En vacances

One of the reasons for my prolonged absence from this blog is that I recently spent a week and a half on vacation in France. That's a pretty good excuse for not blogging, don't you think? In the picture at left, I'm sitting in one of those uber-touristy boats that cruises the Seine. The picture was taken on the Fourth of July, a day when we decided that being on the water was a mightily appropriate way to celebrate.

We spent several days exploring Brittany, where I made sure to snap up some of the region's famous fleur de sel caramels and caramel sundae topping. We also explored the D-Day beaches in Normandy, which was a profoundly moving and sobering experience.

One of my favorite parts of our vacation was the three days we spent in Paris. The best thing I did in preparation for the trip (besides brushing up on my French) was picking up a copy of Clotilde Dusoulier's Edible Adventures in Paris. Clotilde is most famous for her food blog Chocolate and Zucchini, which I read quite regularly. The book is divided into two sections: The first focuses on restaurants and the latter section focuses on specialty food and cookware shops. This is where I turned most of my attention. If you're visiting Paris, I highly, highly recommend you pick up this book.

Thanks to Clotilde's fantastic recommendations, I found many, many affordable and portable food gifts to bring back to the U.S., as well as a few great finds for my own kitchen. (The only non-food item I purchased was a little navy-and-white dress from Petit Bateau. It's for our little bebe girl, who is scheduled to arrive in November.) I'll share some of my favorite purchases and Parisian epicurean destinations very soon!