France day 16: Vivian in Wonderland

The park I walk through to and from school is absolutely beautiful but to put icing on the cake, look who I encountered this morning.

For lunch we went to Mamie Bigoude's creperie. As you walk in you're greeted by a colorful kitchen straight from Cat in the Hat and above there are lamps made of yarn and grass on the walls. The furniture is brightly colored and the table cloths are a picnic print. It's a bit like the combination of a bad 50's kitchen and the inside of a gumball machine in an endearing sort of way. Mamie Bigoude's interior designer must be either a 4-year old girl, or high.

It was a nice day so we sat outside in the gnome and daisy filled patio and were presented with menus filled with retro ads and comics. Even the menu items sound whimsical and I order the Warhol. Apparently Warhol as a crepe would consist of vanilla ice-cream, salted caramel sauce, pineapple and mountains of whipped cream.

Warhol

Most restaurants offer mints of as an accompaniment to the bill, but when you're Mami Bigoude, only lollipops would be appropriate.

Good advice

Tonight was JG's belated birthday dinner and we headed to one my favorite squares here, Place Plum'reau for dinner with the evening sun behind us. We spent quite a while picking a restaurant because they all look absolutely incredible but eventually settled on Le Carré.

All was well until we decided to order at 6:33pm. I know that the French like to eat later than North Americans but I never thought that they would refuse to take our order until 7. Really, is the chef standing in the back staring at the clock because of this silly rule? At least the food was well worth the wait. Check out the amazing salade Atlantique.

Ocean on my plate

And what's a dinner at Place Plum'reau without a cone from Tutti Frutti? Tonight's flavour? Tiramisu.

I was on my way home, walking through the very same aforementioned park when I see a bunch of friends from school enjoying a few of Loire valleys great grape juice creations. Wine is dirt cheap here and you can get a great bottle for about 3 euros (4-5 dollars). And when the grass is as green and lush as it is, the air is still warm with the fading sun and there's camembert and chevre to me eaten, why not ?enjoy a few? We certainly did until the park closed at 10.