This morning I drove downtown to pick up a couple in town for their house-hunting trip. Bill and I are their “mentor” family… which means we’re supposed to help them navigate the challenges and introduce them to the other ISE’s.
I got to their hotel and both looked really refreshed and peppy. I don’t think I looked either the entire week I was here house-hunting.
We were supposed to have breakfast, but as I was getting to their hotel I realized I don’t know downtown very well and really wasn’t sure where to go. They told me they were up for anything and that they’d passed a little cafe the day before while out walking that they thought might be open. (A lot downtown is closed Monday morning to make up for being open a couple of hours on Sunday morning.) So we walked down the street to what turned out to be a bar attached to a tabac. (Cigarette/magazine store.)
We ordered our coffees and I wasn’t sure if we’d get any kind of breakfast. Which was not great, since I hadn’t eaten at home and my stomach was starting to growl. The waiter (who I think was probably the owner) offered us croissants and pain au chocolat (basically croissants with chocolate inside). But he only brought two pain au chocolat. Which I really don’t even like. So I went up to the bar to ask for a croissant. He said they were out… then offered some bread with butter and jam. Sure. I sat back down and after what seemed like quite a while to bring me a chunk of bread, he arrived at the table. He had cut what had to be an entire small baguette in half then into pieces about 6 inches long, piled it on a plate, along with an entire block of butter and new jar of jam. He must have thought we were really hungry. Although we did our best to make a dent in the bread. It was really, really good. I’ve actually never even put butter and jam on my bread before… turns out it’s good!
It also turned out to be a nice welcome for a new family.
better than ketchup