May 19, 2026
What I saw today in Paris – Nothing and everything surprises me here.
- A man in handcuffs on the street, his scooter sitting beside him, surrounded by what could only have been plain clothes officers.
A woman being interviewed in the Marais with dozens of people watching. I’m assuming she was quite famous.
No less than three fashion shoots during my walk around the Marais. Like, actual fashion shoots, not wannabees with iPhones. One model was obviously une femme d’un certain age but she was stunning with an amazing figure.
The serene and exquisite monument to those lost in 2015 to terrorist shootings in Paris.
Visits to three museums and an historic library—just in this neighbourhood—that I have never visited before.
Paris truly is a moveable feast!
Oh while we’re on that subject, I finally found out what that name means. You know in Catholicism, they have the various holy days? Well, Christmas is celebrated on the same day every year, 25 December, along with plenty of other Saints days and fetes that are observed on the same day each year. I believe they’re called ‘fixed’ feasts or fetes. But some, like Easter, or Pacques in French, is a moveable feast! There are a few others, too. The moveable holidays were those that changed with the moon and farming. (I read a book recently called A Year in Paris by John Baxter. Highly recommend for any die-hard French history nerds.)
My first full day in Paris began with the world’s best croissant from Maison d’Isabelle at Place Maubert. The market wasn’t on today so the line was only 20 people deep, not 50. I crossed the city to get it—two trains and a bit of walking. Totally worth it. I’m trying to limit myself to just 1 pastry a day…
I wandered around the 5th arrondisement in a post-croissant reverie, past Notre Dame de Paris with her chiming bells and streams of visitors and back over the bridge to the Right Bank. I visited The Biblioteque Historique de la Ville de Paris, a beautiful and ancient building with a gorgeous, sympathetic 70s era addition. I was so surprised with the guide said ‘70s’ because that’s not an era known for it’s attractive architecture.
But then, we are in Paris!
Then I walked a few kilometres admiring the beauty literally everywhere before stopping at the Musee Carnavalet, the museum dedicated to the history of Paris. It’s enormous. I got lost a few times. So many amazing exhibits from the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras right through to the Revolution and beyond.
Without leaving the arrondissement, I went to the Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris, built just before the Place Dauphine. The Place des Vosges straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements.
On a still evening, with a window thrown open, he may have even heard the bells of Notre Dame, home of his hunchback hero.
You can read more about it on The Good Life France.
This trip is about writing but it’s also about doing stuff I’ve never done before in Paris. I have been to the Place des Vosges but I’ve never eaten there so today I had a nice relaxed lunch and read the book I bought yesterday, a slim novella called Foster by Clare Keegan.
I could have sat there all day but it was time to get moving again. I crossed the very busy square full of locals and tourists enjoying the sunny weather, to the opposite side and visited Maison Victor Hugo, the beautiful and slightly bonkers apartments of the great French writer of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Hugo saved the cathedral from ruin by raising money to restore it. When he died there were hundreds of thousands of mourners in the streets of Paris and the sex workers took a day off in his honour. He was their best customer apparently.
I didn’t get lost in the narrow apartment, unlike the Carnavalet – I swear there are still people wandering around in there since yesterday! The cafe downstairs at Maison Victor Hugo, Cafe Mulot, has a light bright interior so very different to Hugo’s rooms above and a leafy garden complete with a fountain. I’ll be heading there tomorrow to write and enjoy the quiet beauty of a Parisian courtyard.
This post was originally published on Substack.
