The past week has mainly been about The Hunt. For a permanent apartment. Which I won’t bore you too much with.

First there was compiling about 20-some-odd documents, then drafting a cover letter to the real estate agent (in French), then calling a bunch of real estate agents (like, on the phone!) to arrange viewings. Then submitting my letter and documents to the agent. And then one attempt at negotiations with owners through the real estate agent, which ended up falling through. So I’m a little exhausted from all that.

But I did make it back to the Bastille Market yesterday morning. Maybe I shouldn’t say “But…” — it was probably more of a needed respite from The Hunt. I might have gone a little crazy this time, though.

When I was at the market last week, I remember the chanterelle mushrooms looking so beautiful, so yesterday I looked through the stalls until I found some bright yellow ones. And then I got some figs because they were looking so good. And some carrots and green beans and a leek and cheese raviolis and grated parmesan. And then a duck breast and merguez sausage (in the paper wrappers).

So this is going to be the week of duck and chanterelles!!!

So last night I seared the duck breast, sliced it, and served it with a chanterelle-shallot cream sauce and a lovely Beaujolais wine. (I know you can’t really see the duck breast in the photo, but trust me, it’s in there!)

And tonight I boiled up the cheese raviolis and served them with, you guessed it, a chanterelle-shallot cream sauce and the Beaujolais. 🙂

And then a few lunches from the last few days… First up, the classic ham and butter sandwich with some grapes alongside the Canal Saint-Martin, a few blocks from my apartment.

And then a Salade Mediterranee by the Place de la Republique, apparently some riff on a Salade Niçoise.

And finally, my favorite French salad of all. It seems to have a different name in every restaurant, but always involves three types of duck — always the gizzards, and then usually thinly sliced breast and foie gras.

And then tonight for dessert, because I just remembered the figs as I was looking at the photo of this week’s market haul, I’m having figs drizzled with Ricard pastis liqueur and with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream.