Parisian Picnic

Sezane dress
Sezane sandals (similar)
Mango hat (similar)
Mango sunglasses
Sezane tote (similar)
Ellen James bag
Delphine Pariente ring (similar)
Madewell rings
Gisel B. earrings (c/o)
Location: Osborne Village – Winnipeg, Manitoba

I will always look back on our year of living in Paris with fondness. Ian was a student, I was freelancing, and we were broke almost all of the time. Our chronic lack of funds meant we couldn’t take advantage of a lot of the lovely things the city has to offer. Dinners out were a rare treat, and never happened anywhere fancier than the brasserie down the block. If I wanted a box of macarons, I had to scrimp and save my weekly grocery money for them. It didn’t matter. We were lucky to be there and we loved every minute of it. In the winter, we spent our weekends in museums – youth passes are so affordable, we paid the equivalent of two entry fees for the Louvre and probably visited two hundred times. And in the summer, we went on picnics.

Living anywhere in Paris is expensive. But we were broke at least partly because we chose to rent an apartment in Le Marais. If I were to do it all over again, I would still rent that dark little apartment with its leaky pipes and creaky shutters. It cost far more than the space itself was worth. In the summer, it was unbearably hot even with the windows wide open. But living a stone’s throw away from Place des Vosges was magical. The novelty never wore off. We would pack our tote bag with towels, a bottle of wine and snacks every Saturday to picnic in the park inside the once royal residence. Half the neighbourhood did the same. The park was always full of groups of people just like us, lounging in the sun with a hastily assembled picnic.

We’ve tried to recreate those sunny summer picnics in Canada – most notably one evening in Stanley Park a couple of years ago with a lot of wine and macarons – but it just never feels the same. The parks either take too long to get to – its hard to be spontaneous when you have to plan to drive somewhere. Or, we discover that they lack the charm we crave when we arrive. Last summer, we gave up on Winnipeg parks entirely, and took picnics to our balcony. I was initially skeptical, but it turned out to be the perfect spot to spend an afternoon in the sun. That said, the concrete ground made the whole experience feel much more like a holiday afternoon in Athens or Barcelona, two places we’ve spent a lot of happy hours on sunny balconies, than a picnic in Paris.

Not to be deterred, I spent much of last winter contemplating how to make our balcony comfortable enough that we could just lay out there on a blanket. I didn’t want to take on a big project. And I was sure our balconey just need a little something to become a lot better. I eventually came across these deck tiles from IKEA. While they’re not as soft and lush as the manicured grass at Place des Vosges, they are so much more comfortable than the rough concrete they’ve covered up. (And a lot more picturesque, too!)

It’s still not Paris, of course. What could be, except Paris itself? But it’s still been wonderful to bring a bit of the spirit of our old summer picnic days in the French capital to our home this year. A blanket or towel, a bottle of rose, a few snacks and a good book is really all it takes!

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