Parisian bikes are called la petite reine

Mayor Anne Hidalgo wants to make Paris the world’s most bikeable city but we are a far cry from Amsterdam or Copenhagen. During France’s 46-day transit strike last year, however, many metro-goers switched to cycling, doubling the number of cyclists on the roads. Le vélo became known as la petite reine (the little Queen).

Then, Paris rolled out emergency bike lanes for the use of key workers during the lockdown. A total of 650 km of cycleway - including a number of "pop-up corona cycleways”- were readied when déconfinement began two weeks ago.

Bicycles were very popular in the French capital up until the 1940s. They were then gradually squeezed out by war and the boom in the auto industry. Bikes are now back in business with a 131% year-on-year rise in the number of cyclists. Car use in Paris is falling for the first time since the 1940s!

If Paris' mayor has her way, we will become the "Ville Du Quart D’Heure" (City of fifteen minutes) an ambitious plan promising that every street will have a cycle path, every bridge will have protected cycleways, and every resident can walk or cycle to get anything they need. Stay tuned...

Definitely back in Paris

The good things about Paris... les chocolatiers!

Catching the few rays of sunshine

The most efficient part of Paris by far 

Everything pretty... 

Debussy springs to mind!

Just your regular scene on a Saturday afternoon in Paris

She's a beauty any time of day or night!

Two girls with a sweet tooth

Once again, I was walking through the metro station when a poster caught my eye, primarily because it was pink and was written in a fancy font. "Salon Sugar Paris" was all it said. The message was supported by a picture of pink macaroons stacked to form a tower and a few éclairs covered in pink icing. That's all it took, I had decided where I was going to take Expat Girl this weekend.

We hopped into the metro on Saturday and crossed Paris from one end to the other, all the way to La Villette. Expat Girl astute as always asked me: "Mummy is this area more modest than the West of Paris?" This made me think for a while and I contemplated, once again, how safe Paris actually is. Given the size and cultural diversity of this city, I have never felt out-of-place on the metro or any of the arrondissements and I have ventured into all of them over the past four years.

We emerged from the metro to be greeted by blue skies and an impressive modern complex called Parc de la Villette. We ventured into La Grande Halle formerly a slaughterhouse and now a cultural center constructed in 1867, made of cast iron and glass.

We bought our tickets and arrived in cake decoration heaven. Every colour fondant, every single mold, every gadget and every accessory you can think of for baking and decorating cakes was to be found.

We ate our way from stand to stand by tasting the chocolate, the candies, the fondants, the marzipans, the mousses and the caramels. We bought a vintage baking pin and had a long conversation with a charming English lady who was demonstrating how to mix and roll fondant properly. A Spanish chef thought us how to form roses to decorate the cakes and a pair of Dutch ladies tried to sell us pink t-shirts saying "I survived Salon Sugar Paris 2015".

As I am writing this post Expat Girl is baking a cake and very excited to try all the new techniques of decorating that she has learnt this afternoon.

I'll tell you a secret though: our favourite stand was - I dare admit - the Chapon Mousse au Chocolat bar!

Welcome to Paradise

La Grande Halle de la Vilette 

A Mummy - Daughter outing

Parc de la Villette

Candy everywhere

A British invader with loads of handy tips

A Spanish concotion

Now, let's try to make these at home

KitchenAid - it's on my secret wish list 

 Yumm - too good for words

From the Bronx to Paris' metro station

A few months ago some photographs exposed in a metro station caught my attention. I thought: "Trust the French to plaster culture wherever they possibly can." It is in fact a cultural programme invitation by the RATP (Paris transportation services) to give passengers the opportunity to discover original artistic works within its transport areas.

"Sometimes I feel like the world is a place I bought a ticket to."

Walking through the underground tunnels connecting the various Paris metros, is like reading the cultural section in a newspaper. Not only will you find Department stores, holiday destinations and dating sites advertised - these are always nicer to look at than the odd car ads - you'll also find billboards for theatres, exhibitions, shows and special events. Many a time I come home to buy a ticket online after having seen the advertisement in the metro.

This is how I came across Garry Winogrand's exhibit in the Jeu de Paume, an arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media I have been meaning to visit since my arrival in Paris. It is located in the north corner of the Tuileries Gardens. Did you know that the Jeu de Paume was used from 1940 to 1944 to store Nazi plunder looted by the regime's Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce in France?

