Finds

Nana Ding: Lessons of Tea

October 2, 2018 By Allison

…le mouvement de la vie est pris dans un réseau de constants échanges et d’entrecroisements
…the movement of life exists in a network of continual exchanges and intertwinements
François Cheng, Cinq méditations sur la beauté

Nana Ding’s tea shop is on a quaint street in Strasbourg, France. Quiet and elegant, the rue des Charpentiers winds behind the Gothic cathedral. When I was visiting in March, her toasty shop was a welcome escape from Strasbourg’s damp and chilly weather. When you step into Nana Ding Thés d’Exception, you enter a tea haven. Delicate Chinese tea objects occupy every shelf and corner—tiny Yixing tea pots, painted gaiwans, fragile tea bowls, all selected by Nana Ding during her trips to China. Behind the counter reside rare and special teas that she sources from China. Puerhs, oolongs, rock teas, green teas, red teas, white teas… how to choose?!

Madame Ding and I spent two lovely mornings together, infusing, sipping, and observing. Our encounter felt hushed and sacred. The teas she shared with me were ethereal. A green tea from Sichuan Province that we steeped six times and a red tea from Yunnan Province harvested from uncultivated tea trees that are more than 2,000 years old. I found both teas to be otherworldly and subtle.

I often sip exceptional teas with tea-loving friends. Over tea, we learn from one another. Nana Ding taught me that the tea itself speaks to us. Each infusion seemed to unlock and share a lesson—lessons that I continue to unravel, many months after our tea mornings.

Since those blustery March moments, I have taken to honoring the tea leaf. I sip more slowly, I infuse more respectfully, and I attune myself to the messages that each tiny cup of tea offers me.

…the movement of life exists in a network of continual exchanges and intertwinements

Nana Ding Thés d’Exception
13 rue des Charpentiers
67000 Strasbourg

Old Versailles

September 22, 2018 By Allison

Le Vieux Versailles, or Old Versailles, is not the Royal City’s oldest neighborhood. The medieval village acquired by King Louis XIII once stood there, but most of it was destroyed in the 17^th century. Occupying the streets to the south-east of the Château, Old Versailles is ideal for meandering and admiring elegant 17^th and 18^th century architecture: sober grey and beige stone into which decorative medallions, garland, and faces are carved, cast iron railings and balconies, touches of blue and ochre that draw our eyes up the buildings and to the sky.

For history lovers, a visit to La Salle du Jeu de Paume is a must. Constructed by the royal family in 1686, the Salle was one of the first sporting centers in France. A precursor to tennis, “palm ball” was invented in France and initially played without racquets. In 1789, 578 Frenchmen met in this spacious room, declared themselves to be the National Assembly, and swore to stay together until they had drafted a constitution for France. Now known as the “Tennis Court Oath”, this moment was key in the lead up to the French Revolution. The Salle is open for visits on Tuesday-Sunday afternoons from 2-5:30. Admission is free.

Relatively new to the neighborhood, the Cour des Senteurs is a calm courtyard dedicated to the art of perfume and upscale shopping. The Maison des Parfums offers a simple introduction to the history of perfume, and the quiet urban garden offers respite from a day of touring. Admission is free to both. Michelin starred restaurant La Table du 11 is located in the courtyard; reservations are essential.

The bustling pedestrian zone rue de Satory offers a number of dining options. A future post will list some of the rue de Satory’s best restaurants.

Allison’s Tips
Access: The Vieux Versailles quarter borders the Château property. Standing in the Place des Armes with your back to the Château, the neighborhood will be behind you and to your right.

Allow 1-3 hours to explore Vieux Versailles.

As you stroll through the area, there is no need to follow a prescribed route. Rather, let brown tourist signage serve as a loose guide: La Cour des Senteurs, La Salle du Jeu de Paume, La rue Satory.

Ore: a golden pause

September 8, 2018 By Allison

Visiting the Château of Versailles can make for a long day: lines, crowds, and so much sumptuous history to take in! For sanity’s sake, why not break up the day with a calm, delectable lunch?

