May 2013 / Shell Sherree

Francophile Friday: Feel the Pain and Eat It Anyway

18.5.13

{Paris Pain de Campagne: ink & watercolour illustration © Shell-Sherree}

Today we play Guess the Location. The prize is the warm glow of helping your fellow Chez Shell partygoers, so everyone play along and we won't let such minor details as accuracy get in the way of a good story {a philosophy embraced by many news outlets on the planet}. That said, I'm fairly confident someone really will know which boulangerie/pâtisserie we're pressing our noses against . {Wait ~ wrong window. How did that get in here...} Let's carry a casual dress code into the weekend as we indulge both sweet and savoury tooths with today's selection. Which would you choose? I'm on the fence. And on that note...

Happy Francophile Friday to you!

Inspiration with thanks here.
Update: Location is (Stéphane) Secco, 20 rue Jean-Nicot, 75007 {thanks to our learned readers!}

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Francophile Friday: Here, Cartier Kitty

10.5.13

{Ode to L'Odyssée de Cartier: ink & watercolour illustration by Shell-Sherree}

That which we call a panther by any other name shall look as sweet. While it's no secret I love cats, it's a long time since a Big Kitty has made an appearance here. Card-carrying Cartier connoisseurs are already giving each other discreet bejewelled high-fives at recognising the inspiration behind today's illustration before I've had a chance to say Panthère. Or Leopard. Or Pantherus pardus. {All one and the same, as it turns out.} As we're a crazy bunch of dreamers here Chez Shell, I'm pretty confident you'll love being swept along on our beautiful Cartier leopard's bewitching odyssey in this exquisite {I use this word freely in exchange for insanely-expensive-but-worth-it} short film. {Check out the back story here.} Three leopards were involved in filming and ~ wait for it ~ guess what their names were? Cali, Tiga and Damou. {For those new here, from cali is one of my dear friends and longstanding comments-party animals. I'm jealous. Fancy sharing a name with a leopard...} I feel we need an invisibility cloak of sorts to wear for the ride, so let's don our camouflage gear. Hang onto your hats. And on that note ...

Happy Francophile Friday to you!
PS: Bonus cute Cartier kitties here.

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Francophile Friday: Paris Daily Photo Reprised

4.5.13

{Tenin Perspective - Paris Daily Photo: ink & watercolour illustration by Shell-Sherree}

My life took a new turn when I happily stumbled upon Paris Daily Photo while following a croissant-crumb trail of links back in 2008. I'm guessing it started with typing Paris into Google ~ no need to bring bring Inspector Maigret out of retirement.

I fell a bit in love with Eric Tenin and his gaggle of loyal followers. This was my first encounter with BlogLand ~ and wow. The wit, the repartee, the camaraderie! The Paris eye candy, from the gilty gloriousness to the everyday! I was captivated. After lurking shyly for a crazy length of time, I still remember squeezing up the nerve to leave my first comment, and the warm glow of being welcomed {by Coltrane_lives first, if my memory serves correctly}. Eric and Paris Daily Photo sparked the start of my own blog and many dear friendships both on and off our various respective blogs, seeded in a common love for Paris and discovering a whole bunch of other kinships {not the least being kitties}.

Each year, Eric holds a Paris Daily Photo Picnic {aka the PDP Picnic, pronounced PDP Pique-nique by those in the know}, and way back I whipped up a little illustration for the 2009 edition. What do you know, tomorrow heralds this year's picnic so I've gone back to the archives and bent my 'no repeats' illo philosophy as I thought it would be fun to revisit. Eric has updated his site design a couple of times since I did this, so it can go into the archives for posterity's sake {and posterior's sake}. I won't be there and each year it comes around, I kick myself up the proverbial for not getting my proverbial to Paris yet. I hang my head, Yoda, as I do my best to follow your wisdom: Do or do not. There is no try.

But if you are going along, here's something you can slip into. Plenty of layers in case of uncertain weather. Let us pray for baby blue skies ~ either way, the picnic will be lit by the sunshine of your smiles. And on that note...

Happy Francophile Friday PDP Picnic Edition to you...

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