Our island is about six blocks long and two blocks wide. We laughed when we saw a suggested walk in the back of one of our guide books entitled "An hour and a half on the Ile St. Louis." It takes about 10 minutes to get from one end of the island to the other; and less than three minutes to get across. But we did the walk and it did take us an hour and a half -- we stopped to enjoy the views over the river, and took a close look at the neighboring buildings, which we don't usually do on a "normal" day.

But this chapter is supposed to be about our "normal" day on the island. We have gotten to know many of the food vendors. Even on our small island, we use two grocery stores (the "large one" is about 15 foot across, the "small one" about ten), a produce vendor, a wine store, two cheese shops and three bakers. Oh, and the duck confit woman, and Berthillon -- the island-made ice cream. We don't know the real names of any of these shops, so we have given them our own names. Our apartment sits in the middle of the island, so we sometimes refer to the markets as the "close market" (downstairs and around the corner) versus the "far market" (which is almost three blocks away). One of our favorites is the "big headed cheese man". His shop is very small -- about 10 feet square -- but he has an eclectic assortment of necessary items: 30 different cheeses, several sausages, milk, good wine for $5 a bottle, coffee filters. He is a little shorter than I am, and has this great block of a head, with ruddy cheeks. When you point at a cheese, he slowly takes it out of the case, holds his knife to it, asks if that is the correct amount, cuts it, weighs it, wraps it in paper, then moves on to the next cheese. He has to stand on a stool to reach the wine. All of this takes quite a bit of time, but he has never lost patience with us. Even the folks entering the shop after us wait patiently. One of the few places we are never asked to leave!!

Of the three bakers, the best bread comes from the "mean bread lady". This is the woman who tried to cheat us the first day and got ugly with me when I asked for the correct change. (Well, her perspective on the story may be a little different.) I am not allowed to go into the shop for fear they will cut off our supply of the beast bread (crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy inside). When you buy a baguette, it is not in a bag -- they pick it up with a piece of paper around the middle and hand it to you that way. On rainy days, our major concern is getting the baguette home unscathed.

The "confit lady" is always very nice to us. The shelves of her tall, narrow shop are lined with glass snap ring jars (the kind with the metal hook to keep them closed). All of these jars are full of duck confit plain, duck confit with cabbage, duck confit with red beans, duck confit with fava beans, etc. She also sells the best foie gras. And tall jars of green and white asparagus. We stop there so often, she laughs when she sees us. But she was very helpful about giving us cooking suggestions.

Dan had a shaky start to his relationship with the "high end cheese man". The proprietor is a sprightly man with a polished bald head who wears a long white "lab" coat. Dan made the mistake of touching the goat cheese the first day, and the proprietor sprung at him spouting a rapid stream of French. Well, Dan has learned enough French to realize he shouldn't touch the cheese. But he didn't get thrown out of the shop, and now has established a cordial relationship with the proprietor.

You don't touch the produce either, and we were angry at the produce man when he picked out a black, split banana for Dan. But I went back to the shop and asked for the sweetest of the four types of pears, and he said "pour manger toute de suite?" (to eat right away?) and he gave us pears that would melt in your mouth.

And I won't eat ice cream from any one but Berthillon!

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