Anorther gray sky, rainy morning -- make that rainy day -- the perfect day to curl up with a good book, blanket in front of a fireplace -- but, hey, I'm in Paris and wet weather isn't enough to keep me in -- plus I don't have a good book or fireplace.
The plan for today was to go back to Marche d'Aligre and do some food shopping so off I went. First priority was to find someplace on the way to get something in my stomach and some coffee to wake me up -- found a boulangerie that I hadn't been to before a couple of blocks this side of the market and sat for a while eating a warm croissant, drinking another one of those tiny cups of coffee and looking out the window watching people walk by in the rain -- very Parisian, I thought -- except I've noticed most real Parisians don't eat croissants for breakfast (they're more of a mid-day, early afternoon thing) -- breakfast is typically a small baguette or some kind of mini-sandwich involving an egg.
The rain started slacking off so it was time to move on. Got to the market around 9:30 - 10:00 only to find thaat most of the flea market vendors were in the process of or had already packed-up because of the weather -- fortunately, the fruit and produce vendors were still going strong. Walked from one end of the market to the other (only a relatively short three blocks compared to the monster market yeterday) -- looking for the best prices and quality -- and taking some photos (yesterday's crowds were too massive to take any photos, and today with the rain, things had thinned-out a bit here so didn't have to worry about being knocked over or having my wallet lifted).
Bought some potatoes from one vendor, bought some cheese from a fromagerie last weekend and went back for more, bought some chicken from a bouchierie, and then got wild and crazy and bought two things that I'm not sure what they are. The sign on one read "beignets de epinards" (which I think, translates as spinach donuts -- should be interesting!) The other was labelled "something (I forget what) pomme de terre" (which translated as flat smashed potatoes -- looks like someone stepped on a potato and then fried the result -- should also be interesting). A word about beignets (supposedly a "French" delicacy) -- a friend of mine had been given a box mix that her son brought back from New Orleans -- we made it up one morning -- kind of like fried dough with powdered sugar -- excellent -- couldn't get enough! Here, the beignets I'm met (and I've met a few) are pretty much "frumpy" jelly doughnuts without a whole lot of flavor. Lesson: Buy the box mix from New Orleans and make your own.
There is also just so much different food here than you commonly see in the States (pates, terrines, cold cuts, and a huge number of things I have no idea what they are, much less how to spell them!) Fresh fish and all varieties of seafood are big here as well, but am not quite ready to do my own cleaning, scaling and shucking.
The market today was fun -- even in the rain. Even though I'm repeating stuff, I'm still having novel experiences (mostly little surprises) while in a semi-familiar environment. Am in this neighborhood for another two weeks, then moving to an apartment on the other side of Paris where I'll need to go through the whole learning my way around thing again -- should be fun!
Went out this afternoon looking for the building from yesterday's explosion -- went a half mile in the direction it was in without finding anything -- then got back and read a news story about it -- turns out the apartment building was in an entirely different neighborhood on the other side of the Seine (at least a mile away) -- there was just so much smoke, it looked like it was just down the street.
Tried my first bottle of cheap ($6.00) wine last night -- a Pinot Gris -- surprisingly, it was quite good -- or at least there wasn't any left in the bottle this morning! Bought two more bottles this afternoon!
