A Delicious find and a conversation starter

Last week, after my interview with Acadomia, I walked around the area, near l'Opéra Garnier. On my walk I came across La Cure Gourmande. I had already been to this store, but the one on l'Île Saint Louis, and I knew that they like to give out free samples so I stepped inside. The sample cookie was so delicious that I decided to buy a few cookies and a pretty tin as an Easter treat for Tom and myself. I got the tin and 4 cookies (2 almond and 2 chocolate) for just under 9 euros.

On the way home on line 7, I noticed a 60-something year old lady next to me studying my Cure Gourmande bag.

I was listening to my iPod, but after about 5 minutes the curiosity got the best of her and she politely interrupted my music to ask me about the bag. I showed her my tin and cookies and told her where I bought them. She had never heard of the place before. Seeing my opportunity to speak some French with a stranger, I asked "Vous habitez à Paris depuis longtemps?" (Have you lived in Paris for a long time?) "Oui, depuis des années." (Yes, for years.)

Then I saw the look, the "I hear an accent and you're surely not French look," so I told her I was American and she started talking to me in English. Normally, this would bother me, but not this time. She actually told me that my French is very good and that it's nice that some Americans are learning French. I learned that she is from Vietnam, that she lived in New York for several years, and that she has been in Paris for a decade. We talked about how difficult it is to get used to a new place. "It takes a year, no matter where you are. The first year is the hardest." I said that unfortunately I have a little less than a year, but that I've been able to enjoy myself and learn a lot all while dealing with the "first year problems."

We both got off at Tolbiac and went our separate ways- I went home and she went to a Vietnamese restaurant.

Pictures of the tin and cookies:

Oops! I guess I'll have to buy some more.