The sizzling sound and tantalizing aroma of duck fat bubbling fills the apartment as we near midnight.

I admit: most of my posts have been centred around food. Then again, food’s one of the main reasons we chose Paris for our 2008 holiday. Once we return to Laguna, I’ll write more about the city, the apartment, the neighborhood . . . all of that other stuff. For now, though, our immediate memories are of the food we eat, the restaurants we visit . . .

Tonight’s dinner: a salad of rocket, olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice, topped with sautéed girolles mushrooms; followed by confit de canard (the biggest cuisses, certainly the most expensive, and, hopefully, the best I’ve eaten, purchased from JMS Gastronomie in the Marais), potatoes from Brittany sautéed in the remaining fat from the confit, and haricots verts sautéed in a little butter.

After a long day wandering Montmartre and Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (what a horrendous tourist trap; worth going once merely for the view of Paris from Sacré-Cœur), the 9e, and then Place des Vosges and the Marais (searching successfully for new shoes pour moi (see Paris: Day 10), we headed back to our arrondissement for a bottle of Côte de Brouilly (our Parisian café wine; particularly nice on a warm day when properly chilled) and people watching.

Dinner’s almost ready so you must excuse me. Here are a few pics from today’s walks:

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (with a wisp of The Wife’s hair for good measure).

The obligatory picture of the significant other (in this case, moi) lording over Paris.

The house of alleged alchemist Nicolas Flamel, considered the oldest house in Paris.