Moroccan-style dinner and I Meet the French

Wow! another big day in Paris. When I left you yesterday I was about to head off to the Luxembourg gardens – amazing. 

I had a good wander around and then sat down to lunch - a cheese omelette - not too bad – but stale bread; how bad is that in Paris. They said it was because of the strike. After the gardens I headed to St Sulpice, a very beautiful church. 

I sat in square for a bit and watched a student protest - very loud with lots of police. After that I walked to Bon Marche department store - it is huge, overpowering and very, very expensive – I just had a wander around and then headed over the road to the Grande Epicerie. This place is unreal - food from all around the world, everything from cheeses, meats, fruit, biscuits, bread, you name it and you will find it there. I bought some chocolate, ham and bread. 

I walked on up to Au Sauvignon and had a Kir Sancerre. All of a sudden, I thought about my museum pass that was about to run out and I very much wanted to go to the Rodin museum. So, I left the bar and pretty much ran all the way to the museum. But apparently they had changed the closing time and I was too late. Very annoying!

Anyway, about ¾ hour later I got back to St Michel boulevard and decided I would go out to dinner, so I called back to the flat and dropped off my shopping and then headed out to a restaurant a friend had recommended, Les Dégres de Notre Dame, with a Moroccan-style menu. It was very good. Two couples arrived in the room I was in and, being very friendly, they chatted while having dinner. I ordered couscous, which was unreal – a big bowl of vegetable soup, small bowl of sultanas, chickpeas and two hot and spicy sausages. I really enjoyed it. Some of the guests had a tajine, which looked great too.

Anyway after that terrific meal I headed home to read for a bit knowing I had to get up early in the morning.

Next morning I was off on my “Meet the French” gourmet walking tour of the Latin Quarter. On my way I stopped for coffee at cafe called Twickenham – thought I was in England momentarily. Then I walked to the meeting place. Well the tour was just fantastic. We walked through the medieval part of the Latin Quarter, popped into shops famous for their produce. There were only three of us, plus our charmer tour leader, Adam. He was very knowledgeable and fun to be with. We went first to Kayser's bread shop where Adam explained all about bread and we tried some brioche and bought some baguettes for lunch. We also bought a pastry each which we took with us when we moved on to a tiny coffee shop that roasts its own beans. We had a cafe and our pastry there. We then went to the cheese shop - ohmigod! It was absolutely wonderful but the entire shop is a refrigerator and was totally numbing. Adam explained all about the various cheeses and we oohed and aahed, then went into the charcuterie to look at all the wonderful meats. 

After that we walked and walked, chatting along the way. We headed down rue Monge and into rue Mouffetard where we went to Pierre Campion for our final chat and tasting. The area we were in turned out to be exactly where I had planned to head later, so it was perfect, all planned out for me. We had some white wine. It was sweetish but went really well with the cheeses we tried - three different styles of goat cheese (fresh, semi-firm and firm). Adam had also chosen duck rillettes. The morning tour was absolutely fantastic. I loved every minute of it. Adam was a great leader and my two companions were good fun to be with.