Welcome to this edition of Dimanche (That Means Sunday), a roundup of things that caught my eye this past week.

This week was what I like to call the “fake out week,” i.e., the week where it starts to feel like spring for 24 hours and then it goes back to being cold, gray, and dreary. I enjoyed the brief glimmer of sunshine, though.

My boyfriend and I took a long walk Thursday through Forest Park. I haven’t been to the park since fall so it was nice to spend time there again. At one point, I stopped along the path because I saw this sunset. The park has so much natural beauty.

In other news, I got a postcard from one of my good friends from grad school yesterday and it was a nice surprise. I am singlehandedly trying to bring back snail mail, or correspondence via post. Emails are great and waaay more convenient, especially if you’re trying to catch up with someone in a hurry. But there’s nothing better than opening the mailbox and getting a handwritten letter. It’s one of life’s simple pleasures.

This week is supposed to be rainy and dreary in St. Louis and I’m SO over it. Still, it’s reassuring that spring is just around the corner. Usually in April, it’s like a switch flips and the weather becomes more temperate. I am counting down the days until I can go on some real hikes and spend the whole day outside.

Without further ado, here is Dimanche:

When I was little I used to hate apples, mostly because the only apples I tried were Red Delicious. Apparently, I’m not alone in my disgust. The Red Delicious apple has fallen out of favor with pretty much everyone, according to this article from The New Food Economy. It’s gotten to the point now where farmers in the U.S. are shipping the apples abroad because no one here will buy them. Can’t say I’m surprised.

The Frugal Traveler, a reporter for the New York Times who writes about traveling on a budget, stopped by St. Louis recently. He wrote about his time in the city in a story published last week. He hit up some spots I’ve never heard of including Thurman’s. He also went to two of my favorite restaurants, Vicia and Union Loafers.

In other New York Times news…The newspaper recently published a thinkpiece about the advent of bread in L.A. after years of gluten hate. Unsurprisingly, people in L.A. were PISSED. I can’t blame them. I get sick of New Yorkers trying to characterize other people’s food scenes based on their faraway judgments (I’m convinced that many of these people haven’t even been to L.A./tried the food there). Anyway, this story in Eater sums up the situation nicely.

The far-right French leader Marine Le Pen thinks a new name will save her party. Last week Le Pen decided to change her party’s name from “Front National” to “Rassemblement National,” or “National Rally.” She’s trying to appeal to the common man/woman with the name change but, in my opinion, it only makes her sound more like a Nazi. Pauline Bock, a reporter for the New Statesman, examines the popular reaction to the name change in this article.

Have I mentioned how much I love Maven? Everyone has their addictions and one of mine is sugar scrubs. It’s a good addiction to have because I hike and run so much, my feet are always in a state of disarray. Once a month or so I go to Maplewood, a cute little neighborhood in St. Louis, and pick up some sugar balm at Maven. I’d highly recommend going if you’re in town and you want some handmade bath and beauty products.

I hardly ever go on Reddit but this story from The New Yorker intrigued me. It looks at the struggle between free speech and keeping hate off the Internet, especially on social media platforms such as Reddit. The story also delves into the effect of human fallibility on social media. It’s easy to forget that people are powering the platforms, so naturally there are some biases involved in what stays/goes in terms of content.

Last but certainly not least, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman are pretty much dominating the entertainment industry right now. Ever since their hit series Big Little Lies (I’m obsessed) premiered last year, they’ve leveraged the success of the show to land some big production deals. I enjoyed reading about the projects they have in the works. I also thought it was interesting what this story had to say about ad-supported television. Broadcast and cable channels weren’t even involved in serious bidding for Witherspoon and Kidman’s shows. It certainly seems like the future of TV is in streaming platforms.

Enjoy your week! Here’s a song to get you started.