YDYtravelers: Hanging with Parisian friends in gardens and markets and our first sight of the injured Notre Dame

Our stay in Paris began early and with rain. Umbrellas and rain coats joined us for the walk to Mom’s friends Simone and Katherine’s home. Their house is really unique, built on a very small square footage because of how taxes are assessed in the city, but it is multi-leveled and super quirky. We had some excellent pastries, coffee and conversation. They’ve been together for over 25 years and have many stories and wisdom to share, especially with our young ones. After breakfast, they took us to the nearby Luxembourg Gardens, which is a stunner. I’d never been before during my previous trips to Paris and was enchanted immediately. It really is a typical Parisian park with the long rows of trees, artwork, places to congregate and chairs lining the pathways. Our walk was slow and we stopped to sit and look up at the trees. Katherine picked up horse chestnuts from the pathway and gave them to both Eliza and George. Their smooth skin and hard texture were perfect for the teens to use as fidgets. Eliza found opportunities to catch photos of birds and flora (okay, we like flora too. Fauna and flora are our friends). I can’t think of a better way to spend our first morning in this city of light.

Post gardens, we all walked to the Marche Saint Germain market nearby. This market rivals the one in Lisbon that Jen and I visited the day I invented the Portuguese Sweat Towel (TM) - now comes in two sizes! We toured the stalls, which included one where Jen and I bought a cheese that had been aged for 30 years. Think about that. I was in high school when someone made the cheese we ate with dinner tonight. Dang. We also picked up some tasty berries of the straw and blue variety and the biggest yellow tomato I’ve ever seen. Lots of walking and then shopping led us to hunger pains and thoughts of lunch. Simone and Katherine invited us to come back to their home for another meal, and a two meal visit with friends seemed like the perfect idea. While Jenny, Mom and Katherine went to the pizza place, I stayed back with the teens and Simone. There were extraordinary tomato specimens cut up for our feast as well as a beautiful salad made with fresh greens. George helped with drying dishes, chatting with Simone while I prepped the tomatoes. It felt like home. Lunch finished, we said our goodbyes and began the journey back to our little apartment on the left bank.

Of course we were lured into shops on our walk, including an art supply store and the famous Pierre Hermè pastry shop, which sells the best macarons in the city. These delicacies, for those who are unaware, are two small, light and fluffy pastries with a filling in the the middle. They look a bit like a tiny hamburger. And they are so good. Today we purchased a total of eleven, but I have a plan that will involve the entire collection of 18 later this week. Oh macarons, you are so beautiful to me.

We had a bit of a siesta at home after walking, eating and shopping all day (I know, it’s a hard knock life for us), and then Jen, Mom and I walked to the Seine River for our first visit. It’s only about a block away from our apartment, close enough for a quick evening spin. We rounded the corner from our street and immediately saw the very different-looking Notre Dame on its island home. There’s scaffolding over much of the building and wooden supports buttressing the buttresses. And the smoke stained the building’s exterior stone in many places. I remember spending our last day before heading home there with Alex in 2017, mostly hanging out in the back yard part, spinning on the play equipment. She will be restored but will never be the same as before the fire. Oh Notre Dame. We also stopped off at the iconic Shakespeare and Company bookstore, where I was tempted to buy volumes old and new.

At home for dinner and we made a good one. Fresh baguette, cheeses, the best strawberries, blueberries, salami (not for me, thank you), olives, and that big beautiful tomato with Tavira salt. We have dined so well on this trip. And for dessert, we ate pastries from Pierre Herme, the baker to the stars. Or not. I really don’t know about that but he should be. We were in pastry heaven. Paris is a food paradise. And we have several more days to explore. Lucky us.