Cobweb Soup & Other Paris Delights

Yesterday was such a wonderful "Yay for Paris!" day. Obviously I moved to Paris so I could have more time to be in the city and experience all of its magical amazing magic-ness...but then when I have my days off, I usually just need some down time to relax or need to do laundry or sweep, dust, do dishes...you know, the usual Paris glam.

And so I end up doing nothing cool or magic or Paris-y at all! (Except for the pastry-eating, I think that's clear.) I've been here almost 3 months and haven't been to a single museum.  BUT yesterday I had a fabulous day, starting with a "Holy cow I feel bad for anyone who hasn't eaten in Paris" lunch.  Then I walked about 4 miles through the city and filled my eyes with lots of beautiful, beautiful Paris scenery, so it was a great day!

Maygan and I had a fantastic lunch at a place in our neighborhood called "L'Affriole." They start by bringing you out a plate of bread, radishes, olive butter, & salt. You put the olive butter and salt on the radish.  I'm not usually a radish lover but these were delicious!

We wanted to take a picture because the plate was so pretty but we felt like it was inappropriate to break out cameras.  So here's a picture I found online, I'm sure it's illegal:

And then the rest of the food started coming out, upon which we no longer cared and became lunch paparazzi with iphones and cameras hovering about.

Here's some of the deliciousness:

Salmon ceviche w/ a delicious creamy herb mousse

  Braised pork (complete with tiny onion ring) with fresh asparagus, peas, fennel, & a light and briny foam

And dessert...A milk chocolate mousse filled with caramel in the center, on top of a butter cookie-like pastry, dusted with cocoa powder, and topped with a crystallized sugar piece in the shape of what I like to think is a rubber ducky.

Maygan's "dessert du jour", thin pastry sheet layers (millefeuille) w/ cream topped with raspberries...and the star of the show, lemon-flavored shaved ice. So fresh and delicious, I just want a bowl of it!

 We were going to get espressos because it came with a stack of delightful looking homemade marshmallows, but they were trying to close, and the waitress was hinting that she wanted to get out of there, so we said we'd skip it.  But then she brought us the marshmallows anyway, yay!!

They were light and fluffy and almost melted in your mouth...nothing like the marshmallow we are accustomed to.  Delight!!

Then Maygan and I took their dog, Buckley, for a walk since I'm dogsitting for them next week, and we hung out and chatted at her apartment for a while, making plans already for Thanksgiving and all the glorious things we want to cook.

Then it was soon time for me to head to a neighborhood called the Marais, for a meeting that I thought was going to pertain to me but ended up having nothing to do with me at all.

I thought it was about residency in France as a foreigner, owning a business, and other paperwork type stuff, BUT it turns out that it was for people who own property in France and how taxation is going to change in the next couple years...and then a presentation on overseas banking, for those who wish to put their millions in a bank in Belize because banking there is just as good as Switzerland for many reasons which I stopped listening to once I realized I didn't have a million dollars.

People were raising their hands and asking questions like "What if I wanted to transfer $100,000 from the U.S....", and I just nodded my head as if to say, "Yah! Me, too!! I'm VERY concerned about the same question."

I tried to fit in and look like I was somehow young and independently wealthy without letting on that I'd actually eaten a peanut butter sandwich every day for the past week because I needed a 2 euro loaf of bread to get me through the end of the month.  (Still do. Come on, 4 more days!) 

I mean this is the weirdness of living here on a budget.  Yesterday, I had that fabulous 3 course meal, I went to a meeting to learn about transferring my millions overseas to Belize, and then ended the night with an expensive hot chocolate at a swank cafe with tie-wearing waiters.

Tonight, I considered eating this 70 cent packet of dried soup even though it had either dried glue or cobwebs on the inside just so I could save some money.  Here it is, hanging off the spoon:

HOW GROSS IS THAT???  Probably glue though right?? It looked like cobwebs, but I told myself it was glue.

Look there's some more hanging off the package.

What the heck.  But I need to save money, so I cooked it, and told myself it was glue and that I should eat it.  BUT it ended up smelling weird, and then I thought...what if it's cobwebs, come on.  This is creepy and gross. 

So instead, I opted for a delectable cup of Japanese Noodles a la "boeuf" flavor.

Also known as ramen.

Such is the budget life in Paris...cobweb soup, ramen, and PB sandwiches all week in exchange for a day of Paris amazingness.  Worth it!!