Located on the grounds of the Château, Chef Alain Ducasse’s ORE serves carefully prepared, high-end café fare in a light, airy setting. Ore means mouth in Latin and also plays on the French word for gold (or). The gold décor and sunburst tableware speak to the historic setting, and the menus correspond to the seasons. On my last visit I ordered a perfect spring vegetable tartelette resting on a green pea purée, followed by a verbena and raspberry soufflé. Disconnected from the effervescent commotion of the Château, my friends and I enjoyed classic French cuisine graced with touches of modernity, all in a discreet, elegant setting.

At ORE, The service is attentive and efficient, the food beautifully plated and delicious. After a quiet, relaxed lunch, you will be ready to continue your visit of the Château.

Allison’s Tips
ORE teams up with the Château of Versailles to offer breakfast or lunch followed by direct access (no lines!) to the Château and its grounds. Reserve for breakfast + direct access (40€) or lunch + direct access (60€). The set menus vary according to the season.

Make a reservation for breakfast (starting at 12€), lunch (starting at 16€), or afternoon tea (35€)

Make a reservation for evening dinners, offered on select dates throughout the summer

Reserve ORE for a private evening function by calling +33 1 30 84 12 97

Access: ORE is on the second floor of the Pavillon Dufour at the Château of Versailles. From the security checkpoint on the Place d’Armes, enter the Cour d’Honner and hang left as you approach the Cour Royal and the Pavillon Dufour. From the gardens, follow the signs to the Cour des Princes and access the Pavillon Dufour from the Cour des Princes courtyard.

Unlocking Versailles

September 1, 2018 By Allison

Photo Courtesy Yann Prigent

With so much to see in Paris, it’s easy to shortchange Versailles. Over the years, I made a number of half-day trips to Versailles, dreading the lines I’d face waiting to visit the Château and bracing myself for the crowds of fellow tourists.

Recently, though, I’ve come to embrace Versailles as a destination unto itself rather than a simple daytrip from Paris. The more time I spend in Versailles, the more I grow to appreciate its splendor, history, and dynamism.

Every year, millions of people visit Versailles’ Château, gardens, and Trianon Palaces, and each year the crowds grow! I have learned how to navigate the swelling crowds of Versailles, and I am setting out to create a guide to the Château, its grounds, and the city of Versailles. My French co-authors are Art Historian Stéphane Ceccaldi and Professor Yann Prigent. As we research, write, and photograph, I will share some of my Versailles secrets with you on Creative Sanctuary. Collected in the My Versailles category of the blog, the brief posts “unlock” Versailles with personal tips and tricks for avoiding long lines at the Château. I’ll share favorite restaurants at all price points and highlight local hotspots often overlooked by tourists. Please send questions and inquiries to unlockingversailles@gmail.com.

Sydney Tea Scene

August 8, 2018 By Allison

Last year in Sydney, I drank smooth, creamy flat whites, but I also found my way to the city’s welcoming, vibrant tea scene. While coffee is more prevalent in Australia, Sydney’s tea vibe drew me in. The city boasts a warm, diverse, and growing tea community. In fact, the fifth annual Sydney Tea Festival will take place on August 19^th. The celebration of loose leaf tea features a market, workshops, master classes, and a tea pairing dinner. Clearly, I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of Sydney’s tea culture. Here I detail some of my memorable Sydney tea experiences.

The Rabbit Hole Organic Tea Bar

rabbit hole organic shop [DECEMBER 2018 NOTE: The Rabbit Hole’s Redfern location will close after December 23, 2018, but Barangaroo location will still be open.]

