The Marais

21 April 2007

Le Weekend!

The first nice thing about the weekend is that Virginia didn't have to get up at an unseemly hour. When the alarm went off at 6.30 she mumbled an unrepeatable expletive in French and disappeared under the covers not to emerge until almost 9.00!

Even in France and even on holiday, there are still tasks to be done so we spent some of the day doing laundry and cleaning the flat. Enough said.

We made our way down to the Marais and wandered about for several hours. It is an old section of Paris and being essentially Jewish is quieter to visit on a Saturday because many of the shops are closed for the Sabbath. This was probably for the best since many of the food shops called forth, in Bruce, at least, supressed memories of his youth. One lovely bread and pastry shop had latkes and bagels and Challah and knishes among other delicacies. We passed a number of shops selling religious items and Bruce will be going back next week to get a new Mezuzah. This consists of religious texts from Deuteronomy inscribed on parchment and rolled up in a case that is attached to the doorframe of Jewish households in accordance with Jewish law.

We walked by the oldest house in Paris, dating from the early sixsteenth century. It is half-timbered and very beautiful and well preserved. Then, going to the other extreme, we wandered through some of the most exclusive haute couture shopping areas. Fortunately they were mostly closed.

Virginia had homework to do so of necessity we returned to the flat where she did what she needed to do while Bruce went to update this blog.

While we were wandering around the Marais, we made our way to the Mairie of the third arondissment where we intended to get a local map. Each of the twenty arondissments in Paris has a Mairie or Town Hall and each provides a variety of services. Saturday seems to be the day on which they are largely used for civil marriages. Any other time of the week, you can obtain all of their services including a free detailed map of the area. These are absolutely marvelous for exploring the local areas. If you arrive in Paris, no matter where you are staying, we suggest you go to the local Mairie and pick up one of these detailed maps to explore your area.

A few days ago we wrote about the smells of Paris. Like any big city, it also has a lot of noises that are quite distinctive. Of course there is the sound of vehicles; fire engines, ambulances and police cars, but more than that there is also the sound of general traffic, people talking and calling one to another, and all sorts of other sounds. Listening to it, one can't help but admire the way in which George Gershwin captured Paris sounds in "An American in Paris."