Like falling in Love.

As much as I complain about France and all of it’s dysfunction, there are those rare moments when living here is just an absolute joy. In the spring there are perfect weekends with just the right amount of sun and calm to make suffering through the bad stuff worth it….well almost.

This weekend was one such occasion. The weather was heavenly, and we found ourselves in Metz of course. Ever since buying the new apartment we just can’t seem to stay away from that darn city. I feel like we already live there. This time we came into town for the annual Artist open studios. Several artists in the city get together and organize a weekend of all day opportunities to meet local artists in their working spaces and to see their new work. We spent all day Saturday wandering through the old winding streets of the oldest part of the city in search of some decent art and interesting artists. And although about 50% of the stuff we saw was quite….uhm…how do I say this nicely…….shitty, we so enjoyed ourselves that it almost didn’t matter.
The best part was meeting this very cool French-American artist who gave me info on where to buy cheap art supplies in France. So not only did I score good info, I made my first French art friend!

Sunday morning we finished off the weekend by stumbling upon a flea market. Apparently it happens every Sunday in Centreville in Thionville, but this is the first time since living here that we managed to get up and leave the house in order to happen upon it. So after making it to the bakery (which was PACKED with Sunday morning baguette buyers) we made our way through the rows of junk vendors and delighted at all of their crazy little treasures.

Ah! Indeed, life in France is one crazy little treasure.