June 1 2013
The very gorgeous Parisian three-year-old Madeline who had already perfected the Parisian pout. We sat in the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg watching the precious tot with the Parisian bob with her hands on her hips defy her papa. Les enfant Madeline refused to leave Marie de Medicis small flotilla of petite ships and so stood her ground with her Parisian pout as papa walked in the other direction doing what every papa should do – ignore his pouting three year old. But, alas papa walked right across the grounds and Madeline just turned her back with her arms crossed and thought ‘silly man of course he will be back’. Well this little girl hadn’t been to the school of twelve little girls in two straight lines as she just stood her ground. Of course, her ageing, doting papa came back and Madeline stamped her foot and waved her finger at him – oh poor papa when Madeline becomes the short black skirted, fish net stockinged, tattooed goth that look oh so cool in the Parisian street. Although perhaps she is destined to be the very gorgeous, 50s styled redheaded, checked frocked, beret wearing, lipstick pouting young things strolling the streets near the Sorbonne. We had a lovely time in Marie’s garden after a wonderful morning in Amalie’s Montmartre. The sun was pouring down as we looked at the same view as Dali, Monet, Picasso and Van Gogh. It was just gorgeous sitting on the steps listening to the wonderful haunting harp play my favourites – Canon in D, Cohen’s Hallelujah and my absolute favourite, that I have hummed since we arrived – Piaf’s La Vie en rose. After the great views we moved ourselves pretty quickly away from the sale of gaudy Eiffel towers and the inevitable copy handbags and walked down one of my favourite streets rue des Martyns. We stopped at the KB café shop, a lovely place to sit outside and eat our truly beautiful baguettes and fresh juice. The sun was shining and what more would one want to do on a Saturday afternoon.
After our lizard rest in the sun we walked down to the 9th arrondissement to gaze up at the Chedanne designed Belle Epoch shopping mecca. I have often wondered how stores such as the beautiful Galeries Lafayette manage to earn their reputed one billion euros. Well the queue of Asian tourists waiting and then leaving clutching their Louis Vuitton handbags probably provided the answer as they were also leaving Chanel and every other designer shop in droves completely weighed down with bags and parcels.
We came back for a short nap – I still feel quite crap – and then headed out in search of Paris’s best crepes – well so did everyone else in Paris as the wait was four hours. Well I am sure they are the best in Paris but we gave up and headed back to collect a picnic on the way. Baguettes, Roquefort, Camembert and the most delicious Tarte Poire Chocolat and Tarte Limón have us both now lying on the bed complaining that we have really over done it!
Sleeping under the stars 