Highlights from this week included a sun-filled walk for a lunch of hand-stretched Chinese noodles at "Les Pâtes Vivantes". It was such fun to watch them stretching the noodles right there as we ate!
This amazing lunch was followed by a visit to Notre Dame Cathedral. It was such a rush to be back at Notre Dame. In high school, our choir came to sing here and we were the first Canadian Choir to sing the Sunday mass! To be back now MANY years later and just be able to walk about calmly and quietly and take in all of the beauty of this structure was wonderful. The stunning windows glowed as the sun shone through them...they were magical.
On Wednesday, we were fortunate to be able to get tickets to see Sting at "Le Zenith"!! He and his musicians were amazing. It was a GREAT concert.
Another highlight was visiting la Musee d'Orsay and being so close to such amazing art...sculptures and paintings that were just so beautiful that they seemed to beg me to reach out and touch them to feel the chisel marks and brush strokes...but the Canadian in me didn't want to get into trouble.
We went to see the Eiffel Tower this week and I was so excited to see blossoming cherry blossoms in the park behind La Tour Eiffel! I am in awe of the Tower itself...how it was created and built when it was, how they repaint it every 7 years or so with a very specific brown paint( a make work project if you ask me! ),
but I am not a huge fan of the chaotic energy around the tower where the lines of people go on forever.
I've decided that I don't necessarily need to be places where cotton candy is sold(or la barbe a papa as it is called here)! Marly is in agreement with moi! To me La Tour Eiffel is more magical from a distance-peeking out from behind a building somewhere in the city, or twinkling its lights at night. I have fondly named it the "Twinkle Tower".
As for the cherry blossoms I mentioned earlier, I have had such a "thing" for "Sakura"(cherry blossoms)ever since I lived in Japan. They are now in bloom here and my heart skips a beat every time I see a blossoming tree!
Here are some I photographed beside our "Batobus" stop.
We decided to get a "Batobus" pass this week to explore the city via a boat on the Seine...a "boatbus" or water taxi of sorts. It's not a tour. It gets you around to many of the major sites based off the Seine so you can walk and then watertaxi around when you are too exhausted to walk anymore! It's fantastic!
I shall sign off today with some other beautiful spring blooms, magnolias by l'Hotel de Ville.
Le printemps, c'est merveilleux!