More excursions...

Our courtyard

Entryway

Inventive window display



Adventures from the rest of the week include:

A trip to Chinatown in the lover 13e, just about at the end of the metro line. Here the buildings are tall and ugly, the people rarely converse in French and just now the cherry blossoms are coming out. Sadly I forgot to take my camera but when next we venture so far south, rest assured the mistake will not recur. We visited the Tang Brothers store, one of the largest Asian grocers in Europe - with one of the largest checkout queues. But it was cheap and certainly fascinating to see this other Paris where the only common factor with the centre of the city was the dismally coloured sky.



Today featured a walk down the Canal St Martin through Oberkampf in the 10e, an area in which I would happily live. We just missed the open air markets selling fish and flowers, possibly other things also. And sat writing at a lovely little cafe called Le Refectoire at 80 rue Richard Lenoir. The waitress was the cute kind you find in Newtown and was patient with my insufficient French.

The thought of the day is that you can tell in what kind of arrodissment you find yourself by looking at the trees. Some areas the trees have received most careful haircuts (anywhere near the Louvre, Champs Elysees etc) but in Chinatown or along the Canal St Martin the trees are left shaggy. Some comment on presence of an immigrant population perhaps? Regardless, my fascination with carefully trimmed trees continues.


Oh, and really the absolutely last thing I can buy before getting a job. This was a super on sale cashmere cardigan which feels like an embrace from the cloud-cotton-wool-fairy-floss fairy. Believe it.