Day 13 in France

Wildflowers at Les Jardin des Plantes

It was a sunny, summery Sunday in Paris. We managed to leave the apartment at the crack of noon and take the subway down for our first stop of the day, the organic market on the rue Raspail.

My Mom had never been to this fruit, cheese, vegetable, bread, flower, textile, fish and meat market so we made sure to walk it from one end to the other.

From the Raspail market we made our way to the Luxembourg Gardens which is pretty spectacular anytime but never more so on such a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We checked out the kids sailing their boats in the central pond, the Medici fountain, lovers entwined on benches, families having picnics and all of the beautiful allées the I am so enamoured with.

Luxembourg Gardens

From the gardens we made our way to the Pantheon, and then we were off to rue Mouffetard to check out some great food shops and restaurants. Some of the food shops were closed as we arrived right at lunch time, but there were plenty of lively places for us to explore.

Rue Mouffetard restaurant

Since we were already in the 5th we decided we would just carry on and check out Les Jardin des Plantes which neither my Mom nor I had ever been to. I must say that we were both quite enamoured by the scene here. On this lovely day the botanical gardens were crammed with families but it was still easy to navigate and explore.  We had a list of highlights that we hoped to see and do, and while we didn’t manage to see everything, such as the menagerie, we did spend a good deal of time in the rose gardens and the herb gardens and the iris gardens . We sat on benches along the tree lines allées, people watching and enjoying the cool breezes and the scent from the roses nearby.

Tea roses in the rose garden at Les Jardin des Plantes

After we trekked all around the Jardin des Plantes my Mom decided it was time for her to head home to rest up for our early dinner reservation. I headed with her to the subway station and then continued to walk around the city until it was also time to wend my way home. I headed over to the St. Eustache Church before taking a left onto rue Montmartre, then a right on rue de Martyrs and then a left onto rue de Abbesses.

What luck to find the flea market that had sprung up right in from of the Abbesses metro station. I poked about in the mishmash of treasures and came across a sign of the good things to come:

Flea market treasures

I made it home by 7 pm and soon after Mom and I headed out to have dinner just down the street. We talked about our day and whether we might come back to Paris again next year. Mom is voting yes. I am taking it as another good sign…