Paris in the Spring

I seem to be all over the place at the moment, in more ways than one. Last weekend I was in Antwerp, this weekend I was in Eindhoven and in Paris. It sounds pretty decadent, and it feels like that. I think it should be Amsterdam next weekend.

Paris is a strange city in many ways. When I go there I feel at home, I can find my way there, and I have enough places to go back to. At the same time there always are new places to discover and to enjoy. In some ways Paris is just like any other big city, with a lot of people and a lot of traffic everywhere, but there are all these little pockets almost, where time seems to have stood still, or where there is room to breathe.

Shopping at the Boulevard St. Michel is fun. Gibert Jeune seems to have a dozen shops there, and it took me some time to find the one I like best, the one where they have all the second hand paperbacks.

I didn't buy much, but I found some little treasures at the record shop though, like a second-hand Eleni Mandell I hadn't heard before, Cliff Richard's Small Corners (which I'd been looking for for years), and the dvd for "Demoiselle d'Avignon", which takes me back a long time, longer than I'd care to remember.

I went to the Parc Villette, to the Science Museum for an exhibition on the Poles. This is the International Polar Year, and it was interesting to see a little more of the French involvement. It's only a small exhibition, unfortunately, I had been hoping for a little more. I learned that it is hard to find volunteers to spend a winter in the Antarctic, which surprised me. I wouldn't mind spending time there.

I guess what made this a perfect trip was the weather. It really was springtime in Paris, the time of year when you don't need a coat, when you can sit down in the Jardin de Luxembourg and eat your bread and cheese there, when all the outdoor cafés are full, and you can just wander round in the sunshine.