Saturday Morning with Tartine & TV5Monde

I peeled myself out of bed this morning and stumbled out the door with Vanessa to catch some breakfast at Tartine before her volunteer training.. Leaving the house is always worth it when Tartine is on the itinerary (although if you don't want to wait 30 minutes or more, the sacrifice is greater because the early bird gets the worm faster).

I didn't bring the camera with me, but I wish I could've gotten a picture of the line at 9am -- it was out the door, and smashed inside along with the few tables they've managed to squeeze into their tiny space. It's like human Tetris most of the time! So why do we wait 30 minutes and surrender our personal space? Because here are found the reliably best pastries and edible goods, and no indulgent day is complete without them.

In fact, it's all so good that I was confident ordering before I even saw what was in the cases (too many people in line blocking the goods!). I just asked a server what was ready to go, and went with it. I ended up with bread pudding with apples and caramel, a frangipane croissant, zucchini bread with kumquaats and walnuts, and a chocolate scone (though I ordered a chocolate croissant -- no love lost, I'm sure it will be delicious!) Vanessa grabbed the croissant and zucchini bread and hurried off to her training, so I got the bread pudding and scone.

Bread pudding isn't for everyone, the texture puts some people off.. and we all know there's some sorry stuff masquerading as real food out there, so that doesn't help its reputation. But Tartine's bread pudding is always fantastic, so when I have a sweet tooth in the morning I like to indulge in it.




So, I brought my booty home and set up camp to watch TV5Monde while I ate -- here are some reasons why I watch TV5Monde.. there are SO MANY, but this is just what I managed to snag with the camera in the half-hour or so I was watching this morning. (Hint: It's not just for the language training!)

There's always something completely mind-boggling on French tv! I saw a special on sex toys, some crazy nature documentary showing all the details of cheetah and lion mating practices, a lady drugging a domesticated lioness and gluing long hair around its head to make it look like a male (and her husband teased it by sticking his finger in its ear while it was still drugged up, then gave it a little rub on the nose like 'Aw, I love ya!').... And the movie about how French royalty just had orgies all the time, in costume. Oh, and the cabaret show in which every act we saw was SO TOTALLY GAY but no one said so, and the audience was by turns confused and delighted by the antics. I'll just say that Snow White and Seven Dwarfs takes on a whole new meaning when performed in this fashion.. it's all the little things that add up!

Anyway, I am off to finish the laundry for now but I was inspired to take some pictures on my walk home this morning, so I'll probably be posting some greenery and some great murals later for you poor Midwestern winter hostages who have been robbed of visual stimulus for weeks and weeks!