BONJOUR...

Can we just pretend I came back from Paris yesterday and not over a week ago? Thanks.

So, it seems so long ago now! All I really did was eat and buy stationery. And beauty products from the pharmacy obviously. Oh, and this A.P.C. cardigan. By the way, all the stuff you want from A.P.C. that's sold out online, that you breezily thought, "I'll just buy it in Paris," is also sold out in all the shops in Paris. So don't you go breathlessly trekking from rue Madame to rue Vieille du Temple in search of that elusive short sleeved tunic or dress 'cos you ain't getting it. Unless you pre order it online which I have now done. That was a public service announcement. I like my cardi though.

The eating out consisted only of Moroccan: Le 404 - food just as delicious as you'd expect, music deafening. Chez Omar - food so so, service bizarrely lascivious. At one point I thought I must have forgotten to put clothes on. But friendly nonetheless.
And American food featured heavily: Don't ask me why, I don't know. But I tell you what, Joe Allen is really cosy and Breakfast in America does fantastic pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. So not much smelly cheese. I think I ate a couple of croissants but the real treat came, as always, at the Red Kids market (Le Marche des Enfants Rouges) at the end of the street where I stay. Before anyone who lives in Paris comments to say anything like, "God that place is so popular now, it used to be much better when no one knew about it, it's so busy you can hardly move etc etc..." I will pre empt them with the following response. The Red Kids has got more popular but it's pleasantly bustling. Apart from the fact that it's about a tenth of the size of Borough market, the obvious London market to compare it to, it is actually possible at the Red Kids to get a seat, have a coffee and buy some produce as opposed to queueing up for 45 minutes in the rain to get a coffee and being wedged in a sea of people who are incrementally shuffling forward at a snails pace in order to be able to see what kind of produce the stall you're standing in front of sells, as at Borough.
So, as you may have worked out I kinda like the Red Kids market. I think it may be my favourite place in all Pareee. From my journal after I'd been there:

"At that moment I was in love with Paris again; with people who chatted to you at the crepe stand, with the boy on the Portuguese stand who remembered that I like the pasteis de nata but they'd sold out and when he saw me again said, "Oh, so you got a crepe in the end," before telling me to come before 11am to be sure they had the little custard tarts. I was in love with the coffee at L'Estaminet which instantly vaporized my hangover, with the little bunch of white fleurs d'ail and amazed that you could buy five potted hyacinths for five euros. I flicked through all the old photos at the photographie place and felt life was charmed."

The next day my journal entry begins: "This is fucking pants." I had been waiting for an onion soup to arrive at Le Flore for 35 minutes and when it eventually came, the cheese had congealed into a soggy brain like lump, rendering the soup inedible. But then the man sitting next to me helped me on with my coat so that almost cancelled out the bad soup.

That's the thing about Paris, you can't afford to be complacent.