Le Marais and Dessert dessert dessert

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and oh boy did I enjoy it. First things first, I made a delectable lunch of Camembert and Ham stuffed chicken breast (breast! not escalopes!) with a prune and onion balsamic chutney deliciousness on top. Heaven!

Happy happy joy joy! I am eating far too well for a 'starving artist'

This plate is far too huge.

So, after that delicious start today I moseyed on over to the Marais area to meet up with a friend for the FREE gelato being offered at Pozzetto. I got there super early (2 hours early...) so I wandered and wandered and came upon a dream come true. It may be common knowledge to many that the Marais is STACKED with vintage stores, but I was not aware of this fact till I walked right into one. The sign read, "1 Euro Bins" -- I bolted. 

After and hour and a half forage I came out with my grand prize -- a metallic art nouveau pullover of easter-egg colors. 

I don't think I could be more stoked on this sweater. It also smells like it's been recently washed -- win.

(You will notice that any photo I take in my apartment will probably be in my 'kitchen' where the natural light is. So, when you see my shower in the photo as well -- that gives you an idea of the size of my apartment.) So, the sweater put me back a whopping 10 Euro (pffffft) whereas my other purchases (below) came to a total of 2. 

This scarf is about the size of me, silky, and plaid & paisley. Joy!

Polyester goodness, in clear need of an iron. But... iridescent turquoise/violet shoulder-padded, waist-cinched glamour? Mm.

I seriously held back at this excursion. I had a good ten other items I considered, but then I wouldn't have any more budget left for the day. So I held back. When I realised the time I booked it back to the Metro where I was meeting Kendra. I got us lost on our way to the gelato, but we righted ourselves thanks to Kendra's keen abilities with FreeWiFi in public parks. 

The place was dead. I mean, no one else was there. It was 5 pm, all the schools had just gotten out, it was beautiful out, it was a holiday, it was FREE, it was famous gelato -- WHAT WAS GOING ON!? I immediately was worried it wasn't actually free, but when we went in the lady happily scooped us up some fresh rose gelato on two adorable tall and skinny waffle cones and sent us on our way with a friendly, "au revoir!" So confused. Not complaining. I would have loved to have documented this via photograph, but alas, I was so engrossed in the absolutely breathtaking flavor of this gelato I was unable to tear myself away from it until completion. 

Kendra and I then set off to find the art store. Now, my fault here, but we didn't find it. I had google maps'd it and taken a picture of the map on my phone to view. We were standing in front of what google maps said was the store, and there was no store. Classic google maps + Mikaela incident. We decided to skip out for the day on the art store, and instead head on down to Pigalle for dins.

My friend and mentor Melanie had suggested a dive called La Fourmi for cheap and delicious eats. We walked in, picked our own table (gasp!) and ordered a bottle of wine for less than both our little glasses had been the night before. 

I Probably should have not cut off Kendra's head in this photo... SORRY!

Now, the night before we'd seen a bunch of people with Croque Madames and we wanted them. So, comparing the size of the plate at last night's cafe with the incredibly reduced price at this one, I was expecting something roughly the size of a gluten-free grilled cheese. Non. This plate was EPIC.

The plate is like... the size of my torso. The Madame is the size of my forearm. Ah.

Kendra and I didn't talk for like half and hour. We just ate, and sighed, and occasionally mentioned god. It was a beautiful experience. Then, we both got dessert too. I got the tiramisu, and Kendra got something that translates to white cheese. We both polished ours off in like five minutes. 

There was so much delicious cocoa powder on this, I inhaled over my spoon and choked on cocoa. 

So, the bill for this meal came to less than half of the night before and we got... probably just as much food, but probably double the calories. It was amazing. Thank you, Melanie. 

Kendra wanted to go check our the Sacre Coeur and Pigalle at night time, which I know I wouldn't have had the guts to do alone so I gladly agreed. We took the tram up for free with our transit passes (so worth it, oh man) and snapped away with our cameras for a good 15-20 minutes. Kendra is a photographer. I am not. My photos all ended up blurry, save a couple good ones of the basilica. 

So gorgeous all lit up at night.

There was glass EVERYWHERE, and people were just chucking bottles like nobody's business. Party central, up here!

After that adventure, we walked around Pigalle, went into the Sexodrome store for like... an hour. We had our own set of adventures there, including a hilarious exchange with the stripper/prostitute there who, "Oh! English! ... I speaks english!" ... non. She did not. But she was very good at making you feel like you were communicating something correctly. We almost got chocolate crepes and pastries while walking around, but I know my belly was exploding, so we didn't consider those for long. After, we metro'd to our separate homes and I listened to my crazy neighbours party all night until I passed right out into a food coma. 

This morning I woke up and decided I needed to bake something. I made a Martha Stewart recipe for double chocolate brownies with a bajillion alterations. First off, I did make it gluten-free because... well... that's how I know how to bake now! Also, I used prunes all mashed up as a fat substitute (the recipe called for prune puree... no luck). Also, no cocoa powder, so I just bumped up the pure chocolate amounts (can't hurt for gluten-free stuff to have more moisture, non?). It's pretty damn good, not gonna lie. Pictures!!!

Mixing mixing mixing... I used corn starch flour, super basic. 

Oh hello, mini toaster oven. 

Please please please fit!

TA DA! 

45 minutes later... Voila!

Oooo food-blogger-esque close-up shot!

Right now I'm waiting for that brownie to cool so I can eat half the pan and go walk around for five hours! So concludes my last 24 hours! Good food, lot's of dessert, and lovely company! Au revoir till... probably tomorrow. Bisous!