Today was a day that I had been looking forward to -- visiting the Marche Bastille farmers' market -- written up in the tour guides as the "if you can only see one farmers' market in Paris, this is the one!" I have news for the guide writers, it's not the "one" -- it's not even close!
It was okay, of medium size and variety but really touristy -- every fifth stall seemed to be selling souvenirs or Paris"y" hats and tee-shirts and snow globes and scarves -- and the tourists were there to buy! It sounds somewhat dramatic to say it had no "soul", but this one didn't -- it felt like a tourist trap with food stands. At most of the other markets there was what seemed like "greeting" between customers and vendors -- like they'd known each other for years -- here, pure civil interaction was the best they could do. I was also somewhat disappointed because it was located on such an important historical site, the Bastille (torn down long ago) and was in the shadow of a huge jade-colored column topped by a beautiful gold-colored statue of Victory -- the Bastille deserves better!
Anyway it was a short farmers' market visit -- bought a couple of baking potatoes for dinner this week and some flat bread -- and walked back to the apartment.
Sat outside in the sun on the balcony sipping coffee and eating some delicioius toasted brown bread thinking about some of the famous writers and painters who spent time here working and how their lives at that time were probably not as romantic as the movies portray it -- picking-up little side comments at the museums and seeing photos and pen and ink drawings showing their everyday life.
Then, looking out over the roof tops of Paris on a beautiful blue sky, sunny day and realizing how fortunate I was to be here having this dream-like experience, and how I missed certain people back in the States, and socializing at the Meet-Up events and missing my "adopted" cats when the Platters song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" started playing in the background -- got a little nostalgic -- that is, until the inexpensive folding chair I was sitting on collapsed underneath me, sending me to the ground -- sometimes Fate seems to have a way of unexpectedly slapping you in the face just to keep it real! Now I have a new quest to find a replacement chair!!
