As is off air for six weeks, I decided to take advantage of having Fridays off and have just returned from a weekend in Paris with one of my mates.
The food, of course, was amazing. I was impressed not just by the big name restaurants but by the importance Parisians place on getting the simple things right.
In every neighbourhood, it's possible to stroll to the bar at the end of the street to get a good quality cup of coffee and get something to eat that's not a mass produced, plastic wrapped, concoction of chemicals and additives masquerading as baked goods.
I wanted to get some proper bread to take back with me, so I called in at the street market around the corner from our hotel. For a carb guzzler like me it was a wonderful sight.
Imagine being able to get that at home? Contrast the way they French buy their bread with the way we get ours. Whilst most of us make do with a supermarket loaf a couple of times a week, the French shop daily for their freshly baked baguettes and rustic loaves.
Round the corner from the market was a sight that's even rarer in this country: folk queuing up outside a bakers shop. Other than the lunchtime rush for hot pies, can there be many places in Scotland where you see this kind of thing...
