Our New Friends

At the beginning of the week, Jen and I were promptly greeted with delicious aromas the minute we emerged from the giant wood doors of our apartment building. We quickly realized the source of these intoxicating scents was a quaint little brasserie not 3 feet from our apartment entrance! (the whole of France closes up shop and heads out of town for vacation lasting the entire month of August...the US should take notes!) Needless to say, the re-opening of this brasserie is beyond convenient!

When lunchtime rolled around today and we, on cue, became painfully aware of our rumbling tummies by the dishes being prepared by our neighbors (maybe we should start closing our windows around meal times...) it seemed only natural that we should try out our new little brasserie. Still in my sweatpants, Weston and I made the grand trek next door to check it out. Absolutely delightful! A creperie/bar/cafe/deli all in one...what more could we ask for? The host, a wonderful little man seemed more than happy to oblige the yanks who, of course, wanted something "a emporte" to go. The French are always a little bewildered at the idea of taking food or coffee on the go. (Not haveing coffee to go has been a bit of an adjustment for me and Jen...to say the least) After we had ordered our crepes (nutella and banana obviously) there was a flurry of action as all four people working there ran around shooting French back and forth trying to find plastic plates and aluminum foil. Weston and I were very entertained, I must admit. I thought I just about sent them over the edge when I added a cafe creme to the order! How serious they were! Throughout the commotion, a conversation was had between all of us in a mixture of broken French and English (primarily about how difficult it is to get take out items in France). I decided all of them were more than pleasant and very accommodating...making them my new Parisian friends! (In addition to putting to rest the stereotype of all inhabitants of the city being rude). With our pile of crepes in tow, we departed thanking them profusely with promises of returning quite frequently. Good thing we had four flights of stairs to walk up...nutella crepes can be a very dangerous thing for the waistline!