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Tidepooler in Paris

Place du Marche Sainte Catherine

18 May 2012
France, Tidepooler in Paris, Travel
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Yesterday afternoon Elodie fell asleep in her stroller so I decided to satiate my craving for a hamburger. I found the most lovely little square in the Marais called Place du Marche Sainte Catherine (Place of Saint Catherine’s Market). There were a handful of great looking restaurants. I sat down at an empty table on the terrace next to a well-dressed French family of four eating hamburgers and ordered my own with a coke. Yum. Here are a few more shots from around the square.

I love finding secret little places like this in Paris. What are some of your favorites?

Vive la Francois

06 May 2012
Culture, Tidepooler in Paris
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France has a new president. Francois Hollande beat Nicolas Zarkozy 52 to 48 percent. Pretty close! When they announced the win at 8pm girls were screaming in the street and a man walked by and shouted “Hollande! Il a gagné!” (Hollande! He won!) Every so often we hear a car horn honking enthusiastically. It’s exciting to be here.

Our Apartment in Paris

27 Apr 2012
Home, Tidepooler in Paris
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This is where we’ve lived for the last four months and where we’ll spend the next two. We rented it furnished, and though it took a little while to get used to living among another person’s things, the cozy little place finally feels like home.

You enter into the kitchen. And if you walk straight through, you’ll see a tiny bedroom for three just big enough for a double bed and a small desk.

Turn around and you’re back in the kitchen. It’s a nice size, with a table where we’ve sat six, creaky old floorboards, and ample shelving.

On your way into the living room, you’ll see the bathroom on your left. Nice bathtub.

Here’s our nice big living room with its pullout couch that guests say is very comfy. That white rug I picked up at Habitat adds a lot to the comfort level of the room. The window overlooking the canal is the best thing about the whole apartment.

Elodie loves here bouncy “donkey” and she often takes her baby for a walk in her stroller. I bought that colorful pillow at a cute store called Antoine & Lili right down the street.

Here’s what you see if you’re sitting on the couch. We don’t watch TV, but we have a small collection of Audrey Hepburn movies on rotation for when we feel like taking it easy. I can’t believe our time in this little apartment is almost over. I will surely miss it.

Easter in Paris

09 Apr 2012
France, Holidays, Personal, Tidepooler in Paris
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Happy Easter! Did you have a nice one? Ours was sensational! It started with chocolate bunnies and ended with champagne. Here’s a little peek at our day.

Notre Dame Cathedral. What were we thinking? Easter mass at the most famous church in the world on one of the most important Catholic holidays means lots and lots of people. We made it through the door with Elodie asleep in her stroller, didn’t even attempt to take a seat in the congregation, instead slowly crept our way along with the throngs of visitors past the little side chapels to the back of the church where it was actually quite pleasant. There’s a really pretty chapel in the way back of the cathedral with beautiful stained glass windows and art nouveau wall motifs. It was peaceful back there and there was lots of space and we were able to sit and listen to the choir. After mass we escaped through a side exit and headed across the river for a yummy lunch of hamburgers and cokes.

Jardin des Plantes. This beautiful garden in the 5th arrondissement was abloom in poppies, lilacs, and cherry blossoms. So pretty. An hour early for the Easter egg hunt, we strolled around the gardens and watched the bees pollinating the poppies. There’s also a museum of natural history, a museum of paleontology, a zoo, and a restaurant there. I got a tea at the garden kiosk while we waited for the festivities to begin.

The Easter Egg Hunt. It was chaotic but fun. Look at all those kids! The adults were just throwing the chocolate eggs on the ground every so often in front of the little ones. I was a bit overwhelmed, but Elodie had a blast. We saw a bunch of our anglophone friends there too.

Easter Girls. This is one of my favorite shots from the day. Two girls and two daddies. Look at their Easter baskets. Aren’t they so cute? They’re miniature French market baskets. I was so excited to find them at a beautiful children’s store on rue JP Timbaud in the 11th, not far from our house, so I picked one up for Elodie and her best friend Dayze.

On our walk home, Elodie was so worn out from all the Easter fun she conked out in the stroller, leaving mom and dad free to sit at an outdoor cafe and drink champagne! I forgot to take a picture, but we had a really nice table overlooking the canal at a place called La Marine right down the street from our house. It was delightful! I can’t wait for next Easter so we can do it all over again!

