Paris at last!

Last week I was in Paris… quelle merveille! I’m on that side of the world, catching up with friends and family, and decided to treat myself to a few days in the city of romance… well, since I was staying in Pigalle, a few days in the city of red lights!

The apartment was perfect: typically Parisian, 19th century, enchanting. Through the street door into a large hallway, then up a creaking, polished wooden spiral staircase. In the apartment itself, the parquet floor tilts at a wonderfully crazy angle, and charming white wooden shutters and pink geraniums frame tall windows. In the morning, there is a magical view of the Sacré Coeur to admire while drinking a café au lait and eating a pain au chocolat. You can see this fabulous apartment at www.frenchyrentals.com/fromentin.

Pigalle is a short stroll away from Montmartre, which, at night, when there are no tourists, is a quiet, dark maze of steep cobbled streets and buildings blooming with intricate, wrought iron balconies and the pink and red geraniums you see everywhere. We had supper in a tiny turkish place which promised us the best couscous and merguez we’ve ever had…. it wasn’t, but the bottle of rosé made up for it.

Le Marais was another favourite place, a gay and Jewish area. All the gay cafés seemed to be closed in the afternoon, but I had the best felafel and hummus I have had in my life at “Chez Hanna” in rue des Rosiers — and I’ve lived in the middle east, so I know my felafels! This place is fantastic. A small, cheap, unassuming, café but the food is totally délicieux.

And I finally found a menorah. I’ve been looking for one for years (not easy to find in small towns or in NZ) so I was very happy. The first one I saw was stunning and had a miniature olive oil bottle on it, but it was over E 250 (solid silver) so I made do with a bronze version — it will work just as well!

Nicolas, c’était ravissant de te voir, merci de m’avoir fait visiter paris, et Alix, si tu lis ça, j’suis très heureuse de te connaître, email-moi! A propos, je me rapelle du mot que je cherchais – c’était teuf (ça veut dire fête?) pas euh… l’autre mot que j’ai dit (que je ne connaissais pas du tout)…quelle honte!

The real aim of my pilgrimage was Place Colette, of course, and le Palais Royal. Colette lived in an apartment overlooking the square — a beautiful, peaceful area filled with fountains. I can imagine her looking out of her window, pen poised in mid air, looking, as she loved to do, at the people and cats meandering around the benches, in between the jets of water…

L’île de la cité and l’île Saint Louis, Notre Dame, saint Germain and rue de Buci were also wonderful and beautiful… My pilgrimage ended at rue Jacob, where Colette lived with Willy when she wrote the Claudines, and the fabulous Ladurée chocolaterie chocolate shop.

I found out that we’ve inadvertently named our cat “plonk” (as in: a bottle of), much to the raucous delight of every French person I met and inflicted with pictures of Zsa Zsa sleeping, Zsa Zsa washing, Zsa Zsa being timid when he hadn’t long been out of the spca, Zsa Zsa being naughty a few weeks later. I knew the phrase “Allez, un p’tit coup d’ja ja!” (Go on, have a bit more plonk!”) but had forgotten it… poor cat, never mind, I’m sure he doesn’t mind!

Next week it’s England, London, Heathrow, and back to Wellington. Only a 30 hour flight, this time, instead of the 33 hours it took me to get here! I land in the daytime, so I’ll be able to see the stunning sea views as the plane lowers, dips and heads south before turning around to the airport. If I want to I can imagine that from the air I can see our house, not far from the bay…