Grocery, Bakery, Miscellaneous

We were absolutely spoiled with the coffees available in Indonesia but we are hunting for some French options. The Carte Noire is pretty strong so I use less. The decaffeinated one has a nice flavor and great for late in the day cups. We also found a more mild caffeinated version (no pix). More research will be required.

Did I mention there is no half and half here? The milk we've purchased so far is labeled as semi-skimmed milk (english translation) so we think it's probably 2%.  To be honest, it took us a while to notice this fine print on the bottle. We needed milk and so we bought what we saw. On our next shopping, we will see if we can find real skimmed milk. For coffee, I mix the semi-skimmed milk with cream to come up with a homemade half and half.

There are so many tiny streets to explore here. Most shops are of course closed, but grocery stores, bakeries, pharmacies and even wine shops are considered essential and can be open. Many have limited hours. On one of our many lockdown walks we discovered a bakery near the temporary apartment. This one labels itself as a Boulangerie (bakery) and a Patissier (pastry shop). This shop is just a few minutes of walking away. It is so close, it may be too close. 

B can be seen just entering as he was first in the queue when I shot the photo. From what we've seen, there is a moderate queue line here daily—especially in the morning.  We did purchase a small baguette here as well as two other items.  The patrons seem to self-limit the number of customers in the small shop. This shop is at the intersection of Rue de Pont Naturel and Rue Saint-Alyre. There is a fountain in front of the shop. We've seen a lot of these fountains during our walks. B thinks the fountains are normally working in the summer months. 

This pastry is chocolate, almond paste, and almonds. It was large enough it could easily feed two.

Ah, lemon tart!!! Yum!!!

Shops selling sweets are "essential" I guess because at least some of them are open. We also found our first pate de fruit. Pate de fruit (fruit pastes) are little intensely flavored jellies made from real fruit purees, pectin and sugar. There is a legend these were accidentally discovered by overcooking jam around 1500. Then there is a more likely 'real' origin by about 1700 to preserve harvested fruit. All that sugar! We first had a few of these little gems in Paris years ago and I was so impressed by the quality and variety of flavors. These are just delicious- nothing evenly remotely like a gumdrop or jellies I've encountered in the US.

On our walks we located a Carrefour Market within walking distance. This is a much larger store than the neighborhood Intermarché we frequent.We were out on a certificate to be walking, not buying groceries, so we did "walk" through the store, but didn't buy anything. The next morning we went out on a certificate to be buying groceries and picked up some things.

We also have located a pharmacy with a parking lot in case we ever have to drive to one. Are there enough signs on this door?

I happened to be looking out the window one day and saw our postman. He rides a bicycle.

I discovered a cleaning product in Indonesia. It cleaned glass shower doors and cleaned stainless steel cookware so it looked new. I found it here at the larger grocery market.

Our temporary apartment windows and balcony doors have very interesting "blinds". On our walks, we have seen a lot of buildings outfitted in this way. I took this shot of a window in another building, but these are just like ours. They sit outside the window but are controlled by a device you crank from the inside. The "blind" rolls up into a box above the window. You can adjust the height they are opened or even close them nearly all the way leaving tiny perforations still exposed. I suppose that is for some airflow? There are no screens on the windows. Every evening we close them ( it keeps the apartment warmer) and every morning we open them all.

Remember green stamps or others? You collected the stamps and then could redeem the stamps for merchandise? Our Intermarché market is running just such an event. We now have 4 coffee cups and 4 bowls. The apartment only came with 4 espresso cups and two small, odd coffee cups and only 2 cereal bowls. We had purchased 2 coffee mugs to use but we saved our stamps from the market and turned these:

into these! Now we have 4 coffee mugs and 4 bowls.

Washer/Dryer update. It turns out the technician was unable to get the part to fix the dryer portion of our washer/dryer combo unit. We are told it will be another 3 weeks without a dryer. Not happy about it.

Here is the sky as our first real rains approached. We did have some light rain and/or drizzle before this day. In thinking about it, we've never lived in a place where there was a mountain range next door. I don't really know the impact of such a  topographical element. We do understand what living next to a large lake in winter does to the weather-- SNOW-- but this is new.

We watched it until it got dark and began raining. Later the winds really kicked up. With impressive gusts it sounded like our front door was going to pop open, but it didn't. We weren't treated to any thunder or lightening. Maybe in the summer?

A couple of days later we watched an interesting approach to removing leaves from the street. They used a guy with a pressure water washer to push the leaves around– either into the street (for the street cleaner machines to pick up) or into "natural" areas with bushes/grass.  I will put this system into the same category as the neighbor in Kentucky who would routinely remove light snows from his driveway using his leaf blower.