![\"canal](\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/canal-st-Martin.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI sat higher up the bank in a small children\u2019s playground on a surprisingly comfortable wooden bench, curved to fit human contours. The playground was little strict, with a few sleek pieces of equipment on hard ground. It looks contemporary and clean, if somewhat sparse.<\/p>\n
Rain mizzled off and on, but not enough to give up my view. I considered taking shelter beneath the footbridge, but kept eating my brie and ham on baguette and before I knew it, the sun came out. For company I listened to an audiobook, (Monstrous Regiment<\/i>, by Terry Pratchett, read by the incomparable Stephen Briggs). I wanted to be able to look around at the oh-so-French cityscape across the water and at the puffy white clouds chasing each other across the periwinkle sky. The playground was part of a public garden with successive garden rooms. It was located just below street level and was elaborately planted with blossoming shrubs, climbing roses on arbors, and a long perennial bed. Two gardeners with hoes, rakes, and wheelbarrows carefully tended the beds as if they were weeding Downton Abby instead of a strip of land that\u2019s basically a public thoroughfare.<\/p>\n
I spent a goodly amount of the midday there, doing nothing much. Just being in Paris and thinking how lucky I am. \u00a0Headed back toward the apartment to have tea and something delicious. Picked up a caramel cake and a tarte citron and happened to notice an optical store. I have checked them out on my walking forays around the city, hoping to find some interesting eyeglasses for my souvenir of Paris. I\u2019ve looked in several shops that were, alas trop f\u00e9roce pour moi<\/i> – frames so aggressively bold that they had more personality than I did. But today, ah, I saw a pair in a window that called my name. I practically climbed through the glass to get to them. After an hour of trying a dozen pairs on, I ordered two pairs, one in blues and yellows,<\/p>\n
and one in shades of red, both from a Barcelona designer.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n