Sunday 30 November - Monge market, rue de Mouffetarde and St. Sulpice

Firing up the rotisserie on rue de Levis on Sunday morning.  There were about six being started early in the morning

The Monge Market was in full swing with the full range of fruit, vegetables, fish and meat.
The rue de Mouffetarde had a a similar range of items but there was a large flea market on an extension at the bottom end.  There was dancing and singing to a piano accordion which was good to see.

These kids were being given a lesson on how to make a gallette

Singing and dancing on the rue de Mouffetarde.

We had lunch at a local restaurant with a friendly waitress. Petoncles/magret and confit de canard - all was very good.
After hot chocolate Luxembourg Gardens were pretty busy and the kids were sailing boats.

We were not sure whether this was a real wedding or just a staged shoot.  The bride wore sneakers and probably felt pretty cold.

One little boy was so engrossed with his pole that he nearly took his father's eye out

Talk about over the top decorations

We walked along to St. Sulpice and were surprised to find that a concert with the Magnifica brass quintette was due to start in 20 minutes. They were accompanied by the the Choeur Cantica de Luxembourg and soprano Shigeko Hato. The concert was excellent. It started well with Handel's Entry of the Queen of Sheba and included a number of well known items by Handel, Massanet, Gounod and Saint Saens in particular. The soprano managed to throw her voice well in this large space although the horn and the tuba tended to become lost in the acoustics of the church. There was a great deal of humour, as when a short man had to use a microphone after a particularly tall man. At the last piece the conductor stopped conducting and just walked away and left the singers and players to continue on their own. He wandered back at the end and conducted a rousing finale. All in all a thoroughly entertaining performance.