Luksusmuija Pariisissa: Theatre, forest and other fun on my holiday

My holiday is getting towards its end. I have been a lot at home, relaxing, baking, learning Vietnamese… Though I have also enjoyed going around in the city a few times. I have walked together with H and with a friend of mine who came to visit Paris. My friend is also from Finland, but we have never met in Finland. She came to be the next au pair to the family I worked for in the Netherlands, so we became friends there.

On the island of Notre Dame

The first flowers have been blooming for a couple of weeks already.

An outdoor market is selling also birds. I was so surprised!

Seeing a pianist playing on the streets was new for me, as well.

I also registered for the city bikes in Paris. So handy
on short distances and costs only 3,10€ per month.

When my friend was here, it happened to be almost summerly warm (on the best day up to +20 degrees), so it was wonderful to walk around together.

This is a good example of the unexpected great sights that you don't look for but just coincidentally
notice when walking on the streets. Paris is so full of awesome churches and other buildings.

A cute corner on our way to Montmarte.

Sacre Coeur

There really is a big tower at the end of the Sacre Coeur church.
One just never sees is on the pictures taken from the front.

The view to the city from the doors of Sacre Coeur.

I have also enjoyed being at home with spare time, so that I can cook and admire my views here.

What a scary job they have...

Last weekend I spent in Germany, but this week has been more relaxing again. The most interesting events for me have been going to the theatre on Thursday, to H’s gig on Friday and to Chevreuse on Saturday. We wanted to experience some culture, so we booked tickets to a comedy show of a small theatre. It surely was a small theatre because it only had one small hall and there were 9 people in the audience for the two-people show on Thursday. I thought I would understand more of the play than a year ago when I experienced French theatre for the first time, but this “Tel pere, telle fille” (=”Like father, like daughter”) was based on the discussions between the father and the grown-up daughter who wants to tell him that she is pregnant. I could understand less than half of what they said. Before the show we quickly went to see Eiffel tower as well since we were nearby anyway.

Friday evening I went to see when one of H’s bands performed in a quite big place that I was told was an old hospital. Never before when I have been on their gig, was it in such a big place with such a big audience. The atmosphere was absolutely great when two brass instrument bands played music for the whole evening!

Yesterday we decided to go more to the nature. That’s what truly makes me relaxed and it is something different for us compared to the busy Paris. We took RerB train to the south to Saint-Remy-les-Chevreuse and walked toward a nearby Wildlife park because we tried to find a wild forest, not a human-made park. After 40 minutes of walking from the station we came to a village where we quickly visited its church that was a very lovely old stone church, and then continued uphills to a castle that we noticed from a distance. Chateau de la Madeleine looked also old, from the Middle Ages, and it offered a nice view over the village and fields and forests that surround it. Yet, we had still not reached our main target, a forest. We decided to take roads from behind the castle and hoped to be able to walk in the woods that we saw. And finally all of our walking was rewarded. I got to run on a yellow leaf carpet that covered the whole forest and balance on fallen trees. It was so peaceful with no other human voice in addition to us, and no other creatures visible than some small birds and as a huge surprise three running deers! I have never before seen wild deers, at least so close. The trip to Chevreuse felt like another trip to another country during this holiday for me. It could not have been better!