Fri Oct 14/16
L’âme des poetes- Charles Trenet

Longtemps, longtemps, longtemps
Après que les poètes ont disparu
Leurs chansons courent encore dans les rues
La foule les chante un peu distraite
En ignorant le nom de l’auteur
Sans savoir pour qui battait leur cœur
Parfois on change un mot, une phrase
Et quand on est à court d’idées.

Thank goodness, today is the last day flying solo! Chris will join me at 14:00 in Luxembourg park. After yesterday’s fiasco I wanted to keep things really simple. The girls were looking for jewellery and for Carambars. All I wanted to do was hit the playground with Matt. Fair enough…we could do everything within walking distance of our apartment.

Carambars are the favoured candy of my girls. For those who are curious Carambars are not available in Canada…they were first made in 1954 by a M Fauchille who had a surplus of cocoa near Calais. These are soft caramels and have many flavours from the original caramel to cotton candy to atomic combo’s of coke and sour lemon. Similar to Bazooka gum they come with a joke and the jokes are bad (corny). The French children as well as my own are crazy for them. We often see little ones on their way to school stop at boulangeries to purchase a handful. Yes, Fr-Mark the girls will share their stash when we get home.

We discovered a magical little silver boutique on rue St-Placid. Emily is my little fairy princess who is agog with jewellery and bling. She found a gorgeous hair piece which is kept in place by a headband and hangs down her jet hair much as I would imagine Guinevere might have worn in the old Aurthurian legends. Kelly, you would have loved this shop, completely up your alley. In truth I would expect a shop like this in Ireland. Beautiful faeries and carved woodland spirits kept a watchful eye on the gorgeous silver jewellery within. The haunting voice of Loreena McKennitt was the background music and set the stage for an enchanting shopping experience.

Afterward we headed to the playground for a long play in the super playground for Matt. We had lunch at the cafe and waited for Chris to join us. Each year we have had occasional difficulty with someone who is arrogant in Paris. I would like to speak up for Parisians…arrogance and snobbery is found everywhere around the world in our homes, on the street, our city, and country.  It doesn’t matter where I go my modus operandi is always the same.  I begin with a smile, remember my manners, treat others as I would like to be treated and this works 99 percent of the time. Kindness matters a lot today.

We very seldom have trouble and often make fast friends each year we travel to Paris…this year was no exception.

When Chris joined us we headed to Plantes a second time. The girls and I wanted to visit the Geology Museum, well I wanted to go see the rocks amd mineral exhibit which turned out to be an amazing experience. I found God each day of my vacation…today I found Him in rocks. It is not possible for something so beautiful and patterned to be anything but His creation.

Afterward we headed to Mouffetard to find my baguettes…the ones I am hopelessly addicted to, we all are. I bought several, vacuum sealed and flash froze them to bring home. Cristiana, when we next get together I will bring one with me. I have to give the nod to David Lebovitz when he calls them his “crack baguette”. I can confirm after talking to the owner the “gout” I taste is sesame.

A simple dinner of sardines, pickled onions, smoked salted butter, baguette and a bottle of red rounded out our day!

Bisous