By Amy Barnard

Clotilde Dusoulier is a born-and-bred parisienne who became a dedicated food writer via a stay in the San Francisco Bay Area and the creation of an intensely popular blog, Chocolate and Zucchini. Passionate about fresh ingredients and chocolate in equal measure, she has also written two cookbooks: Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen and Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris.

Your blog must take a lot of time. How do you cope?
Maintaining a blog does take a fair amount of time—between cooking, taking pictures, writing posts, translating them (C&Z is a bilingual blog), handling the comments, emails and requests, maintaining the technical side of things . . . but I am fortunate in that I was able to turn my passion for food writing into a full-time occupation five years ago. Blogging has become part of my job since then, in addition to the freelance writing and the book projects, so I simply make time in my schedule for it. It was a lot more challenging when I still worked as a software engineer and had to blog at night and on weekends, but even then, I was so enchanted with this creative outlet that it gave me wings.

Tell us about your greatest culinary triumph.
I have an enthusiastic nature, and I believe the key to happiness is to marvel at small things, so basically every time I cook a dish successfully, whether it's a new creation or an old favorite, and get to share it with people I love, it feels like a triumph. But if I had to name a single achievement, it would be conquering my fear of yeast and becoming someone who bakes bread weekly, with my natural starter (pain au levain). People talk about the Zen of bread baking, and how gratifying it is, but it was only when I really got into it that I understood what they meant—and agreed wholeheartedly.

And disaster?
More than absolute disasters, which I rarely experience (fortunately), what I get are kitchen disappointments: dishes that are edible but fall short of what I was trying to achieve. It used to make me despondent when that happened, but I've come to realize these experiences are an integral part of the process, and they only feel like failures if you let them. Instead, you can pick yourself up and turn them into an opportunity to learn: In what ways is the dish lacking? What could have been done differently? It helps to jot down a few notes and turn to them the next time you want to attempt the recipe.

Describe the places you would go, the things you would see and experience, who you would meet (or not meet!) to make it a perfect day in Paris.
I've actually written a post about that very subject! It's called Twelve Hours in Paris.

If you were to tell a friend to visit just one restaurant in Paris, which would it be, and why?
There are so many dining options in Paris. I don't believe in one-size-fits-all: if a friend could only have a single meal in Paris, first I'd want to know what neighborhood, what budget, what style he or she is in the mood for. Actually, it was based on this outlook that I wrote my book on Paris: I wanted to highlight the variety of eating experiences one could enjoy in Paris, so visitors could make the most of their time here according to what they like.

What does Paris mean to you?
Home.

If you could choose one French saying as your personal credo, what would it be?
I love sayings and idioms—as perhaps evidenced by my series on food-related expressions—so it's hard to limit myself to just one, but perhaps it might be "Comme on fait son lit, on se couche" ("As you make your bed, so you must lie in it") or "À chaque jour suffit sa peine" ("It's enough to concentrate on what you have to do today—no need to worry about what tomorrow will bring").

You’re surrounded by all sorts of culinary temptations every day. What do you have to "just say 'non!'" to on a regular basis?
When your professional life revolves around food—cooking it, tasting it, thinking and reading about it—your appetite becomes one of your greatest assets, so you quickly learn to save it for what's really worth it.

Who is your own female French icon?
I have to say, I've never been an icon-driven person: I wouldn't trade my life for anyone else's, and I'm very aware that prominent figures are just people like you and me, with their own flaws and problems, so I don't feel the need to identify with any.

Is there one French beauty product or ritual that you swear by?
I don't know that it's particularly French, but I'm religious about skin care—I cleanse, I moisturize and I stay out of the sun. I also try to find the time and budget to get a massage every other month or so.

By Amy Barnard

Paris-based writer and tour guide Heather Stimmler-Hall really knows her stuff! We talk to the former travel editor and author of the delightfully mischievous Naughty Paris: A Lady’s Guide to the Sexy City.

When did you begin your current career and what was your inspiration?
I’ve always been a writer. I started as a journalist in high school, when I got my first job as the teen correspondent for the Phoenix Gazette in 1993. I’ve been writing about travel in France since 1999, when I was travel editor for the Elle website. I went full-time as a freelance travel writer a year later, writing articles, web content and guidebooks, all on Paris or the French Riviera (where I lived for four years). I didn’t start giving tours until 2004, starting out with large companies such as EF and Backroads before starting my own private tours in 2006. Inspiration? I do enjoy sharing the city I know and love with other people, whether in my writing or by showing them places in person, but I honestly never thought this is where I would end up when I studied journalism and political science. I thought I was going to be a White House correspondent! This is what happens when you “study abroad” for a year . . . your life changes course.

