Market Day

A gianormous Arkansas tomato

When I first moved to Paris from Cergy (horrible, terrible place), I used to go to the open air markets for all of my fruits and vegetables. The produce is better at these markets than at supermarkets and the atmosphere is very vivant and animée. However, I fell out of the habit because it eats up a large part of my day (there are about 40 produce stands at my market and I am a tightwad so I spend about an hour price checking), I can never just buy one of anything and it is usually very crowded unless it is early in the morning.

Today though, I grabbed my bags, opting to leave the granny shopping cart at home which turned out to be a mistake, and headed to the market. I just wanted figs (I have eaten about 5 kilos since coming back from vacation), broccoli and mushrooms. I ended up with a kilo of figs, a kilo of mushrooms, 4 peaches, a kilo of red peppers, green beans, a kilo of grapes, a kilo of tomatoes and no broccoli. I don't know what happens to me when I go to the market but I never buy just what I want. I end up with random things like beets or fennel because it just all looks so good. So now for the next two or three days I will be stuffing myself with fresh produce, not a bad thing, I know, but a silly lesson I should have learned several times over by now.

If you are coming to France, I suggest you find one of these markets as they are a wonderful experience and a great French lesson combined. I am sure you can find a listing for the markets in other towns (all places have them) but if you are coming to Paris, you can find the dates and times of all area markets on this site: Paris markets.

Je suis une 'Country' Fille au Cœur

Fountain at Jardin du Luxembourg-I guess the guy is monitoring the fish-Ain't it purty?

So this reentré has been very difficult. I don't really know why except for the fact that I had an awesome vacation in the States. And now I acutely miss it and all the great and horrible things that make it the "States". It doesn't help that I came back to terrible weather. But luckily I don't have time to brood because I jumped right back into to work, seeing friends and visiting museums.

Cool Tiffany Chandelier

Today I went to the Musée du Luxembourg to see the Tiffany exhibit. It was nice, but definitely not worth the 11 euros I paid for the ticket. I managed to take about 30 pictures before I was told photography wasn't allowed (what can I say, there were no signs).

One of two rooms of the exhibit

It was a pathetically small exhibit. I read all the of the informative blurbs and really studied some of the pieces and was completely done in 35 minutes. Another annoying thing was that everything was in French. Granted it was pretty easy French (I understood about 95%), but for all the tourists who don't speak French, well I guess the museum made a lot of extra money off them by offering the audio guide for 4.50...such a racket!

My favorite lamp of the exhibit

I wouldn't recommend the exhibit only because the price is the same for Louvre and D'Orsay and they are much more exciting and interesting. However, it was nice seeing Tiffany pieces and learning how Tiffany came to be Tiffany & Co, but as I said, I am a country girl at heart and couldn't help but think, "It's just a bunch of broken glass glued together."

I'm Back

My country alter-ego

I hope everyone had a good summer. I had a great vacation in the States and enjoyed every minute of my French duration vacation (more than five weeks). I had hoped to blog some while I was home, but I really just didn't have the time. Between going to the gym, visiting with friends and family and all the shopping I did, there wasn't a moment to spare.

The transition back to Paris was hard the first day. I was sad to be back and the weather is completely depressing at the moment, but after the second day and a full day of jet-lagged work, Paris seemed more welcoming. Plus I have some big plans for this year in Paris so I am looking forward to getting everything in motion.

I hope everyone had a great summer and the return to school, work, real life, etc. wasn't too hard.