Monday, April 3, 2017

C is for CHESTNUTS AND CHOCOLATES on a Paris Walk #AtoZ

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
My daily #AtoZ posts combine two concepts in under-300-words per day:
an appealing food choice along with thoughts that spring to mind.
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The fragrance of roasting chestnuts doesn’t bring flashes of holidays-past for me. Instead, I envision a sidewalk vendor on an abandoned street corner in the heart of Paris. It is a cool spring day. I am twenty-something, hoping to someday become a writer. And fancying myself sipping coffee with expatriates during those glory days following the war.

I too feel lost.
 


I ease along a side street, glancing into a sun-glazed chocolatier shop. But my rationed money stretches only to a half-order of roasted chestnuts from an oversized caldron, deftly scooped into a paper container by a faceless man bundled against the nip of late afternoon.
 
Walking toward Tuileries Garden, I chew on the rubbery flesh of a heated chestnut, thinking of the thumbnail-sized balcony attached to my hotel room where I’ve stashed a bottle of red wine, still over half-full. Like the money, I will also ration the vino, willing it to last another two weeks.
 
This trip should have ended differently.
 
As I fold the top of the paper container and stuff the remaining chestnuts into my skirt pocket for later, thoughts surface of plans unfulfilled. The future holds no wedding; no picket fence surrounding a small cottage where endless words flow onto pages of tattered notebooks; no novels rushed to an eager publisher.
 
Instead, solitary days will consist of plodding sentences, blossoming ideas, sudden inspiration. And endless possibilities of "someday."
 
Is it true that accomplishments are dreams transformed into reality?

 

11 comments:

  1. I love your knack of word painting, especially in the Chocolates post!

    ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
    (¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Good luck on the rest of your A to Z challenge

    Sylvia @ The Creative Life

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    1. When it comes to chocolates, Sylvia, it is easy to be colorful. Looking forward to following The Creative Life through April.

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  2. Thanks for visiting, Donna. That little story popped out "when I wasn't looking!" One good reason to write without editing is that some of the best thoughts are dredged from depths otherwise left unmined.

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    1. So very, very true. BTW, how is it we never friended on FB? LOL! Just sent you a request. I'm in the middle of my second novella set in Hawaii for Toby Neal's Lei Crime Kindle World.

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  3. I'm probably one of those weird people who, among chocolate and roasted chestnuts, would prefer the latter.

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    Eva - Mail Adventures

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  4. Oh my word!! Chocolate in Paris! (Have you tried chocolate CROISSANTS? Heaven. Plus in foreign countries calories don't count.)

    Accomplishments are dreams transformed into reality... hm, I never thought about that. I think I consider an accomplishment as an item on my to-do list that I get to check because I managed to get it done.
    Is there a difference between Accomplishments and Achievements?

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  5. Chocolate! I am addict that thing!

    Yes...accomplishments are dreams transferred to realities. Once we dream of them, later we accomplish them.

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  6. Well done, I like the Paris setting and food is always a part of visiting Paris. I've never tasted roasted chestnuts, and you made me want to.

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  7. I've always associated chestnuts with street vendors in New York City at Christmas time. This last trip to Paris, however, I noticed several chestnut carts around the city. If the weather had been cooler, I would have treated myself to a few.

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  8. Really love this post. I've always been intrigued by the idea of roasted chestnuts and would love to try them. And I want to know more about what happened in Paris! :)

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