Perfection

Sometimes the day seem to fall into a perfect pace. Thursday broke and the weather was promising, so we headed to rue de Cler and spent a huge amount of time picking things for a picnic at the Champs des Mars. We found white peaches, cherries, wonderful sausage and goat cheese in ash, pistaches and of course eclairs! The day was clear and we even have sunburns to show for it. We read and looked at the Eiffel Tower all day. My morbid fear of heights keeps us from attempting a climb to the top, but it was lovely just to look at. And my favorite part was opening my eyes to see a black poodle, perfectly coiffed, looming over my face with a tennis ball. He just played and played and fetched the ball then moved to another set of picnickers.

Yesterday revolved around getting to the lab, but in the morning, conveniently on the way, we stopped at Chatelet and walked on the side toward the Louvre, and for several blocks there are pet stores and gardening shops. Rachel in her quest to keep a count of dogs each day counted 88 in less than an hour. The animals were chubby and clean and so many people work in the stores that each animal gets taken out and fussed over quite a bit. The only truly odd thing were the cardinals for sale in one store - 68 euros each. Oh, and dogs are really pricey - some fancy chihuahuas were 1950 e.

There was a great little place for a hamburger close by, then we continued on the metro to the photo lab, which Stephen will blog about soon. It was amazing. We had a tour not only of the digital lab, but also the old black and white lab where they still make prints in the darkroom. Wow.

And then the babysitter came and Stephen and I went to L'Area, a very popular place on rue de Tourennes. It has to be one of my favorite dinners ever. Eduardo the owner suggested ceviche, and it was sublime. Not too sharp or over the edge, a ceviche for lingering. Beautiful presentation with lemons and tomatoes and cilantro. Eduardo chose a wine, and to our great admiration brought a simple white rioja, perfect! The menu is brazilian and libyan: Stephen had melt away chicken with coconut and ginger called Franco a Salvador, and I had some kind of poached salty fish with a sauce and mashers. You know how fish reminds you of where it's from, like when you have a bite of the ocean? This was like a bite of the seafloor. I think a great dinner takes you other places while you are eating: through oceans and tributaries, vast meadows or high trees. It should give you a memory that you've never experienced. The ending was a chocolate mousse with candied ginger so thick it was like a ganache. If you know me you know how much I like to cook with ginger, so I loved this place. 4 blocks from our apartment.