Picnic at Sceaux

 On Saturday, I met me Parisian pen pal, Caroline, and we had a picnic in Sceaux. Sceaux is a small town about 45 minutes outside of Paris. It's one town over from where Caroline lives; I can't imagine having an hour long commute to/from work each day. This reminds me of how spoiled I am to live as close to everything in my town as I do.

Caroline met me at the train station, and we walked a few streets over to reach the main part of the yown. After stopping for Caroline to get some tea in one of her favorite shops. How cute is this shop?

We stopped at the market for melon, berries, ham, and a baguette. She had already thoughtfully brought tapenade and cutlery and water. We were on the lookout for some cider but didn't find any. A brief thunderstorm took us by surprise, but it was over within a few minutes and cooled things off nicely. Our picnic was fab, and we spent the day wandering around the park and chatting.

 Did you know that the same guy who designed the gardens at Versailles designed the ones here at Sceaux? I can definitely see his style at both chateaus. The park was huge; we only explored a little bit of it. We didn't go in the chateau, but I think that's an option.

 All of the water features really do make the park very nice. Even after the sun came back out and heated up the day again, the water features made it feel fresh.

 We picked a shady spot and sketched a bit, played with water colors, and chatted some more. I gave Caroline a few goodies that I'd pulled together from my scrapbook stash I'd brought with me, and she graciously seemed excited about my choices.

 We checked out mama duck in the pond; Caroline seemed to think her ducklings were just a couple of days old. Very sweet!

 There were different examples of statuary in the park, but I only snapped a picture of this one. I was full and tired and hot by this point in the day - lol. That means fewer pics. :)

It was a lovely way to spend the 4th of July in Paris. I'm so glad that I met Caroline, and we became friends. It'll be fun to see her again the next time I'm in Paris!