John kept telling me don't worry about which cafe to pick, all the food in Paris is fabulous. Pretty much yeah.

For breakfast I had oatmeal I'd brought from home and whatever fruit was in E & G's beautiful blue and white fruit bowl. John had a random selection of bread and salami we bought at interesting stores along the way.

Then we'd travel to the city and before our first museum, have a pastry. Pain au chocolate, pain with little bitty chocolate, raspberry crumble cake, apple pie, more pain au chocolate. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to eat every pastry in Paris, but I gave it a shot.

Our best lunch was the first one, where, using the Paris walks guides we borrowed from Ian and Zanne, we made it to the take out place of the famous restaurant L'Avant Comptoir. It might have been the fact that I hadn't slept for 20 hours or eaten for 12, but the first bite of prosciutto and cheese had me swooning. And all that butter, every bite was heaven. We ate it on the curb at the Odeon metro stop. Back when I lived in Paris, thirty years ago, eating like that, or worse, as you walked, was just not done. Now, I don't care if I look like a tourist, and I think I saw non-tourists wandering about with their falafel or crepes.

The chicken sandwich from the Louvre café was better than the tuna sandwich from the D'Orsey café, but hey, they were on French bread, and the Louvre lunch was outside looking out over the immense courtyard while the D'Orsey was next to our favorite polar bear, so it's all good. E & G think the falafel in the Marais has gone downhill. Not that I noticed. It made me so happy to bring back a taste I only have had there. My French is only good enough to understand half a menu, so the day I ordered a sandwich with an egg on top, I liked the egg, but not the Swiss cheese.

We splurged on one meal at Laduree. It's so elegant and old school. When they realized we wanted lunch and not just tea and cake, they brought out the cloth tablecloths. I had a ham, cheese, and mushroom omelet and John had a chicken club sandwich. I know it sounds pedestrian, but it was not. Then we moved on to the tea and macaroons.

Dinners were mostly at home with E & G. We were so lucky to be part of a French family and see real life. They did, indeed, eat in courses with a tomato cheese salad type starter, a main dish, rice, and vegetable, then a green salad, sometimes cheese, and finally fruit. Yes, of course, we had wine.

We had one fancy dinner with E & G at George, the restaurant on top of the Pompidou Center. The view was stunning.

Nutella crepes and citron presse were both on my must list, and I got to them, along with a lot of salami, bread, and butter. I did not get any ice cream or hot chocolate. Obviously, I have to go back.

Have I forgotten to mention the chocolate? There are fabulous, elegant chocolate shops on every corner. I mean, I come from Seattle, where I think Fran's could stand up to those French chocolates any day, but I don't let myself buy them every day. Here, I did.