Paris, 22 April 2012

Sunday and we are becoming more acclimated to Paris.  There seems to be much more going on here than in Australia.  After a slow start, we went for a coffee at Le Nord-Sud and then did our grocery shopping.  If you wonder why we do so much shopping, there are two reasons.  First, everything is nice and fresh as well as being close by.  Second, we have a very small refrigerator so cannot buy in bulk even if we wanted to. Small flats have small fridges (and small stove-top cookers).

Even though it was Sunday, we were able to get our fresh vegetables from the greengrocer, our fish from the Poissionaire and a rotisseried chicken from the Bucherie.

Strolling home, we discovered "vide grenier" or "empty attic."  This is the equivalent of an Australian garage sale or English car boot sale.  The difference is that it took up several blocks.  Lots of junk interspersed with the occasional piece of quality goods. It was very busy as you can see from the pictures below.

Returning to our having coffee, this is as much a social activity as anything else.  We often find ourselves in conversation with others and even when we are on our own we spend anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half lingering over our coffee (and sometimes a shared pain au chocolat), reading a book or a newspaper.

One reason it may have been so busy today was that it is the first round of the French elections.  There will be a run-off in May of the top two candidates from the ten competing today.  It has been fascinating to observe the front-runners (one flamboyant, the other dull) and the candidates from the far right national front and the far left socialist communist alliance. Tomorrow we will let you know who the two leaders are, but, at the moment, we predict they will be M. Sarkozy and M. Hollande.