Cut to the chase... the highlights

So many people asked me when I came back from Paris 'what was the highlight?'

Can an entire trip be one big highlight?  Probably not, so I have narrowed (ha!) it down to three.
1. Food
2. Art
3. Friends

This is the food post.  Some of the pics will be better than others - indoors in restaurants with no flash tends to turn out a bit grainy.

If you have read more than one or two entries on this blog, you will have noticed that food is a ruling passion.  Buying it, cooking it, eating it, talking about it...  For me, a big part of the trip to Paris was going to be about the food.

My grasp of the French language revolves around food, I was at my most comfortable speaking French in restaurants.  We ate some spectacular meals.  We also ate some average ones.  Some of the best food we had in Paris was the stuff we bought ourselves from the shops.  And oh, what shops they are.

Being a frequent shopper at the Canberra farmers market, I am used to the whole idea of markets, with loads of fresh produce laid out on tables in front of me, so while the food markets in Paris were wonderful, they weren't new.  What I loved the most was the shops.  From the two glorious streets of food shopping that are Rue Montorgueil and Rue Mouffetard (Rue Montergueil was two blocks from our apartment), to the afore mentioned grand epicerie at Galeries Lafayette, to the deli counter at my local Monoprix supermarket - I was in heaven.  A big part of it must be the way everything is displayed.  The French understand that a big part of food shopping is what you see as well as what you taste.

It was mushroom season.  Ceps, or as we know them here, sadly in dried form only, porcini.  Big, meaty, flavoursome mushrooms.  Throw them in a frying pan with some girolles and chanterelles and garlic and butter then pile onto a fresh baguette.  It's no wonder I didn't want to come home.

Then there was the cheese.  The raw milk cheeses that we just can't get here.  If you ever (assuming you are living in or visiting a country that doesn't have such stupid laws about milk) come across Perail de Cabasses do not hesitate.  It is a beautiful soft sheeps' milk cheese that I would happily eat every day for the rest of my life...  Fortunately the lady in the cheese shop spoke english, because my French was not up to a complex conversation about different types of cheese.  What else did I buy from there?  I can't remember, but it was good.  From somewhere else, a goats cheese wrapped in a chestnut leaf was another standout.

And honey.  The French love their honey and I did manage to buy honey from the lady at the honey stall in the St Eustache street market in French, as she spoke no english.  We talked about the different things they use it for - tea, coffee, sore throat, beauty treatment ('pour la visage' she said, patting her face).  And when I told her I had bought cheese, she also said that honey goes well with cheese.  And boy, was she right.  There is no finer breakfast that some soft goats or sheeps cheese on a fresh baguette, topped with a drizzle of honey.
 

OK, I will show mercy.  It is obvious at this point that the food post will be spread over two entries... Go and make a sandwich now.