Philobiblon

So many simple things are just done so well:

* I sit down at a cafe near the Place des Vosges and the waitress brings out an English-language menu (all the people sitting outside seem to be Americans speaking entirely English to her), but when she notices that I have a Le Monde on the table she apologises and asks if I would like a French menu. (I would, even though no one is ever going to mistake me for a native French-speaker.)

* I have a banana split in a cafe overlooking Notre Dame (okay – not what I’d normally eat, but it’s been a long month). The chocolate sauce is proper, biting – lots of real chocolate – a sauce – not sugar syrup with cocoa for colouring, and the fraise ice-cream is bursting with real strawberry flavour.

* I buy some Provence-flavour tissane in my favourite shop for this purpose (Cafe Amazonian on Boulevarde Francis Bourgeois) and the smell of summer fills the shop, overwhelming even the freshly ground coffee.

* French bookshops are wonderful – I was wandering around one today which had a shelf each for Portugese literature, Spanish literature, Brazilian literature etc… all in translation. Can’t think of a single English-language bookshop like that – you’d struggle to find enough books in total. (But I was good – only bought one book, “Promenades Sur Les Lieux De L’histoire: D’Henry IV A Mai ’89”, of which you’ll probably hear more…)

Mind you, the fact that a Subway has been installed beside my favourite cafe in the area (Cafe Panis, also overlooking Notre Dame, and that after a refurb last year it is looking rather more touristy, with prices to match) is slightly disheartening.