Provisioning Day 11-12-25

One of the real enjoyments of a longer stay in a place is that you get to do some shopping for daily needs and today was our first serious effort in that direction. Before we went out we firmed up our transportation plans for getting to Amsterdam. What I thought would work yesterday backfired on me, but I shifted away from the Eurail site and over to the Eurostar site.  Once there I was able to get our tickets sorted out in almost no time at all.  Of course I have to get tickets back to Paris pretty soon too.  But that is a battle that can wait a little while.  As we left the apartment we debated about what we might buy and whether that would require us to return to store them before going to lunch.  Suffice it to say that once we got in to the big Monoprix it was certain we would have to go back to the apartment to store it.  This store has everything and it seemed crazy to only do a partial

visit.  They have an awesome refrigerator case of cheeses, that was our downfall, we ended up buying 5 different cheeses, then that made us need some deli meats, that in turn led to a bottle of wine, etc.

So after an hour of gathering up ‘needed’ goodies, we carried it all back to the apartment and put it away. Then we hustled out to see if we could get lunch, it was after 2:00 and in France you’re pushing the window of lunch availability in a restaurant. So we arrived at the Maison de Marie and as we sat down they explained that the kitchen was closing in 20 minutes and as a result we could only order a main course and a dessert, not the usual appetizer and main

then dessert. I moaned that I loved the fish soup and our server said that would be possible, but no main course. So I was conflicted but in the end opted for the soup. Deb came through like a champion and ordered the duck breast. So we could share a bit of each between us which is what we did. We sat on their patio and jousted with the aggressive little sparrows who have taken the position that lunch should be shared by everyone including them.  For out dessert Deb had  hazelnut profiteroles while I had the ‘Ti-Marie-su’ the house made yummy.  They were rolling up the sidewalk when we were leaving, the last ones out.

From there we walked over to the promenade and found seats to watch the late afternoon show.  There were many families down on the beach where dad was teaching the little ones how to skip stones. But of course the little ones we just as happy to see the rocks make big splashes in the surf.  We sat for quite a while but I had another task that I needed to attend to, so while I ran off to take a sweater for repairs Deb kept an eye on the beach. It took me almost an hour to walk over to the repair facility and return to where Deb was still in observation mode.  So I sat down with here again and we sat and enjoyed the coming sunset.  But before it was completely dark we walked back to the apartment only stopping to buy a cheap teapot for our breakfasts. We’ve been using a saucepan but it’s not ideal.  We bought one in Sevilla and left it for the apartment and that’s what we’ll do here.