For those of you that have seen the movie Chocolat, this character should look very familiar.  Come to think of it my life is becoming more like the movie.  But no matter what, I definitely have Mr. Comte de Reynaud in my life.  In the movie, Comte de Reynaud is miffed when Vianne opens a chocolate shop.  He doesn’t want her to succeed and trys to run her out of town.  But he succumbs to the chocolate temptation and ends up breaking into Vianne’s shop to gorge himself with chocolate.

I have a real life Comte de Reynaud at the Palos Verdes farmer’s market.  I love this market.  It’s so quaint and the people are so supportive of the market.  There’s a great flower vendor and the orange guy has some juicy oranges.  They are delicious, and I am using the rinds in my Orange + Cloves blend.  My first day at the market, I set up right next to “the mayor”.   After I finished setting up, I walked over and started chatting with him.  This is how the conversation went:

Patty:  Hi!  How’s it going?  I’m curious how well you do at this market?

the mayor:  If I knew that I wouldn’t be working here.

Patty:  umm…so you don’t’ know how well you do?

the mayor:  I’d buy a lottery ticket if I knew the answer.

So all in all, I didn’t receive a hallmark “Welcome!” from my neighbor.  The following week I tried to butter him up with a piece of the Mayan Tradition which he refused to take, but I told him it would make him feel better and shoved it in his face.   Since then, he’s been tolerable.  Come by and meet “the mayor”.  He actually looks kinda like the guy in the movie without the moustache.