Sunday in the park

This week we discovered a new park in our arrondissement, about a mile from our apartment. The Parc de Bercy is a large park with open green areas and gorgeous landscaping that runs from the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy to the Bercy Village. The Bercy Village is an open-air shopping center with a few stores, several restaurants, and a big movie theater built into a mix of new buildings and old wine warehouses.

The park was full of people enjoying the warm, sunny weather and we can’t wait to return for a picnic.

Florence

J and I had both been to Florence before, but not together. We chose it as the destination for an early spring vacation because it was likely to be a little warmer than Paris, but offered a lot of museums in the event that it turned out to be cooler than expected. The flight from Paris to Florence was around 90 minutes. We loved being in Italy in less time than it would take to get from Chicago to New York.

Every morning began with a visit to a little cafe overlooking the Piazza Signoria for a quick cappuccino. Paris has a big coffee culture, but the quality of the average café crème does not come close to any of the cappuccinos we had in Italy. We also tried a variety of Italian wines, both old favorites and some we had not had before.

We spent a lot of time walking around the city and exploring. The weather was a little cool and overcast during the morning, but got sunny and warmer by the middle of the day. J had not made it to the Uffizi Gallery on his previous visit, so we made a stop at that museum while we were in Florence.

One of J’s favorite cocktails is the Negroni, which was invented in Florence. We decided to make it our mission to find and visit the bar where the Negroni was created. We ultimately traced it to Caffè Giacosa (now owned by the Italian designer Roberto Cavalli), a beautiful little bar that serves lunch, snacks, coffees, and cocktails. Drinks there come accompanied by elaborate plates of snacks like toast points with olive tapenade and little tea sandwiches, and they had a whole buffet of chips, nuts, meats, cheeses, and crudités set up on the end of the bar. We ended up going there several times for an aperitif, a light snack, and fabulous people watching.

We had a lot of amazing food; it has inspired me to try cooking more recipes out of the Italian cookbook that I have here in Paris. A few of our favorite spots were Olio & Convivium, Fuori Porta, Pane e Vino, Trattoria Mario, ‘Ino, and Baldovino.

Lucca

We celebrated Leap Day by leaving Paris to spend a long weekend in Tuscany. We were staying in an apartment in Florence but took a day trip to visit Lucca, a small city to the northwest.

I first visited Lucca back in 2005 and thought J would really like it. There is a wall surrounding the older part of the city that dates back to the Renaissance. After seeing the exhibit of models of fortified cities in France last month, it was really interesting to see a life-sized version.

The wall has been well-maintained over the years and a walking and biking path runs around the top of it. At a few points there is enough room on top of the wall for a small park, picnic tables, and green spaces. We took a walk around the path after lunch (it is about 4 km or 2.5 mi around) and saw joggers, bicyclists, moms pushing babies in strollers, old men playing dominoes at a picnic table, and lots of high school aged kids hanging out.

We spent quite a bit of time wandering around the town, visiting a piazza that was built on top of an old Roman amphitheater, a lovely cathedral, and the Guinigi Tower.

I am usually too claustrophobic to take on the small, cramped, dark, and winding staircases that often are the only way to get to the top of old buildings and take in gorgeous scenic views. Poor J was stuck dealing with me during a near panic attack on the trip down from the top of the Giralda in Seville on our honeymoon. Luckily, the Guinigi Tower has a pleasantly spacious and open set of stairs, so I could make it to the tree-filled top panic-free!

It was cloudy as we explored Lucca in the morning, but after lunch the sun came out just in time for us to enjoy sitting at the top of the tower, quietly taking in the rolling hills of Tuscany in the distance.