Postcard from Paris

My daughter and granddaughter flew home yesterday — and my friend arrives today. I used the 24 hours between their going and coming to slow down, although I did get outside in the morning. Walked to the little café at the corner where the server actually remembered me from a visit last week. (Could that be because Nana, daughter, granddaughter squeezed through the doors trailing three small cases that he generously found space for? The taxi from the airport had dropped us off earlier than expected, earlier than our host was ready for us . . . but that’s another story. Can’t get side-tracked right now!) I also picked up groceries, did some sketching, and watched a sweetly sad French road-trip movie — Tout le Bleu du Ciel, on Netflix.

And I started a short post to you, sending you this postcard and letting you know there are more if you pop over to Substack. Excerpt from that post is just below this photo, and I’ll add a link to the entire article.

Here’s the excerpt:

Fourteen years ago, I wrote a post about a conversation with an elderly Parisienne sitting at the next table to us in a tiny restaurant in the 7th arrondissement. A very well-educated woman, her career as a conferencière (lecturer) in architectural history behind her by a couple of decades but her passion for the subject still strong. Towards the end of our conversation, she asked for my little Moleskine travel notebook and wrote instructions for a few sites we shouldn’t miss. Thanks to her, while I’ve never felt compelled to enter Sacre Coeur, I love to pop into its less imposing neighbour, Eglise Saint Pierre.

The second oldest surviving church in Paris, St. Pierre dates from the 12th century, but there is archaeological evidence of much longer use of the site for worship, with a Temple of Mars predating its Christian use. Its unprepossessing external appearance means that it’s usually a quiet getaway from the crowds of tourists and their souvenir-hawking predators. . . Such was the case for us last sunny Wednesday.

Read the rest and see more photographs over here.

I’m also posting occasional photo “carousels” over on Instagram. But honestly, between seeing Paris and visiting with loved ones, I’m short on Social Media time!

I do love to hear from you, though, either here or over on Substack. Comments section open below.

But I’d better get dressed. My friend’s probably stepping into a taxi at Charles de Gaulle right about now and I’m still in my pjs!

xo,

f