Tell us the idea behind your popular book Naughty Paris.
The idea of a “sexy women’s guide” to Paris isn’t actually new; I wrote many travel articles about Paris for women’s magazines, and many of them were interested in something more upscale, trendy, sexy, and a little daring than what would be found in average travel magazines. I realized there was enough material for an entire guide, and the more I talked about it, the more I realized women of all ages were interested. Still, it took me almost three years to finally get it done!

What drove you to set up your Paris blog?
I created my first Paris website in 1997 and started the Secrets of Paris Newsletter (sent out monthly) in 1999, many years before the word “blog” surfaced. I think it’s great that everyone and their mother (including mine!) has a blog now, but it makes me cringe when people ask me what my “real” job is. This is my job!

What does your favorite day consist of in Paris? Where are the two or three places you must go and the two or three things you must do to make it the perfect day?
A perfect day in Paris probably isn’t that different from a perfect day in Minnesota: when I can sleep in, when the weather is perfect, when I don’t have any looming deadlines, when I can meet up with friends for a picnic and a night out with some good music. Of course, having Paris as the backdrop for all this is what makes it so fabulous to live here, like living on a movie set!

If you were to tell a friend to visit just one museum or gallery in Paris, which would it be, and why?
Ah, this is just like the “what is the best hotel/restaurant/neighborhood in Paris” question. The answer is always the same: it depends. I think the Louvre is great, but I would go mad if I had to spend more than 20 minutes at the Centre Pompidou. Some people feel the opposite is true. The secret to being a good guide is to find out what your clients like. Having said that, I think the Jacquemart-André is totally underrated; I wish more people would go.

Describe what Paris means to you.
I moved here when I was a student 15 years ago, so at this point it’s home to me. Being a writer and guide forces me to step outside of my own life and try and see the city as a visitor, but every corner has so many memories for me, from being a student to getting married to starting my first company . . . I’ve lived in almost every arrondissement in this city!

If you could choose one French saying as your personal credo, what would it be?
"Quand le vin est tiré, il faut le boire." ["When the wine is poured, it must be drunk."] Although I love Miss.Tic’s version, too: "Quand le vain est tiré, il faut le boire."

What are the best free things to do in Paris?
Paris Plage, the open-air cinema and all of the open-air concerts throughout the year, but especially in summer. I also love visiting the gardens, the free municipal museums, the church concerts and strolling the banks of the Seine. If you like art, there are many vernissages where you can meet the artists, have a glass of wine and perhaps find something fabulous for your apartment.

Who is your own female French icon?
Colette.

What’s on your iPod and your bedside table right now?
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Anthology: Through the Years on the MP3 player this week, and Eiffel’s Tower by Jill Jonnes on the table. But I usually listen to National Public Radio on the Internet while working, and I tend to read mostly magazines and newspapers to keep up on the latest happenings around Paris (my favorite is still the free A Nous Paris magazine in the metro that comes out every Tuesday).

INFO

Paris Plage takes place during the summer, when a section of the bank of the Seine gets turned into an artificial beach. The dates this year are July 20 to August 20, 2010. For more info, visit Paris.fr.

Editor's Note: To sign up for one of Heather's Naughty Girls shopping tours of Paris, visit our Book It page.

By Amy Barnard

© Peter Utz

Free concerts, backstage partying with the stars . . . tough job, right? Originally from the south, born-again parisienne Flora Richard is a band manager for Burning Bridges Music. Here she shares some of her favorite music hangouts with us.

When did you begin your current career?
Officially, at Rock en Seine 2007. After I directed the documentary film LINES, for which I also worked on the sound track, I met the Tatianas and, after hanging out a bit, we understood we needed each other.

What inspired you?
The music itself, of course, but mostly the bands and their passion. And I have to admit, a bit of the fun of being backstage at festivals.

Name a perk and a pitfall of your profession.
Seeing great concerts, meeting amazing people and having so much fun. Knowing most of these human connections are fake and don’t last. It looks better on film, basically.

Describe your perfect day in Paris.
Waking up in my lover's arms, getting great news for my bands, telling them and seeing their happy smiles. Finding an amazing dress for a good deal, meeting my friends for drinks at Stolly’s or Le Progrès and a good dinner at Galerie Vivienne or Sole. Falling asleep in front of a good movie.

