June in Paris

This is the busiest month because first of July the school year ends and nearly every child will leave Paris for vacation. With the child often the parents and the one months vacation starts for a large part of people. Before leaving there are the SALES - les Soldes - and well organized mothers buy the vacation wardrobe for the family. I am not a shopper and found out, that these halved prices now keep me from buying when the sales are over because I think about the 50 % mark up (at least) ..... better to wait and buy in the US where there is a SALE all the time somewhere and not regulated like here to a certain time.

Wonderful jardin de Bagatelle

All year round it is a pleasure to visit Bagatelle which is a garden on the upper east side of the Bois de Boulogne. The owner is the town of Paris and they keep it in perfect condition with many gardeners. Different areas with their specialties are the focal point at different times of the year. Starting in May the world known Rose garden is the main attraction with its thousands of roses in all sizes and shades from white over yellow to dark red.
Time to smell the roses ...... and watch out for the bees!

The perennial garden is just as spectacular and during the year we can always meet 'old friends' flowering again and offering all their beauty to us.

First Communion

A special day for Alice and we all enjoyed the service in the church when she and fourteen other young girls and boys had their first communion for which they had prepared themselves on many Sunday mornings.

Her parents organized a delicious lunch which lasted several hours. We did not notice the time, because we ate wonderful food in good company and were even accompanied by live music:


A sweet ending before we had to say 'au revoir' and Good bye.

Modern Art Museum

The 'Centre Pompidou' is the National Museum of Modern Art - which means that it is closed on Tuesdays as all National Museums (like the Louvre for example). Always one exception - bien sure - is the Musee d'Orsay which is closed Mondays. Of course, because visitors who are disappointed about the closed Louvre can walk over the bridge to the Musee d'Orsay and stand in line there.....

The Pompidou has an exhibition right now about modern Indian art. An exhibition more interesting because of the demonstration of a different approach to modern art as we in Europe think. The videos are fun to see, but tiresome to just stand and not walk around. Perhaps that is just my perception?

Next time back in the Louvre where one certainly can walk - for miles!

Fete de la musique

On June 21 all over France 'La fete de la musique' is celebrated and it starts in the evening continuing well into the early morning hours. It is the shortest day of the year and in Sweden usually Midsummer was celebrated this night. (Now practical Swedes celebrate it on the following Friday.)

Yesterday the weather was a little on the grey side in Paris and the night seemed not the shortest because of the clouds but that did not interfere with all the musicians who took the occasion to just perform wherever there was an audience.

We chose to start the evening with a dinner in La Coupole.
(http://www.flobrasseries.com/coupoleparis/en/) where they serve traditional French food: Indian curry served by Indians.....


Afterwards we took the Metro to TROCADERO to see the Eiffel tower lit up. How festive with the twinkling of the lights at 23.00. Good idea to go there and we were not the only one having this thought!

Brittany - Bretagne

The Mont. St. Michel is one of the most visited landmarks in Brittany and we were careful to avoid the crowds visiting at 4.30 PM which gave us still two hours to visit the impressive cathedral. Impressive and breath taking!



and in case you wonder where exactly this 'mountain' is:


Jotting in to the sea and visible from the (dry this year!) fields and all the pilgrims walks leading to it.

What you can do in one and a half day in Paris

Walk in and around Notre Dame and cross over the Seine to see the tokens of love....


Visit the Orangerie Museum when it opens and go down to the Monet paintings before it gets to crowded......




Walk down the Champs Elysee to the Petit Palais and have a look and a lunch.....


Walk along the Seine and the houseboats in direction Musee d'Orsay....



to see the exhibitions in there.......

Then tired and happy back to the Hotel before a nice dinner.

Perhaps one and a half day in Paris is enough?

What happens to the garden ?

Yes I wonder too - and hope on the help of the green hands (see photo) of Elmer Lima and his crew to keep the yard in shape. Of course without enough water even he can not turn a yellow lawn into luscious soft surface.

Summer during Spring time

Along the Seine opposite of Boulogne-Billancourt is this lovely park with an area to play ball - or just pretending to be on a beach far away on an Island in the Sun.

This Spring has been like Summer and some people love to just soak the rays up - but many are afraid about the lower water level. The farmers are worried that their crops are drying up and we the consumers have to be prepared for higher prices on vegetables and fruits. ( If we would buy them, not being scared off by the E-coli bacterias).

Time for leisure in Parc St. Cloud and a picnic with the family and friends.

All worries are forgotten during the four day weekend from Ascension Day June 2 to Monday June 7.

"who takes care of your garden?"

That is a question I am often asked. And here is the answer :

This blogging business is not easy!

For the last week I tried daily to continue the blog but always came on an info of Error 404 -
after checking the blogger help it turned my jet lagged head in all directions.... a hacker stole my blog site and puts 'adult' pictures in it????? PLEASE we had enough of that!
In some mysterious way I came on this page and try again.
Like on this photo (Keflavik airport) I hope for higher powers.

Otherwise - all is well - and no ashes disturbed the flight back to France.


Coming through a heavy cloud cover - La belle France!