Second day

I slept in a bit (ah, there you are, my old friend jetlag!) and then had to walk about 20 minutes to the place where I needed to pay the rent on my studio apartment.  (Well, I could have taken the Metro partway, but it hardly seemed worth it -- it was a beautiful day!)  I picked up Paris's classic street food for breakfast along the way - a crepe sucre et citron (lemon sugar crepe).  Perfect!  The crepe was just crisped enough along the edges; the sugar gave just the right sweetness, slightly gritty as it should be; and the citron jam added a tang to the happy dance in my mouth.

On the way back, I ran various errands (tried to buy a sim card at an <<Orange>> store, but could not figure out the right level of Parisian pushiness to become the next customer in line; tried to buy a sim card at a <<Monoprix>>, as I had been told I could, but they didn't actually carry them; tried to buy a sim card at a <<Poste>>, et voila! Succes!)  Since I was at the Monoprix anyway, I picked up a premade sandwich (smoked salmon and creme fraiche on flatbread - actually pretty tasty!).  Tried to eat in the park outside my studio, but it was full of Parisians eating their own lunches, so I just took it up to my room.

In the afternoon, I met with Bruno (one of my collaborators) to talk about research possibilities, and then went to my office -- my officemates weren't there, and I got caught up in working on a paper that I'm hoping to submit at the end of the week.  So it got pretty late, and I didn't feel energetic enough to cook dinner as I'd planned.  Instead, I walked down to Leon de Bruxell, a Belgian restaurant I'd seen near the Metro, and had moules dijonnaise et frites:

Tender, tangy, and delicious, with plenty of baguette to soak up the creamy mustard sauce, and crisp golden fries on the side.  (Though the French really do not understand ketchup...) And for dessert, un gauffre avec sauce chocolat: