Éclat des Jours: Odile

Did my fourth run to Éclat des Jours, so I'm starting to learn the tricks, like run fast enough after being stopped at a light to get through two lights but don't waste energy on the third unless there are three close together, because it's the main road and I cannot run as fast as a car to make timed lights. Also, I may have run more "Don't walks", just because there was no one coming and only a sort way to cross.

Still, I was a little surprised to come in under 1 hour of running for the first time, which means an average speed when running of around 11 km/h. Even so, it was slim pickings on a Friday night, so I don't expect to repeat this run on another Friday (unless I'm in the same situation of being busy on a Saturday). Back, I just barely kept around 9 km/h and probably missed a lot of second lights.

The cake was Odile (alternatives were a coffee-flavored cake and black forest chocolate cake, which has cherries), which is a cream cheese sandwich (I didn't check, but another blogger wrote "speculass", which is a kind of spice cookie, in the same sense as gingerbread) with rhubarb sauce. I passed it up until now, but I've had good look with rhubarb, so I got it and ran it home.

Of course, it is a mild cake, but very nice, and the sauce balances the slight acidity of the cream cheese well. It was excellent, though that may be my bias for this shop speaking.

Speaking of bias and full disclosure, technically, I received another cake that day, but it's not from a place I respect: it's from P. Frips. This is mostly a tart place, and it's cheap and convenient, and even has an outdoor table on the street in front of the park, but I had a tart I didn't think was fresh and quit them before starting this blog. For free "cake", it's perfectly reasonable, and actually, there was a selection, so I chose their one actual cake, Gateau Chocolat. It's soft and characterless (but consistent in texture) and the whipped cream was perhaps not enough to give much taste, but the strawberries were sufficiently fresh, so maybe I should be less suspicious of them. Still, only okay, so I regret eating it other then confirming that I should pass on even free cake from there. What can I say, I'm a cake snob.