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.

La Vie Douce, Marronnier

Tuesday, I got a 6th cake from La Vie Douce, which is challenging the bottom of the next shop category, the exceptional shops. I got the Marronnier (horse-chestnut) early, did my non-weights indoor workout (Monday I did the weights workout after running), and went for about a 90 minute run. My target was the highest priority neighborhood loop, which was the revised Ebisu-Nishi west loop, which I failed, as I didn't recognize an old turn (I think they changed the billboard, but I should just remember that it's the first left after incoming link route). On the way, I finished verifying the Higashi north loop and did two new loops clockwise, the Ebisu-Minami loop and the Ebisu 1 loop. Maybe I'll get back there again on Thursday. It depends how I decide to travel to the Tooyou-chou Station area.

The cake, which has hazelnut, chestnut, and cassis/currant, was definitely good. It's a fall cake, so more nutty than sweet. It's really a quite fine shop, I just wish they would make their yuzu Chiboust again.

La Vie Douce: Ginger

Trying to make this quick, I hit my last Excellent shop for a fourth cake: Ginger at La Vie Douce. The run was all the neighborhood courses that I've learned (mostly) so far, despite changing them almost every time to include parts I've never run before. I'm fine on the SW of Yotsuya 3-chome course, so I finished that one last, no problem, but the big challenge was the Yotsuya 3-chome, which is 10.3 km. Of course, a large part of that is a connector running along the north side of Jingue Gaien, which could be its own loop, only all it has is one park and one exit into a deadend loop (no other bridges out). The Under Shinjuku Gyoen loop was not really run as planned (long actually), but not in any part that matters. It's not a deadend, so I'll try it again and see whether the construction actually allows me to do the post map (once the new street goes, the west part is going to get cut off, but the connector south will still be there, so no problem). Overall, it was about 19 km at a slow 9 km/h, which is pretty good for how uncertain I was, how long it was, and how many stairs and steep slopes there are.

The Ginger cake was good. Even though it's a dome, it's not mousse or a lot of cream, but fairly stiff cake (maybe dacquoise), which is what I like. Besides raw ginger, which was not the strong (the outer layer is just a few millimeters), there was orange compote inside, along with the cake. It was definitely good cake, but I'm going to have to denote the shop down to Quite Good. I've got to keep checking there for when they make Chiboust Yuzu again. It could be never.

Now that I'm caught up on old shops (not counting ones that I promoted), I should start visiting new shops, occasionally, for instance a couple that I've put on my Neighborhood Map that I've posted on. For Sunday, though I plan to follow up on the more distant ones that I got from Joshi Plus (which seems to be out of the business as far as new posts) and Sweet Sonobe (who seems to have been outside of the country recently).

La Vie Douce (Shinjuku): Caramel Orange

Stayed home and did the indoor work out and cleaned the kitchen, after making it dirtier first. For cake, I went to La Vie Douce, since the last cake was great. This time I got the Caramel Orange, for a reasonable 464 yen. It is another chiboust, it said on the card at the shop, although the website just says caramel cream (not too strong) and orange comfit (not a lot, but the normal amount, and more probably wouldn't be better). It was very good, and I'm satisfied, but not exciting or great. I'll take them off my watch list (it's really more of a stack of cards) and put them back on my visited list, which means that there are several not necessarily great places that I should go to before I go back there again. Still, it is important to know that I should check in there once in a while and try something, or maybe peak in at their website to see which seasonal cake I don't want to miss. If they don't have cakes, they have a few baked things, like a raspberry tart.

La Vie Douce: Yuzu Chiboust

Got to do some cleaning and never get anything done when I run, so I didn't. Did an indoor workout, though (just sets of simple lifts and push ups).

