Eve de la Bastille

It is hard to believe I have been in Paris for 6 days. For many reasons it has been hard to get focused. I was more jet-lagged than I expected. This was not at all the fault of Air France. One positive effect of the euro:dollar exchange rate was a 3/4 empty flight to Paris. You could sleep across a row of seats which was wonderful. I have gotten back on a schedule where I don't fall asleep the moment I return to the apartment.

Our great apartment hosts, Larry and Anna have left for Normandy. They are encouraging us to visit there for a few days but I find it difficult to imagine leaving Paris. While I am as awed as I imagined I would be by the streets, le Tour Eiffel, le Musée d'Orsay (the only museum we have visited so far; did I know that "Whistler's Mother " was here ?), the clouds in the sky, the shoes, I cannot get past the food. What I have eaten and what I would like to eat is filling my head.

On our first walk by ourselves we heqded toward the trendy Marais, about a 15 minute walk. The first turn put us on Rue Oberkampf which runs southwest from Menilmontant, filled with bars and shops toward the Place des Vosgues, the Musée Picasso, etc, etc.In the first three blocks we passed :

fruit at :

dried fruit at

We bought dried papaya,ginger,strawberries,apples and cherries here. All lovely.

and pain and pastry at Epi.

( note bene:In less than 24 hours we had alreqdy had several delicious baquettes from Larry and Anna's favorite bakery which I am still trying to find again)

At Epi my purchase of choice was a Paris Brest. It is a pate a choix dough (think cream puff) ring, filled with a nutty pastry cream with powdered sugar and almonds on top. My only previous tastes of this were at the old Turtle Cafe in Inman Square 30 years ago. The Paris Brest there was filled with whipped cream and had chocolate on top, sort of a giant eclair. That is what I believed they were until this week, what an unfortunate mistake. From Dessert First, a passion for pastry (http://dessertfirst.typepad.com) I learned " The Paris-Brest was created by a baker in 1891 in honor of the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race which was a precursor of the Tour de France. The pastry is made of a ring of pàte a choux filled with praline buttercream and topped with almonds and powdered sugar. The ring shape, of course, is meant to resemble a bicycle wheel-a delicious one at that" As I ate it it moved quickly behind a Lakota lemon macaroon (http://www.lakotabakery.com/), my favorite small treat. Gary thought it was delicious and appreciated the bike reference.

Here is a picture of the second, but not the last one, we have purchased.

Digressions:

Another pastry reason that I love Paris, is that the Monoprix, a supermarket chain has a generic version of Lu Pims cookies one of my favorites.

We are off to a dance party at Place de la Bastille, a 10 or 15 minute walk from our place. I always loved " A Tale of Two Cities".

More soon, this already seems long ago.