Where children play

It can't be all that bad in the world if on a sunny day, there are still parks where children can run around and play. Today being one of those blessedly beautiful days, we did a long walk and found ourselves in the Square de Temple located in the Upper Marais. Its a surprisingly pretty park, full of trees and numerous banks to laze about. There's even a quiet little pond complete with a mama duck and her ducklings.

From what I could dig up (which isn't much), it appears that the park forms part of the Carreaux de Temple built in the 19th century. The Carreaux was at that time one of the largest covered market in Paris. But the market itself was built over an ancient dungeon where Marie Antoinette and her children were held prisoners before being transferred to the Conciergerie.

It has certainly come a long way from that!

Now its full of little kids running about and people sunning themselves or playing ping pong on one of the ping pong tables set up in the park.
And this weekend, there is a huge Brocante taking place all over this area. There literally seems to be hundreds of stands lining both sides of the streets. Its enormous and contrary to my usual brocante haunts, this one stretches and encompasses a number of side streets. So unless you spend hours there (which isn't necessarily a bad idea), its best to concentrate on the area around the Mairie of the 3 eme arrondissement and the park and Rue de Bretagne. From what I did see, there seems to be a lot of interesting things out for sale. Truth be told, there seems to be everything from furniture to linens, to costume jewelry, to metal grates, to old telephones and paintings. It was impossible to take pictures of everything. Hmmm... I feel like making a second trip back.

This stand had beautiful glassware and Danish furniture...

This lady had a number of dinner service in prints that reminded me of vintage Marimekko. But these pretty ones are actually Arcopal, proudly French, as she pointed out to me.