Last Friday was a miserably gray and rainy day in Paris.

Little Buddha and I braved the weather and went to explore the farmer’s market Gros-la-Fontaine. It’s a nice little outdoor market situated between rue Gros and rue Jean-de-la-Fontaine in the 16th. The reason I wanted to check out this particular market was because kale had been spotted there.

Hallelujah! I’m still beaming from our adventure and the fact that I was actually able to get my hands on some “chou kale.” I still have about half of the big, beautiful bunch we bought at Joël Thiebault’s vegetable stand. The other half was quickly turned into crispy kale and gobbled up over the weekend. I was already familiar with Monsieur Thiebault’s produce from my trips to the Marché Président-Wilson. I wrote about his purple cauliflower (which I also picked up last Friday) and squash blossoms back in this post. Until recently, though, I had no idea he had started growing kale!

Those of you who don’t live in France may not understand my enthusiasm. Read this and then check out this. Now do you see why I’ve been jumping with joy all weekend? It was that exciting to have finally tracked down my old friend kale.

In addition to the kale, we came across some amazing architecture. The famed French architect, Hector Guimard, designed several apartment buildings on rue Jean-de-la-Fontaine. He was a prominent leader in the Art Nouveau movement in late 19th century France. You probably know him best from his collection of cast iron metro entrances around Paris. Apparently though, it was the striking building we stumbled upon at the market that was one of his most successful works. Castel Béranger (located at number 14) has one of the neatest-looking doors I’ve seen (and Paris has lots of them). Even under the rain, I was impressed and dared to get out my camera. I was in such a good mood after buying my kale and discovering this building that I convinced Little Buddha (by giving him a home-made teething biscuit) to hang out in his stroller as I walked down the street to admire the rest of the buildings.

Back to my kale. What should I do with the rest of it? I’m thinking of making this recipe, or maybe this one. Any other ideas? What do you do with your kale?