Paris gourmand

So there wasn’t any student strike at Sorbonne after all, my image of Sorbonne as the headquarters of the student resistance has shattered completely. Well, we do have a strike but in the remote area of Porte de Clignancourt in the north of Paris where you have most of the first and second year students studying. I suppose here in Sorbonne where the students of the third year and masters study we are starting to get a bit pessimistic about our influence on governmental politics. We will see who will prove to be wrong…

I am about to have my lunch. It’s from a can and smells and looks like cat food, but then don’t we human beings eat all?

My lunch probably isn’t the best example of French cuisine because in Paris if anywhere you can really dive into the world of haute cuisine and culinary art. Though, all the guidebooks would tell you otherwise since there is no such thing as Parisian cuisine because it is all imported goods from the province, the rest of France outside Paris. To addition there’re imported goods from all around the world what makes the outcome even more colourful.

For me it is all I need. You can have a taste of everything in one city and it’s great. I have already been to one really nice Vietnamese restaurant, I’ve tasted all sorts of Maghreb sweets in one Tunisian pastry shop in Quartier Latin, and I’ve had some crêpes, amazingly delicious kebabs and falafels. Not to forget the French traditional boulangerie products like the croissants and baguettes.

The baguette is definitely something that deserves its own paragraph. The best baguettes I’ve ever had are here in Paris. The paradoxical combination of crunchy crust and spongy soft content keeps overwhelming you every time you eat it. And it’s so cheap and so amazing when dipped into crème fraîche!

Oh and I completely forgot the wine! Well, first of all you can buy wine in any supermarket at any time, not like in Finland where most of alcohol is sold in state owned shops at very high prices (well, here people can actually control their drinking). Secondly, it is mostly French and really good. I still have my lesson to learn in wines but since I’m staying here for the whole year I have time find out which cheese goes with what wine. I also forgot to mention the cheese but that a whole other story, some other time then.

By the way, the lunch I just had also tasted like cat food…