La vie est belle

After being up until 5 am on account of the jetlag, I got up around noon and had a lovely croque-monsieur at Café le Moderne. I'm also pleased to report it has, hands down, the best chocolat chaud in the area, perhaps the best I have ever had. They do it à l'ancienne, "the old-fashioned way," where you get a pitcher of hot milk and a pitcher of hot chocolate syrup, and you pour them together. And it's fragrant and not too chocolatey and the milk and syrup are in the right proportions.

After that, I went to BHV to get a large map of Paris for my wall -- as both decoration and an aid for my Parisian escapades -- and to find some solution for my shoes, which had been threatening to take over my entryway. I found flat-folding crates for 3€ each, stacked them, put in some little curtain rods I found in my pantry to make a second shelf in one of them, and viola!



I get very excited about things like this. And if I can borrow a drill from someone, I can suspend the top crate on the wall a bit higher so that the top of the bottom crate will be another shelf.

After a nap, I did some food shopping. Totally vegetable-free, since tomorrow is the market, but oh what a nice dinner anyway. I got a baguette from one of my two favorite bakeries on rue St. Antoine. It was warm when I got it. So chewy and tender. With a rabbit terrine, a little Camembert, and some mustard, with a handful of raspberries and some wine... yum. Tomorrow I start eating salads and fruits and vegetables again in earnest (to be fair, the croque-monsieur came with some salad, but yes, it's far too easy here to subsist on bread, cheese, and meat).