Frahnce World Problems

There are at least - at least! - three fabulous food markets very near the dorm. The one I visited today turns out to be the best of the bunch, although the food itself may be identical. The difference: between the dorm and the market is the best bakery ever. Normally in Paris, croissants are actually worse than in NY, because NY bakeries seem to think they have to use real butter to be "French," whereas Parisian ones come by their Frenchness naturally and can use pretty much anything that holds together the flour. At this bakery, not the case. I ate the thing - pain au chocolat, not croissant - on the street, in a pilling men's Uniqlo coat, Levi's jeans from the land where this is not a status symbol, and L.L. Bean loafers, getting crumbs all over myself. Because it's not as if I know anybody here. (If you happened to be passing by, Clementine, it wasn't me!) The cherry clafoutis looked so good, too, that I got one of those as well.

Oh, the problem? So much of the food at the market requires a kitchen to prepare. An oven, at least. There isn't one here, just hot-plates, which are located on a counter above the (open) garbage where everyone on the floor throws out their trash.

I know there's a young person's Paris, with Williamsburg/Wicker Park equivalents, fusion cuisines, and whatnot. And I will explore this as well. But I seem to get enough joy out of just buying groceries that it's not as if I have to do much else.

So I have decided that my new goal in life is to be an elderly Parisian woman. They seem to have it made, and to go around on their own well into their 100s. I'd get one of those bags-on-wheels as a walker/tote-bag combo, and would be able to bring all the groceries I want back to some sprawling 7th Arrondissement apartment. There does seem to be a dearth of elderly Parisian men, but the women still have it, and presumably enjoy themselves with young Parisian men if they see fit. (One woman I saw of about 80 had such perfectly-applied shimmery eyeshadow that I really felt ashamed - I have perfect vision, not so many wrinkles, and while I've tried to figure out eyeshadow many times, it's been in vain.)