I awoke to find the studio lit with sunshine…but it looked very cold. Nice to see the ET out of the window.
Fortunately the lift was repaired this morning as I brought back my few provisions from the local Franprix. My Danish friend, Gitte will be proud of me, strolling along, like a real parisienne, with my red shopping trolley ( not quite my colour but, what can you do darling? it comes with the studio!)
It IS cold, the pharmacy thermometer says -2 but the wind chill makes it feel much colder, but ti is also gloriously sunny. Wrapped up in my down coat with my thermals underneath I am cosy.
My mission today was to check out the location of the studio and apartment booked for April and July, so line 9 took me straight to Oberkampf just a few yards from the apartment where cafe Longe costs 1euro 10cents at the bar. I really like the Oberkampf area, it is my current favourite “hood”. The French call it BO BO = Bourgeois, Bohemian. I don’t know what that means, I just think it has an urban realism to it. There are trendy shops, and traditional cafes, but most of all there are French speaking people who actually live there and not tourists…..I expect the Marias was like this before it became overun with tourists….. am turning into a tourist snob! LOL!
Too cold to sit outside.
I visited the church of Ste Elizabeth de Honchos for a meeting and met some nice people. This is very much part of my Paris experience and my search for spiritual enlightenment,… one of my reasons for coming to Paris alone. Here stripped of all my normal roles I have at home, I can truly be anonymous and be myself.
My plan was to go to the Hammas today, but as I was leaving the meeting, I heard a young man pracitising a chello and he told me there was a concert on at 1600h. So the Hammas will wait for another day and the rest afternoon is filled with window shopping, relaxing, reading my book, sipping chocolat chaud and people watching. What you SHOULD do in Paris.
On the metro I sit opposite two women gossiping. In soft luxuriousn fur coats, and shiny leather boots, with beautiful scarves and chic hats, indiscernible make up. They epitomise the middle class, middle aged, French women with that understated elegance though I suppose I emulate unconsciously but NEVER achieve. Having said that, As I later observe people from a cafe in the Marias I realise that one of the freedoms of Paris is that, as there are so many facets to Paris, non conformism is accepted here . All those TA threads about what to wear and anxiety to not look like a tourist are nonsense. I watch as effeminate gay couples pass by. Old ladies in fur coats and purple hats. Men in fur coats and trilbys, young girls in shorts and thick tights, all sexes in Russian hats, all colours of clothes, all kinds of footwear. It seems the only dress code is a scarf and Buddy Holly glasses.
Love Denise
COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME.
COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME.
PEOPLE TELL ME THEY HAVE DIFFICULTY POSTING. I THINK YOU NEED A GOOGLE ACCOUNT.
IF YOU HOVER OVER THE RIGHT HAND MARGIN OF THE HOME PAGE, IT WILL GIVE YOU A MENU. CLICK ON “FOLLOWERS” OR “SUBSCRIBE” AT THE BOTTOM AND SEE IF THAT WORKS
denisefrombolton 
Very proud of you indeed, Denise !!The BoBos are the smart mediapeople, architects, intellectuals, literature-critics, eco-zealots etc… who scoff at anything comfortable, cozy and down-to-earth. They buy up "lofts" and apartments in former-scruffy neighbourhoods, like Belleville, throw out the unwashed and then feel quite smug and hip at living in a "blue collar" place…… Provided that there are no blue collars left, of course. Oh, and of course they always vote for the socialists – no doubt secretly wishing that the socialists will never regain full power, as that may threaten their own privileges.The BoBo's would rather be torn to pieces by wild dogs than being caught at watching Downton Abbey… LOL !
LikeLike
Oh dear, I hope no unwashed have been thrown out so I can stay there. Still, it explains why I feel at home, I am a working class girl through and through,
LikeLike