Sunday--May 16
Had the most wonderful day. Rose late, @ 9:30 or 10, made the requisite coffee, went down to the bakery for croissants and bread, then to the little nearby store where I bought jam--Bonne Maman 4 berry, yummy. Home to share my stash with Katie (Number 10 writing here) and we ooohed and aaahed our way through croissants and bread & cheese. Then we took a few quiet hours to ourselves, tho we talked to Ange(Number 13) on Skype a good bit, and I took a shower, but it was quiet with each working on her own things. Researched where there might be an English language bookstore near where we were going. The day was planned to spend Sunday as many Parisians do: go to the Luxembourg Gardens. We found a bookstore was near there--The Village Voice--but first walked down Rue Daguerre and took pictures of pastries and bread in the shop windows. Then we strolled down Ave Denfert-Rochereau toward the gardens. What a day! The sun was out and so were the people. Lying on the grass, picnicking, sleeping, lovers and children and mamas. We strolled down the central walk toward the palace at the other end of the park, and stopped in the center at the pool, full of sailboats, with children running after their boats with long sticks to push them away from the wall if they got stuck, and mammas and grand-peres running after the kids. It was lovely. We took pictures of a boy with his boat fresh out of the water and his brother in a Spiderman costume rushed to get into the picture too. More pictures followed of other kids engaged in all sorts of play: kicking balls, swinging at badminton birdies or tennis balls, climbing on a huge pyramid jungle jim, swinging, spinning, boxing, playing in sandboxes--so wonderful. Two nuns walking down a path caught my eye. Then an area where men were playing bocce ball (they call it petanque here) and using a tape to measure distance to determine the winner. Another sunny area we found the chess players with their focused stares, timers, and onlookers. It was delightful to see people (young and old) engaging each other, soaking in the sun and the various activities of being alive together. It felt like I’d been to church in some way; we left the gardens with glad hearts and hope for the week to come.
As we began wending our way through the rabbit warren of streets that would hopefully lead us to the english language bookstore, we happened upon the church of St. Sulpice. It had been mentioned in The Da Vinci Code, and Katie announced she was going in, so I dutifully followed. She is old, after all, and I could not leave her. :-0
Thank goodness I did not.
The church has stunning acoustics apparently (I can now testify that is true) and hosts many concerts. We walked into a symphony orchestra rehearsing St. Saens Symphony no. 3 for a concert later in the evening. It was stunning, filling the church with sound as lush and deep as a waterfall. We wandered around in silence, discovered chapel after chapel with paintings, sculpture, stained glass and the symphonic crashing of percussion following soaring strains of wind. Took pictures of the Chapel of St. Genevieve (patron saint of Paris).
Leaving the church we were only 6 blocks from the bookstore, but it was closed by then, so we resolved to return another day. It was 6:30 by then and the last we’d eaten was the buttery croissants and jam, so we made our way to Le Procope, built in 1686, host restaurant to Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot in pre-French revolution times, and site of many citizen rebel wearers of the red cap. The meal was decent but not revolutionary. Katie had vicchysoise soup and chicken & potatoes. I had trout amandine and English potatoes (peeled and boiled), and a glass of wine--a bit vinegary--that I shared with K. After our meal and wandering a bit through the restaurant’s many rooms, we took the Metro home, for Katie’s hip was aching--we had walked 5 miles that day. Walked down Rue Daguerre and found a small grocery store where we bought cookies: dark chocolate on a soft madeleine style cookie flavored with orange. So the day has ended. Talked with Paul and Nicole on Skype, wrote in this notebook, and now it’s midnight. Another grand day in the city of light.
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