giving paris one more chance

Ah, departure. Tomorrow I fly back to the states, and accordingly I find myself craving good indian food and better chinese than I can get here. My last few days have seen some good meals - the pleasures of a falafal sandwich grilled for me on the spot at a market, another great meal at the cantonese restaurant down the block from me, and several new cheeses that I don't quite have time to detail here. Let's just say that import laws don't allow them into the US. I've been drinking mostly burgundies, and did have one very nice tapas meal at a friend's house, featuring puerto rican fried plaintain slices and a chicken stew. I'm nervous about travel chiefly because my bags were lost on the way into Paris, and because one of them contains a bottle of very excellent banyul dessert wine.

The most pleasant thing to think about seems like foods I'd like to eat on the next trip. First and foremost, more crepes. I really didn't seek out the best crepe places in Paris, largely because it was winter during this trip and the pleasures of street foods were accordingly well, less pleasurable. Then, a trip or two to dairies outside paris, and perhaps down to the Loire for wine. My stay was so Paris-focused that I didn't explore regional foods - except insofar as the Ile-de-France does have a few distinctive cheeses - or travel outside the area much. So here's to returning soon. As it's said in that old New Yorker cartoon, while you're up, could you get me a grant?