Paris: Friday, August 6th

The morning began with a warm croissant and a warm petit pain au chocolat. I always think about how delicious they are in Paris but when you actually bite into them you realize that they are so much better than you remembered. Flaky, buttery but not so buttery that you are all greasy fingered. The chocolat inside is just enough and good chocolate -- they don't just stick in a piece of your run of the mill stuff. I giggled as I munched them thinking about how I have been complaining so much lately about my weight, but what the heck, how can you pass up croissants and petit pain au chocolat warm from the oven. Besides we will be walking about sight-seeing and taking in the feel of Parisian boulevards that I will surely walk it all off.

We headed off to a cute corner of Paris that captured our imagination on our very first visit, Rue Mouffetard, with the cutest little square surrounded by cafes on all sides. The little side streets, in particular Rue Mouffetard is filled with cheese shops and butcher shops and fruit and vegetable shops and fish shops and any thing else you can imagine for your dinner table. I wanted to take pictures of the beautiful displays but Ross won't let me "we will look like tourists" but, but we are tourists. Before heading off we chose one of the cafes and enjoyed a break. I had a cappucino sprinkled with chocolate and Ross had an espresso --- when will he learn that they can cook anything in Paris but they can't make espresso.

Before leaving the cutest little square, called Place de la Contrescarpe by the way, we made our visit to the Charcuterie that we visit each time. We are creatures of habit. The elderly woman is charming and helpful and everything is made from scratch. Again a choice problem. What will we have for lunch on our picnic? We chose paté forestière. The first time I ever ate it was from this little shop. A delicious paté filled with wild mushrooms. The lady cut us a nice thick slice and then on down the street to pick up the rest of our picnic. After various stops we were ready with a baguette, a nice piece of goat cheese, some little sauscissons and a tiny, perfect Cavaillon melon. Having planned ahead I had a tea towel to use as a table cloth and a knife to put it all together. We walked over to the Jardin des Plantes with its beautiful gardens, inspected the flower beds in all their finery, stopped to check out some new beds, a sort of potager/kitchen garden bringing city children a better understanding of where their food comes from (odd to me as the French have an incredible understanding and respect of food) then we settled on a shady bench and had our picnic. I cannot, simply cannot describe the deliciousness of that pate and cheese. And the melon ---oh the musky, earthy cantaloupe taste of it. Time to walk some more.