Sunday, January 10, 2016

Dreaming of France -- Five Nights in Paris


Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France.

Even in a scaled-back Christmas, there's room for books. My husband gave me a book called Five Nights in Paris: After Dark in the City of Light by John Baxter. It's a guidebook to nightlife in Paris.

I have to admit that our evenings in Paris mostly consist of eating very late dinners and walking the streets of Paris in hopes that a 1920s car will appear and pick us up, like in Midnight in Paris. We also occasionally go to concerts, like a fabulous one in Sainte Chapelle. Saint Chapelle by day is breathtaking.
This photo of Sainte Chapelle is from Paris Digest.

When people ask me what they should see in Paris, I tell them to go to the second floor of Saint Chapelle and stand in the blue light. The stained glass windows stretch tall and sparkle the floor with their colors. But in the evenings, on the first floor, if you're lucky, there might be a concert of beautifully crafted violins and cellos played by musicians dressed in black. The lights in the chapel are not turned on, but instead candles flicker along the wall sconces. And the music soars wonderfully once bow is put to strings.
Other than that, my Paris nightlife is fairly limited, so I look forward to reading this book for some other entertainment ideas.
After nine initial stories, the book is broken down into the five senses, like "Blues in the Night," "Proposing a Toast," "Skin-Deep," "Gardens of the Night" and "Frenzy and Darkness." The titles are intriguing and I'm sure that they'll make me long for Paris even more.

Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. I hope you'll visit the blogs of others who play along too.

5 comments:

Esme said...

this is a book I want to check out. Sounds awesome. I went to a concert once at St. Chapelle-it was amazing.

Paulita said...

Esme, Thanks for playing along. It's hard to explain how magical concerts in these century-old churches are.

Sim Carter said...

How beautiful! We have started checking airfare prices for a trip—that’s progress, eh? I was going to say IF I get there, but WHEN i get there, this will be on my list.

Paulita said...

Sim, I'm so happy for you. And you need to plan your next trip when Earl and I have moved over there.

Louise said...

I haven't read this book yet, but have it on my Paris TBR shelf. I've read a few of John Baxter's Paris books now, my favourite being A Paris Christmas- there's reviews on my blog if you're interested. I usually spends nights in in Paris, we have foraged dinners- of delicious meats and cheeses, and wine of course. But I have gone to a few concerts there now- I haven't been lucky enough to go to a concert in Saint Chapelle yet, but I have visited there several times, and agree it's a must see. I go to gospel concerts in Paris- they're spine tingling.

Cockadoodle Doo or Cocorico?

 We stood in the middle of the road, having walked together 13 miles that day and Claudine grasped my forearm. "Mais non! It doesn'...