Rose Bakery - a treat on the top

I passed by the Rose Bakery on Rue des Martyr in Paris a week ago. It was completely booked and my friend and I were too hungry to wait. But this week I made it up to another friend, who came to see me in London.
Rose Bakery is hidden on top of the avantgarde Dover Street Market (owned by Comme des Garçons), which has taken shopping to a whole new level with exceptional and very expensive labels such as Lanvin, Danish Camilla Skovgaard and Alexander McQueen .
It's a tiny cafe, which serves rustic organic tarts, vegetables and a carrot cake worth ordering with your other food. Just to be on the safe side. On busy days they seem to run out of several dishes on the menu. But that is not a part of the charm and the feeling of being in a country kitchen.
Think home made hearty food with a view of roof tops in the middle of London and of course COMME des GARÇONS T-shirt in the shop. Certainly one of the best, charming cafes in London.

www.doverstreetmarket.com

Dover Street
London W1S 4LT

A nice cuppa

Don't you just hate those kind of people, who keep talking about all the cocktails, they have been consuming.
I am afraid that will be ME.
At least recently. Normally I don't drink that much ( No seriously!).
But some how all good things seem to be happening right now.
Between Paris and the big SATC 2 weekend coming up I really needed to go for something without alcohol.
So today I had a tranquil experience at the TeaSmith, a nice chat with John "the owner" and several very tasty and delicious cups of teas.
I went as part of my research for an article about extraordinary tea experiences. This is the place to go if you want to have chilled white Oolong Tea (brewed on cold water), perfectly heated Jasmine tea and other fine teas served by a man, who knows all about pleasing the taste buds.
The Scottish tea expert himself is married to a Japanese woman, goes to China and Japan a lot and keep everything very authentic and simple.
- It's all about the liquid and less about the pastries, as John says.

www.teasmith.co.uk
6 Lamb Street
London E1 6EA

Tuna in a can - Paris part 2

Feeling slightly hung over ( a visit to the Hotel Amour will do that to you) eating something salty was top on my list the first full day in Paris (and the second for that matter). I imagined some "frites", but after a browse in the Isabel Marant's shop on Rue Jacobs on the left bank we found ourselves sitting amongst local people in the old bistro La Palette. It opened in 1902 and is still as original and French as you could ever wish for.
I have been there before and the local woman who took me there the first time preferred this old haunt to the two more famous Cafe Flores and Les Deux Margots, which attracts more tourists.
Well back to my craving for something salty.
La Palette has one of those typical French bistro menus where everything seems to come with an egg.
I ordered THON BLANCH avec PAIN GRILLé. And that was what I got. Nothing else.
Just take a look at the photo. You have to love French simplicity.

The best thing was that the quality tuna was actually quite salty.

Isabel Marant
1, rue Jacob
75006 paris
www.isabelmarant.tm.fr

La Palette
43 rue de Seine corner of Rue Jacob

Meet me in Paris

I have been guest blogging about London on the fabulous Danish blog The Sweet Spot this week.
Check out : http://thesweetspot.dk/blog

Meanwhile I am off to Paris my self. Business and mostly pleasure.
I love living in London and being able to get on Eurostar and be in the middle of Paris a couple of hours later.
I hate to show off. But so sorry I can't help my self. I am meeting one of my BFF at cool Hotel Amour tonight. She is coming straight from London and after a quick interview I will be waiting for her at the bar with the first round of Mojitos.


www.hotelamourparis.fr
8 Rue de Navarin
75009 Paris, France
01 48 78 31 80

Look there is a pink elephant...

...and I am not saying this to trick you to look the other way while I snatch the last piece of carrot cake on your plate. A big art event has placed elephants all over the city. The place to bump into the pink one is just outside Whistles in Covent Garden.
There are 258 glass fibre animals parading around London to raise awareness of the Elephant Family (charity that works to prevent extinction of the Asian elephant). They come in all sorts of patterns and colours and look cute and fashionable.
Check them out around town.
I caught a few with my Iphone while walking along the river on South Bank the other day.

Let's meet at The Sweet Spot

I have been invited to be guest blogger by a cool designer Laura Scheuer Trøstrup, who has a great eye for fun, funky and pretty
design and shares amazing stuff on her blog The Sweet Spot.

Todays topic is EATING OUT...

I am afraid it's in Danish. But have a look anyway and browse through striped ceramics, blue Danish design chairs and other modern treasures displayed on the blog.

http://thesweetspot.dk/

Shop and save the children

Let me share some great news with you.
Mary Portas (retail guru known from TV, Grazia etc.) has teamed up with the charity Save the Children and developed a new charity concept store. Portas rehearsed this brilliant concept at Westfield last year and the idea is to bring the best of high street together with fashion “left over” and local talent.
The fashion industry has been urged to donate press samples and end of season clothes and all money raised will go to help children around the world.
That must be shopping that ticks all the right boxes.

Opens 22nd of May. See you there…

Photo from:
‘Mary’s Living and Giving Shop for Save the Children’ 177 Westbourne Grove, W11 2SB

New York treats

I said I was going to be a bit obsessed about New York for a while here on this blog.
Then what happened?
NOTHING. Absolutely nothing!
Sorry guys, but I have been extremely busy with a lot of things that I can't really remember now.

But it's now time for a few New York treats again ...

If I were in NYC today I would probably not be complaining about awful cold spring weather.
I would walk around in sandals enjoying a coffee i Williamsburg - sitting by the river looking at the Manhattan skyline.
I would take a walk on the High Line and do some shopping in Meatpacking District.
I would check out the Monkey Bar and I would find quirky art, cool decoupage plates and wrapping paper with insects at John Derian.

www.johnderian.com