Where are the best places to listen to unsigned up-and-coming bands in Paris?
La Flèche d’Or, Le Scopitone. Le Bus Palladium is reopening, so hopefully it’ll be good, too. Chez Moune on Wednesdays, the Truskel.

What does Paris mean to you? Why do you love it?
To me Paris is a very free city—you’re free to spend hours at a restaurant, free to be rude, free to party all night. It’s a pretty rock-and-roll city . . . I love this, and its beauty, of course.

What is your favorite French saying?
"Qui boit la gnôle casse la bagnole." [She who drinks the booze breaks the car.]

Name a couple of great free things to do in the city.
Picnics in the Parc Monceau, cruising the Palais de Tokyo and its library.

Who is currently on your iPod?
My bands always, the Tatianas and Brigitte; the Strokes, Nirvana and NTM always as well; and right now Grems and Koudlam.

INFO

Chez Moune
54, rue Pigalle, in the 9th Arrondissement.
01 45 26 64 64.

Parc Monceau
Blvd de Courcelles, ave Hoche and rue Monceau, in the 8th.
Open till 8 p.m. in winter, 10 p.m. in summer.

Le Progrès
1, rue de Bretagne, in the 3rd.
01 42 72 01 44.

Sole Caffe e Cucina
1, ave Trudaine, in the 9th.
01 42 81 11 34.

Stolly’s
16, rue Cloche-Perce, in the 4th.
01 42 76 06 76.

By Doni Belau

Casey in transit to Paris.

Casey O’Brien Blondes is our quintessential Parisian woman this week. An Irish Catholic girl born and raised in New Jersey and London, she has lived in and around Paris for the past 20-odd years. Her husband, Jeffrey, had spent time in France and convinced her to move in the 1980s, so they picked up and went without a plan or a clue as to what they were going to do.

Three kids and many horses later, Casey spends most of her time at their country house—several hours from Paris, in the Loire Valley—but pops into town often to stay at their atelier in the 13th Arrondissement and catch up with her kids or the latest gallery exhibition. Casey recently finished her second book for Rizzoli, a beautiful coffee table book called Parisian Hideaways, which profiles some wonderful French-owned secret and discreet hotels (some so secret even we had not heard of them!). Her husband is an artist specializing in films on nature. When not researching hotels in Paris, Casey spends much of her time riding her horse in La Chasse à Courre, which is the French version of the fox hunt, with a stag instead of a fox. 

How did an Irish Catholic girl from New Jersey end up living the country and city life in France?
Well, my husband convinced me over 20 years ago to move here; he’d lived in France and we moved with no plan whatsoever. And here we are 20+ years later with three kids, mostly grown and fully invested in French life. It hasn’t always been easy, though, since we are both freelance. We discovered the Loire visiting a friend in Pontlevoy and bought a weekend cottage there in 1989, before moving to Orbigny in 1992.

Where is your apartment in Paris?
It’s an atelier apartment in the 13th, which my husband uses for his art. He got it through Maison des Artistes, but it's more of an office since most of his work is created out of doors—but that’s where we stay when we are in town. For the past nine months he had an installation up at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature. It's a triptych of three of his 52-hour films, which are meditations on time, space and nature. Most of his work now is film related; previously he was a landscape painter. The next project he’s doing is at the Bay of Fundy.

You live most of the time in the Loire Valley near Loches. What are your favorite activities there?
I ride and hunt on Tuesday or Saturday six months of the year, as does my husband. Tuesday is for the full-time country folks and Saturday for the weekenders. La Chasse à Courre is a strong tradition in Touraine, and hunters pass it on to their kids as we have. I also enjoy cooking and using organically grown produce from our garden, which is active 10 months a year. I am passionate about organic wines and locally grown food. For example, I’ll buy three whole baby lambs and freeze them so I can have locally raised organic lamb to serve year-round.

Casey on the hunt.

You’ve written two books through Rizzoli, most recently Parisian Hideaways, which profiles a number of different French-owned hotels in Paris that are discreet and very special. Can you describe this project as well as your other book, French Country Hideaways?
The first book profiles 30 private châteaux and manor properties hidden in the countryside that are chambres d'hôtes [rooms in private homes] and promote regional products. I was then asked to do something similar for Spain and Italy, which I declined, as I prefer to only write about what I really know and understand. For this most recent book I looked at over 200 small hotels in Paris, but my goal was to pick only hotels that no matter their style were authentically Parisian, had big rooms (for Paris) and were privately owned or managed, and then I grouped them by theme: historic, boudoir, contemporary art, etc.

