Even though lunch at Aux Lyonnais was technically our last meal in France, we employed an old trick of buying dinner in Paris and taking it back to London. A plan somewhat complicated when our dinner companion indicated that she was trying to avoid wheat... What is France if not bread and quiche? Especially if you're avoiding charcuterie and cheese (grr)
Serendipitously my quest for maternity clothes in the 19th arrondisement led us to a delightful pedestrian mall of food shops on Rue de Levis. The strawberries and cherries looked divine so we grabbed masses of yummy summer fruit.
We had also been drooling over the prepared dishes on offer in the French delicatessan, so we loaded up on some yummy looking meatballs, a beautiful looking gratin and a tasty eggplant dish. Not the most convenient things to transport on the metro back to the Eurostar, but well worth the effort.
Unable to completely ignore our boulangerie urges, we stopped in and bought some baguettes, eclairs and slices of quiche.
Suddenly time was of the essence. For a moment it looked like we might be done for, when Le Gourmand's last metro ticket would not work and we had spent our last Euro at the boulangerie. Le Gourmand does not like to be late for planes or international flights so he was not happy but luckily we made it to Gare du Nord with (a little) time to spare, dinner in hand.
Such a delightful way to finish a trip to Paris, we gorged on the food later that night, cognisant that in Australia we wouldn't have been allowed to carry half of this food between Sydney and Melbourne, let alone Sydney and Auckland, thanks to our customs restrictions.
Pour Le Gourmand. I had left him in the fromagerie unsupervised with the instruction to buy some hard cheeses. He had managed to explain using gestures that he was buying cheese for a pregnant woman. The fromagère apparently understood but sold him a soft cheese. I am assuming it was pasteurised but was unwilling to trust the language barrier (plus debate rages as to whether pasteurisation is sufficient to avoid listeria in soft cheeses) so while the others finished their meal with what they assured me was a delectable brie (or camembert? noone was sure), I ate some macaroons contributed by our hostess. Bruce will have to try French cheese another time.
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