Museum cop-out + a cake of kings (or queens)

I know, these images are completely incongruous but they sum up my weekend. I promise the next few paragraphs will bring them all together.

We cheated a little on the museum count this week, opting for a one-room decorative display generously labeled "Musee du The" (Tea Museum) in the basement of a Mariage Freres upscale tea boutique in the Latin Quarter. It stands as the only tea museum (that I know of) in Paris, but mostly out of lack of rivalry. The museum entirely skips the controversial beginnings of Western tea consumption, wrapped in its history of imperialism and subjugation. The politically-neutered displays are still entertaining and somewhat educational. Did you know the tea cups a century ago sometimes sported porcelain mustache guards? A bar of porcelain installed perpendicular to the opening of the cup served as a mustache rest, ensuring the 'stache was kept tidy while sipping on this popular drink.

I guiltily permitted myself to check off this week's museum in my ongoing museum challenge as my overbooked social schedule allowed for little else and my jetlag still had me in zombie-mode.

Sunday was crossed out for potential museum-ing due to a raclette + galette party my friend Lucie kindly hosted. We ate raclette (a typically French melted cheese meal for whose preparation all the French apparently own special kitchen appliances), we drank French wines and cider, and when our stomachs were no longer on the brink of explosion, we wrapped things up with galette, the marzipan cake with which the French celebrate the epiphany. To consume this cake, first one person of the party must hide under a table to help distribute the cake. Generally this lot is given to the youngest person, though we selected through a round of spin-the-bottle. From beneath the table, this person then assigns a slice of cake randomly to each person in the room. The whole party digs in until one lucky winner finds a little figurine hidden in his or her slice (hopefully without chipping a tooth in the process). The winner is consequently named the king or queen and may choose his or her royal partner for the day. Multiple cakes left us with a whole royal court, into which I was even crowned!

Filled with cider and lots of fatty French foods, we made a charming discovery on our way back to the metro: Asia Sai Roung, 38 rue de La Folie Méricourt, 75011. Naturally, I was drawn in by the unusual jewelry on display and its surprisingly low prices. Turns out we'd stumbled upon the boutique of an association which sells art directly from workers in Asia and turns around the proceeds to finance the studies of a few "adopted" children in Bangkok, South India, the Philippines, and Bali, 30€ per student per month. The rest of the money they earn is given to charities throughout Asia. Now who could argue with such a justification to pick up a pearl necklace on a drizzly Sunday evening?