Le week-end

We awoke on Saturday to sunshine, so we went out for a morning walk, down through Le Marais, over Île Saint-Louis and Île de la Cité, heading for Treize Bakery in the 6ème. We had a delicious brunch there and shall return with Mama and Chris in a couple of weeks!

Notre-Dame in the sunshine

On the way back, we stopped by the Musée de Cluny: Musée National du Moyen Âge as it was just round the corner and spent a happy hour or so there. I'd never been before, but it's probably my favourite museum that we've been to so far on this trip. The collection is housed in both a dramatic medieval building and an old Roman baths, absolutely beautifully renovated and curated. It really is a lovely museum. We saw plenty of medieval architectural carvings, some Roman carvings and mosaics (to Patrick's delight), a temporary exhibition on the European fascination with the unicorn in Middle Ages, and, of course, the famous(ish) C15th set of tapestries "The Lady and the Unicorn", still richly coloured and full of obscure symbolism. I thought they were incredible.

Medieval apostles

On Sunday we tried the Marché aux Puces de Saint Ouen, the bigger and supposedly better flea market to the north of the centre of Paris. It was another cold day so for the first time we both wore an extra layer - Patrick had three in total (which is unheard of!) and I was in four. This had a much nicer vibe - still the lone thieves offering a single mobile phone, but once we got past the stalls immediately by the station, we found ourselves in little winding alleyways full of art deco chairs, antique linen tablecloths, vintage clothes, fur coats, tea sets, glass bottles and prints (we bought one - our only purchase!). We had a fun time wandering about before succumbing to hunger - so we headed back to Haut Marais for lunch!

Literally seconds after leaving the bakery

Now for an early night before our third week of school...