Patricia Sands

Author

ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist

Choopy’s Cupcakes and Coffee Shop

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

I love success stories, don’t you? The reason I’m a little late posting this is because I took a few hours this evening to watch the movie The Help with my DH. As well as being an important and well-told story,  author Kathryn Stockett’s backstory about writing The Help is one everyone should hear. It’s a true success story.

She received 60 rejections over a five-year period before one brave agent with an eye for a good story saw the truth in it. Click here to read it from my archives, in case you missed it. She’s hilarious and her personal journey is inspiring to all of us who believe in our writing.

Okay, I’m getting off topic … as I do … this post is about France and it’s about success. It’s about a young couple I met in Antibes whose story also inspired me.

Meet Julie and Victor, the owners of Choopy’s,  who are natives of nearby Nice and about as sincere and delightful a young couple as you could ever hope to meet. This warm and welcoming shop is in the old town of Antibes, through a short archway off Rue de La République.

I have to admit I’m not a true coffee drinker, unlike my DH who is an espresso afficionado.

I am … full confession here … a faux-coffee drinker. I need chocolate in it . Give me a Café Mocha or a Moccacino and I’m in heaven. I appreciate how seriously the French take their café and I know it’s kind of bad manners to even think of having anything but a café (i.e. espresso) or a café crème so I had been pretending for several weeks that I was cool with that (plus a LOT of sugar). But I wasn’t.

So … Choopy’s was new and had a cosmopolitan ambiance AND they had free wifi – bonus! I wandered in one day to see if possibly they might have one of these North American aberrations on their menu. They didn’t. “Pas de problème!” said Victor with his wonderful smile. “Explain what it is and I’ll make you one.” I did and he did. Magnifique!

Julie, a beautiful and engaging young woman, is a graduate of a prestigious 5-year culinary program. Vincent has a degree in business and finance. Soon after graduation they began working. It took no time for Julie to realize she wanted to be in contact with people and Vincent knew he preferred baking cakes to crunching numbers. Their quest began to figure out just what it was they could do to make this happen.

Like so  many other young people, they packed up and had an adventure working and traveling in Australia and Bali. All the while they were on the lookout for something that might be a sign as to what sort of business they should open. It didn’t take long for the sign to appear and surprisingly it was in the shape of … CUPCAKES! 

It seemed as if every coffee shop in Australia also served cupcakes. Mon Dieu! Qu’est-ce que c’est? Who had heard of cupcakes in France?  Not many. You can find more types of pastries in France than practically anywhere else in the world … but not cupcakes!

Visiting cupcake bakeries in Australia before they left, they were convinced that this was their future.  A bit of research back home indicated only one bakery in Paris was making cupcakes. Amazing. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t enjoy a good cupcake … or two?  Julie has become a cupcake goddess and every kind I sampled through the summer was über-delicieux!

Along with the ever-changing selection of cupcakes there are several other equally delicious choices to accompany your coffee. Victor’s banana bread with it’s mouth-watering crunchy topping has already established it’s own reputation.

Lunches and Sunday brunches are also served with all ingredients fresh from the daily market. Get there early as the space fills up quickly. The word has spread and this bright, hard-working and absolutely delightful young couple are seeing their business become a most successful venture.

It was always a pleasure to stop in and see how busy they were. Their energy and commitment to their business is evident in everything they do. Customer service is their focus and after just a few months it was obvious they were becoming a very important part of the charming old town in Antibes. Never too busy for a smile and a friendly exchange, make sure you stop by the next time you are in the neighbourhood!

The strawberry cupcakes are to die for … but then, so are the chocolate … and  … um, well, the Cupcakes De Noël are out now too. Just try them all!

And ask them how they decided upon the name of their shop … very cute …

Here’s their Facebook link. Stop in and “like” them – they deserve it. Merci beaucoup!

What are some success stories that have inspired you? Have you ever done your homework, taken a big breath and begun something completely new and different in your life? Would you do it again?

Picasso’s new lease on life in Antibes …

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

In the summer of 1946, Pablo Picasso was in a good mood. The war was over and he was in the south of France with his new lover Françoise Gilot, who was 40 years younger.

