Today marks the fifth anniversary of Chocolate & Zucchini — and, I might add, the first anniversary of its French version. My first impulse was to comment on the fact that time flies, it seems like only yesterday, or something to that effect, but the truth is, I find it so extraordinarily difficult to remember what my life was like before I started C&Z, it’s almost embarrassing.
Creating this blog five years ago has undoubtedly been among the most life-altering decisions I’ve ever made — up there with giving up thumb sucking when I was eight, and switching to contacts when I was fourteen. Chocolate & Zucchini has since done so much for me, it has become so familiar and indispensable a part of my life, I think of it practically as a family member.
And I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you, readers of C&Z. If it weren’t for you, your visits, your comments, your emails, your participation in forum discussions, and, in general, what you bring to this not-so-virtual table, I don’t think I would have come this far, learned this much, or had this much fun. So, thank you, your support means the world to me, it truly does.
As has become the tradition, Maxence and I will host a get-together in Paris in mid-October; I am still ironing out the details — organizational skills? what organizational skills? — but they will be announced v. soon.
Perhaps you’d like to hear about a few things that have happened since we last celebrated C&Z’s anniversary? Here goes: my first cookbook, Chocolate & Zucchini, was published in France under the title Chocolat & Zucchini; my second book, Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris, came out in the US; I was offered a column in ELLE à table, the food edition of the French ELLE (I accepted); and I started working on an idea for a television show — the project is still in its early infancy, but I should have more on this in a few months.
And on a more personal level, I embraced the lifelong, glorious role of being somebody’s aunt: my nephew is now 6 1/2 months old, and I am happy to announce that he has just started eating puréed zucchini with great enthusiasm.
And before we part, please accept this little anniversary gift: I have created online maps of the restaurants and shops featured in Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris — I hope you find them useful in your explorations of the city.
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The celebratory macarons pictured above (pistachio, raspberry, dark chocolate) come from Grégory Renard‘s shop, located at 120 rue Saint-Dominique, Paris 7ème (01 47 05 19 17).
