The Olive Man, and other tales from the weekend.

I was so excited to share my day with you yesterday. I had spent my morning wandering through Marché Saxe-Breteuil, one that is quickly becoming my favorite in Paris. Every time I go, I drool over the amazing produce and prepared foods, and especially this one stand in particular. They sell olives and other Mediterranean goodies that are so gorgeous they’d bring tears to your eyes. Okay, maybe it’s just me. But seriously, the olives are amazing and so are the other antipasto like goodies they sell.

 

After staring at the olives (who am I?) for several minutes, I finally struck up a conversation with the olive man (that’s what we’ll call him…the olive man). After talking to him for several minutes in my broken French, and being fed countless samples, I walked away with a few goodies to take home and several other treats the olive man gave me. He kept telling me I was beautiful (in a non creepy it’s okay to make eye contact kind of way) which is probably why I had such a great experience at the olive stand. I was so happy after I left and took tons of gorgeous pictures of the food he was selling.

 

I left olive heaven and headed to Montmartre to stroll the streets, eventually finding my way to the steps of Sacre Couer. It was sunny and alive – musicians had taken the streets and families and tourists were wandering the steep, windy roads. There was an adorable band set up wearing all pink and playing songs like Dancing Queen, among others. I took tons of pictures of the band, and tons of the streets near Sacre-Couer which are all so beautiful.

 

I was going to share my day with you – the tastes, smells and sounds of the city. I was so excited when I looked through the pictures on my camera while i was sitting on the metro…so excited, that I accidentally deleted them. All of them. Every. Single. One.

 

Oops.

 

Epic fail.

 

My heart was totally broken and my mature, adult self fought back the tears and moans that my immature self was feeling inside. It had been such a special morning – in fact, I think I may have fallen even more in love with Paris yesterday, if that’s at all possible. As much as I miss my family and friends and the other comforts of home, I tried to picture myself packing up and getting on a plane yesterday and tears came to my eyes. My heart literally hurt at the thought of ever leaving as I sat on the steps of Sacre-Coeur yesterday despite watching the tourists and listening to the street violinists terrible rendition of Ave Maria.

 

Now, I know I’m getting all gooshy on you. Je suis désolé.  But, I wanted to share yesterday with you, despite the lack of pictures. I took the accidental mishap of deleting my pictures as a sign that maybe yesterday’s sights weren’t meant to be shared. The memories will have to suffice for me, but I’m certain I won’t ever forget yesterday. Le sighhhhh.

 

Now that I’ve poured my heart out, let’s get onto the good stuff…

 

I ventured out to Marché Bastille this morning since my fridge was looking a little empty. I heard this market is fairly inexpensive so I was hoping to load up on some veggies for the next few days…

       

I also found the olive stand again! Although, the olive man wasn’t there. Same company, just a different person working today. Zut!

The market lived up to it’s reputation, as I filled up my entire bag with fresh produce and a few other treats for about 12 euro. I even got 4 avocados for 2 euro! Can you say guacamole!?

        

Yah, those are artichokes stuffed with creamy, herbed feta cheese. Now you know why my heart was breaking at the thought of ever leaving this place! These would stop your heart, they’re so good.

 

After restocking my fridge, and using all of my will pepper not to finish off the other artichoke and save it for a special treat tomorrow, some friends and I took the metro to Place d’Italie  for the Chinese New Year parade that was taking place this weekend. There was one last weekend too, but this was the big shebang.

It was difficult to take pictures since I was standing behind a 6 foot tall man and my 5’2 self could barely see past his grey-haired head…so these were taken with the “hold the camera over your head and hope for the best” method. It was neat to be a part of the celebration – the streets were loud and crowded but the energy was exciting and everyone was celebrating and shouting bonne année every few minutes. Ooooh, Paris.

 

We made our way to Porte de Choisy to further our Chinese New Year festivities and spend some time in the “Chinatown-esque” part of town in the 13th arrondissement. We’ve dined in this area a few times and have always had delicious food for really cheap and have been wanting to check out the little specialty store that we’ve seen in passing a few times…

I ended up buying a poulet rôti – what will now be known as the most delicious roasted chicken I’ve ever had in my life. I tore into it as soon as I got home because I couldn’t wait to have it with the rest of my dinner which was…

  

This is quickly becoming a new favorite. I just sauté 1 sliced onion and 2 red bell peppers in olive oil over medium heat until the onions are sweet and the bell peppers are soft – about 45 minutes or so. It’s so delicious over quinoa, or with some broccoli – or after devouring a juicy roasted chicken leg. Just sayin’.

 

I’m currently bundled up in my little apartment, trying to get some homework and failing horribly at that. I figured out that I walked through the streets of Paris for a total of about 20 hours in the last three days. Needless to say my calves and buns are a teeny bit sore.  

 

Time to kick my feet up, read for a bit, and just be darn thankful for my weekend.

 

Happy Sunday

Tagged as: cooking, markets, Paris