Sunny afternoon

Paris feels so different when the sun is shining.
Monday was one of those days when you feel glad to be alive.
I had a busy afternoon but decided to be a few minutes late to my knitting group...so I could walk instead of metro from Concorde over to the American Church.I took dozens of photos of the same views I have photographed about a hundred times before.The Seine was a beautiful sparkling blue instead of her usual muddy gray-green...And the lamps on the pont Alexandre were glinting in the sunlight.If Paris is this lovely in February, I can't wait until April....

Square des Batignolles

Last Wednesday I took a long walk around my neighborhood and found my way to this little park, about fifteen minutes from my apartment.I instantly loved it. It's sort of like the Parc des Buttes Chaumont on a tiny scale (it was designed by the same guy, as a matter of fact.) It's got all the fake natural beauty elements you find in these English-garden style parks.A man-made pond with plenty of ducks and birds. Rocky, moss-covered cliffs (though they're only a few meters high).A little rustic bridge, perfect for standing and gazing at the water.A gazebo that is highly reminiscent of the sound of music.It even has a path dedicated to one of my new favorite French singers, Barbara.And flower beds with a few flowers blooming already, in February!

My new apartment

Front door (that's our balcony on the left with all the plants on it.)Front entrywayMy bedroomThe bathroom, which is, believe it or not, much bigger than my previous one.Living/dining room (yes, it's a bit spartan.)The view looking down my street.
Looking the other direction.

Sunday afternoon

The lovely Tiffany stained glass windows in the American Church in ParisWalking (part of the way) home from churchMany of the French surrealists and symbolist poets whom I got acquainted with this semester (Aragon, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Appollinaire) used to frequent the terrasse of this famous cafe.My companions waiting for me at home. I'm going to miss these two.

Alésia

This is the neighborhood where I'm currently living and cat-sitting.It's definitely a step up from my last neighborhood in terms of atmosphere.I'll be moving again to a new neighborhood on the opposite side of the city next week.And in other news, I took my final oral exam yesterday and so my course at the Sorbonne is officially over. I'm taking a trip to Germany next week to visit an old friend from graduate school. When I get back, I'll have to sort out the details of what I'll be doing with myself all spring.The elevator here was out of service a couple days ago. I only ended up making one trip climbing the 9 floors to the apartment before a neighbor told me how to take the elevator on the opposite side of the building to the 10th floor, climb one flight to the roof, and cross over to the other stairwell where I walk down two floors to my apartment. The fortuitous part of this is that I got to discover the view from the roof.You can actually see the tour eiffel from my bedroom window, too, but the view from the roof is even better.One of my charges making himself comfortable on top of my laundry.

Back in Paris

A month or so ago a friend told me about a little neighborhood called the Cité Florale near Cité Universitaire in the 14th, which is not too far from where I live. So today, when I forced myself to venture out for a walk (still feeling extremely groggy and jet-lagged) I took the tram over there and wandered around until I managed to find it. It was tiny but adorable, as she had said.You can still see the tops of the ugly buildings in the surrounding area peeking above these little cottages.But this little cluster of homes itself is so sweet.It doesn't feel like Paris at all.On the trip over there, I was happy to spot some posters on the tramway displaying poetry. Since I just discovered Jacques Prévert this fall and am now a big fan, I snapped a picture of this one of his.

The sun is still shining!

Tuesday was another bright and sunny day. I stopped on the Pont Neuf to snap these photos looking west towards the Eiffel Tower...and east towards the Ile de la Cité.A closer shot of the conciergerie, which is seven hundred years old and is the oldest palace in the city.

On Wednesday afternoon I met up with Jacques, my former French host father whose family I lived with for five months in 1994.We had a very nice lunch together at La Rotonde. Hopefully he wasn't too embarrassed when I made the hostess take a picture of us. He hasn't changed very much in seventeen years. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of his family when they come back to Paris in January.