Anyway, back to Garry (1928–1984), a great American photographer, who chronicled America in the post-war years. Winogrand is still relatively unknown because he left his work unfinished at the time of his death, but he is unquestionably one of the masters of American street photography. Dying suddenly at the age of fifty-six, he left behind approximately 6,500 rolls of film (some 250,000 images) that he had never seen, as well as proof sheets from his earlier years that he had marked but never printed. Roughly half of the photographs in the exhibition have never been exhibited or published until now; over 100 have never before been printed.

My absolute favourite photo was the one below. If only pictures could talk, this shot would speak volumes!

Never a quiet moment...

People ask me how I come up with something to post every day. Well, I've got news for you. I live in Paris, there is ALWAYS something to write home about.

Take today, instead of undertaking my usual jog through the Bois de Boulogne, I decided to take a break and run some errands instead, unfortunately the Chinese president had decided on the same route as I.

After dropping off Expat girl at school, I hopped onto the metro towards the Champs Elysées. Upon emerging from underground with millions of other Parisians who were on their way to work, I realized Paris' most famous avenue had been cut off to all traffic. Not even pedestrians were allowed to cross the road.

Lots of French flags were waiving up and down the eight lanes, each one flanked by a Chinese flag. Yes, the French are real good at waving flags.

Well, commuters in Paris were left furious today when authorities closed no less than 13 Metro stations during the morning rush hour for citing security reasons for the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Paris’s transport authority provided almost no advance notice of the closures, and needless to say Parisians were NOT happy.

I, on the other hand - strolling along the sidewalk - was struck by one thing: the silence! It was a serene feeling to walk along la plus belle avenue du monde (as the French like to call it) and take in the stillness of the moment.

It might be ironic that Paris transport authorities close Metro stations on a day when pollution levels are rising again but I would like to say thank you for this delicate moment of serenity. How do you say thank you in Chinese?

Stuck in the metro ...

It was bound to happen one day! Well today it did! Expat girl and I got stuck in the metro. The tube does stop from time to time but these little incidents usually take up to three minutes max. Last night we were watching the sun set from inside a motionless metro carriage for one and a half hours. I counted myself lucky since we got stranded on the tiny little straight of underground that actually goes above ground and has quite a spectacular view onto the Eiffel Tour. I had always wanted to take a picture from this angle, today would be my day.

The conductor kept on telling us to "patienter quelques minutes". Well, while the minutes turned into hours, no one budged. All these yelling, loud, complaining Parisians ... where had they gone? Not ONE person complained. They didn't even start talking to eachother, something that would have happend immediately had we been stuck in Italy or Spain. I was flabbergasted. One by one they started pulling out their moblie phones to delay their appointments or let their loved ones know that they would be late for dinner.

Guess what, I had some homework to do myself and got cracking on cutting my paper dolls. Yes, I just happened to have a pair of scissors with me! I am sure the French thought I was mad but 90 minutes later I had much of my task done for the upcoming International Day at school.

When the BRIGADE DE SAPEURS-POMPIERS DE PARIS finally arrived one door of each wagon was opened. I was given a hand by a dark and handsome looking fireman and we all climbed down a little chicken ladder one by one. Expat girl at this point thought this was the coolest adventure she had ever had in Paris. Walking along the metro railtracks in the dark!

As we neared the closest metro station and climbed upon the railway platform I felt sad for the people I saw streaming out of the tunnel of the opposite direction. I was very grateful for having taken the latter metro - which was mainly thanks to having stopped and chatted with a friend of mine to catch up. Thanks Madame La Nageuse!

What bugs me the most? We will never know what WAS wrong with the metro! Ahh, Paris c'est Paris!

A suprise in the metro

“Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones weaken it.”
Leonardo Da Vinci

On my way across the city this morning I had to stop at Metro Auber where much to my suprise IKEA had set up an appartment shared by five roommates. Until January 14th you can peek at IKEA's  initiative to showcase development solutions for small areas.

Just another curious occurence in my Parisian life....

An unusual place to blog

You read the free newspaper, you listen to street musicians, you give beggars a coin, you try to read more than half a page of your book, you observe the other passengers and try to guess where they are from OR you can blog!

Spending time every day on Paris' Metro - the fastest and most efficient way to get around the city- I have found that blogging is a perfect activity during the rather boring underground ride.

So, imagine that you are now reading a post written about 5 meters underground zipping from one end of Paris to the other.

And it all began on July 19, 1900 during the Universal Exhibition in Paris. A second class ticket cost 15 cents, 20 cents for a return ticket and 25 cents for first class. The first metro line connected "Porte Maillot" to "Porte de Vincennes" in 30 minutes. On opening day 30,000 tickets were sold.

Following is a promotional film about Paris and it's metro system from the 1950's: