Easter in Paris is not that different from any other day so far. It's Good Friday and the shops are open, the markets are happening, people are out and about. As for us, we've planned a fairly quiet day, expecting most things to be closed as they would be in Australia. But quiet is good every now and then..........
There's a canal that runs from the Seine up under (yes, under!) the Bastille and up to Parc de la Villette (and way beyond........) and we hope to do a canal-boat trip next week when the company reopens after a maintenance break. So today we decide to walk the wider-than-average street above the canal (it's underground for quite a way) and follow it north, part-way at least as it goes for maybe 8km or more! It's a lovely sunny day, still freezing, but walking on the sunny side of the street is at least half a degree warmer and it's so nice to have the sun on our backs. There are parks built over the underground parts of the canal, and the gardens are showing my favourite signs of spring :-)
Along the way we pop in to a few bookshops - we're looking for something specific but can't find it, not today anyway. But I do find one of my favourite children's books, which is delightful and in French! It's called La Chenille Qui Fait des Trous, which translates literally as "The Caterpillar Makes Holes" but you'll probably know it as "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" :-) We buy it and I'm so excited because I can read it - it takes me back to when my boys were little and we loved stories, especially ones with repetitive lines like ".......but he was still hungry" (or in this case "......mais elle a encore faim" - note the gender change, because "la chenille" est féminin) - I love it!!!!
We walk on and there's a market further up Boulevard Richard Lenoir so we stop at the falafel stall for some lunch - it's awesome and authentic and wonderfully warm to hold as we walk. On that warming note, some friends gave us a pair of heart-shaped hand-warmers as a wedding present - you know the type, you squish them to start a chemical reaction and they heat up instantly and stay warm for about an hour.
Just pop one into a pocket, wrap your fingers around it and it's fabulous (thanks for such an appropriate and thoughtful gift, you know who you are)!!
We continue up the side of the canal after it emerges from underneath the boulevard, and it's quite pretty and not at all touristy. There are a few places where you can stand on an overpass and see up and down the canal from a birds-eye view. We go as far as we want to today, and then eventually we wend our way home again from this north-eastern part of Paris, stopping at the pâtisserie for something yummy to end the day, of course :-)
30/3/13 Easter Saturday
It's just another day in Paris, and a lovely lazy one for us. Last night we started watching the movie Marie Antoinette (with Kirsten Dunst), since we're in France and all, and we plan to visit Versailles in the next week or so.
We finish watching it this afternoon after my history-buff husband has researched Marie and Louis and their stories on Google. Now he's a full bottle and I think the visit to Versailles will be all the more interesting because of this background knowledge.
31/3/13 Easter Sunday
We start the day with croissants et pains au chocolat - believe it or not our first croissants since being here.
It's not the breakfast of choice for either of us but as I said to mon amour ce matin it would feel strange to go back to Australia after 2 months in Paris without having had a croissant........ although they are Austrian after all, aren't they Marie-Antoinette.........
We attend "laudes" at Église St Louis en L'île this morning - a Catholic Easter ceremony that is a different experience for us and not celebratory as I would have expected but still beautiful in its own way.
The congregants are outnumbered two to one by the robed ones (there's 5 of us sitting in the pews) but the organ and voices resound in the beautiful church and even though we can only catch the occasional familiar word it still feels like peaceful and reverent worship.
We walk home along the river, the sun is out and it's beautiful.
Late morning we have a daylight savings realisation when my lovely man tries to Skype his kids and we check the time in Perth and it dawns that Paris is now on daylight savings time (as of 2am) - lucky our phones clicked over automatically, although we're on holidays, what's the worst thing that could've happened.......? ;-)
Late afternoon we head into the Les Halles district for a free organ recital at Église Saint-Eustache - the elderly organist plays Handel's Concerto no. 4 in F major and Guillou's Sagas from opus 20 - a very impressive sound and an enjoyable experience!!
Then it's more yummy Japanese for dinner, followed by a walk along the Seine to La Tour Eiffel to catch the grand lady in her night attire. Très belle, don't you think? The hourly light show is a little.......well....."Disney" but the crowd and I still go "aahhhh" when she lights up and gets all sparkly, and it's like fireworks, I just want to stay til the end :-)
So that's Easter for us for 2013. We hope our beloved family and friends had a très Joyeuses Pâques - we miss you but we promise to eat French chocolate for you today xoxo
Just pop one into a pocket, wrap your fingers around it and it's fabulous (thanks for such an appropriate and thoughtful gift, you know who you are)!!
We continue up the side of the canal after it emerges from underneath the boulevard, and it's quite pretty and not at all touristy. There are a few places where you can stand on an overpass and see up and down the canal from a birds-eye view. We go as far as we want to today, and then eventually we wend our way home again from this north-eastern part of Paris, stopping at the pâtisserie for something yummy to end the day, of course :-)
30/3/13 Easter Saturday
It's just another day in Paris, and a lovely lazy one for us. Last night we started watching the movie Marie Antoinette (with Kirsten Dunst), since we're in France and all, and we plan to visit Versailles in the next week or so.
We finish watching it this afternoon after my history-buff husband has researched Marie and Louis and their stories on Google. Now he's a full bottle and I think the visit to Versailles will be all the more interesting because of this background knowledge.
31/3/13 Easter Sunday
We start the day with croissants et pains au chocolat - believe it or not our first croissants since being here.
It's not the breakfast of choice for either of us but as I said to mon amour ce matin it would feel strange to go back to Australia after 2 months in Paris without having had a croissant........ although they are Austrian after all, aren't they Marie-Antoinette.........
We attend "laudes" at Église St Louis en L'île this morning - a Catholic Easter ceremony that is a different experience for us and not celebratory as I would have expected but still beautiful in its own way.
The congregants are outnumbered two to one by the robed ones (there's 5 of us sitting in the pews) but the organ and voices resound in the beautiful church and even though we can only catch the occasional familiar word it still feels like peaceful and reverent worship.
We walk home along the river, the sun is out and it's beautiful.
Late morning we have a daylight savings realisation when my lovely man tries to Skype his kids and we check the time in Perth and it dawns that Paris is now on daylight savings time (as of 2am) - lucky our phones clicked over automatically, although we're on holidays, what's the worst thing that could've happened.......? ;-)
Late afternoon we head into the Les Halles district for a free organ recital at Église Saint-Eustache - the elderly organist plays Handel's Concerto no. 4 in F major and Guillou's Sagas from opus 20 - a very impressive sound and an enjoyable experience!!
Then it's more yummy Japanese for dinner, followed by a walk along the Seine to La Tour Eiffel to catch the grand lady in her night attire. Très belle, don't you think? The hourly light show is a little.......well....."Disney" but the crowd and I still go "aahhhh" when she lights up and gets all sparkly, and it's like fireworks, I just want to stay til the end :-)
So that's Easter for us for 2013. We hope our beloved family and friends had a très Joyeuses Pâques - we miss you but we promise to eat French chocolate for you today xoxo
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