Paris can be overwhelming. To feel more settled, I like to choose a neighborhood and make it home. And, it seems, each neighborhood has a market street which gives it a small-town charm.

For those learning the fine art of living Parisian style, market streets can be ideal. My local friend, Nathalie, is shopping for a dinner party on Rue Cler, and I’m tagging along.

Rick: So in France, I like the way it’s all about seasonal, and that means good flavor. It’s almost like a religion. You have to have the best flavor.

Nathalie: Yeah. You have to have the best flavor, the best colors, and—for example, like tomatoes. You don’t eat tomatoes during the winter because they are tasteless.

Rick: If it’s in season, it’s local.

Nathalie: Oh, yeah. Most of them come from the Ile de France, you know—it’s around Paris. And especially—look at this. Look at this.

Rick: These are beautiful.

Nathalie: Yeah. Look at this tomato. You can have this one, this color, little ones like this, you know? This one, for example—you see?

Rick: I can see that now. So it’s gonna—we know it’s gonna be flavorful, but also you’re thinking how it looks.

Nathalie: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Rick: So you’re raising the bar. It’s seasonal and it’s pretty.

Nathalie: Yup.

Rick: OK, it’s time for the meat course. There’s a lot of options.

Nathalie: Yeah, yeah. But as it’s summer, we don’t want to eat too much meat, so lamb chops are perfect. Bonjour monsieur—bonjour. Je voudrais des petites côtes d’agneau là. Uh...cette. Je l’ai cuite pendant combien de temps?

Butcher: Pour rosé, deux, trois minutes chaque côté.

Nathalie: OK, deux, trois minutes.

Rick: So what did he tell you?

Nathalie: I asked him, How long should I cook them? He said if you like them rosé, this means not too cooked, you know, two or three minutes on each side. That’s it.

Rick: So I love this. You know this man. You trust his advice.

Nathalie: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, because they know. Ce sera tout pour aujourd’hui—merci. Oui.

Rick: Ah, yes. The cheese shop. This is just a festival of molds.

Nathalie: Smell! Smell how good that is.

Rick: Yeah.

Nathalie: In a French meal, you really have to have cheese. Oh, we’ll take this—Camembert à la truffe—un morceau. That’s beautiful. It’s truffled Camembert—ughh. It’s a new thing. Before, they started with the Brie, but now they do the Camembert. It’s so good. It’s so good. Hard cheese now, you see…un morceau de Comté. Vous avez deux.…moi—I like 24-months-old Comté because it’s flavory.

Rick: Flavor. OK. So the older is more flavor.

Nathalie: Oh, the older is better. Oui, oui. C’est bien, c’est bien.

The street is lined with shops to cover each item on Nathalie’s menu. Up next…wine!

Nathalie: Bonjour, Corinne! Bon…

Rick: So, we know our meat, we know our cheese. Now we select the correct wine.

Nathalie: Absolutely. You can’t have, like, any wine with your food. You have to pick up the right wine because it is combination of wine and food that people enjoy in France.

For the lamb chops, we select a light red wine, and something more robust for the cheese course.

Nathalie: Ça c’est, uh, l’Argent Bordeaux?

Corinne: Absolument.

Nathalie: Et c’est un Médoc. We like that.

Rick: This is so beautiful with the cheese…

Nathalie: Yeah.

Rick: And now with the wine neighboring…

Nathalie: Exactly.

Rick: …on the same street with beautiful people who are experts to help us out…

Nathalie: Absolument. Absolument.

Rick: Life is good.

Nathalie: OK. Oh, life is good.

And no French dinner would be complete without a fresh-baked baguette and a bouquet of flowers for the table.

Nathalie: This one would be perfect.

Rick: This here?

Nathalie: Yeah. This, like little sunflower.

Rick: That’s nice.

Nathalie: And this one. I like this one, the pinky one. Look how pretty…yeah.

Nathalie: Thank you, Rick. It was—it was fun.

Rick: Bon appétit.

Nathalie: Merci beaucoup.

Rick: Merci, Nathalie. Au revoir.

Nathalie: Bye-bye.