Thé, Café ou Chocolat, Tea Forté, Hotel Costes

Last month on a rainy afternoon I popped into the exhibit, THÉ, CAFÉ OU CHOCOLAT

At the musee Cognacq-Jay in the Marais 8, rue Elezivir 75004

Always dependable for intimate, informing exhibits

Beautifully presented and rarely overcrowded.

If you love fine Sevres or Meissen china or tea, coffee, or hot chocolate you'll be delighted.

Exquisite drawings of the earliest cups and tea pots. Loads of history on these exotic drinks we now take so for granted as a daily essential.

A perfect Chardin still life to remind you how precious the bean once was in the 18th century.

Quite the elegant pastime drinking tea and coffee once were

Though perhaps not here. Drinking coffee from the saucer? Pas bon bien sur.

Artist LOUIS CARMONTELLE's watercolor graces the exhibit poster. Famous for painting portraits in two hours or less of the renown of his day, even Mozart at the piano was captured. A witty and astute eye.

Naturally I flipped for the craftsman cross-sectional diagrams of teapots

And teacups. Exquisite no?

Such a perfect cup to sip fine tea from...

I wish the tea cups at Hotel Costes on 329 rue Saint Honoré had a smidgen of elegance

The setting is lovely and airy in an open courtyard.

Speaking of exquisite, have you tried TEA FORTÉ? Vanilla Pear, Lemon Lavender, Orange Jasmine from their new Lotus group. The names are enough to get you dreaming. I was given a box to taste. The design is perfection with a tiny green leaf attached to a silken pyramid. They are in fact American but suit the French to a T... Do try.

My berry trifle at Costes

Cost the same as this bouquet of roses from marché President Wilson.

Though no where near as luxe as Dani Costes Roses.

Luxe is the word for Costes if you're into deep Burgundy velvet

And low lighting.
The Cognacq-Jay exhibit is on till September 27. If you can't make it, get the free app and a French leçon to boot in the spoken descriptions. You will never look at your coffee or tea in the same way

je te promets.