Paris day 5 L'Gustation

We rush to make it on time to our last class, cut through the Luxembourg Jardin, exit and realize we shouldn’t have.  We are off course, back track and eventually arrive a bit late.  Hear the first speaker on Qui Tam – a subject that I don’t think I have any interest in but which is absolutely fascinating.  I want to do a Qui Tam.  Hear tummy rumbling.  Take a quick break.  Run to patisserie down the street, pick up a small (it is small – it is it is – well, ok maybe just not gigantic) almond croissant and because it IS  kind of small, also get a pain d’raison just in case.  Rush back to class and mange both.  Much better.

At noon our group meets for a trip to the Mouffetarde Marche.  We looked it up last night on the French Wikipedia translated into English and it was called the “fat vein of womanhood” or something like that which caused us to crack up and was probably not exactly correct.  But funny.  Anyway it is one of the older streets in Paris and filled with food shops.  We are each given an assignment in French to go pick up a certain food item then we are going to meet at a restaurant and have a picnic.  We’re not exactly sure what all that means, but we wander through the shops.  Ed gets the country terrine since I won’t walk into the boucherie (those places are scary).  And I find a place that makes me a lovely falafel sandwich since I have a feeling there won’t be much for me to eat at our repast.  There are cute fruit displays and I get (and eat) a half pint of blueberries and a teeny pint of raspberries.

We walk into the restaurant at 25 Mouffetard.  I forget the name.  It is 1:30 and we are hit with an overwhelming  pungent smell – it is a cheese restaurant.  Head to the rear, put all the food we’ve collected on a side table and sit down at our seats.  We are each brought a platter of cheese and big bowls of salad to share.  Then we go and add the food stuff we’ve collected to our platters.    It is a great meal – very fun.  We get to try all sorts of things.  And I devour my falafel.  We are the only ones there so late, so we laugh and play our way through a two hour lunch. 

Say au revoir and waddle the twenty minutes back to our hotel with our new friends David and Simone. Fall asleep due to stuffness.

Wake up to skype with Cristina who takes me on a tour of her house at college this year. Go for run. Return in time to get ready for dinner. Meet David and Simone in foyer.  Walk down street, meet up with Don and Cindy and get to our next destination La Maison Du Jardin.  Look at menu.  Not hungry.  Stuffed.  Don’t want more food.  Order tomato gazpacho which I say to myself, is light as water and doesn’t count as food.  Don’t see anything vegetarian on the menu so think I will end up with a salad.  Instead the chef makes me a lovely dish of his own creation which I devour.  Very thankful I have an expandable waist band on pants.  Order the pomme tarte for dessert and eat it all up.  Sit there laughing and talking for almost three hours.  Heave body out of chair.  Walk back to hotel with David and Simone.  Somehow make it up the stairs despite gigantic tummy.