One thing I like about living in a big city is the little friendships you develop with people in establishments that you frequent. The fruit sellers in the marketplace, the bakers at the boulangeries, the harpist who plays every weekend on the steps of Sacre Coeur – these are the people who make Paris what it is.
When I studying abroad, I befriended one such person, an elderly man who sold fruit. It just so happens that my current apartment is minutes from his stand. I see him many days after I run as I buy whatever fruit or vegetables I want for the day. Often he and the other two older men who work with him (I think they really just hang out as there is hardly enough work in the small fruit stand to keep all three men busy) help me with my French, reminding me the names of all the vegetables. One time earlier this week someone texted me with a French word I had never heard, and it was my precious fruit stand man who helped me out with modern French slang,
I want to befriend the Quiche Lady. I am always drawn to the rue Mouffetard, a narrow cobblestone street near my building, crammed with markets and cafés, and bustling with life. My favorite destination along the rue Mouffetard is a little quiche restaurant named Mouffe Tarte. I go regularly to buy a slice of quiche and eat it in a nearby garden. So many wonderful flavors, ranging from artichoke and feta, to spinach and tomato, to my personal favorite, goat cheese and fig. I have deemed the pleasant chef and owner of this establishment the Quiche Lady and I want her recognize me when I come in, to chat with me. We started what I know will be a beautiful friendship when she confided in me that her personal favorite quiche, cheese and onion, won’t be available till later in the fall. I plan on eating quiche on a regular basis until our friendship is fully secure.
2000 Streets 
One of the marvelous things about you is the way you strike up friendships…you really “see” people and are willing to take the risk of initiating conversation. Almost everyone “has a story” as Uncle Lyman would say and it is such fun to discover the personal treasures in ordinary folks around us. I’m so proud of you.
I second your mother. Another place we have to go when I visit.
What is it with you and ladies who serve eggs? 😉
I’m right there with you, Mademoiselle La Pierre = )
I so enjoyed reading your blog, as it were. I must say, this is my very first! Funny thing, as I recall OUR first trip to Paris…I just ran into (rather, they ran into me) the Taylors. Alas, my dreams of you and shhhh! have vanished. All the same, I enjoyed that little romance in the works, even if it were only in my over-zealous middle school teacher heart! If he could only READ you now ; )
As for Dostoyevsky…I’m all over him. I just finished “The Idiot” and to that I say…eh.
However, one cannot beat Crime and Punishment. I read that quite some time ago. A proverbial page turner, it was. I’m currently getting through The House of the Dead. Now as for REAL Russian Literature, oh my dear…do say you’ve already conquered and thereby fallen so deeply for one Mr. Leo Tolstoy. Ana Karenina, yes! I’ve read her as many times as Jane Eyre. And War and Peace…exquisite! Spend a month and a half in your lil’ Shakespeare Bookstore and enjoy the heck out of that one.
Oh, good TV on now! Blessings and a couple o’ bisous!
-Trisha Hayes
[…] I realized that what I really wanted was a goat cheese fig quiche, the type that I always got from the Quiche Lady. Unfortunately, I had no recipe, nor could I find one online that was just chevre-figue – no […]
[…] Mouffetarte, 53 rue Mouffetard, 75005: QUICHES. TARTS. SO CHEAP. No only is this place on one of the prettiest streets in the city, it is also crazy cheap and you can get it to go and take it to the Luxembourg gardens. […]
[…] make all of our food into quiches if James didn’t disparage them as “egg pie.” I credit the Quiche Lady and her goat cheese fig quiche for this […]
[…] recently learned that my beloved Mouffetarte in Paris closed down, which might account for the insane number of quiches I have made lately, you […]