Paris, part 2

Other than the Musee d'Orsey, we pretty much avoided major tourist traps. It's not that we don't love the Louvre and the Eiffle Tour, but we've been to both countless times and it was nice just wandering and seeing new things.

One thing that wasn't new to us was Notre Dame. Last time we were in Paris, a while ago now, we found a tiny crepe restaurant somewhere just north of the Ile de la Cite. Of course we didn't write down the name or where it was, so, unsurprisingly we wandered around Paris for a solid hour before we gave up and stumbled on another place. It was just south of Notre Dame in, I believe, the very north end of the Latin Quarter. Unlike restaurants in London, it was after 9pm and it was only just starting to get busy.

The staff was lovely and humoured my sadly, very shakey French (I took so many years of French classes...but foreign language was never my strong suit. Plus, I haven't used it in quite a while so what little French I had mastered is now very rusty. I digress.) The food was delicious! I had a ham, mushroom, and cheese crepe with a fried egg in it. So did my mom.

And for dessert we split a creme brulee and a chocolate mousse.

The creme brulee top wasn't quite as caramelized and crunchy as I like, but on the other hand it was baked in a wide shallow dish so the brulee to creme ratio was perfect. Also, the custard was the perfect texture and sweet but not overly so.

The chocolate mousse was stiff, almost like a creme d'or, though I assume it was egg-based. As I'm sure I've mentioned, I much prefer a stiffly whipped mousse to a gelatin-y or slightly runny mousse, so I was very pleased. To top it off there were pieces of white chocolate and (rice?) crispy bark sticking out of the dark chocolate mousse.

On our last day we wandered further south, past the university and happened upon a lovely bakery. It was obviously a local haunt (judging by the patrons and the fact that the staff didn't all speak English). And the food was delicious.

Especially pistachio and raspberry cake we split. It was moist and nutty and delicious, almost like a giant financier.

Then we wandered north and happened upon a lovely market. I never see grocery stores in Paris and assume it's because all the lovely, romantic stories from Julia Child and Ina Garten about shopping at open air markets are actually true. Exept I never actually see them in central Paris, so I was keen to find one. This one was just what I had pictured. With green grocers.

And eggs in giant stacks in the open air (it's a European thing; the British don't refrigerate their eggs either.) And tons of cheese.

And flower stands. And artisenal honey. And jams. And silly scarves like you find at street fairs in Manhattan. Excellent! I already miss Paris. But I have plenty to do here in London and the weather is finally getting nice!