Co-founders of the Sydney Tea Festival, Corrine Smith and Amara Jarrett opened The Rabbit Hole Organic Tea Bar in 2010 as a way to bring new, creative sipping options to Sydney’s tea enthusiasts. When I stepped into the Redfern location, studious-looking people filled the tables, mugs of tea placed next to each laptop. I also spied a handful of Instagrammers snapping shots of their colorful tea lattes. The space was open and airy. Thanks to the yellow accents, it felt sunny and warm. I sampled the perfectly pink Turkish Delight Latte and then moved on to The Rabbit Hole’s other tea offerings: Lemon Aid (lemon myrtle, lemongrass, ginger), Grey Goddess (a delicate, citrusy white tea), and Lavender Cream (Milk Oolong with vanilla and lavender petals). The Rabbit Hole organic teas are whimsical, tasty, and thought-provoking.

rabbit hole organic tea counter

rabbit hole turkish delight tea latte

The tea bar offers a full array of hot tea, tea lattes, and tea “mocktails”, but one mustn’t overlook the tea-inspired foods on the menu: Earl Grey infused strawberry jam, Lapsang Souchong mushrooms served on sourdough toast with hummus and basil oil, and avocado toast with preserved lemon freekeh and hazelnut dukkha. Sweets include puffy meringues, pretty nougats, and a daily cake offering. Each food item is listed with a suggested tea pairing.

rabbit hole organic tea customers

Redfern Tea Bar
146 Abercrombie St, Redfern NSW 2016

Barangaroo
Shop 1, 23 Barangaroo Ave
https://therabbithole.com.au/

Teahouse at White Rabbit Gallery

The White Rabbit Gallery features one of the world’s largest collections of contemporary Chinese art. Before spending time with the art, I relaxed for an hour in the gallery’s teahouse, enjoying savory dumplings and oolong tea. I steeped the balanced and slightly floral Ti Kwan Yin several times. Due to jetlag, I spent most of the time gazing at the fabulous birdcage-covered ceiling, but White Rabbit’s teahouse would be the ideal place to spend a rainy day—with a book, a friend, or both!

White Rabbit
30 Balfour Street
Chippendale NSW 2008
Teahouse

white rabbit ceiling birdcages

T Totaler

ttotaler figleaf white tea T Totaler is a homegrown tea business, focusing on Australian grown teas and botanicals. Founded in 2012, Amber and Paul Sunderland make custom tea blends for restaurants, develop tea-based “mocktails”, and teach workshops. At their Newtown tea bar, I sampled a dazzling Teagroni, an iced White Peony tea with rose petals, and a hot Australian grown Sencha with coconut and lemon myrtle. Each one was perfect in its own way, and the tea bar’s decor was charmingly cozy with fiddle leaf figs and apothecary jars. Since my visit, T Totaler has opened a second location in the center of Sydney, which is now their primary location.

ttotaler apothacary

ttotaler teas

T Totaler
555a King Street
Newtown 2042 [Weekends only]

The Galeries Tea Bar
26A, Ground Floor
The Galeries, 500 George Street, 2000
T Totaler Tea

Lotus The Galeries

lotus sydney tea cocktail One of Sydney’s favorite dumpling restaurants, Lotus The Galeries also features a range of teas. I had the privilege and pleasure of sharing dumplings and tea cocktails with Sydney’s own teagramming sisters Neha and Smruthi. This charming and generous sister team marries the art of tea with the art of cocktails on their teatini__ Instagram page. Using tea from small tea companies from Australia and New Zealand, Neha and Smruthi develop tea cocktail recipes that highlight rather than mask the taste of the leaf. Their original recipes can be found on Instagram at teatini__.

Lotus The Galeries
Shop 6, level 1, 500 George Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
http://www.lotusdining.com.au/

Photo courtesy teatini__

Afternoon Tea at the Langham

Langham sydney afternoon tea 4 Sydney’s innovative and cutting edge tea scene also leaves room for traditional afternoon tea that showcases high end teas and fine pastries incorporating local ingredients. I spent a leisurely and luxurious afternoon at the Langham Sydney. This afternoon teatime is perhaps the most perfect I’ve ever experienced—attentive service, perfectly-infused teas, delightful savories and sweets, a cozy armchair. The pink champagne enhanced my languorous afternoon! I was able to sample a number of teas—a subtle Orange blossom tea, a creamy black Assam, and a white tea with melon. The scones were warm and crumbly, and other sweets were graced with an Australian touch: a hibiscus and guava tart and a cherry lamington. The savories were traditional and spot on: a curried free range egg finger sandwich as well as a prawn, shallot and dill finger sandwich.

