When you get home from a vacation, you inevitably think about everything you should have done differently. You should have stayed in a more charming part of town, found a cheaper hotel, taken more hikes, bought a couple of souvenirs, splurged on better restaurants. You should have made more of an attempt to learn the local history or speak the language. You should have branched out, tried new things, eaten more adventurously. Like maybe, when I went to France for the first time, I should have eaten something other than a warm chèvre salad for lunch every day.
Or maybe not.
Of the many traveling regrets I’ve had, my week of eating chèvre chaud salads is not one of them. Warm, creamy goat cheese smeared on assaultingly crunchy baguette croutons and a pile of lightly dressed greens; could there be a more perfect lunch or a more satisfying salad? I think not.