solutions.
Some of her excellent lessons:
'You need to be blank, and even a little bit bored, for your brain to feed you ideas. (Why I love the pool)
The poet Wendell Berry wrote that in solitude, “one’s inner voices become audible.” 
*Figure out your clearest, most productive time of day to work, and guard this time carefully.

Your first attempt will be terrible.
It’s O.K. to be an obsessive. (Does that include ice cream?)
Louis C.K. said, “Anything you do should be better than anything you did before.”
This herculean extravaganza is totally worth it.'

Why does painting ice cream require a 'herculean' effort is beyond me but it did Sunday-Monday.
My landlord helped out suggesting a colorful wash to the background btw.

The boys at the copy shop said the June letter was "joyful'.
Hooray!  Hooray too for those of you who signed on to the new PARIS MAPS letter series.  Any suggestions are most welcome PBers!