Yesterday in Paris with Marc

 

Yesterday I stayed in till 4 in the afternoon searching madly for a lost poppy 🌺 watercolor. I finally found it in the poppy file of course.

Then I ran to la poste, and the bank (they are closing early this week). I had plans to go to the movies later at 7:30 🕢 at Lost in Frenchlation.

I was coming out of the bank and I see my neighbor Marc, who lives across the hall. He is walking to City Pharma on rue du Four. “Wanna come?” “Sure, why not”

I had plenty of time to kill till 7:30 Do you know City Pharma? Who doesn’t? It’s the goldmine-mecca of all pharmacies world-wide where you can find EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is there looking for it.

Marc was getting some grapefruit extract as a de-tox. The French are into detox post-Christmas holidays 🦃 🥂🦞

We get on line to pay and escape into the night in the 6th arr. Marc, who is tall and lanky, says he walks everywhere. He doesn’t take public transport. Oh? He prefers the back streets rather than the main, crowded boulevards. OK… 

We passed a miniature shop on rue des Canettes. I can not walk by without gazing transfixed in the window. Mini Bécassine 

I am crazy for Bécassine…where is my Becassine cup?😯

Marc says he wants to show me a wall poem. We walk past towering Eglise Saint Sulpice.

On to rue Ferou. It’s more or less a pedestrian street - almost no cars, which is a good thing since you want to stop and contemplate the poem,

Rimbaud’s Le Bateau Ivre was inscribed on this wall in 2012. Marc starts to recite the poem. So French

Click the link above and watch a video with English subtitles. Its about a drunken boat that becomes filled with water etc.

We walk the darkened streets behind Saint Sulpice and see an opened doorway. Marc says, “Let’s go in”. Saint Sulpice is one of those mysterious French churches that feels a bit abandoned.

Yet it has marvelous murals by Delacroix you could easily miss. We walk in a circle around the church in a clockwise direction. Everyone else is walking the other direction. Marc says this is wrong 😑 OK. I didn’t know and have been walking counter-clockwise the wrong direction for years. 

Marc offers me a candle and I light one for my dear ❤️ friend Alison who I lost last week 🙏 A bell 🔔 rings. Marc says, "Every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings" and he rings a bell.

We come out and head for home passing a tea shop I wouldn’t mind going in for a closer look at their ginger cookies. We keep on walking. Marc doesn’t eat sugar. 

We pass one of Paris’ older movie theaters. Did you know there are 310 movie theaters in Paris? It is movie theater capitol of the world. London only has 164.

Marc says he sees a movie everyday thanks to a UGC subscription. I used to have a subscription but I didn’t go enough. Did I say Marc is a movie set designer, when he isn’t off in India. Marc says we must cross rue des Écoles to see a special painting in a bookshop window. I have walked up this street many times, yet never seen this painting.

Its the fox and the crow from the Jean de Fontaine fable. The crow has found a piece of cheese (brie) and sits on a branch to eat it. 

The fox, wanting it for himself, flatters the crow, calling him beautiful and wondering whether his voice is as sweet to match. When the crow lets out a caw, the cheese falls and is devoured by the fox. The moral:

1. Quick thinking solves many problems

2. Never trust a flatterer

The funny thing is Marc is from the town of Meaux outside Paris, famous for its mustard and Brie. 

We turn down rue des Bernardines and there is a huge Nativity scene in front of the college. 

Finally crossing Pont Sully, almost home, we marvel at the passing bateaux mouches. Marc knows their names. This one is called ‘Hope’. We have been walking 3 hours!

I run inside, grab my puffer coat, gloves, hat and rush off to catch the terrific film Mascarade at Lost in Frenchlation (new French films with English subtitles) in the Marais. The first movies I’ve seen in years and I am loving it ❤️ What a long ‘shaggy dog story’ this has turned into. TMI PBers? 

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               ❤️ 🥐  ☕️ ❤️ Bonjour Vendredi ❤️ ☕️ 🥐  ❤️