Café Gourmand

Café gourmand is one of my absolute favorite things about France.  Before I was enlightened, I assumed it was just some sort of fancy cup of coffee, maybe with some chocolate melted in it or something.  Then my veil of ignorance was lifted and my whole life changed. 

French desserts are all so wonderfully delicious that it can be difficult to decide which to order.  Café gourmand solves this problem.  It consists of un express (or café crème if you request it) on a plate surrounded by tiny (or sometimes not-so-tiny) samples of a variety of desserts.  A silver dollar-sized crème brulée, a baby moelleux au chocolat, bite-size squares of various tartes, maybe even some petits macarons if you're lucky.  You never really know exactly what you're going to get, which I like even more than the variety aspect of the dessert.  But you can be sure that it will be delicious.

By request - fat Coco pictures

First, I would like to say for the millionth time:  Coco is actually not really that fat.  She is a large cat, with a large skeleton.  Which is a fancy way of saying she's "big-boned."  Now here she is, in all her glory.

Her cup runneth over: