I recently blogged about a picnic Scott and I had near the Eiffel Tower. I realized that we have these picnics every single year we go to Paris... it's truly one of our favorite things to do.
So simple, so relaxing, and well, romantic.
Here are some of our random picnics we've enjoyed over the years. If you ever go to Paris,
I highly recommend it!
On our first trip, we went here to buy our food... we had NO idea what we were doing...my heart was actually pounding as I walked through here and tried to pick up the vibes and figure out what to do. Rules, rules, rules... only in France! They really prefer to choose the fruit for you in this kind of market. However, in the grocery store, you are supposed to weigh the fruit yourself and mark it... seriously? When I got to the counter with unweighed fruit, all kinds of French was being spoken to me... I finally said, "Never mind," and sheepishly walked off. Of course, Scott is always standing three feet behind me, acting like he doesn't know me. He's really good at sending me ahead to get all the foolishness out of the way, before he enters the picture to pay.
We must have figured it out, because here we are at Tuileries.
Another spot by the tower... the hat... I know! Embarrassing! 
Scott feeding the pigeons some of our strawberries.
A random picnic at the Louvre. See our must have item... the strawberry tart.
You can't tell, but here we are at Luxembourg Gardens, our #1 spot in the WORLD!
Click on this photo and you can see the elderly couple walking together in the center... Scott and I hope that's us someday...still visiting Paris years from now~
Oh, notice the green chairs I'm always talking about that are almost in every park we've ever been to... straight-back, straight-back with arms, and lean-back with arms. It's always a chore to find two empty lean-backs together. Oh... they weigh a LOT, and are hard to drag around. Maybe that's why they stay put day after day. I'm afraid in America, someone would back up their giant truck and haul them off. I guess the thought is... if you see one of these chairs on someone's balcony, or in their apartment, you KNOW it's stolen... LOL.
11 comments:
Strawberry tarts! Ooh la la! Happy Mother's Day, Teri!
Hugs,
Debi
This post made me laugh! I live in Europe myself, and the first time I went into an American grocery store I could not figure out where to weigh the fruits and vegetables! I was walking around the store for ages! Then, I finally summoned up the courage to ask someone. His response: "Weigh? What?"
Love, love, love y'all's picnics. But I soooo understand your heart thumping grocery shopping experience. Such little things like when we went grocery shopping in the Loire in France and were scurrying to sack our own groceries, after paying for the plastic bags we would need. it was so flustering, not frustrating (because each country has there own special way, I am sure), because you just don't want to stick out and cause problems. But those little breakthroughs, ie, handling yourself in a busy Patisserie/boulangerie, ordering a meal in a locals French only restaurant, and asking for a toilette, give you a fuller experience by making you step out of your comfort zone for sure.
I've been craving a nice picnic! And dreaming of the French countryside lately! Hope you had a marvelous Mothers day!
When you weigh the food do you have to write it down? How do you remember if you are buying a lot of things? Does it print out a sticker or something? This sounds like a lot of pressure, especially in another language.
I think a little paper spits out near the scale thing, but you have to know the fruit name in French, and when I'm under pressure all my French lessons fail me... we never bought fruit in a grocery store after the first failure... we stuck to the markets. Oh... and there are all these rules about bagging, and how to bag, and all kinds of stuff. We have it down now, but when we go back in the fall, they may change it all again.
Whenever we do go in a grocery store (which is totally yuck usually) we try and stock up... then as we are bagging we look at each other and start laughing b/c we remember we have to CARRY it all up the HILL to the apartment. It's really stressful... I don't know how Scott keeps his cool... it remains an unsolved mystery!!!!
Love your photos and stories. You have gotten so brave, girl.
Do you realize you are now teaching French lessons and I don;t mean the language! Think how helpful all this will be when all these ladies make it to Paris. They will be telling their husbands how to bag their fruit purchase, "a la Teri."
You've come a long way from chili in a Mexican Restuarant.
Char
Did you hear that, Teri?? You have gotten so brave! You ARE doing so much -- and sharing Paris and your adventures here with us is not even the half of it! ;)
Living vicariously,
Ruth
I get what you're saying Ruth... but there's still so much more... if I can only figure out what that is!
Oh gosh, this just made me so nervous. We leave in less than two weeks and Rosetta Stone has told me nothing about bagging groceries!
I can't wait to have a picnic in Paris!
I know I am so late on this post...anyway, great post. I absolutely LOVE that picture of you Teri sitting on the bench with the tower in the background...and yes, I like the hat, too! :)
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