binoche but better

cinnamon chai, hazelnut coffee, caramel fleur-de sel: i am the master chocolatier.

late night impulses for chocolate combined with a spark of creativitity and suddenly i am boiling cream on a hot plate and slowly stirring tea leaves and cinnamon bark into the froth, then messily spreading melted chocolate through the noisettes en poudre and cocoa powder.

i missed meryl streep at the bookshop, but i did see her in the miniature village the film crew had created on the other side of the pantheon, full of flowers-stalls that my mother tried to buy lillies from. the chocolates may have been in the spirit of julia child, though, and the movie they were making.