Pearls and Pattisserie

Today Joli had her weekly swim lesson.

Here's the wee mermaid with a giant pearl.

I had a thought this morning (yes, I do have them on occasion!) that San Diego was a large enough metropolitan area that I could probably find myself a place to buy some French macarons. Turns out there's at least one and it was conveniently located just a few miles from the swimming pool.

It was a very nice pattiserie called L'Opera. Beautifully decorated, friendly service, very reasonable prices, and yummy food. We started out with some sandwiches and salads on the patio. Apparently we discovered Joli's favorite sandwich of all time, a Crocque Monsieur, which I'd ordered and she ate. Fine with me as I was saving room for a second course - dessert.

Lisa ordered something called Chocolate Trilogy. Notice Joli sneaking in from the edge of the photo. She helped her mom with a few bites until she discovered her new favorite dessert...

.... my Tiramisu!

She also helped me drink two large mugs of Earl Grey with cream and sugar. Here we are blowing on the second cup which started out far too hot for tiny lips.


Somehow it all ends up being about Joli but Lisa valiantly carried on a conversation over all the grabbing and "I want!"'s and two year old chatter. I think here she's holding an imaginary goblet and explaining how fond she has become of wine in the last few months. Gee, I wonder why....... Although honestly, Joli was very good out to lunch today. In part because even though it was her nap time, she was also starving. I don't think I've seen her eat so much food since I arrived here. Lisa said she'll definitely return to this place with a friend.


And I found my macarons! We each got a sample. Fortunately Lisa didn't like her flavor so I ate BOTH of them. Well, Joli helped. And I bought an entire box to take home with me.


Although we enjoyed the sunshine on the patio, the inside was freshly decorated with a nice combination of French frilly and Parisienne contemporary style - definitely nailed it. In fact, many of the people at the tables all around us were speaking French, so I think they thought the atmosphere was "just like home" as well. I liked this pretty chandelier. I would have snapped more photos but some staff and I think the owner (or perhaps manager) were standing in the middle of the room discussing business and then talking to us, so I didn't want to act too touristy. I mean, a girl has to maintain a bit of pretend sophistication. Hey, I remembered to wear a scarf!


One last photo which several customers insisted I take, a sweet girl staring at the sweets behind the glass. What you can't see is that she is wearing her favorite shoes - those fur topped pink snow boots. The owner of the restaurant declared them tres chic and Joli quite a fashion setter. Good thing there's so much snow down here in southern California, huh!