As I sit in the Au Bon Pain down near Dry Dock Avenue in Boston waiting for my husband while he is a meeting, I have the most adorable picture of a young boy happily running home with a beautiful baguette somewhere in Paris during the early 1950’s.
That picture brings to mind some very pleasant memories of when my sister and I were in France for entire summers throughout our childhood with our grandparents and everyone else at the family home; the difference is that we didn’t have to run home with the baguettes, the baguettes came to us via special delivery. Every late morning the boulangerie truck would pull up alongside the wide dining room window and the boulangere would pass through a long brown bag filled with at least three baguettes, a crown of bread, a whole wheat baguette and two croissants for the dogs; Prince and Whinney, this was something that took place every day for years. Those were some good times; the table would be set for at least twelve and the soup would come out, then there would be two salads such as a beet and sliced white onion salad and a sliced tomato and white onion salad with a pate as well, this would be followed by a roast pheasant or some other meat and if it were friday it would be fish and some type of vegetables, that would be followed by a green salad, cheese and then fruit. We needed the two hour lunch to eat and then to digest, there was a reason for the two hour lunch, not because of laziness, but because of digestion and nutrition and the civilized way to live at least in my opinion. Yes, those were definitely the days, I miss them.
But back to springtime in Boston, all around Boston, there are beautiful plantings along the streets, the parks and the large urns that adorn the entrances of buildings throughout Boston. The gardener in me is screaming to get out into the dirt and plant something, but alas it is still way too soon for my neck of the woods, the only thing that I can do is take a picture and share it with my friends.
laurieanichols 