The Makings of Dinner for One

At Les Halles, the indoor and outdoor market in Tours, I asked this friendly produce vendor why her strawberries were so much redder and juicier than the ones across the aisle, which barely looked red, let alone ripe.

"It's because they are, vendres, and we are the growers," she explained. I had gotten advice that it's best to buy my produce outside, and for the meats, fish and cheese, go inside. The variety was fantastique, and I had a hard time deciding on what to buy. But I ended up with some shallots, the strawberries, a huge artichoke (that was a mistake!) and some magret du canard, dark duck meat.

I also picked some of France's famous Echire butter and made a sauce with the shallots and some lemon juice, and steamed the massive 'choke and enjoyed the strawberries one by one as the juice dripped down my chin.

There is only one problem with cooking for yourself in an apartment in France: It would be much more fun to have someone to cook for!

Tours is famous for it's rillons and rillets. Rillets are cooked longer but both come from this cute up-ended animal.

After the market, I got a tour of Tours and discovered a yard with Roman ruins that was being filled in with dirt. They had been excavated, but the government decided that the best way to preserve them for future generations is to cover the whole area with tons of dirt...to be dug up in the distant future by the children of our grandchildren.

The city has many areas in which 10th, 12th and 15th century buildings all meet. At one part in a former Basilica, the ground is eight feet lower by these remains than the current street. It shows how we build up and up, adding to the ground with our pavement, sidewalks and new buildings.