Staying in Golfe-Juan, close to Antibes, through a chance meeting on the beach he was offered space for a studio in the Musée Grimaldi. A Roman fort that was rebuilt in the 14thC, it was being used at the time as a provincial antiquities museum.

Although he only used the chateau for a couple of months he was prodigious, leaving 22 paintings and 43 drawings to be kept on display in the space. As explained by Tony Myers in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian, “When he moved in, Picasso told the curator that he would decorate the walls of the castle as a thank you. But they were in a rough state of repair, and in the end Picasso was unable to fulfil his promise, with the exception of one graphite drawing, Les Clés d’Antibes. (The drawing can still be seen in the hall of the Grimaldi.) Instead, he donated the work he’d done there to the museum, stipulating that they should remain there permanently. “Anyone who wants to see them will have to come to Antibes,” he declared.”

 

 

 

 

 

When Picasso first arrived in Antibes there was a shortage of art materials – of everything, really, after the terrible years of WW2 – so he worked with what was available locally. Instead of canvas, he created backings of asbestos-cement and he used boat paint obtained from the fisherman at the port. Household paintbrushes and other crude implements replaced his usual painting and drawing supplies. Undaunted he painted with abandon, inspired by the beauty of his surroundings.

 

Wherever you go along the French Riviera, copies of paintings are often mounted on the spot where the artist sketched or painted the original. It’s an exciting feeling to know you are standing there!

I walked past this one practically every day on my morning walk. Loved it! He painted this colorful scene just before the outbreak of the war in 1939 and some have interpreted strong anti-war symbols while others see an exuberant depiction of the simple life of fishermen in Antibes. Take a look at the closeup below. What’s your take on it?

“The scene was one well familiar to Picasso, and he translated it with exuberance and vivid color into his own personal and stylized painting. He shows the spear fishermen of Antibes, in the south of France, working close to the shore, luring the fish to the surface with a lamp. Their activities have stopped some interested bystanders on the quay, two girls who pause in the languid evening to watch the outcome. One (at the right) holds a bicycle and licks at a double-dip ice cream cone. In the background on the left is the blocky form of the old castle of Grimaldi which, since the time of the painting, has become a Picasso museum.” (SI, 11/01/1960)

Are you a fan of Picasso’s art or do you look at it and wonder “What the … ?”. One thing we know for certain, the number of ways people express themselves creatively is impossible to count. Picasso is quoted as saying, “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” Would you agree with that?

Mon Dieu … I did it!

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Two-year-old Kate’s favourite saying is “I did it!” Today I echo that. I finally figured out how to make a slideshow work here. Transferring it from my iPhoto to YouTube was the secret. You probably already know how to do that but it was a big deal for me … truly, you wouldn’t want to know how many hours I’ve spent attempting to make it work in all sorts of other ways.

So now, if you will, follow the footsteps of inspired artists and writers in Arles … through Place de La Republique with it’s Roman obelisk and the Church of St. Trophime (formerly  a cathedral) with its 12th C. cloister that instantly inspire thoughts of mystery and intrigue, along narrow streets past Van Gogh’s hangout, Le Cafe De Nuit, to the Arena/Amphitheatre and the Roman Theatre where crowds continue to be entertained as they have since Roman times and finally, end with a glimpse of life in the Camargue thanks to some postcard photography.

Now that I finally did it, I HAD to share it. If your speakers are on, Edith Piaf accompanies you.

Have you ever visited Arles? I would love to hear what you liked best about the Bouches-Du-Rhone area. Next week we will be back on the Riviera. I hope you’ll be there too.

When the tech stuff tanks, take a stroll …

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If it’s Friday, It must be France …

For whatever reason, I simply cannot download my slideshow of Arles onto this page. I’ll keep working on it.

In the meantime, join me on one of my early morning strolls through our home base of Antibes.

 

Our front yard.

 

Pass through the one original remaining gate in the 500 year-old walls that once enclosed the entire village.

 

Stroll the narrow cobblestone streets.

 

No agenda necessary. Imagine Napoleon attempting to convince new recruits to join his campaign or Picasso rushing through town to his studio.

 

To the other side of the old town. My favourite view of le vieux village.

 

Plan to end up at the daily market with an empty basket to fill.

Where are your favourite places to walk where you live? Do you celebrate your surroundings or would you rather be living elsewhere? Tell me about it.