langham sydney afternoon tea 3

langham sydney afternoon tea 2

Langham Sydney Afternoon Tea 5

The Langham Sydney
89-113 Kent Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/sydney/dining/afternoon-tea-with-wedgwood/

Mix and Match Summer Supper

August 3, 2018 By Allison

The delight in this spontaneous dinner is in its mix and match nature: a 15-minute meal built on little floral plates, purchased in flea markets and antique shops; an assembly of vegetables, herbs and cheese that I had on hand. No fiddling, no stirring, no oven! It was the happiest, most delicious meal I ate all week.

The key to an easy dinner is to keep a few basics on hand: fresh herbs and seasonal produce are essential. A block of feta also comes in handy.

Here’s a strategy to have dinner ready in 15 minutes:

Fresh Herbs
Snip a few herbs. I used sage, sweet basil, and purple basil. Chives, mint, and thyme would also be lovely.

Feta Bites
Cut feta into ½ inch cubes. Anticipate about four cubes per person. Wrap each cube in a strip of prosciutto or Serrano ham. Garnish with small sage leaves and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Finish with a few grinds of fresh, black pepper. Set aside.

Tomato Salad
Slice one fresh, medium-sized tomato for each person—a bread knife works well here. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with fleur de sel. Garnish with basil leaves. Set aside

While you let these two dishes rest, set the table.

Green Salad
Wash and dry lettuce leaves. I had spring mix on hand, but romaine, red leaf, or green leaf would all work just as well. Arrange on the plate and top with sliced vegetables. I opted for radishes and sweet peppers. I added a few sunflower seeds for crunch. I drizzled a little vinaigrette just before serving. If you don’t have any vinaigrette ready, you can use extra virgin olive oil and a little fleur de sel.

This is the easiest of dinners, but it’s feasible only if you have a stocked kitchen kitchen: vegetables, herbs, and cheese. Bon appétit!

Inspirations

Maximizing summer herbs

Extended apéritif

Happy Office Lunches all Week

Colors of the Soul

July 19, 2018 By Allison

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
–Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5, v. 16

Thanks to my Instagram habit, much of my mental space is occupied by squares. Within the limits of a square, I sense the freedom to share without words. I envision a clear, thoughtful grid connecting experiences and exuding harmony. Imagine my delight when I recently stepped into a contemporary stained glass exhibit that was dominated by square panels!

My first thought was that much like me, the artists were under the spell of Instagram. But then I thought of the stained glass windows in Chartres Cathedral, a few steps from the museum. Some of the windows are 900 years old, and most are arranged in circles, squares, and rectangles. Each window is its own medieval grid, to be read from bottom to top. So, placing a story in the bounds of a square is nothing new, but the immediacy and reach of Instagram is.

The contemporary pieces at the International Stained Glass Centre do not invite a bottom to top reading, but rather offer a sampling of work from artists all over the world, exploring the theme “the search for the light of the world.” I treat the works as impressions rather than narratives. My eye goes straight to the tight, bursting center of Shinique Smith’s untitled 2016 panel. Her energetic swirls are reminiscent of dragon flies that skip across lakes in the summer and remind me of the fairy parties I organize for my nieces and nephew. Much like the medieval panels in the cathedral across the way, color and light cultivate wonder. Her work brings forth an inner light that radiates, undulates, and eventually flows from the frame. Here, the multicolored lumière du monde grows from a dense, interior space of possibility–patterns, shapes and colors in evolution, expressing the harmonious contrasts of the soul.

Wearing Stories

June 17, 2018 By Allison

Every day, I wear stories. The stack of bracelets on my left arm reminds me of dear people, travels, and great deals scored in local antique shops. Side-by-side, the bangles, beads, cuffs, metal, and leather hold meaningful moments that span decades—my visit to the Leather School in Florence, a sterling silver bangle that Dad brought back from Ireland, two sweet bracelets made of glass beads from Mali.

