Quoi de neuf ?*

* What's new?


This week, I met another blogger friend for real. Virginia and her friend Mary came to visit and we spent the afternoon in picturesque Marly le Roi where we found this vieille maison. Watch out for lots more photographs from the charming streets of Marly on Virginia's blog Paris Through my Lens.


I signed Florence up for Maternelle (French Kindergarten) which she will start in September. I had expected to have to deal with a mile of French red tape, especially as we don't have some of the required documents on the registration form - no Carnet de Santé or Livret de Famille, but my substitutions were deemed perfectly acceptable and the whole registration process took me less time than it took to buy our evening baguette. I can't help feeling that was too easy - we will see when I attend the compulsory parents meeting in June! I hope she likes it. She could do with a break from looking after her family of seven!


Sacré Coeur seen from the fifth floor of Le Marché Saint-Pierre
I had a wonderful day out all by myself shopping in the fabric markets of Montmartre and somehow managed to stumble into an excellent French bistro for lunch in a sea of tourist traps at the foot of Sacré Coeur.

I needed fabric for a dress I'm making for my niece's christening. Whilst searching the web for design inspiration I stumbled across this film at Baby Dior. Le sigh...

Not sure how long that link will last so here's another film for the Paris lovers. Check out the girl in black. Her dress. Her hair. Turns out India wasn't so far from a Dior outfit at THAT Bar Mitzvah after all!



And last but not least, I am thrilled that Jillian over at Jillian in Italy interviewed me for her A Kid's Life series. I found her gorgeous blog one time when we both linked up to Love the Place you Live at Design Mom. It turns out that as well as loving where we live, we also have a love of sewing, photography and twin girls in common! It was such a pleasure and very thought provoking to answer her questions so hop on over to see what I had to say about our life in France. You might find out something you didn't already know.

Bon Weekend!

Paris Perspectives

My friends Virginia and Genie of the two very popular Paris photo blogs Paris Through My Lens and Paris and Beyond have both very kindly featured Growing Berries on their blogs this week and I've been thrilled to receive lots of new Francophile visitors. To welcome all my new guests, I thought I'd better put away the laundry and get out some pictures of Paris.


Luckily I've joined a Paris walking tour this year and every other Friday while Florence is at Halte Garderie, I get to spend the day in Paris with my friends discovering the sites from a new perspective, courtesy of our incredibly knowledgable French guide, Jacques. Last Friday we enjoyed a walk in the last of the summer sunshine through Paris' Latin Quarter. We started at the famous Sorbonne, but quickly started ducking down alleys and side streets to discover a world you would never know existed behind the busy Boulevards Saint-Germain and Saint-Michel.


Apparently Jacques is not afraid to have his tour groups step past the occasional privé sign. This building is now part of the University of Paris Descartes campus.

Some of my friends on the tour take copious notes. I take photos and don't always listen properly so I can't quite remember what makes this building special. I do know it is much older than the rest of the nineteenth century campus, possibly once a nunnery and definitely used as a meeting place by the early leaders of the French Revolution.


Cross the Rue des Écoles and you arrive here.


One of the last remaining medieval buildings in Paris (if you don't count the churches) and now the Musée de Cluny.


Cross some more streets, turn a few corners and you end up here. Rue Saint André des Arts. If you look left you're just a few steps from the hustle and bustle of Boulevard Saint-Michel but turn right and you head down a quiet street full of must try restaurants.

Le Christine on Rue Christine. Need to find out if the food here tastes as good as the restaurant looks!


Also found on Rue Christine. Nope. Can't remember the significance. So much for the History degree!


Figs in Paris? You can find them in the Passage Dauphine.

And can you believe these steps are in Paris too? They would look more at home on a Provence post.


They're part of the Cour de Rohan a private residential courtyard which also happens to be a public passageway off the Cours du Commerce Saint-André.

Parisians, and I suppose visitors, have the right to walk through the passage and it's a photographer and historian's paradise. I definitely need to go back and spend some more time there.


You can find this in the Cour de Rohan too. Bonus Berry points if you know what it's for.

I hope you enjoyed this walk through Paris as much as I did. I'm linking up with Design Mom's Love the Place you Live. It's not always easy living here but when you get the chance to see all this in a morning you can't really complain!

Oh, and after all that walking we certainly deserved a Paris Lunch. We ate at Le Petit Pontoise and it was one of the best meals I've had since we've lived here. How can I not love the place I live?

Burning the candle at both ends

It's been quiet around the blog this last week, but not at home. I have been busy on another creative endeavour designing and compiling a yearbook for India's fifth grade who will 'graduate' to Middle School at the end of this week! Not since I was in college have I had to work so hard to meet a deadline. I have seen the wrong side of midnight more often that I care to count, Florence has learnt a lot about independent play and that laundry, it's another unwashed mountain!

I could have probably completed the task in a more relaxed manner if it wasn't for the fact that, just like at university, I have been putting off work to go out. The round of farewell to ex-pats events continues with a big one on everyone's bucket list having been crossed off on Saturday. High Tea at the Ritz Paris with nine of my favourite ladies. This was a huge treat for all of us, inspired once again by the lovely Véronique and her post about the world famous hotel in which she mentioned that it would be closing for renovations this summer for two whole years! This was the last chance for all of us, moving or not! Somehow, despite husbands away on business trips, imminent arrival of moving crews and end of year dance recitals everyone managed to get away for the afternoon and a fabulous time was had by all. The setting was gorgeous, the food was delicious and all was going well until one of our party spotted a mouse running along the skirting board! Never mind, we kept calm, drank our consolation bottle of champagne, and carried on! Another special Paris memory and hopefully les souris will find a new home during the renovations!


P.S. Don't forget there's still time to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway. You have until the end of the week.