Nous sont Parisian

The others have gone off shopping for a couple of hours so I will seize the opportunity to make a good mug of French coffee and pop my feet up on the wrought iron balcony rail in the sunshine and 'do some blog'. We are keeping things quite local here so far and apart from Molly's birthday dinner in St Germain we have stuck to our very own arrondissement. But there is much to do and see in this neighbourhood with good cafes and bars and a particularly excellent patisseries just on the corner which has become a favourite. The apartment up on the 4th floor of a 16th century building (there is a tiny lift which is extremely cosy for two) but well equipped with the mod cons we need to have these days but at the same time retains it's charm with full height French doors in every room making the place light and airy and old fireplaces etc. There is a good outlook across a large treed courtyard to other similar buildings and there must be a school nearby as I can hear but not see children playing. We are 50 metres from the  Canal du St Martin which cuts through Paris from the seine to some other river north of here and it is lined with parkways and beautiful old bridges. The area is not touristy and the people seem more helpful and and patient. We have some longish chats with people in our broken French.

Yesterday we visited the local market and bought a few treaty things then later after enjoying the singing pageant we had a picnic in the park beside the canal until the police came through blowing their whistles shrilly at 10pm and kicked everyone out.