Weekend

I had a great weekend. We went to the Marche d'Aligre on Saturday in the bright sunshine, via the wonderful Velib system Paris installed recently (which I'll get to in just a bit). The markets were packed but we picked up some great veggies, fish and flowers, and even managed to find a table in the sun for lunch. On the way home we took a walk along the viaduct (one of a few?) which the city has converted into a lovely, garden-filled walkway. It turned out to be an excellent decision as, on the street below, a huge procession was filing by advertising a carnival. Dancing girls, brass bands, floats, clowns, guys spraying everyone with confetti...fantastic!
Sunday was just as nice. I went to the gym in the morning, on the way home picked up some croissants, a pain au chocolat and a flan Normande for breakfast, had a chat with C (the first time in 3 weeks!) and then B and I headed out for a picnic with friends of hers (and their 3 kids). After a few hours sitting in the sun, drinking wine and eating lovely food (including strawberries which are now in season) we had a few games of petanque. Such a great, relaxing weekend. Sigh.

Oh, and the velib: What can I say? It's a love/hate thing. I love it because it's such a good public transport system - and I hate it because it's almost without flaw and therefore annoyingly brilliant.
Check out the 'find a station' website and zoom out to the maximum length: http://www.velib.paris.fr/trouver_une_station
Ha! We have five stations within ten minutes' walk...
It's cheap to use (I think it's €1 for a day), well-maintained, safe (especially in the cycle-only lanes) and easy to use. I'm impressed.