Paris - Pastries

,Catherine, Catie, Rebecca and Thomas met me at Le Gare du Nord.

They hadn't eaten and there was a smoothie shop right across from the flat where they were staying.

Catherine is an enigma.

I cannot tell what it is that she likes to eat on the streets of Paris.

To watch her one would think that she likes to eat whatever it is that is left over after the rest of us are finished.

However in the instance of our first time on the streets, there wasn't much left from the smoothie shop.

The kids had three straws and one extra large smoothie.

We headed for the pastry shop next.

Not much left over there, either.

What is a trip to Paris without buying at least one religeuse, one apple flan, one pain du chocolate, one tarte citron ... where would the list end?

At the whole grain baguette?

Would the list end at the mussels with blue cheese sauce?

Or at the duck with pepper sauce.

What Catie, Rebecca and Thomas have is a high tolerance for speciality cheeses, which surprised me.

We looked at stores full of spices -- large baskets of them with tin ladles by their sides.

We stopped to warm our hands at grills full of roasted chickens.

We took looks again and again at pastry shops.

What could be more charming than eating as one should in Paris -- a baguette in one hand and some cheese in the other.

There is no end to the infinite variations of butter, nuts and flour in France.

Yum!

Arta