Pro tip: don’t plan to spend the day shopping on a Sunday in France. Almost all of the stores (outside the big tourist areas) are closed. The attitude here is that Sundays are for family. It can be somewhat difficult if you haven’t figured out your plans, but I like the idea that everyone takes a day to relax. When the weather is nice, we like to have a picnic in the park. It’s also the day when we do a big clean of the apartment to reset for the coming week.
I’ve been helping a friend with the social media for her new café (please give her a follow!) and she was telling me that you have to apply for special permission to open your store up on a Sunday. And, even then, it can be very difficult to get approval. There are specific weekends where it’s ok to open without approval (the weekends before Christmas are a big one). This weekend was a big festival in our arrondissement and most of the stores were open both days. So, of course, we left our neighborhood and took the bus up to Saint Cyr instead.
I made a little video to show some of what we saw. I loved the little pedal-powered carousel!
Kristian stumbled onto the Fête last year, after a long hike with Lumi. He wanted to go again as a bit of a tradition. Lilian and I can’t keep up with him on a long hike, so I got to sleep in (she even made me breakfast in bed!). We did our weekly clean and she impressed me by getting groceries all on her own. She went to the marché (to get fruits and veggies) as well as the supermarket. A trip to the marché involves speaking in French with strangers, so I’m always super proud when she volunteers to go on her own.
We biked along the river to one of the big bus stations and then we took a bus to meet Kristian. I’m sure there will come a time that a bus becomes just a regular form of transportation. But I’m still at the point where I have to pinch myself a bit when I look out the window at the scenery.
After the fête, we all took the bus back down and we went to see some friends for some Sunday sugar. What’s that? It’s a term that I just made up. It means that Lilian and our friend J made cookies while I practiced my French with her partner. (We also inhaled an apple tart from the fête.) I’m currently in two different training programs (more on that in a future post), so I’ve got a head full of the French language. It makes me oh so very tired, but I also think it’s improved my French quite a bit. We were able to hold a pretty decent conversation.
P taught me my favorite new phrase in French: “Au bout du rouleau.” It’s loosely equivalent to “at the end of my rope” or “at the end of my tether,” but it literally means “at the end of the roll.” Based on my basic googling, it comes from bankers running out of paper that came on rolls. But, I like to think of it as being down to that last square of toilet paper.
(Oh, the horror.)
One of the reasons we moved to France was for a change of pace. We wanted to slow down and spend more time enjoying life. And lazy Sundays definitely fit that bill. What are some ways that you like to relax on a Sunday?