I mix color and texture, vintage and contemporary. Bracelets offer too much possibility for a minimalist aesthetic, so I give into my maximalist tendencies. More is more–shine, glimmer, clink and contrast! We are ever-changing works of art, and our jewels reflect our evolution. My arm decoration changes by day, marking moods, seasons, and the sweet passage of time.

Keyhole

April 28, 2018 By Allison

...everything is already present, though hidden.
–Hildegard of Bingen

We’re drawn to the grandeur of Gothic cathedrals—height, history, stained glass, light. So old! So holy! So overwhelming!

I’ve made my way to Chartres Cathedral several times in the last twenty years, and each visit allows me to know the space more intimately. With each day spent wandering the Cathedral, its light, colors, and shapes become more deeply rooted in my internal landscape. Likewise, I think that through my thought and presence, I become part of the very long history of Notre-Dame de Chartres. I believe that different versions of myself linger in the transepts, the ambulatories, and on the 13^th century labyrinth.

During my last visit to Chartres, the Cathedral was cold and hushed. More than usual, I absorbed detail. A small, dried bouquet tacked to a column, a group of women praying the rosary at the foot of a statue of the Virgin Mary, a tunic-shaped keyhole on the North Porch of the church. The decoration had been already present, though hidden to me, lost among the statues of Old Testament figures. The minute detail announces that Notre-Dame de Chartres houses the Sancta Camisia, a veil that is believed to have been worn by the Virgin Mary. A sacred relic, the garment was given to Chartres in 876 by Charlemagne’s grandson, Charles the Bald. The Sancta Camisia has been credited with protecting the Cathedral over the centuries, and it is still an object of devotion for pilgrims.

Each of my occasional Chartres pilgrimages helps me to unlock present-hidden parts of myself. The knowledge doesn’t reside in the Cathedral like I once thought. Rather, I believe that sacred places emanate a peaceful beauty that enables us to access the wisdom we already possess.

Madeline on Our Mind

April 7, 2018 By Allison

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines
lived twelve little girls in two straight lines

My four year-old niece Sylvie Rose is intrigued by the story of a little girl in Paris named Madeline. Her father bought the storybook for Sylvie before she was even born, and I imagine they have spent many hours reading and rereading about Miss Clavel’s sense that something was not right... about Madeline’s subsequent surgery…the crank on the hospital bed… the dollhouse from Papa…her friends’ hospital visit.

I suspect that some of Sylvie’s devotion to Madeline is due to the fact that she lives in Paris. Sylvie Rose knows that Aunt Allison is a French teacher who makes occasional visits to Paris. Her questions give me glimpses of her four-year old mind: Madeline is a real kid, right? Where is her house? And during my most recent trip to France she called to ask, Did you find her?

I love her intensity and admire her persistence in her search for Madeline. These FaceTime conversations strengthen my bond with my niece, but they have also served as a surprising throwback to my own childhood. When I was seven or eight, I was infatuated with Madeline. My little sister had a pop-up version of the book, and I loved it so! I think I found beauty in the order of the twelve little girls in two straight lines. In two straight lines they broke their bread, and brushed their teeth, and went to bed. These words are etched in my mind.

Madeline was probably my first exposure to Paris, or at least to the idea of Paris. Each monument pictured in the story is now familiar to me—Notre Dame, les Invalides, les Jardins de Luxembourg. Paris is home to me. As a little girl in Iowa, these places would have seemed otherworldly. I believe that I chose to study French, in part, thanks to my affinity for Madeline and my curiosity about the vision of France I discovered in her story.

Many years later, Sylvie Rose is weaving her own literary landscape, and Madeline is part of it. Watching her, the story of the little girl in Paris reemerges, expands, and intersects with my niece’s quest.

Inspirations

Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline, published in 1939

Reading with kids

The joy of summer reading

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