Luna the Parisian Pug

Luna has now lived almost two months of her life in Paris. She even has a European Union Passport and is officially a Parisian pug, or carline as a female pug is called in France. She is very patient for photo shoots in her Parisian outfit complete with beret. 

Luna with Kate's friend Kaylee

View of Tour Eiffel from Champ de Mars

Kate and Luna

Kate and Luna Tour Eiffel view
from Trocadero

Ooh la la!

True Parisian

And Luna is very patient for selfies.

Luna loves to hop in her carrier bag and ride with us on the bus to explore Paris.

Luna leaving the apartment
in her carrier

Riding the 86 bus with
Kelly and Kate

She even entertains us while we wait at the bus stop, content to wait in her carrier. All dogs must be in a bag to ride the bus.

Patiently waiting for the bus home

She loves to get out in the neighborhood and meet other dogs. The Frenchies are her favorites. Yesterday we saw one who looked just like her cousin Penelope.

On the apartment building stairs

Making friends with a Frenchie

Roaming the neighborhood

Dog kisses

Pug to Pug

Penelope's twin in Paris

Rue Cler

Beagle on the rue Cler

Luna loves whipped cream. Whenever she hears the beaters going, she thinks we are making whipped cream for her. I made chocolate chip cookies this week and she tried to reach the beaters up on the counter.

Reaching for the beaters

Chilling in the living room

Luna with her snaggletooth hiding
from us under the dining table so
she doesn't have to go in her crate

Yesterday we took our favorite bus, the 86, over to Odéon at Boulevard Saint Germain for a crêpe at our favorite stand and walked towards the Seine.

Cheese crêpe 

We stopped to listen to the music at the big fountain at Saint Michel.

We walked over the bridge to Île de la Cité to Place Dauphine. Usually, this a quiet little square (actually, it is shaped more like a triangle) at the western tip of Île de la Cité. But it was Easter Monday, a holiday in France, and the place was full of families and groups of people, many of whom were playing boules, pétanque, or bocce ball, whatever you want to call in French or Italian. The chestnut trees were blooming and the weather was perfect!

Chestnut trees in bloom

Luna was happy to pose for us at Place Dauphine.

She makes the cutest little faces. We can't get over that tongue. It is the only color on her face.

We had a beautiful view of the Seine on our way back to the Rive Gauche. Everyone was out on the banks enjoying the sunshine.

Giant chestnut tree

Seine view

We walked past the Museum of the French Legion of Honor, the inspiration for the White House.

Legion of Honor Museum

Luna does not like skateboards. She tries to chase and bark at people on skateboards. The sound must be scary for her. We were able to watch skateboarders down on the quai at a safe distance and she seemed to enjoy that.

The Egyptian obelisk at Place de la Concorde has been covered in scaffolding since we arrived. The scaffolding is finally coming down and we caught a glimpse of the obelisk as we passed the wisteria in bloom by the French State Department.

View toward obelisk at Place de la Concorde

Luna walked most of our way home but was happy to see our apartment. She knows our street very well and right where we live. She's such a smart little Parisian pug!

On our doorstep

Le Marché

Our favorite days of the week are Thursdays and Saturdays because those are the days of our local Marché at Avenue Saxe. We rarely miss a market day. Today was the last market day before we leave Paris and it was a little bittersweet going early this morning. 

Les Invalides

Kate walking to the Marché 

It's about a 10 or so minute walk from our apartment past Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides to a street behind the École Militaire.

Back of l'École Militaire and
view of Tour Eiffel

Kate at the Marché entrance

Marché awnings

There is just nothing comparable to our Marché at home in the States. We soon found our favorite stands. Kate liked the man in the background of the picture below with the strawberries. He always found the best leeks for her to use to make her quiche and had the best Gariguette strawberries. The Gariguettes are from southern France and had a longer shape and sweeter taste. We had to buy those every time.

Leeks

Gariguette strawberries in the
plastic containers

All the produce at the Marché is presented so beautifully. French law requires the vendors to disclose where the produce is from. This week we have had clementines almost as large as oranges from Israel.

So many types of lettuce

Kate and I can't figure out how the French cook with the huge bulbs of fennel. We do like the convenience of being able to buy beets already cooked.

There are several flower stands. We love to get flowers at the Marché.

Last week we bought geraniums at the Marché to plant in the window boxes at the apartment. They make me so happy!

View of geraniums from the street

Geraniums on the ledge

The French women take their seafood very seriously. There are several fishmongers and a huge array of seafood choices. Kate has her favorite fishmonger in his rubber apron and boots. In the winter it looks like such a cold job with all that ice and cold fish.

Oysters

Giving oyster advice

Crabs and Snails

Kate's favorite fishmonger

We love the stand that has rustic bread with walnuts or raisins and several types of brioche bread. They have brioche rolls with little chocolate chips. Kate's favorite is the flat Bressane brioche covered with sugar and with pockets of butter in it.

Chocolate Chip Brioche Rolls

 Bressane brioche

Bread Stand

We also liked to buy our eggs at the Marché. They are large and fresh and the yolks are more orange than at home. We would usually buy a flat of 15 eggs. We had our favorite stand where I would buy roquefort cheese for our baguette sandwiches and the eggs. There was a kind man there who didn't mind my accented French.

Egg and cheese stand

We also enjoyed the fresh pear/apple juice with no added sugar.

Juice stand

This is just a sampling of what we would find at the Marché. You can see why we loved going every week.