No, not five-star cuisine, comfort food -- fish and chips. And in my 'hood, no less, at a very acceptable cafe near rue Mouffetard that has free Wifi. I feel like a soccer fan shouting "Score!" :-)
Light, crispy crust perfectly fried around a tasty morsel of fresh fish, served with acceptable fries, tartar sauce, and -- bless them! -- vinegar on the side, without me even having to ask for it. I must look English or something today. As for "today," it's still overcast and slightly on the chilly side, at the end of June. I'm wearing a short-sleeved shirt, but many around me are wearing coats and sweaters. It's a gigantic leap to go from looking around the cafe at this to reading on the Net about the heat waves in the American Southwest. I wish them all well. Ten years ago I was here in Paris during the now-infamous canicule (heat wave) that killed hundreds of people in Europe. It was *intense*. High temperatures, but the killer (literally) was that it never cooled down -- not even at night -- for a couple of weeks. At that time of year, most of Paris is away on vacation. Many of the ones left behind are old, and don't have the money to travel. Their age made them susceptible to heatstroke and respiratory conditions, and many were placed in grave danger by the incessant heat. The doctors of Paris were *also* away on vacation during this period, but to their credit, when they heard about the temperatures, many of them left their families at their vacation homes and returned to Paris, because they knew what was going to happen, and wanted to be there to care for people. It has been estimated that if they hadn't done that, the number of deaths as a result of the canicule would have been several times higher than it was. But today it's cool, and so were the fish and chips. Life just rocks sometimes when you're easy to please. :-)
