FFF: "Floating" Food & Fun

On Saturday, Maggie, Robert, Panda and I headed down to Quai Montebello, just across the river from Notre Dame de Paris. There, we experienced a heightened version of traditional French food-shopping: Les Marchés Flottants du Sud-Ouest. Imagine a single row of 50 merchants selling cheese, wine, sausages, foie gras, preserves, chocolates, ice cream, dates, smoked duck breast and more - all products of three départements in the southwest of France.

(Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, and Gers are all located within the larger region called Midi-Pyrénées.)

We got to taste a number of items and beverages, we listened to a rag-tag marching band seemingly composed of merchants (which reminded us of the Hobo Band), we people-watched on the Quai, which justified the "floating" part of the market's name, since it sits right on the Seine. Robert bought a bottle of red wine and I invested in some duck rillettes. So delicious! So unhealthy! 

Afterwards, we treated ourselves to Berthillon Glace (only the best ice cream in the world), walked around the Centre Georges Pompidou to see an exhibit celebrating 60 years of the RATP (Parisian public transport, see pictures from the exhibit here), then eventually sat down at a bar in the Marais for a drink. Quite a full afternoon, and quite a fun one!