A Day in Paris with Salad and Chocolate

Remember when I explained to you the incredible tuna and melon salad I had at my favorite restaurant? It had feta, tuna, grilled vegetables and cantelope. Well if I thought cantelope was a surprise, I was completely unprepared for watermelon:


I shouldn't have been surprised, it was delicious. I finally decided I've been going to the restaurant often enough they know I'm not a tourist. So I whipped out the camera and got a pic for you. Doesn't that look yummy? Well, if you like tuna.

During my walk, I caught sight of someone moving into their apartment, so I leapt into action with my trusty camera. The lifter thing is attached to the back of the little truck.

Do they have these lifter trucks in other big cities? I'd never seen one before, but the big apartment buildings I've lived in in the states have had regular sized elevators, if not freight elevators (not to mention the windows don't open up big enough to let much in). Elevators here are usually retrofitted in somewhere small. The one in our building can take two people who are friendly, and that's it.

La rentree (rhymes with entree) was on Tuesday, the start of the new year. Or should I say the restart? Every one is back from their holidays. Our street has certainly gotten much busier and the honking is back. Almost all the shops are open too, most especially our favorite bakery.

Jadis et Gourmande Chocolats had this marvelous display of chocolate calculators, fountain pens, and MP3 players:

Chocolate rulers and crayons:

The shop smelled sooo amazing. I succumbed to a half log of Dark Chocolate with Orange. I'm not going to show you a picture because it's not very attractive and kinda looks like something else, but boy did it taste good. And of course I gobbled the whole thing down as soon as I got home, although I did try to rewrap it and put it away. I managed to walk into the living room and then I had to go back and eat the rest of it. I am a glutton, a gourmande in the french sense of the word.

I tried out the first disc of Dexter, a Showtime series about a serial killer who only kills serial killers. Kind of a stupid choice for someone who refuses to read the bits in books from the killer or victim point of view and only reads the detectives' parts. But I'd heard good things about it, so thought it was worth a try. Mmm, had it's intriguing bits, but not sure I need to see any more.

I did quilt while I was watching, so it was good for that. I'm busily outlining each of the flowers and stems in Blooming Horrors with regular quilting thread.