This has nothing to do with Merida except it's the reason I can live here...I leave in the summer.

I've just come back to Merida from a 2 month trip in Europe which started on July 7th in Paris and ended on September 8th in Paris. Since I lived in Paris for 12 or 13 or 14 years depending on how I count I decided to not enter any of my old favorites like Chez George on rue du Mail or Anahi on rue Volta. I ate where my friends ate now. My best new find was Chez Rene on Bvd. St. Germain and a tiny little place on the edge of the Marais called Thai Spices.

A year later...

I went back to Europe for July and August again in 2012.  This year I flew to Madrid where I stayed for 3 days to get over the jet lag.  I hate to eat alone so I ate in the food stalls at the Mercado de San Miguel.  Greek food is great in Greece but I've never had a Greek meal anywhere else that compares.  In Syros the food was outstanding and in Patmos this year almost every meal was out whereas last year every meal was in.  In Turkey they've just seem effortlessly produce the most tasty dishes from thin air or the sea. In Paris I learned to not look back...the places I liked last year had lost their luster and my favorite place this year was Bob's Kitchen for lunch and the food stalls at Marche des Enfants-Rouge. I went to Shropshire for the first time and London for the first time in almost 20 years...a memorable lunch at home in London and a great dinner with two Grand Dames at 4 Cheyne Walk in George Eliots home.  It was my second year in Tangiers and I don't think I've had a meal in a restaurant yet...the local expats know how to party and entertain and the grilled sardines and frites on the beach in Assilah are unbeatable.

a year later...
Josh and I both went to Europe this summer from the end of June til the end of August.  Back to Paris of course and ten days in Provence which I'll never do in the summer again.  It has become a EuroDisney version of itself.  Then ten days in Cadaques at a friends house...Cadaques is one of those places you should have been going to for the past 30 years and it's too late to start unless you tag onto a friend like we did.  Then ten days in Morocco from Fez to Volubulis & back to Tangiers...Then for three weeks we wandered around Spain.  Mostly in Andalusia where I have fantasised about buying a summer house.  Now I understand tapas and I'll never reach for the Italian olive oil again.