PARIS REVISITED: No. 2: My Pastry Fix

Just being in Paris is a pleasure.  I don't have to be doing anything -- even shopping.  However, one of the things I always do is visit the patisseries.  There is nothing comparable to them in my world at home.

My day in Paris is incomplete until I have treated myself to a tarte au citron.  Much better than the lemon ice box pie I used to make for my family on Sundays.  (I believe that was the only dessert I ever made with any consistency.)

I love looking at these little pastries with raspberries and strawberries, with chocolate and whipped cream, but I rarely buy one to eat.  Photographing, yes.

In fact, after the enormous amount of walking that is virtually required in Paris, it is impossible to finish the day and evening without a coffee and a pastry (and even a nap) around 4pm.

Speaking of finishing the evening, except for one lovely meal in the 14th following a vernissage in which one of my Paris friends had a photograph on display, all of my evenings were spent the same way.

I would walk down to Odeon sometime after 7pm and find a small table at the Danton Brasserie.  There I would have an omelette au fromage and a pot of Earl Gray tea.  I found that to be my ideal meal for the end of the day.  Most of the other people there were having coffee or wine with a friend, the line for the movie theater next door was wound around the block, but I was getting prepared for "show and tell" of what we had bought for that day in my travelling friend's room and for a lovely night's sleep in the wonderful bed with the fat pillows in my own room.