 

Springtime in Paris

15 Mar 2012
Tidepooler in Paris
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It’s the most beautiful day in Paris yet! So I’ve got my window open. Elodie’s out with her babysitter and I’m sitting here by the open window with my laptop in my lap. Later today we’re going to meet friends at the cafe. Oh I just love springtime in Paris!

Outside My Window

06 Mar 2012
Tidepooler in Paris
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Before spring arrives and winter is just a distant memory, I thought I’d share these photos of the Canal Saint Martin. I took these a few weeks ago when it was so icy cold outside.

The best thing about our apartment is the single living room window. It looks out over the canal, and the street below, and the beautiful Paris apartment buildings across the way. We spend lots of time here watching the seagulls and the ducks and the teenagers and the doggies out on their walks. And every once in a while we catch a glimpse of a great big canal boat slowly drifting by. The one pictured above was actually breaking through the ice as it plied its course. You can see how excited the crowd was chasing after it and snapping photos. Lucky us, we got to watch it from inside our warm apartment.

Oh view, how I love you.

Little Paris Discoveries: Dana Cojbuc, Photographer

05 Mar 2012
Art, France, Photography, Tidepooler in Paris
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I was walking around my neighborhood the other day when a grouping of black and white photographs caught my eye. I was on Rue Sainte Marthe in the 10th arrondissement, pushing the stroller up the incline past all these little colorful, closed storefronts, restaurants, and artist studios. The photographs were displayed in a wide window on street level for pedestrians to admire as they passed. Taken by the Romanian photographer Dana Cojbuc, the images are remakes of old photos from the 1950s – 1980s.

I love this sort of thing. The way it reflects on the passage of time, and change, and growing old, or staying the same. I imagine the families in the photos all living life together in their little Romanian village. I wonder how their lifestyles changed in the 20 to 50 years since the originals were taken.

You don’t have to be in Paris to see the rest of Dana Cojbuc’s photos. Just go to her website and click on the “Remake” series. Which one do you like the best?

Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal

25 Feb 2012
France, Tidepooler in Paris
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In the early 1950s, my grandmother was a young nursing student at the Catherine Labouré School of Nursing in Boston. Ever since then, she has felt a special tie to the French saint. If you’re having trouble picturing St. Catherine, just think about her winged cornette, the headpiece worn by her order the Sisters of Charity. Now you know who I’m talking about right?

Anyway, in honor of my grandmother’s 79th birthday last week, Elodie and I went on an adventure to Paris’ Left Bank. There’s a shrine dedicated to Saint Catherine Labouré on Rue du Bac and it’s one of my grandmother’s most favorite places.

We found the mass times on the shrine’s website and gave ourselves an hour to walk over to the other side of the river to catch the 12:30 mass. As planned, Elodie fell asleep in her stroller and I was ready to enjoy mass in peace. I found the spot, scurried across some cobblestones, up some steps, through some doors, and found a room full of young devotees and some singing priests. “We made it, and what beautiful singing,” I thought. I don’t know what Elodie was thinking when she abruptly opened her eyes, but it was obvious nap time was over, as was the mass. Then the people started following the priests through some doors in the back, so we took our places in line and went along. Up some stairs, through some back corridors, and into the “salle a manger.” Quoi?! I thought we were going to see some sacred tomb or quiet sanctuary, I wasn’t expecting the cafeteria.

I found a friendly English speaking man and explained our situation. He pointed me upstairs to a very nice chapel. It was empty and silent. There was one lady praying, so we quickly lit a candle for grandma and then went off to find the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal one block away. This was the spot we were actually looking for. The chapel was packed with lunchtime Catholics and Elodie and I took our places near the back while the congregation sang the last few lines of the song that wrapped up the mass.

A lot of people were gathering up near the altar, so we joined them and said some prayers by the body of St. Catherine Labouré. I have to admit it was a little bit creepy to see an actual body there behind the glass, but I tried to push those thoughts away and focus on the miracle(s). One being that the body of this daughter of a Burgundy farmer was still perfectly preserved over 100 years after her death, the other being that the Virgin Mary appeared to this farmer’s daughter, here at this very chapel, and instructed her to create a medal based on the vision, stars and globe and all. That was in 1830. Almost 200 years later, the Miraculous Medal is one of the most important symbols of devotion in the Catholic religion. It’s inscribed with the words “Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” If you wear one, and you say those words, there’s no telling what miracles may transpire.

You can find out more about Saint Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal here.

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