Mr. Oil: Do you want to meet me for lunch one day this week?
Me: Well, not with Baby Oil. Too complicated with naptime. Maybe one day when I have the nanny?
Mr. Oil: Okay, how about one of those days?
Me: That could work, it would have to be early since I only have the nanny until 2pm.
Mr. Oil: Oh wait, I have a [insert: meeting/work lunch/French class/deadline].
Me: Oh wait, I have [playgroup/playdate/errands].
So we never have lunch. The stars aligned this week, however, and we met up for a Parisian lunch at Coutume in the 7th arrodissement. Immediately upon entering, you know Coutume is not your average Paris lunch spot. It is light and bright and is a place very clearly focused on coffee. Fortunately, they also focus on the food.
We started with an entree (remember, this means appetizer in French) of two light spreads - one from peas, and the other from eggplant with lightly toasted bread.
Then I had smoked salmon on "pancakes" that was served with a light, just a tad creamy sauce and Mr. Oil had a delicious concoction called "comme une pizza" (like a pizza). Yummmmmmmm.
We ended with excellent coffee. Sadly, we were unable to experience the Cafe Coutume, which is their special siphon-brewed coffee, as they had stopped serving it for the day. But my mocha was just the right amount of sweet, and I savored every drop.
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| The big glass contraption is their special coffee making tool. |
Partaking in adult conversation in the middle of the day is a bit of a rarity for me at this point, so major points to Mr. Oil for making this happen. And it still feels strange that we actually live in Paris when we get to do things like this. Which in turn leads to an ongoing conversation topic of ours - is it bad to feel like your life is vacation? What do you do on vacation if vacation is your life? We'll be answering that soon as we're off to Italy in just two weeks!
By the way, there are four French public holidays in May. That's right - four. May 1, 8, 17 and 28. But before you go thinking this country is full of non-working slackers, I've just been informed by Mr. Oil that he will still be at work on May 1 and May 8. To which I say - how is life a vacation if you have to go work on vacation days?!
