Nuts and Bolts

Site Changes

You may have noticed I’ve been making several design changes to the site, and I’ve been adding entries about travel to Paris. Since I get so many request, I’ve adding my tips for those who are planning to visit the city, including hotel recommendations, transportation notes, and astuces to make your visit to Paris more fun from an insider’s perspective. You may have noticed I’ve added a few other features to the site, including the Categories on the left-hand side of the screen so you can find things easier (or waste more time while you’re at work). I’ve updated the Links page too, annotating the links and added lots more places, and listing many more sites of friends, for you to visit.

There may also be some goofy-looking posts in the near future, as I’m experimenting with a new blogging tool, Qumana, which formats words into HTML for me, since when you see évêché I need to type the symbolic equivalent of (B)(em)%eacute,v&ecirc,ch%eacute,(/em)(/B) on my mini-Mac laptop screen. So excuse any missteps and misplaced photos while I test out the new tool, and preserve my eyesight too.

Chocolate Tours in Paris and Normandy

We’ve just announced, on my Chocolate Tours page, news about my next Paris Chocolate Exploration with Mort Rosenblum, in May 6-12, 2007. This is a repeat of last year’s sell-out Paris chocolate tour, where once again, our lucky guests will be warmly welcomed into the private workshops my favorite chocolatiers, including Jacques Genin and Jean-Charles Rochoux, and participate in a delicious private chocolate tasting at La Maison du Chocolat.

Since announcing the tour at the beginning of this month, almost half the spaces have been snapped up. So if you’d like to be a part of this incredibly fun chocolate adventure in Paris, you can read more about ithere and follow the link for booking and pricing information.

And yes, that’s Mort on his boat, where we’ll float on the Seine, sipping rosé, eating chocolate, and sampling delicious treats from the city’s finest culinary shops, as we watch the rest of Paris drift by.

Speaking of chocolate, my classes with Susan Loomis at her home in Normandy, On Rue Tatin, are just about sold-out as well. These three days of hands-on cooking classes promise to be great fun, and if you’ve dreamed about cooking up delicious meals, and fabulous chocolate desserts in a magnificent French country kitchen, this is the trip for you. There are just two spaces left for this culinary adventure, and there’s an option to spend an additional day with us in Paris visiting our favorite markets, fromageries, and of course, the prestigious chocolate shops on the Left Bank.

For guests coming to Paris interested in shorter half-day tours, I’ve updated the information about my popular Paris Chocolate Walks and Outdoor Market Tours, and now offer them in friendly small-group tours, making them more accessible to all. You can book online through Context Travel in Paris.

Book Update

My newest book is currently in production (yeah…I made my deadline!), which will be released in the spring of 2007. This month we’re working on the photography and taking lots of photos of all the recipes. Everyone involved has been going full-steam ahead to make sure the book will be beautiful, in addition to being fun to read with hundreds of new recipes. There’ll be almost fifty photographs, taken by one of the top food photographers in America, and I’m thrilled to be working with such a talented team of editors, designers, and stylists.
I’m planning a tour of several cities across the United States in conjunction with its release next spring and you can find out more on my Schedule page, which I’ll update as the dates become available.

Flying The Friendly Skies?

Ok, so they’re not so friendly anymore (Can someone please tell those idiots screaming into their cell phones at the airports to shut the hell up? What is wrong with people?)
In the September issue of Hemispheres magazine for United Airlines, you’ll find my article: Three Perfect Days in Paris. But even if you’re not planning to fly in September, the article will be posted on their web site, and archived there as well, for your future travel planning.

(My Schedule page lists the article as being in the October issue, but United bumped me up a month, although they didn’t offer a bump-up on my next overseas flight.)

France via Flickr

If you’re interested in seeing more of my foodie photos of France and Paris, visit my Flickr page. It’s updated frequently since I’m addicted to my new toy.

Subscribing To The Site

You might have noticed the pretty green box up to the right (well, I think it’s pretty…), where you can subscribe to the site and get updates from me. Normally, I send out about 4 updates a year, a friendly email with up-to-date news and information, but you need not worry about being innundated with emails. Enter your email to be the first to get the news directly from moi.

Your email address is not shared or sold so you won’t get emails hawking videos of sex-crazed lesbian cheerleaders (unless you want) or men’s herbal supplements guaranteed to ‘put an eye out with that thing’ (which don’t work…or so I’ve heard.)

Feed Me!

No, this isn’t a plea for money. For that, you’ll have to wait ’til my next book comes out.
Do you know what an RSS Feed is? It allows you to find out instantly when your favorite sites and blogs, like mine, are updated. (Well, not all sites…Get on the stick, dude!)

You can learn more about RSS Feeders here. Google has come up with their own Google Reader, and there’s several others out there, but if you’re a Mac person, I strongly recommend NewsFire which is incredibly simple to download and use, and melds perfectly into our fabulous Mac desktop designs.

Then you can add this blog to your feed using the icons on the upper right, so you can do a Mac mind-meld with me!

Finally…

Thanks to all for reading the blog, and leaving such fantastic comments. Many of them give me a big grin, and others I find laugh-out-loud funny. Others I find informative, which I’m sure many of the other readers appreciate as well. I appreciate all your positive feedback and thoughtful comments that are left here on the site. Keep ’em coming!

In the future, I’ll be posting about lots of things, including the world’s best caramels (made with Breton salted butter), a lesson in harvesting salt, new recipes, and more Paris travel ideas and tips. And once the cooler weather of fall returns (it’s pretty brisk now), more Paris chocolate finds and discoveries. Mais oui.

Stay tuned…