Monday, November 21, 2011

Tintin Trip, Brussels!





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Me at The Tintin ( pronounced as 'Turnturn' in French) Shop in Covent Garden, London.

Finally my most-awaited movie of the year, The Adventures of Tintin is now showing at cinemas nationwide, yippie ! I'm sure many of you are as excited, too? More so, you senior citizen readers out there? ;P

Although I did not actually grow up during the Tintin era (*ahem!), I'm still a huge fan of his! I have to blame my brother who introduced me to reading Tintin comics and watching his DVDs many years ago.

I have already seen the film, and was it awesome! I would rate it 5 stars! How about you guys, have you seen it?

By the way, Tintin fever was so prominent in Paris: from children's apparels to brioche wrapers, to just about anything, all you will ever see is 'Turnturn!'. Not just that, the nicely-adorned bread loaves come with surprise Tintin stickers - there's no guarantee which character you will chance upon!

And a week before the movie was out, they released a special reproduction of the famous Tintin-in-his-reporter-trenchcoat figurine that comes with a detailed biodata and passport! In the weeks to follow, other characters like Thomson and Thompson, Captain Haddock, Madame Castafiore and the rest, will meet ardent collectors!

When we were in London, my brother and I accidentally bumped into The Tintin Shop in Convent Garden. I love the shop so much! But there's yet another shop, in Paris' Montmarte area which I grew to hate the most! Why? It has a huge number of Tintin collectibles - the largest I've ever seen so far! What really rubbed the envy in was, most of their collectibles are really rare and vintage! And costly, of course! LOL...

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Some of the figurines my brother brought from the shop in Covent Garden.

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The Tintin shop in Montmarte... They have a special section on Tintin at the back...

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GAP Kids cashing in on the hype...

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PITCH's special edition brioche that comes with various Tintin character stickers. *kembung hari2 makan roti ni :D

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Even regular news weekly magazines like Le Point, carried Tintin on their front page.

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Dave de Bruges' special edition chocolates...

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Tintin promotional poster at a Paris bus stop...

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The Tintin special reproduction set, complete with a figurine of the hero!

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Have to go 'Tintin hunting' for more copies, since most shops have only one copy each. I bought two copies for myslef while my brother got two for himself too.

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Another movie poster, this time at the entrance of an electrical shop in Paris...

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A shop in the suburb Montmarte also offers a huge collection of old Tintin comics, but only in French...

So, as diehard Tintin fans, we made a special visit to Tintin's hometown... Where else but Brussels!



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A huge Tintin billboard proudly standing in downtown Brussels...

*to be continued

Monday, November 14, 2011

Another Macaron Story: Pierre Hermé





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A French lady joked about swapping macarons. Hers were Laduree, mine were Pierre Herme! No way, Madam... Don't think I want to queue up for hours again ;)


As usual, whenever I visited Jardin du Luxembourg, a place compulsory for me to drop by would be Pierre Hermé! I went there a few days after my Macarons Class, I love afternoons at Jardin du Luxembourg. The garden is really full of distinctive character. A signature view of this garden is the congregation of veteran localites spending their evening playing chess, often with complete strangers who take them on for a game of mind challenge...

Anyway, back to the Pierre Hermé story: They used to trade under the same roof with Ladurée. Personally, I think both of them are now equally successful. If I were to compare them to fashion brands, Pierre Hermé is Hermes (long queues going for their Birkin bags are somewhat similar to those queuing up for macarons!), while Ladurée is Louis Vuitton (more accessible, with more points of sale). The most obvious difference is, Ladurée has its own line of merchandises! Not to be out-done, Pierre Hermé does so in another, classier way; for example, their current collaboration with artist Nicolas Vial in designing their latest macaron boxes!

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A normal scene: The long queue at Pierre Hermé...


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Hoping for some macarons, I joined the queue... And what else was there to do, except for snapping some interesting shots while waiting to be served?

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Remember this "stylo" lady, with her Lego earrings from the previous entry? I actually spotted her while queuing up at Pierre Hermé.

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Kiehl's bike
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Striking window display at Pierre Hermé.

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Inside Pierre Hermé. Opsss... no pictures allowed!
But that didn't stop me from taking some! :D

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On my way to the Jardin du Luxembourg...

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Setting up some props for the photography session...
These are what I bought on that day!!

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Yum! Yum!

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Pierre Herme


Enjoying the evening's sights, while having my macarons!
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Pierre Herme
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Some pictures at Jardin du Luxembourg.

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*Thanks to my travel partner for taking my pictures! ;)
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