Skip to main content

A lazy dimanche in Rennes.

Bringing a bit of Paris with me, in the sense of simple breakfast food. I made myself a bagette with butter and jam for breakfast. A bagette that has lasted me days in making the same meal multiple times. The crust has become hard and crumbly, but the center has remained soft.

Last night I started to make myself some ravioli I bought cheap from the carrefour, but as I poured the noodles into the water beginning to boil I noticed that mold had started to form on them. (The downside of buying things on their day of expiration.) Let down and left a little hungry I decided to treat myself to a nice sunday brunch the next day at L'épicerie. One of the few places open on sunday. It has a cozy interior. /I noticed them selling antiques at one of the local antique markets once/. Paying attention to when being seated I ask to be sat in the back room with Inga. Filled with antiques and coated in wallpaper.

The menu is rather limited to just tartines (the specials of the day always seem to be more elaborate, and never disappoint) but their drink section is rather elaborate and there is a section of 'ancien' drinks that I have started to try a different one each time I visit. I always forget the name before it even arrives. Today's seemed to be a sweet dessert wine.

The tartine was a paste of vegetables and spicy French mustard. Then with a few pieces of thinly sliced sausage. More recipes to reverse engineer and return to the States with. Perhaps with a few alterations to make it vegetarian. Or Pescetarian (their fruits of the sea tartine special from last time...  Little octopus on toast..).

The drinking glasses that they serve with are the same that I grew up with at my parent's. Adding to the cozy home feeling.

I look at the underside of Inga's plate brought for her dessert. No stamp. It felt like it should have had a green stamp. Something simple with a France. Probably just France and a couple of letters, but instead nothing.

The glass my coffee is served in has a slight chip on the rim. I rub my finger over it. Not exactly dull, but not too sharp either. I still don't press it to my mouth.

Four hours plus or minus.

People come in waves. People leave in waves

Savor the carafe d'eau. The water mixes with the aftertaste of coffee in my mouth. Sweet.

Two men come into the backroom to be sat. The only table open is too large for them to share for just the two of them, so we pack up realizing that this latest wave might need more room.

The carafe had run out anyways.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New Birth.

Hey. C'est moi.  It has been a few years. Since I last discussed into the void here I attended grad school for architecture at the University of Washington, finished the Master's program by the skin of my teeth, graduated into a global pandemic (I would not recommend this), gave away most of my worldly possessions, and am now flâneur-ing around Europe on the slim budget of my life savings. Allow me to reintroduce myself : I am the artist, Gaston. My interests include ; architecture, sustainability, art, vintage fashions, antiques, and flâneries. All while consuming massive quantities of tea. “I know where I'm from, but I don't know where I'm going.” I recently heard this line at a video playing at the Tate Museum in Liverpool, and it rang strong in me. In the film Casablanca, when Rick is questioned on his nationality he responds that his is a “drunkard,” insinuating that he has renounced his American nationality for that of someone who owns and runs a bar. From ...
French underworld tattoos at the turn of the century. The man sports a tattooed mustache intended to foil the prohibition of facial hair in the Foreign Legion. The World of Tattoo by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter. I can only dream of being anywhere near that combination of badass and crazy. Though at that point the Foreign Legion was probably still the best place for criminals to get their record cleaned so perhaps he is as well quite legitimately scary upon all of that. I find myself flipping back to this page time and time again to romanticize the French underground from around 1900. Give him an accordion, a beret, and some braces. Prostitutes who could easily kill you if you ever come up short and tattoo the names of their ‘actual’ lovers between their breasts, close to their heart. Tattoo ‘Je mother fucking t’aime’ in a tattoo cursive along my collar bones.

The Toulousian Painting.

I sneak in a mirror reflected reference photo. While we were in Toulouse we ducked into a nice little salon de thé that to me felt like something out of a 1940s representation of Europeans in Africa. Probably just the French dealing with the heat of the south. While at this place I noticed a girl sitting alone at one of the tables reading on her phone. Perhaps surfing the internet, perhaps reading a book, I couldn't quite tell as it was in Asian characters. I would guess that it was either Chinese or Japanese. In such a beautifully intriguing place I found it to be somewhat odd that she would pass the time ignoring her surrounding to immerse herself in her phone. I remember they also had nice restrooms. The girl then left and we stayed a bit longer sipping on our drinks, which if I remember right were not actually tea but something cool to counter the heat of Toulouse. Taking a breather in the hectic nature of our vacation. It was one of those towns where I ...