Tarte Tatin: More of La Belle Vie on Rue Tatin. Susan Loomis

I’ve undoubtedly run into several people on my way. Xavier Rousseau who, with his wife Virginie, makes the beautifully delicate Rouennais-style pottery across town from us, which they paint in the traditional seventeenth- to eighteenth-century decor, is an early market goer too. We buss each other on the cheek, then do a quick catch up, our conversations usually revolving around the same subject. ‘How’s work?’ I ask him. ‘Fine,’ he says. ‘Too busy, mais qu’est-ce que tu veux?’ ‘Too busy, but what do you want?’ I often visit them at their studio and they are always there, sitting on tall stools by their big front window, painstakingly painting the dishes they so carefully throw and mould.