Strasbourg was a magical place during our Thanksgiving week, an enchanting Christmas wonderland that I’ll likely remember forever. What also made it so memorable was how child friendly it was. When we first arrived, there was an area in front of one of the markets that had a bunch of wooden boards laid out. I assumed it was likely a mini Christmas village for littles that they’d build. Just hours later, the entire kids’ village was constructed, complete with multiple sturdy wooden houses, fancy rooftops, and even little fireplaces with lanterns, Christmas decorations, and stockings hung up. All the families that passed with young children let their children run in and embrace the fun. Kaia had a little devious mind of her own: she grabbed one of the lanterns, took it into a little house, then shut the door. Clearly, she was up to no good because when we opened the door, we discovered that she had tried to pick apart the inside of the lantern and disconnect it. One of the Christmas mini village workers came over to lightly scold her in broken English, telling her this was, “No good, no good!”, to which Kaia simply responded with a cheeky grin and ran off giggling.
What was also fun was having my French listening and speaking comprehension slowly return bit by bit. We popped into a little patisserie and asked if they had their famous almond croissants left after a lunch at an Alsatian restaurant. The employee responded in French, saying that they had run out of almond croissants, but they still had almond and chocolat croissants left if I’d be interested. My response in my head was, “Uhhh, YEAH!” and I told her that I’d definitely like one. That creme d’amande et chocolat croissant was one of the most delicious ones we’ve eaten. The almond filling was different than the ones we’ve had back in New York in that it was a whipped almond cream filling, like a cross between blended almond paste, cream, and custard. The end conclusion: it was extremely decadent and flaky, just as a French croissant should be.
While in France, while we do enjoy decadent croissants and pastries, what we also enjoy that we never get back home are the simplest dishes, like crepes with butter and sugar or with Grand Marnier and nutella. I love crepes and how simple and delicious they are; they really don’t use that many ingredients, but they’re always so satisfying and light. I used to make them all the time when I was in high school, but since then, I’ve never bothered making them since the effort that goes into them is better for a crowd. And sometimes, you just want someone else to make you something simple and delicious. We enjoyed these crepes on our last night in Strasbourg while Pookster napped peacefully in her stroller.
Today, we headed back to Paris by high-speed train. And my first stop with Kaia after we checked into the hotel was to the closest Mariage Freres tea salon in the 9eme arrondissement. I had last visited a Mariage Freres tea salon back in 2015 when Chris and I last came together. And lucky me, even since then, I’ve had Mariage Freres tea since Chris had come to France on a couple work trips and brought them back. This afternoon, I went row by row, tin by tin, to smell all these beautifully blended teas. I usually detest tea blends with things added other than tea leaves (I’m usually a tea purist), but Mariage Freres truly masters the art of tea blended with fruit and other aromatics. Kaia, of course, wanted to be part of the action, so as I sniffed the tins, she immediately wanted to sniff right after and tell me if she liked the fragrance or not. I ended up leaving with four 100-gram bags of tea, one of which I would give away as a gift.
While tea the prices predictably had gone up, and there has always been a surcharge to have the tea packaged into a gift tin, I was not necessarily expecting the surcharge to go up to 6 euros per tin. This is annoying not just for cost (especially since some of the teas are just 10-11 euros for 100 grams, so an over-50 percent surcharge just for the freaking tin!), but also for packaging reasons. It’s far easier to pack a bag of loose leaf tea than it is a rounded wide tin of tea into your luggage. So even though one of the teas was a gift, I figured my recipient wouldn’t mind not having a tin.
I also noticed something else interesting with the tea containers: now, you can purchase what they consider their “vintage” tea tins and even porcelain jars! The prices for these lacquered jars, bottles, and metal tins range from 15 euros all way up to (gasp!) 150 euros each. This cost is only for the vessel itself; you will have to pay extra for the tea to be added to it. This sounded completely insane to me, as you must REALLY love this brand the history of Mariage Freres to pay those types of premiums just for the tea containers themselves.
France is truly a treasure trove for all things epicurean, as well as all things tangentially related, like beautiful scents and pleasing aesthetics. I’ll never get bored of eating and drinking in this gastronomic capital of the world.
