It's getting hazy....I'd better eat something!

Let's see, what happened yesterday? In the haze of much activity, I seem to remember some walking....okay, lots of walking. But how else are we going to make room for yet more self indulgent behavior. I was going to say justify more self indulgent behavior, but I had so rationalized all of that before leaving Portland.

So what did happen? I believe there was a late morning ramble to the Place d'Aligre market, to search out the huîtres at the oyster vendor who was closed on Tuesday and dashed our hopes and dreams. Our faith in all things grand and edible was restored however, as a supremely fresh, briny, delicious dozen oysters were brought to the one table that sits outside their stall in the market. The man who shucks asked if we wanted "une verre de Sancerre?", and at first I inexplicably refused. What the hell was I thinking? As if it is ever too early for a great glass of wine. Luckily, reason took over, or perhaps my brain noticed a drop in my body's blood alcohol content, and I quickly corrected that mistake, as there is perhaps no better food/wine match than cool, crisp, minerally Sancerre and a plateful of oysters. And all before 11:30am...again, only a Paris!
I seem to also recall a wonderful, sunny picnic in the Jardin de Musée Rodin, a perfect place to dine with your saucisson, fromage, et bouteille de rosé amid some tremendously impressive sculpture. We sat, we ate, we strolled, we spoke admiringly of the art. I think we had the picnic appreciation angle covered.

Then it was a metro ride to near the apartment, with some late afternoon shopping thrown in. A couple of shirts, some gifts, and most importantly, a stop at Josephine Vannier Chocolate Artisnal, which thankfully is a mere 100 feet down from our front door. These are some of the most creative, artful pieces of tempting, decadent, sweet goodness I can ever imagine seeing. We bought a couple of gifts here, because they have that all important “wow” factor covered, plus we picked up a few extra pieces for the plane ride home, to ease the bad taste that is sure to be in our mouths at having to leave this most wonderful of cities. If you think it’s easy to choose from among these for the chocoholics on your list, you would be very wrong......