Viron, Praliné Orange

Wednesday (and I found this draft, but not sure what order they were originally), I visited Viron, thinking that they might bring out some new cakes just for Christmas, since they at least had one special Christmas cake last year. As it happens they did. I don't have my notes, but I got lucky and found a picture on Tabelog, so I got the name and confirmed the flavors. The memorable part was pâte pralinée, and I correctly remembered that the fruit flavor was orange. My memory is that it was definitely excellent, enough to consider whether it should be added to the greats, as a representative of fairly traditional cakes of nutty biscuit cake and cream layers, but I have Marjolaine, so I'm fine with not making a special effort to have this specific cake again, though I high approve. Also, it seems like a bakery patisserie kind of cake, so it's reasonable to want more like this. Considering that my backup plans was to try 1st cake from Pronto (which I was reminded recently has a shop in Aoyama, I was quite pleased. 

La Vie Douce, Praliné Orange

Thursday, I was able to stop in at La Vie Douce for a 6th new cake on my way home from work, to see whether they could succeed where Jun Honma failed. I went with the Praliné Orange, but they had a good selection for near closing time (bad for them, but good for me).

For running, I worked on clumps of my neighborhood running course, and also reconnaissance. I was successful on the Jinguumae northeast clump but failed to get the links between loops in the right order (and realized it, so I quit) for the Jinguumae Stn. east clump just south of it. I plan to try that Saturday afternoon. That finishes off the first 22.04 km of neighborhood running course clumps. I also confirmed the new Jinguumae southwest link, which uses two pedestrian bridges, as the new way to get to the Jinguumae--Jinnan loop and all loops west--north of there. It adds about 1.5 km, but it works. Hopefully the next construction won't be to take down those pedestrian bridges, or I'll be resorted to going through Aobadai, which would add a few more kilometers, though it's all good.

The cake surprised me a little, because it looked like the kind of cake that would be pretty heavy, about actually about half of the inside is sponge cake and half is cream, so it's pretty light. It was definitely good, and probably more legitimately cake than a lot of things I like, but still I would like something more dramatic, so they slip below Jun Honma for the moment, which won't immediately matter if at least one of the two exceptional shops can come through with something excellent for their next cake, which I hope to determine Sunday.

I'll sneak in Friday as well, when I had coupons for a bakery, and could have gotten cake but already had in my mind to get bread, since I had forgotten about the cake, since I wouldn't go there normally. For exercise, I had finally decided on a proper revised Akasaka--Azabudai--Roppongi--Toranomon loop, which I did clockwise. I hope also to do counterclockwise Saturday and confirm this as the newest of verified loops. I also did revised the Aoyama-Minami 1 loop clockwise to take into account the loss of the Croissant cafe, but that only took an extra couple minutes of running, since the new loop is even smaller than the old one, only 209 m to loop around the building with a Tully's. I'll get the other direction when I do its clump, since that's next after the two I plan to try Saturday afternoon.