Musing in the Museum

Another glorious day in Paris today as summer gets her sea-legs back.

As I walked back from my yoga class (bilingual tonight, so slightly less demanding in terms of concentration to keep up with the class than last week’s lesson tout en francais) the restaurants, bars and cobbled laneways of the Marais were buzzing with people out enjoying the warm evening breeze.

There’s always such a sense of excitement and activity in the air on nights like this; the Cité is humming too with atelier doors thrown open and the sound of residents chatting into the night.

I visited the marvelous National Museum of the Middle Ages - Musée Cluny today, a treasure trove of arts and crafts - painting, sculpture, weaving, stained glass, stonemasonry and metalwork from the 10th century onwards and housed in the site of the former Roman Baths. The centerpiece of the museum is the stunning Lady with the Unicorn series of tapestries, so intricately and expertly executed and with such odd subject matter, that I found them quite spellbinding.

Anxious not to waste the beautiful weather indoors, I also paid an all-to-short visit to the Jardins des Plantes (Botanical Gardens) - passing en route the stunning façade of the Institute du Monde Arabe, which also deserves a more leisurely return visit - where all the world seemed to be out enjoying the sun too.

It’s funny, but it already seems like there are many more people back in the city since even last weekend, the shutters of the hibernating bars and boulangeries are being sleepily opened and blinking in the full glare of a return to routine. I’m so pleased I’m going to be here in Paris for a few months to get a sense of the changes in the city as the rentrée (Back to School) grinds into full swing and the seasons change.