What are some of your favorites from the book?
The Raphael, which is the only palace hotel in Paris with less than 100 rooms. It has a fabulous rooftop garden bar and restaurant. It’s a true Old World hotel, like going back in time. Like the rest of the hotels I picked for the book, it's a lesser-known hideaway that protects the privacy of its clients. Another hotel that I really love because of its location is Saint Vincent in the 7th. It’s in a great location (on the border of the 6th) with a terrific breakfast. I’m also excited about the renovation of the Pavillon de la Reine in the Marais. You cannot beat the location on the Place des Vosges, and with the new decor it's delightful. An intriguing little contemporary hotel is Le Placide on rue St.-Placide. The designer worked with Philippe Starck on hotels for years and has done this one with less drama but with a beautiful modern aesthetic.

Each hotelier in the book shares their favorite resources in that quartier. Once I told a friend of mine who is a photographer where Brad Pitt should stay. I can’t give you the name of the hotel, but he stayed there for one week and was never photographed or found out.

A magical weekend destination from my first book is the Prieuré d’Orsan, a chambre d’hôte with medieval-style gardens, which provide fresh produce for their restaurant. It's not far from Bourges in southern Berry.

What’s your ideal day in Paris?
I love the unknown Paris. I think people should spend more time in the 13th Arrondissement, especially the area around the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, along the Seine, where the biggest urban renewal project since Haussmann is under way. The area is very vibrant around avenue de France, which is envisioned as a Champs-Elysées Rive Gauche. In front of the BNF there's a new swimming pool that floats in the Seine, named after Josephine Baker, with a stretch of Paris Plage in the summer, and of course the pedestrian bridge is beautiful. There are great shows at the BNF, such as the Indian miniatures show on now and galleries around rue Louise Weiss—the area is very happening. The 13th is multicultural and because of that reminds me of New York. It’s the anti-16th. So for my ideal day I’d start out in the 13th, pick up exotic ingredients and raw nuts I can't find in the country at the Tang Frères stores in Chinatown and go to a movie at the MK2, which was designed by Paul Wilmot and has deluxe sofa seats. Then I’d get on my bike and ride along the Seine, visit my kids in the 6th and hang out with them in a café or the Luxembourg Gardens.

What’s your favorite area for shopping?
The upper Marais in the 3rd—by Isabel Marant and rue de Poitou. I’d do a combo day there and visit art galleries and my favorite clothing shops. I am a fan of Estelle Yomeda's beautifully crafted shoes and boots at 4, rue de Normandie.

For art lovers what do you recommend seeing?
Well, it depends on what’s showing, but certainly the Pompidou: "Elles" is a very important and amazing show. La Maison Rouge, down on the quai south of the Bastille, is a small private modern art museum that does shows of entire collections. If you are a member they give you access to tours all around town.

And what are your favorite restaurants?
I’m a real fan of organic wines, so I love small bistros that serve organic wines. For lunch I go to La Garde Robe for fresh simple food and good organic wines. Racines before it was sold was wonderful—I do miss the charismatic founder, but it's still worthwhile. For a special meal, I’d go to Yam'Tcha, near Les Halles. Book well ahead.

Where do you like to travel in France and where do you summer?
Cap Ferret, where the beach reminds me of the Hamptons. It’s beautiful and relaxed. Île d'Yeu is a gorgeous island with dramatic cliffs. I’m also partial to the islands off Brittany in the Gulf of Morbihan. Noirmoutier is authentically French and a good weekend destination because of the bridge.

Will you be writing another book set in France?
Yes, I am working on another, but being Irish Catholic and superstitious, I can’t reveal any more info.

What’s it like raising three children in France?
Even though we are American, France is our home. When you raise three kids here who are French, you become even more attached to your community. They go to the US each year, but after a week or two they really miss home. We have a son and two daughters. The youngest is at boarding school in Paris, the middle one is at the Atelier de Sèvres prepping for Beaux-Arts study and our son is out of university and working at a venture capital fund that does ethical investing.

If you had to leave Paris and your much-loved house in the country, what would you miss the most?
My horse and my husband, because they'll never leave!

INFO

La Garde Robe
41, rue de l'Arbre-Sec, in the 1st.
01 49 26 90 60.

Piscine Josephine Baker
Quai François Mauriac, in the 13th.
Open in summer.

Racines
8, Passage des Panoramas, in the 2nd.
01 40 13 06 41.

Tang Frères
48, ave d'Ivry, in the 13th.
01 45 70 80 00.

Yam'Tcha
4, rue Sauval, in the 1st.
01 40 26 08 07.