Observations Today Thursday March 26, 2015

Observations - Thursday March 26, 2015

So, today, first on the agenda, was to pay rent. Mind you, I am living here so, hopefully, this is the last "tasky" thing that I have to learn. So, I have been gathering cash to pay rent and went to the apartment owner's bank in town to try to deposit the cash into their account.

First of all, that's not how it is done here. Even though the owner has an account with a local bank, I have to wire the money to her. So, I collect the cash, put a French translation in my cell phone (at my apartment before I leave because the wifi makes it faster to translate), so that, if we are having problems communicating, I can show her on my phone. So, I think that I am ready to go to the bank.

The bank is literally 7 minutes from the apartment. I get there and with only small challenges with translation, we figure out how to do it.

The problem is, I don't have the apartment phone number in case they have a problem. So-o-o, I go back to the apartment (kinda the Home Depot project scenario again), get the phone number and walk back to the bank. Fortunately, I am figuring out that things take a little while here so I allotted enough time.

I go back to the bank, we finish the transaction, I put my envelope in the slot, and Viola! We are finished! I did not get charged a wire fee (yea!) BUT it takes 4 days to get processed.

Ok, well, I am still safe in that the owner will get the rent by the 1st of the month.

On to more exciting things. In my walk today I passed a cheese store and a fish market. I  made a mental note to check those out later. Also, I looked around the corner, off Oberkampf, the street I was traveling and here is what I found. . .

It is an artisan Boulanger with natural foods without gluten café. 

What a find in my neighborhood! I love the atmosphere - very fresh and nourishing to the soul as well as the body. They were playing music - a kind of modern Brazillian type music. Very nice!

It is a rainy day today so a good day for soupe!

 

This is a soup with lentils, carrots, tarragon, coriander and "corail". I had to look that up. It said "coral". Did they really put coral in this soup? Oh well. It was really good. And the multi-grain homemade bread was great! I decided to take some of that home with me!

 

 

Here is a bread that looked very interesting.  It has olives, onions and anchovies on it.

 

 





and here is a flourless brownie. I tasted this. It was fantastic!

 

and here is a lemon meringue tart. Works of art!