It's 50/50

It happened on Thursday at 7.42pm. I had my first “see you in the rentrée” which is the official signal that Parisians are mentally checking out of work until mid-September when only the smell of new pencils and mandated school dates can bring them back. While there’s still 6 weeks until school summer holidays the recent heat wave has everyone on summer time and when my husband enlightened me that because of daylight savings the sun hits overhead at 2pm in Paris, not midday, my brain melted a little.

It was a mix of sniffles and school strikes this week which meant a delicate dance between paid and unpaid work, ensuring the children were treated to the bare minimum of supervision while I half-heartedly tapped away at my laptop. Even the dog was upset at the disruption but a cheap kids watercolour kit plus a fresh batch of paper (and a blind eye to the subsequent mess) bought me just enough time to send my new project Paris Mail Club out into the world. From thought to launch in under 20 minutes was a new personal record but sometimes you just have to go for it.

In the face of a world flattened by AI, each month I’ll post you an envelope from Paris with a tiny creative project inside. Delivered offline - just paper and ink - chosen with care and sent across the world to your mailbox. Perhaps a handwritten letter, photo, poem, postcard, recipe, a pressed flower, a collage, print, or something else. Each month will be a new surprise.

As usual it’s terrifying to put something new out into the world so I’d be very appreciative if you could please show it some love here and here.

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Sometimes I dye my hair pale pink just to see if my husband notices and safe to say it’s 50/50. His reaction this time was to ask if I was having a mid life crisis (maybe?). Oblivion to my hair aside we’ve made it to 9 years which feels like forever so celebrated our anniversary over tacos and homemade horchata at Bicla.

I caught the Renoir exhibition at the Musee d’Orsay which had me dreaming of a wildflower summer and while there checked out the new MNR (Musées Nationaux Récupération) gallery which displays works looted by Nazis waiting to be returned to their rightful heirs. I was particularly taken by La Montagne Sainte-Victoire by (possibly) Cezanne. It’s labelled as a fake but recent studies believe it to be authentic and it’s displayed in a special double sided glass case so you can admire the back where the labels give a peek into it’s history.

I nipped over to Atelier 48, a creative space just off Rue Montorgueil for Sonja Bajic’s vernissage (exhibition opening night) where a 3 month old sausage dog puppy chewed my fingers and allowed me to pat him. Once he’d gone home I got chatting with old and new faces as we spilled into the street to drink chilled glasses of sparkling water with homemade elderflower syrup, basking in the late evening sunshine.

When Jane Bertch texted me to ask if I was “going to Bretagne” tomorrow I wasn’t sure if she was referring to an event I wasn’t invited to or the region of Brittany for the long weekend, but before my FOMO could kick in she clarified she meant the annual brocante on Rue de Bretagne, the best part of the Marais. We hit the stalls at opening time and I managed to stick to my trade embargo which made a nice change, then we paused for coffee with just a dash of cultural idiosyncrasy. Avoid your own broncate miscommunications by keeping up with the calendar here.

The weather on Saturday was (in my opinion) perfect and I whipped around the market with the kids, vendors laughing at me as I took photos of radishes, artichokes and peonies stacked just so. We had family over for piles of strawberries and cherries for goûter in the afternoon and in the evening packed big bowls of salad and watermelon and headed to the park to bask in the light breeze, corralled into the small rectangle of authorised grass with the rest of the 6th arrondissement.

My son’s class is studying Alexander Calder so first thing Sunday we popped over to the Fondation Louis Vuitton for the exhibition, which we all loved (bonus points for the air-conditioning), then stopped for coffee and croissants on the roof-top where we were treated to a showjumping demonstration in the Bois de Boulogne down below. In the afternoon we went to check progress on the JR art installation going over Pont Neuf and were almost immediately reminded that Unmanageable Crowd Season has begun.

Have a great week,

- Emily

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Cheese we’re eating this week:

• Chistera - a Basque cheese made with a blend of goat’s and sheep’s milk with a smooth texture and tangy taste.

• Bleu de Gex - a mild, creamy, semi-soft blue cheese made from unpasteurized milk from Montbéliard cows in the Jura region.

• Petit Soumaintrain - a raw cow’s milk cheese from Burgundy that’s salty and creamy and sweet at the same time.

All 3 cheeses were bought from Manu at Marché Maubert.

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Real Life Paris Photo

Where you gonna ride that buddy?

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Recent Finds Worth Sharing:

• Our beloved picnic blanket (a gift years ago and still going strong)

• Paris Mail Club is live ♥️

• If Only If now does pink gingham nightgowns which I can’t stop thinking about

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