Saturday Snippets [Paris]

The rest of our day following the Cluny visit was characterized by a lot of walking, eating takeaway food on a picnic blanket, and seeing places that I hadn't seen before in my other trips to Paris. The sunlight felt hot and people everywhere were exuding that "on holiday" radiance.

Picnic on the Pont des Arts

 Strawberries are super in season right now. Each country seems to be megalomaniacal about their own produce (here, German strawberries cost 3 euros/500g while Belgian ones are 2 euros for the same amount). French strawberries, in our opinion, are on par with the German-grown varieties.

 We walked a little more and stopped at a Boulangerie Julien location for some amazing savory tartes and sandwiches. Although we couldn't even imagine attempting another museum with Daisy at this point in the day, we sat under a tree outside the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum. The exoskeletal building with the bright red escalator combined with a nearby drum circle's loud pulse produced a sort of mirage that I was actually inside a modern art museum.

Next, we wound through the Marais and relaxed again on our trusty picnic blanket (the first time we've ever brought one on a trip!) on the Place des Vosges. We squeezed between a girl strumming a guitar and softly singing and another girl with clothes all scrunched up, as much as possible, to better soak up the rays. The symmetrical brick buildings, fountains, trees, and light posts brought us back to another era.

Victor Hugo lived here.

 Our last destination was the Père Lachaise cemetery, reputedly the most-visited cemetery in the world. It's true that there are many famous people buried here, but they're hard to find, even with the map, since there's 70,000 and counting graves. The elaborate (and expensive) prayer chapels on the graves aren't like anything I've ever seen before. Some even had stained glass windows. 

 I walked by some that looked completely neglected, and others that were clearly much-visited. 

 Moliere's tomb was one of our victorious ends; we also paused at Proust's and Sarah Bernhardt's before Daisy woke up from a short nap. Note to parents: strollers will only be problems here.

 To top off our day, we decided to walk the two miles across the Seine and back to our hotel. It starts seeming normal after a while, but nothing beats Parisian architecture.