The Morning Ritual

In my day to day life I couldn't get by without a routine, however when I'm on holidays an absence of routine is one of my favourite things.  That being said I do have certain little rituals, one of which is a morning coffee. 

Aggie & I were excited to be heading back to the Marais to get a Columbus coffee which sounds a little sad as Columbus is a chain, however it's decent coffee which is not always easy to find in France.  Being from Melbourne I think we're totally spoiled as we have the best coffee in the world and I'm possibly a little biased, but I challenge anyone to disagree with me.  We rocked up the day we landed to get a cafe au lait only to find Karl Lagerfeld had taken over the Columbus space.  Devo, but thank god for Le Pain Quotidien who do a mean cafe creme.  Phew!

Each morning I'd take off to play Language Skills with Geoffrey (unsure if that's his real name but I saw it on a receipt so I'm going with it) at Le Pain Quotidien.  Now Geoffrey's first language wasn't French & maybe this is where the problems began. Here's how it played out...

I'd open with a fabulous bonjour followed by a request for 2 pain au chocolats & 2 large cafe cremes to take away (in French of course).  Geoffrey god love him would respond in English, and I would then answer in French.  It was like a tennis match, back & forth, back & forth, with me refusing to speak English & he French.  I quite enjoyed our morning "date" although I'm unsure if the feeling was reciprocated as I definitely wasn't getting the warm & fuzzy vibe from him. One morning I handed over a 100 euro note & thought he was going to have a stroke (I was getting a real drama queen vibe from him, although maybe he was just blown away by my command of the French language & was a little intimidated).

Anyhoo you couldn't have wiped the smile off my face as I headed back home, goodies in hand, to Aggie who I knew would have our terrace set up beautifully for our petite dejeuner.

Geoffrey prepare yourself as I'm back in Paris on the 31st & I'm coming for you.  Well my pain au chocolat & cafe creme anyway...and I'll be ordering in French. x