Bon week-end! - How to do Paris when Saturday arrives.

I have been here in my new home for a week now. The novelty has not yet worn off. Just yesterday I was walking home from Boulevard Haussmann (even that sentence alone is so exciting!), and to get home I passed the Sacré Coeur and wandered through the artist quarter in Montmartre. That just does not happen in the normal world. But I guess that now this is my normal world. I am experiencing the utmost joy.

During the week I got heaps of the university/life/responsibilities stuff done and so come Saturday, I was suddenly not used to the idea of doing nothing. When you wake up in Paris on a Saturday, the whole world seems a different place. It's as if you've climbed Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree and scaled the ladder at the top to find a different land to the one that was there previously. The sounds of the city are different, the pace, the expressions on people's faces. There are gorgeous little children everywhere out in the streets, espresso machines buzzing quietly along endless streets and everyone is rubbing the sleep from their eyes of the night prior.

Saturday isn't quite Sunday though. It's still busy and loud and the shops are still open. When the next day comes, Europe's eternally lazy Sunday kicks in. You wake up when you want to wake up. You enjoy the company of whoever you want. The great outdoors becomes even more apparent than before. Parks are swarming with sleepy city slickers and there is a strange balance between quiet and chatty conversation.

How to get by on the Parisian week-end:

Saturday:

Wake up whenever you like.

Go do a spot of morning shopping.

Make sure you've got enough croissants for the rest of the weekend.

Grab a coffee on the way home.

Take an abnormal route home and discover more shops to dip your toes into.

People watch.

Cheeky afternoon siesta.

Food.

Sunday:

Wake up whenever you like.