I went to Paris and all I got were these lousy photos

 There's a world out there. I know, I've been. And it's not all atrocities, though the news makes it very, very hard to believe in a joyful world. But I've managed to leave the country, and to come back, and to navigate someone else's covid rules, and I'm intensely glad of it. 

I cannot, however, report much about food. I've really struggled to eat in a restaurant since covid - partly not feeling like it's worth it, but also a resurgence of an old anxiety about eating alone in public. I dined from Monoprix in my hotel room, curse its lukewarm minibar fridge. And although I did lunch out, I was unadventurous. A galette in a tourist trap overlooking Notre Dame (better than I deserved, but not actually good). Cheese ravioli by the Luxembourg, but poorly calibrated for time, so I interrupted the waitresses' lunch and ended up overtipping (free money, though - I had Euros left before all this, and they still use cash in Foreign Parts so I have been unfamiliarly dishing out notes). Risotto (what else?) by the Archives Nationales (it did have prawns and scallop roe, and was cremeux, so I reckon most Italians would call that a French abomination rather than one of their own). Choux from Popellini tho. And macarons from Pierre Herme. I do remember some of the old ways. 

What I didn't do was take any useful pictures of it. So I give you Carlo Crivelli, the Italian Renaissance's most fruit-obsessed painter...

 ... a Russian artist in Paris around 1890, painting people doing it properly in a cafe... 

... and a last social distancing enforcement bear, taking it easy by the Seine.

I have actually been cooking French all month, when not lazing around in a hotel. I had plans to post loads about it, but it seemed ridiculous to boast about crepes when the world is so awful. And yet, I had some nice food. A lot of it not entirely photogenic, but very nice. 

Petits pois a la francaise (lettuce n peas, on toast in this case)

French onion soup (this one by Michel Roux, rather than my own endless caramelising, an excellent choice)

Many things Nicoise, including this veg stew (still excellent) and a messy salade nicoise with loads of garlic and herbs on warm beans

And far more. Leeks vinaigrette. Galettes with spinach (but also of doom, pancake-style-wise), a Grand aioli that wasn't really Grand but involved potatoes, broccoli and garlic mayo so was all good by me. Anchoiade mash with just greens on the side, because with creamy spuds you don't really need a bit of protein. Smoky fish gratin. Boulettes sauce Alsace (which is basically a red wine roux job, and now I know that). A lumpy Potage Crecy, a soft-cheese-n-herbs mix (claqueret) which worked well till I took the last bit to work and dropped a cheese-soaked bit of bread on the carpet as I am entirely incapable of eating like a grown up now). It's been really fun. French cooking is so out of fashion, I've had to chase down these recipes from all over the place, but it's really good.

Tonight? Two things from On The Side.

Lentils, cooked in red wine and water, with bay, anise, thyme and dressed with vinegar, orange zest and dill. Did I photograph the end product? Hah. But it's lentils. You work it out.

And fennel. Chopped, steamed, dressed with lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and oil. Splendid stuff.

By the till in Monoprix, along with the 30% off organic wines offer, they have a QR code to scan to find out about hosting Ukrainian refugees. It's a mad mad mad mad world. But people are trying, which helps.