Patronising Paris Parks

This year, instead of spending only 48 hours in Paris, I got to spend 5 whole days basking in the sun and exposing my flesh to heat!  I was recovering from a viral chest infection, so I spent a lot of time lounging in gardens eating baguettes a l'ancienne and peaches, and it was glorious! Paris is a good place to recuperate, and it was rather a blessing in disguise to not physically be able to rush all over the city, because it made for a very relaxing holiday. This is the first of three blog posts on this year's adventures in La Ville-Lumière.

Newly arrived in Paris and I found that Matthew's artist loft had quite a charming back garden.

Roses upon arrival!  Now that sounds like the City of Love!!

Panorama of the view out Matthew's window.

Inhaling the delicious scent of a ripe peach.  If there is a place in Edinburgh to get decent peaches, I have not found it in the past three years.  Peaches are one of the things I miss most about Ontario.

Paris Plages - every year, truckloads of sand are brought in to transform La Seine and Le canal Saint Martin into inner-city beaches.  If you can find a free beach chair, it is a great place to spend a few hours.

Le Palais de Justice is a beautiful backdrop for my reading of Julia Child's My Life in France. (Thanks, Catherine!)

Bird's eye view of the beaches.

Les Jardins de Luxembourg - These gardens won big points with me for their abundance of pink and purple flowers.  Like most Parisian parks, you are not allowed to walk on the grass, but have to stay on the white gravel, but at least there are plenty of chairs to hand.

We had fun watching fellow park-goers sail their ships around the pond.  There is even a pirate ship!

Us at the Medici fountain.

Quite the impressive fountain tucked away at one end of the garden.

Parc Bellevue - This is apparently the second-highest hill in Paris and was conveniently close to Matthew's flat.  We had a great view of Paris' skyline, and the gardens there mainly cater to attracting bumble bees and butterflies, so were quite fragrant.

View from (almost) the top of the hill.

Watching out for butterflies and bumble bees.

The sunflowers were my favourite.

Trocadero - This park is across the river from La Tour Eiffel, and is noted for its fountains. We had an evening picnic there and quite enjoyed watching the fountains change.

Watching Parisians play in the fountains, baguette in hand. Strictly speaking, playing in the fountains is against the rules, but I guess when you're hot, you're hot...

This photo is for Catherine.  Thanks for the book!

We discovered a carousel which pretty much made my evening!

Jardins des Tuileries - located near the Louvre but extend for several blocks, these gardens are beautiful and have slightly more places to sit or play games, but again - the grass is only for looking at!

The Louvre as a backdrop (Man, it is so HUGE!  I had no idea!)

Anything can happen in Paris, including Theseus slaying the Minotaur!

Being blinded by the Parisian sunshine outside the Louvre.

Matthew with L'Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.

The chariot atop L'arc du Carrousel is pretty impressive.  Also impressive is that this arch is in line with the famous Arc du Triomphe at L'Étoile.

Hanging out in front of the Louvre.  I didn't have enough stamina to go in - maybe some other time!

I quite enjoyed la tricouleur in action.

In the gardins (yes, that bit of franglais did just happen).  We walked through the fairgrounds afterwards on our way to the metro.  Fun!

Also fun was feeding the Tuileries fish dried cranberries.  They seem to really like them, but, then, one would expect Parisian fish to have gourmet tastes!

St. Julien le Pauvre is a church across the river from Notre Dame, and the wee park next to it is my favourite Parisian park.  I so enjoyed it last year that I decided to spend my last morning of this year's trip sitting quietly on one of its benches and watching daily life unfurl.

And there you have it.  Some of Paris' parks in a nutshell. Pack a picnic and nothing can beat dining al fresco surrounded by all that history.

Good-bye, Sunshine!

This is my fourth and final post about my gloriously sunny and fantabulous holiday in Germany.  Near the end of my time there we spent a long weekend visiting Matthew's cousin and family (which was a good way to avoid his loud living conditions over the weekend.  We came back to a LOT of beer cans in the courtyard, alongside a massive kiddie pool and what I can only guess were mangled slip n' slides.  A good weekend to be out-of-town, methinks!). I got to help make 2 rhabarber (rhubarb) meringe cakes using rhubarb from the back garden, enjoyed an open-air a nap on a picnic blanket, and sampled that most curious of culinary creations: a bretzel sandwich.  Much fun was had by all!

This was my welcome to Mosbach.  Pretty epic! I think I look good in Renaissance. :)

Cousins!

Matthew enjoys a ride on a Viking Longship with his wee cousin.

A particularly charming shot of Mosbach's altstadt.

The whole family!

These crazy kids kept us on the go!

On the way to and from the Altstadt, Matthew & I occasionally walked through this very picturesque graveyard.  I don't know why I find graveyards so calming, but I do, and this one was especially so because there were some very thoughtful touches in evidence.  For example: Most of the graves do not have grass on them, but live flowering bushes and cut flowers in vases all grouped together.  In order to keep all these plants watered, there are stone water troughs and watering cans throughout the graveyard for visitors to use towards grave upkeep.

A particularly beautiful tombstone.

A very nicely arranged grave-bed.

Watering cans for public use.

On my final day in Germany we were back in Tübingen.  We poked around the old Jewish section of the city and went to the Botanic gardens, where we spent most of our time watching frogs and bumble bees.

How amazing is this mural?!

I love this lemon-yellow building!

Can I please have rose trellises bedecking my abode?

This building is massive and architecturally interesting from every angle, but the hovering turret was pretty nifty.

I feel like even the flats in Germany are much lovelier than anywhere else - like they understand people's need for a bit of nature and beauty, even in residences stacked one upon the other.

Also, we met Spiderman in the Jewish quarter.  He was just keeping an eye on things and Matthew decided to lend a hand. "Don't even think about stealing this bicycle!"

After our last ramble around the city centre, it was time for a ramble in the woods!

This miniature residence was off the trail a bit.  I think it is for the faeries.

We saw a LOT of bamboo at the Botanical Gardens, but sadly no accompanying pandas.

These dudes like hanging out.

How many frogs can you spy?

Tree-covered walkways make me smile.

We quite enjoyed these pink-tipped leaves.  To the naked eye, they are a much more vibrant pink than we could capture on camera.

Watching bees collect pollen is quite mesmerising.