Home Again

After a lovely day of wandering about, marathoning thourgh multiple rounds of grocery shopping (you can only buy as much as you can carry!!), and meeting up with dear old friends, I am now curled up on my couch in sweat pants, looking out my window into the square below where a gypsy band is entertaining streetside diners (and me!), and sipping a glass of rosé. The old church bell down the street is chiming 9pm....even though it's still light outside. And my heart is completely full and happy.

The weirdest part of all is that it doesn't feel weird at all. It's like somebody dropped me into one of my vivid, technicolor dreams about Paris--except this time it's real. And I've fit back in with such ease that it's hard to believe it's really been two years. My friends are just as I remember them, except that long separation made them scrap the dainty Parisian "bisous" in favor of the all-out American bear hug (seriously, that doesnt exist here!). Familiar streets and cafes are unchanged. The same snooty girl even works at the deli around the corner from my old school. And despite the famed Parisian sass and attitude, that strange, mystic joie de vivre really does seem to linger in almost everything...sometimes I swear it's teeming from the street cracks themselves! I guess it's true what they say about the timelessness of the city. The light and the laughter, the art and the inspiration--this place has some old soul. And gosh, how I've missed it!

"Yesterday for tomorrow..."

Oh, and how could I forget! Pastry of the Day: Croissant aux Amandes. From the bakery that makes the best ones I've tasted in the whole city--"Artisan Boulanger" on Rue de la Roquette.