Marché aux Fleurs

The covered but otherwise outdoor flower market
on the Ile de la Cité has been in operation
(except on Sunday, when it becomes a bird market)
for 204 years.  I don't know how these primroses
survive—I shot them on a snowy morning in February—but
what a wonderful way to brighten a dreary winter day! 

Points of light

There's a point of light for each of the 76,000
Parisians who were deported to concentration
camps during WWII.  This memorial at the eastern
end of the Ile de la Cité is a very powerful place.

Bienvenue

There are about 15 museums in Paris that
have free admission, and the Musée Carnavalet
is one of my faves. This former home of
Mme de Sévigny has been open as a
museum since 1880. What I like best
here are the room re-creations, from a
15th-century drawing room to
Marcel Proust's cork-lined bedroom.

Where to Get a Bad Meal in Paris

You'd be better off buying a crepe from the stands
on nearby Boulevard St. Michel than to get drawn
into one of the joints with a "menu touristique" here
on rue de la Huchette, in the student quarter.
There are some good things to be found here
—especially if you're under 30—but food is
not necessarily one of them.  If you really do 
want falafel, head over to rue des Rosiers in the
Marais and join the queue outside L'as du Falafel.
(And if you're a fan of couscous, I believe there are 
still some places in Paris where they serve it up
for free, mostly on Friday and Saturday night.)

A Quai With a View

After I left Paris, the woman I'd worked for
moved to a 2nd-floor apartment with this terrific
view of Notre Dame.  Unfortunately her dog, a sweet
boxer named Lazare, was more distressed than impressed.
He actually jumped out the window in an attempt to
get back to their former digs.  His broken leg did
mend, though, and he learned to live with the new view.

Mme. Defarge, je présume

This Parisienne d'un certain age was
enjoying a beautiful early-spring day
in the Jardins du Luxembourg.  She had
a great face and a chic outfit—but
all I could think of was the tricoteuse
in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.

Care for a café?

I found seats for us here at Café Mabillon,
on the corner of Blvd. St. Germain
and rue de Buci, right in the heart of
St. Germain (all the tourists are a couple 
of blocks away, at the Deux Magots).

And our color-coordinated
waiter is cute too!

Welcome to the Future

I've opened this blog as a little exercise
in positive thinking. I bought a one-way
ticket to Paris when I was still a
teenager and lived there for some years.
Now I'm thinking how lovely it would be to
"bookend" my NYC life with another
stint in the city of light.  Who knows
exactly when (or how) it will happen, but
hey—at least the blog is in place!

[P.S. -- Starting June 1, I'll be posting 
here on the first of each month.]