As much as I love traveling through Italy, meandering through Paris in Autumn is also an unabashed delight.

I especially like it on stormy, overcast afternoons when the skies are dark and brooding and most people are indoors busy working, leaving the streets and parks almost deserted.

It’s my favorite time to wander through empty church yards, finding quiet nooks under sprawling trees to sit and write or stroll along gravelly lanes, happily crunching through mounds of burnished leaves.

Paris church yard

The city seems hushed under a blanket of cloud and instead of the shrieks of children and honking of horns people withdraw for solitary walks, sitting alone on benches with books and maps, leaning back quietly lost in thought.

It is a rich solitude, not a sad or lonely one. A time when the cacophony of the world is muffled a bit, giving thoughts free reign to dance and explore and linger wherever they wish.

girl on Paris steps

They are cozy sorts of days that demand wool pashminas and knee high boots, steaming parcels of roasted chestnuts, and diminutive cups of coffee at sidewalk cafes. Days when you can actually see and appreciate the tops of towers and apartment buildings because the glaring sun isn’t blinding you when you look up. The gray is a frame for the beauty of Parisian buildings and bridges, gates and shops, allowing you to notice details often missed when they have to compete with glittering sunlight and brilliant blue skies.

Paris church tower

They do my heart good.

Just thinking about them makes me want to fill a notebook with pages of musings and ideas, plans and notions.

And it makes me want a bicycle just like this.

Parisian bicycle

Although I can’t be in Paris today, I can still linger long over a hot cuppa and fill my journal with current dreams and sparks of inspiration.

These days my cuppa is a big white mug full of dandelion mocha.

Brewed like coffee it is made of roasted dandelion root – a wonderful blood purifier and cleanser full of antioxidants, A, C, D, E, & B complex, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, choline, and boron – a big scoop of raw cocoa and a drizzle of real maple syrup.

I love when healthy things taste marvelous and make you feel warm and happy.

dandelion mocha

What is your favorite thing to do on an overcast day?

Dandelion Mocha
serves two

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp organic roasted dandelion root
2 Tbsp raw cacao powder
1-2 Tbsp real maple syrup
coconut milk or regular milk if desired

Directions:

  1. Place dandelion root and cacao powder in 2-cup French press or tea pot and fill with boiling water.
  2. Let steep to desired strength, give it a good stir to work in the cacao, then pour through strainer into two cups.
  3. Sweeten and/or add milk and serve immediately.