Paris and Julie and Julia

I finally watched Cédric Klapisch’s Paris today after having bought it last Christmas and I realised that it has been almost three years since I visited the beautiful city for the first time.
The film really is incredible; it is beautifully made and it’s just a simple, funny, warm film despite the heavy subject matter. Romain Duris is absolutely brilliant in it and I now want to watch everything he has ever been in. Most of all though this film just made me desperate to return to Paris.

I have only ever been once for a long weekend and didn’t really get to see a huge amount of the city but I fell completely in love with it. Obviously, I went to all the typical tourist hot spots; the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and the Musée d’Orsay. My favourite part, however, was the afternoon we spent at Sacré Coer, meandering through the Place du Tertre where, although I resisted getting my portrait painted, I did buy the clichéd Paris, je t’aime T-shirt. Despite it being mid September the weather was beautiful and we sat on the steps in the blazing sunshine admiring the stunning view and listening to the brilliant covers of U2 and Oasis classics by a busker with a guitar and an extremely strong Spanish accent, whose rendition of ‘Wid Or Widout You’ was possibly the best I’ve ever heard!

I also watched Julie and Julia today with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams which was a beautiful film with just the right amount of France dabbled through it. It was so sweet and simple with cute little sets and costumes and also a traditional and homely feeling. All the food looked amazing too and it put me in a cooking mood so I made my Nutella cookies, they were good although I couldn’t find a baking tray so instead used patty pans and they turned out more like brownies. Anyway inspired by Julie Powell I thought I would share my recipe, its very simple and doesn’t take long to make at all so here it is!

Mix 3 tablespoons of Nutella, (or alternative chocolate spread and you can add a bit more if you like it more chocolatey) 50g of butter and 50g of caster sugar together. Add 1 egg and 100g of self raising flour. Now you can add whatever kind of chocolate chips you like but my favourite are white chocolate chunks or you can make then without or with nuts if you fancy too!! Spoon the mixture into small balls on an ungreased tray and bake for 25 minutes at around 180°C. When they come out of the oven the probably won’t be hard at all but don’t cook them anymore!!! Leave to cool until hard and enjoy - there best when they are still slightly warm!