“How has the food been?”

That’s one of the questions Kerry asked in her last email.

Pas mal.

I’ve been here for eight days and so far: one plain croissant; one almond croissant; three pastries with varying amounts of chocolate chips, almond paste and fruit; a Nutella crepe; strawberry cake; red velvet cake; one coffee macaroon; and one bag of Haribo gummies. Can you believe I haven’t had a pain au chocolat yet?? Or any chocolate bonbons? I can’t.

But it hasn’t been all sweets. The French are coo-coo about chicken, so I’ve had a lot of chicken: chicken and frites, chicken and couscous, chicken sandwiches and chicken salads. That’s a lot of chicken.

Many of the bistros serve amazing salads – this has been one of my sources of chicken. One of the salads I’ve fallen for is just lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, hard-boiled egg, cheese and fried potatoes, served with a basket of bread. (I tell myself this is healthy.) At one of the places I’ve had this salad, they call them “salades gigantes” and, indeed, they’re huge. I started laughing when the waiter placed this salad, topped with so many fried potatoes that it looked like a bowl of chips, in front of me. But it was so good, I nearly ate the whole thing.

My other favorite thing so far is the “sandwiches toastés” at Cojean. They’re basically just paninis, but the bread and ingredients are to die for. Today’s special was mozzarella, tomato and artichoke, but it also had some creamy spread. Amazing, I tell you.

And the yogurt is also awesome. It’s creamy and flavorful, without that weird faux sweetener taste.

The food’s been great.