A Blooming Wonderful Flower Market

The weather is still thoroughly depressing, although we’ve had a bit of  blue sky and sunshine today. It rained last night, and has been slightly warmer, so much of the ice and snow has melted. Snow is sliding off roofs with a sort of whooshing noise; water is dripping, splishing and splashing from trees, bridges and guttering, and the pavements are awash with puddles and pools and rivulets of water spreading between lumps of dirty, rock hard ice which are still adhering to the ground, seemingly no smaller or softer than they were yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. There is water, water everywhere, and if the temperature drops overnight then roads and paths will be like a skating rink tomorrow morning.  

  I have lots of pictures of the snow, which looks very pretty, but I am so fed up with it, I thought that for this week’s Saturday Snapshot I would cheer myself up by posting some photos I took in Paris last May, on a lovely, hot, sunny day when it was so nice we wandered around without coats or jackets.

These were all taken in Le Marché aux Fleurs (the Flower Market), at Place Louis-Lépine, near Notre Dame and La Conciergerie, on the Île de la Cité. It’s one of my favourite places in Paris, and is absolutely fabulous, a riot of colour and perfume, guaranteed to lift your spirits if you’re feeling down (though I’m sure I don’t  know how anyone could ever feel down on a trip to Paris). 

It really is heavenly. You can smell the flowers before you see them – the fragrance hits you as you step out of the metro at Cité. Flowers, trees and shrubs are banked up high inside and outside the metal pavilions that have been there since 1808, and you find yourself walking through long, narrow alleys of flowers which overwhelm your senses. Along the Quai de la Corse, on the bank of the Seine, there are more stalls housed in metal huts which are surrounded by pots of flowers stacked up the walls and spilling out onto the pavement.

I suppose it's like a garden centre really, because these are living plants for gardens and homes, rather than cut flowers, and there are all kinds of beautiful garden ornaments hanging from walls, hanging from the glass roof, and displayed on shelves. If I had a fortune I could happily spend a large part of it here, but I don’t, so every time I visit I buy a packet of herbes de Provence, and when I cook with them it’s like having a little bit of French sunshine in my kitchen, and I can close my eyes, breathe in the aroma, and imagine the sights, sounds and smells of the Flower Market.

The market is open every day, and on Sundays the Marché aux Oiseaux, or Bird Market, takes place alongside it, with all kinds of birds, from tiny finches to large parrots, all squawking and cheeping and twittering and singing, and as you walk from the Metro taking great gulps of flowery air you hear all this birdsong. And, despite the name, you’ll see many other small creatures here - fish, rabbits, gerbils, rats and so on. I don’t know about you, but I always have problems with the idea of animals in cages. However, I would have to say that whenever I’ve walked round the market the creatures all looked happy and well cared for.

One of the things I love about both these markets is people watching. There are smartly dressed, elegant women, workmen in their overalls, scruffy teenagers, and pensioners leaning on sticks, peering around and walking very carefully, so they don’t trip over the plants. There are experts who know about plants and birds, and novices who know nothing but are willing to learn. There are people buying and people like me, just looking. And everywhere are people shouting, waving their arms about, shrugging their shoulders very theatrically, and pulling faces in that expressive way the French have, so I like to think customers are haggling with proprietors in a bid to talk the price down and get a better deal.

Anyway, if you’re planning a holiday in Paris, and you’ve never been to the Flower Market, do go, because it will make you happy - it makes me happy just thinking about it. And when you’ve finished looking round it’s only a short walk to the Left Bank, and the Île Saint-Louis. Iconic book shop Shakespeare and Company is just down the road, and there are masses of cafes in the area where you can sit outside and watch the world go by as you eat your lunch.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at http://athomewithbooks.net/ where you can see photos from other participants all over the world.

Parisian Pictures Take Two!

This week's Saturday Snapshots don't need many words, because they're a collection of some of my favourite views of Paris, taken over the last two or three years. My parents were very fond of the city, and planned to celebrate their Diamond Wedding Anniversary there, but sadly Dad died a few months before their special holiday. Since then Mum and I go to Paris for a few days each May.  We have a wonderful time wandering around, and eating French bread and cheese, with huge bags of fresh fruit (the cherries are delicious), and I've taken lots of photographs, which I've been looking at because the weather is so awful, and they cheered me up. So here is a selection of some snaps, as a kind of postscript to the pictures of the Luxemburg Gardens which I posted on my return from our holiday. For more Saturday Snapshots see  Alice's blog http://athomewithbooks.net/

If no-one minds, I'm also posting this for the Paris in July challenge hosted by Karen from BookBath and Tamara from Thyme For Tea. 

The Eiffel Tower, designed and built by engineer Gustave Eiffel to provide the main entrance for the World's Fair in 1889, dominates the city and is incredibly beautiful.

Flowers on a market stall, stacked sideways on to make a wall of blooms.

Bread on another market stall. I love French bread, and the bakers and supermarkets bake twice a day, and you see men cycling home from work, clutching their fresh baguettes as they pedal furiously along the streets.

A boat on the Seine - I couldn't resist taking a picture, because the name is my surname!

YellowIrises in the Jardin Plantes. I love the colours.

More food - French food always looks so mouth-wateringly good.

My mother and I sat in this beautiful courtyard at the Mosque de Paris and drank sweet tea, in the shade of a fig tree, while the birds sang, and we watched men smoking with hookahs, like the Caterpillar in Alice, but I didn't like to take their photo, so I waited until they had gone!

The Flower Market, in the shadow of Notre Dame, on the Ile de la Cite, is one of the most wonderful spots in Paris - you can smell the flowers before you see them. It's a riot of colour and perfume, with all kinds of garden ornaments hanging from the roof and walls.

Notre Dame, perched on the edge of the Ile de la Cite, looks like a ship sailing along the river when photographed from the smaller, quieter Ile de St Louis.

Houseboats moored up on the River Seine.

The French enjoy exercising alongside the Seine on Sunday mornings, when the road is closed to traffic and everyone, from tiny tots to elderly pensioners, turns out to keep fit. Some do exercises holding on to the railings or trees, but mostly they run, jog, walk (often with their dogs), cycle or roller-skate. I think this is such a good idea and it looks such fun, and is very sociable because whole families and groups of friends trot along together, then they all go off for their lunch. It's such a fantastic idea to encourage people to exercise - I wish British towns would do the same. 

Shakespeare and Company, the iconic book shop, is not to be missed. You can browse inside for hours, even if you don't buy anything, and soak up the atmosphere.