You Live in Paris and You're Eating Frozen Food???

Melanie and I love living in Paris, but we've discovered, as one might expect, that it's a very difficult place to be on a diet.  We're surrounded by delicious food and treats here, and even when we try to avoid them it's almost impossible.  For example, every Wednesday there is a very short company meeting and the company brings in a veritable mountain of flaky crescents, delicate pain au chocolate, and other pastries.

Some of the leftovers after our last company meeting

It doesn't help that Melanie is a very good cook; we always start with the best of intentions but when she makes something delicious for dinner I tend to go back for seconds and sometimes thirds.  To help us with our portion control we decided to grab some frozen dinners, as they are easy to prepare and the serving sizes are very manageable.

As luck would have it, Paris has an incredibly awesome store chain that specializes in gourmet frozen foods.  Picard is sort of the French version of a Trader Joes, in that their menu changes with the seasons and pretty much everything is super delicious!

There are Picards all over Paris, and we have one only about 3 blocks from our apartment

I'd read about Picard before we arrived in Paris, so I was excited to give one a try.  But when I stepped inside I was surprised.  It felt almost... clinical... which is unusual for such a style-conscious city.

In addition to full meals and desserts, Picard sells frozen vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish

I quickly discovered that Picard is NOT just the French version of the frozen food aisle at Safeway. For one thing, the food is beyond good.  For another, I came home with about a dozen meals the other day and it only set me back about 25 euros!

Picard has a very eclectic selection, with lots of exotic foods along with many French favorites.  For example, last night I had puffed pastries stuffed with veal sweetbreads in a creamy mushroom sauce.

Here's what I had for dinner last night. It was amazing!

Okay, okay, I probably didn't need to eat BOTH of them, but Melanie and I like to splurge a little on the weekends, then we hit our diets hard during the week.  So glad we found Picard!