French Breakfast Cliché

To enjoy your French breakfast:

1. Sit outside at a wrought iron patio table, in a patch of light.

2. Lift a warm bowl (not cup!) of creamy coffee to your lips.

3. Notice how the baguette, baked just minutes ago, is still warm; split it lengthwise through its perfect golden crust to expose the soft, white inside.

4. Demi-sel butter? Slather it on without hesitation.

5. Take the slim, long-handled wooden spoon resting at your elbow and dip it in lavender honey—pale, thick, creamy. Spread this over the buttered bread. Its aroma will make you want to sleep in a field in the sunshine, content.

6. Dip your buttered, honeyed bread into your coffee.

7. Smile at the man sitting across from you. There will always be a handsome man sitting across from you in France.

8. Sip the coffee. Bite the bread. Chew. Swallow. Repeat at leisure.

A charmed morning in Provence: waking up to love. Honeymoon, day one.

France forgives us our tired-writer clichés, seen through a newlywed's rose-colored glasses.

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