Ahead of time, I got Yuzu Chiboust for 475 yen from La Vie Douce, which was one of the local patisseries that I said I should visit. My general opinion of them is that they are so-so, and the last time that I had one of the couple cakes that I thought was exceptional (La Vie Bacchus), I was not into it. It's it's a pretty serious looking place, with several people in the kitchen working, and it's only the Tokyo branch (the main shop is in Yokohama). This was great cake. The top is chocolate Chiboust, which is great, and the bottom is a fairly firm yuzu mousse around a little apricot jelly and enough biscuit underneath to hold it together. This was actually recommended on their webpage, so they no it's special, compared to their usual stuff, but I should still go back to look for more special things. Unfortunately, they close at 7 pm (and Mondays), so they are not as convenient as my usual haunts.

20 km run to m.koide, Marjelaine and Noisettine, and La Vie Douce, La Vie Bacchus

Had a successful 20 km run (knees seem to be okay, and my foot is about the same). I ran by the once-and-future site of the National Olympic Stadium, so I took a not very informative picture. They've prettied it up and reopened the sidewalk and street here, which is much more convenient.From there, I tried going further south of Aoyama Road (青山通り) to avoid Omotesando (表参道), but even though it was a smaller road, there was still traffic and a lot of people walking, so it was not really an improvement, especially because I got a late start and it was around noon. Went down to Meguro River (目黒川) near Nakameguro Station again and followed the river and then the Meguro River Green Way (no river, just park path). I took the left/south branch at the fork, which is Toriyama River Green Way （鳥山川縁道）. Google Maps did not want me to take it beyond a certain point, but when I saw that I could continue (some was very obviously brand new, but then the next part needed restoring), I went off course and stayed on the path to "Stone Buddha" Park （石仏公園) just beyond Odakyu Odawara Line (小田急小田原線). I might have gone the last 500 m if I had known that was the official end (my map showed the winding green line continuing farther, but it was always ambiguous whether there was a path on it).

Took Yoganakamachi Rood (sign below) back to Jiyuugaoka （自由が丘）, which was okay. Just a couple-lane main outskirts road with a good sidewalk. At the Tama River Police Station (玉川警察署) intersection, the named road turns right (the road doesn't bend right, just you have to take a right turn, from the north, at the light to stay on it; this is an example of why navigating by road names in Japan, or at least Tokyo, is hard). Anyway, I did not turn, as planned, which was also complicated, because the road sorted of ended a main road and then you had to shift left a bit to continue and the sidewalk disappeared and more walkers and bicycles appears, along with cars, as I approached Jiyuugaoka Station, so overall it was not a path that I want to use again, at least the whole length I used.

With the run finished, I went to "patisserie m.koide", which was open this time, unlike Sunday (staff shortages are everywhere). This is shown below, in the center. Notice that it's hard to notice and recognize as a shop.

They sold me these beauties, which are Marjelaine (マルジョレーヌ) and Noisettine (ノワセッティーヌ) for 590 and 600 yen, respectively. These are hazelnut and almond cream. I was advised to cool them down when I got home before eating, and I told her that they weren't going to make it the far, so she gave me a spoon (usually I'm prepared, but I left in a hurry). She was nice and they were very good, high class, but she was right about cooling them down being a good idea. Next time I'll take them home first. I may have a fourth great cake shop in the Jiyuugaoka area, and I've still got two promising (and several not so promising ones) to go.

One of these promising places is Souvenir,

which had all these young women lined up. This shop is next to the park where I ate my cake (maybe never again, as the mosquitoes have arrived and find me delicious, even with bug spray). Looking online now, they seem to do "Viking" (buffet), so maybe not so promising. And they have roll cake, which is not usually a good sign (although common). Okay, there's still Patisserie R to visit, as well as four other excellent shops where I haven't tried everything yet (or at least haven't chronicled them here). 

Having had very good cake, I restrained myself and saved other places for another day. However, that did not last once I was in Shinjuku, where I went to La Vie Douce (ラ・ヴィ・ドゥース). 

Their best stuff are these kind of cakes (not a very good picture), which is a little tart on the bottom and a soft cake about the same thickness on top. This is the La Vie Bacchus (ラ・ヴィ・バッカス), for 475 yen, which is chocolate and orange, this branch shop's specialty. It was good, but maybe I've gotten tired of it or maybe I really do need to stop at two cake at day, although I ate a regular meal first before having more cake).