Field Notes: February 4, 2022

Hours before last week’s east coast snowstorm, I took off to France. Not to the Loire where there were several little tastings that looked oh-so-tempting (seemed like a COVID invitational) but to Burgundy with a short pit stop in Paris. I skipped the mad dash to find the newest and best place for lunch because I was eager to walk and walk and soak in the spirit of the city. And that’s why I stepped into Liberté in the 10th for a bite on the fly.

I sat at a rickety table, eating a most delicious cauliflower soup from a paper cup, each spoonful a revelation of how the French are so good at getting maximum flavor from simple ingredients. On to Papier Lancry for pens and notebook and then it was walk, walk, walk, walk, walk—did about 12 miles on my jet lag day. I topped off the afternoon of people watching at Dreaming Man Coffee, where a boom box on a bench was “retro” with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix streaming and perhaps the best cortado I’ve ever had.