Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and others have sung about their love of Paris in the Springtime, all thanks of course to Cole Porter.  Although this spring Paris is cold and wet.  Our puffer jackets came back out of hibernation for our first two days in Paris.  On Thursday we first made our way to the Australian Embassy where Cherrie applied for an emergency passport. Our taxi driver wove in and out of the traffic and defied every road rule known to man. Well, most men, but clearly not Frenchmen.  They are crazier than the Italians behind the wheel, I swear it.  I wonder what it must be like for a Parisian taxi driver to take a cab in Sydney?  I’m sure the order and speed, or lack thereof, would alarm him and quite ruin his holiday.  He surely would want to take the wheel and throw some (more) chaos into the streets of Sydney.

Getting a new passport is all routine for the Embassy, passports are stolen or lost all the time, and it was an efficient process.  We met a couple whose passports were stolen from their AirBnB apartment in Bordeaux, in a break in, and another couple who were pick pocketed on the metro.  She had their passports in a small shoulder bag which sat tightly against her hip.  Passports and cash gone, and she didn’t feel a thing.  We are now extremely possessive of our bags and clutch them as if they were new born babies.  The new passport will be ready for collection on Monday.  That’s a weight off Cherrie’s shoulders.

The Embassy is situated in an unremarkable curved building but very close to the Eiffel Tower so in a very impressive position.

We walked all the way back, along the Seine, umbrellas up most of the time.  This is a city built for walking so it is no impediment to do so.  Even in the rain the architecture and design of the city is beautiful and remains a feast for the eyes, no matter how often one visits.  Which is actually not very often.  So we walked 15km back to our hotel in the Latin Quarter, and we took all day to do it.  We stopped to take photos along the way, and of course we had lunch.  Who’da thought it?

Police cars and sirens everywhere

pushing their way through the traffic in such a way that we thought they were reacting to the Egyptian Air plane going down, as reported this morning.  There were so many of them, including an astonishing vehicle which looked like a futuristic army tank or something from outer space.  Cherrie says she saw these vehicles in Peru in 1979 where they were used to clear riots by spraying tear gas.  She knows, because she and her friend Vix were fired on by one.  And you thought Cherrie was such a law abiding citizen.

We walked past the most wonderful vertical garden designed by Patrick Blanc which is part of the Musee Quai Branly

 and we thought we might visit the Musee d’Orsay, one of our favourites in the world, but the crowds put us right off. We need to book in advance for these museums.  But I couldn’t resist the temptation to take a photo of this, which might remind you of me – an enormous pig as well as a bore

On the Seine we saw a barge which we reckon our very own Captain Gaz could steer through the most challenging of locks

 Friday was still wet and cold, but undeterred we put on our rain gear  and headed off for a day of walking.  First to Notre Dame

where we noticed these tourists trying to get in the back door, as it were

The Cardinal’s vegetable garden was being prepared

but at the front door he had so many visitors that we decided to leave him alone, and we kept walking around the Île de la Cité, where we also saw a wonderful plant exhibition encouraging, and educating, Parisians to re-green their environment by planting in small areas

Pavement art is still alive and well in this city and we thought this one was particularly timely as a message to the Turnbull government

 Our walk took us to the Pompidou Centre where we spent a few hours marvelling at the collection.  The special exhibition was works by Paul Klee, ‘L’Ironie a l’Oeuvre’ (The Irony is the Work) which frankly made as much sense as the title, but it did show the incredible breadth of his work

Great views from the Pompidou too

 

 We walked back through the Marais district and loved these flower markets.  The colours of those hydrangeas!

And, Mrs Mac, look at these peonies

The sirens were in evidence all day today, too, and we think that this is just part of Paris life now, and not in response to any particular major threat.  There’s lots of uniformed officers on the streets, army as well as police, evident with their big guns.   Other changes we have noticed in Paris since our last visit are the enormous ferris wheel on the Place de la Concorde, and the lack of glamour on the streets.  Once the locals, of both gender, were dressed beautifully but these days we feel much more at home, even in Vera’s rain hat.

Tata for now.