Today, we went to the market and church.

The Marche Raspail is as overpriced a farmers market as you can get. We’ve been to a lot of markets in our day — and we thought we understood what highway robbery was. But alas, we’ve found a new level of tourism pricing. We went early and it was a rainy morning in Paris, so the best part was the quiet walk over. Picked up these roses (12 Euros for the ten) to spruce up our place. Also picked up a 33 Euro poulet roti (rotisserie chicken) and cried from the overcharge on the way home. {For those of you not familiar with the currency exchange rate, that was a $50 take home meal.} Not quite what we expected since we were used to getting the same in Aix-en-Provence for about 8 or 9 Euro.

Afterwards, we went to the American Church in Paris, near the quai d’orsay. About a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We only have one umbrella so we took turns getting wet. The church was beautiful, and I’ve been there before. It was better than I remember but that was probably because the family was with me. Kiddo seemed to really like the stained glass. And, the choir today was EPIC. Enough so that even Curt took notice. They seem very welcoming, and the sermon was nuanced enough to be really interesting, on the parable from Matthew on sowing seeds on poor dirt. I think this could be a great new church home. But we still need to check out St George’s, and the American cathedral in Paris.

We are trying to find the new routines that will help us not just survive, but to thrive.

Getting settled in involves running to the store to get supplies like laundry soap, bathroom organizing trays, etc. But here, in Paris, you can’t get it all in one trip, because you have to hand carry it back …on foot, to your place. So that means many many trips. It is a bit exhausting. And quite tedious. (For kiddo, it is super boring.) But, also stressful because for each shopping trip, you have to interact with other people and kiddo and I are really not able to communicate. So each thing becomes more loaded up, literally. 

So when the fine spirits store guy mentioned he was doing a scotch tasting the next day, it was tempting to go take a break from the tedium, and check it out. Met up with Tim and Nancy again, joined by their two friends … Fellow professorial types. And we tasted. The guy — the manager of the store, Stanislaus, asked me later what I thought. I got right into the French tradition by actually telling him what was good or not rather than just doing the nice-nice thing that the French dislike about Americans. That got him clearer on my tastes so he let me taste something he had created recently — scotch blend and … I loved it so much that he let me bottle some up for myself and take it home. 

So first purchases include soap, detergent, …and a scotch blend. Priorities. 🙂 

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LMDW Fine Spirits

On Friday, we met friends in Paris for lunch. Tim and his wife, Nancy, are in town from New Zealand, for some conferences. 

We invited them to lunch at Relais de Entrecôte for our favorite steak and fries treat. Kiddo was a little zombie-ish given the four adults having a conversation, plus … The jet lag issue.  

Then they introduced us to what will surely be a favorite haunt, LMDW, fine spirits store. You can find it near the Place d’ Odean, in the 6th. Just stand in the center of the Place; you won’t miss it. Wall’o’scotch. 

They bought us our first Paris housewarming present: Nikki whiskey. How perfect is that? Pretty darn perfect.