We had a sake degustation on Saturday. It was unplanned and fantastic. There is this really great Japanese food, plant and liquor store in the 2nd arrondisement called ISSE, halfway between us and Madeleine (where we were heading to buy Michelle some new ‘walking’ trousers). We finally found the milky coloured sake that you drink cold that we’ve been looking for since we tasted it in Vegas. So Saturday, we tried 5 different sakes, and they truly all taste quite different, one rice based dessert wine, and two Japanese whisky’s. They have lovely bonsai’s, all sorts of weird and wonderful vegetables and ingredients and they also give out business cards for their recommended Japanese restaurants in the neighbourhood AND they give cooking classes.

I can’t concentrate, Radio 1 is on in the background and Chris Moyles has his whining voice on giving grief to one of his team…
hang on, let me turn it off.

Yesterday Michelle headed off on her first walk with the Thales Walking Club. 23kms in the rain, and mud, no hills, just flat – sounded very tempting! I, on the other hand, met a friend and headed off to the Flea Market at Porte de Vanves. Much smaller than the official Marche aux Puces at Clignancourt, but also much cheaper and a lot more funky. It was great fun, I didn’t buy much (just some tiny sake glasses to go with the bottle we bought Saturday) but I’ve got a record in my head and big plans to return the week after next…