Days of cramming French grammar have left me with a terrible need for fresh air, sunshine, and at least a bit of exercise, so I shut my laptop this afternoon and went out for a walk. Mission: track down an antique book dealer that I came across one day, and find the best macarons in Paris.
Big cities often offer us a bit of urban weirdness, and Paris did not disappoint me today. To wit: just down the avenue de Breteuil from Les Invalides, I encountered the following scene.
That little cluster of brown things that you see on the grass towards the right of the photo turns out to be this flock of sheep:
What are they doing there? I can only guess. Cutting the grass, perhaps.
A bit further down, on the left side of the street as you walk south from Les Invalides, is the best place in Paris to buy macarons. These cream-filled bits of meringue are a popular Parisian delicacy. The best ones in town turn out to come from a Japanese bakery called Mori Yoshida, 65 avenue de Breteuil. The owners fell in love with French baking and moved to Paris to realize their dream of exploring the possibilities of melding the French arts of the boulanger and the pâtissier with a Japanese sensibility. They have truly mastered the macaron, and this is where I would take you to get your fix.
I never did find the dealer in old books, but I did stumble across this little beauty in a used bookstore in my neighborhood–an account of the trials of the leaders of the Paris Commune, my personal favorite of the various French Revolutions. (Ask a French person a question about the Revolution, and the response may be which one?)
French notes: Sheep-related vocabulary! All links are to WordReference. Scroll down for a cute poster.
- le mouton: sheep; mutton; sheepskin. Also: a credulous person.
- la brebis: ewe.
- le brebis: sheep-milk cheese.
- le bélier: ram.
- l’agneau (n.m.): lamb (the animal and the meat).
- la bergerie: sheep pen; also a circular counter
- allaiter: to nurse, to breast feed
- l’herbivore (n.m.): herbivore.
- le mammifère: mammal.
Zipf's Law 
You can’t beat a perfect macaron …. heavenly. But the sheep have it for me 🐑 😂 🧀
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I was pretty tickled, too.
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I have a deep and rather amazed admiration for Louise Michel, the heroin of the Commune, not only for her action then but also for her behaviour in the New Caledonian penal colony where she was deported after the events . There she acted as a saint, refusing to be treated differently than the native Kanak prisoners . She started teaching Kanak women and fought all her life for Socialism, women’s rights and equality of races . A marvelous figure, who embodies what I most pray for in French soul . These women …
Try to read about her, maybe French sites are more exhaustive if you can understand . There was an ardent feminist, although not politicized, in the first revolution, Olympe de Gouges, an incredible true pioneer .
Me too, I love the Commune more than any other attempt, the first, purest and most genuine Socialist endeavor . And its song, “Le temps des cerises”, forever sadly stirring for a real French . Did you know the lyrics of “L’Internationale” were written in the following days of the slaughter of the Communards ?
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No, I didn’t know that about L’Internationale–thanks.
I picked up a BD about Louise Michel the other day–“Louise Michel, la Vierge Rouge.” One of my goals for this winter is to visit sites associated with the Commune, ending of course in Père Lachaise.
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Exactly the “Mur des Fédérés”, at the South-East angle . There is a commemorative plate . Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx son in law and ex-communard, is buried near .
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