souviens-toi.

Posted by Maryn Tan August 19, 2018

souviens-toi.

Currently the lyrics of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" are running through my head and have been much of the day because we watched The Sound of Music over the past two nights (my first time watching it in my adulthood) during which I fell in love with Julie Andrews and her fantastically energetic and scrappy character but also couldn't get over how big of a jerk Rolf is in the end.

I'm also currently filtering my mind trying to think of what to write about... This week we fell in love with Paris even more, quite possibly because we have begun to develop relationships with the people here and it's starting to feel like home.

Tonight we attended a baptism for a new convert in our ward and I was reminded of a French hymn that a friend introduced me to a few years ago: "Souviens-toi." I'm going to leave you with some of the lyrics and hope that my brain is able to form more cohesive, in-depth thoughts next week.

French:

Souviens-toi, mon enfant: Tes parents divins
Te serraient dans leurs bras, ce temps n’est pas loin.
Aujourd’hui, tu es là, présent merveilleux,
Ton regard brille encore du reflet des cieux.
Parle-moi, mon enfant, de ces lieux bénis
Car pour toi est léger le voile d’oubli.

English (via Google Translate):

Remember, my child: Your divine parents
You hug them, this time is not far.
Today, you are here, wonderful present,
Your gaze still shines from the reflection of the heavens.
Tell me, my child, of these blessed places
Because for you is light the veil of forgetfulness.

This hymn is spoken from the perspective of God and I kind of wish there were more like that. I strongly recommend checking out the rest of the lyrics here.

Now for the photos from our past week (lots of food photos... sorry/not sorry):

There's a crêperie on our street that ALWAYS has a line thanks to hundreds of good Google reviews (not this place). There are probably a half dozen other crêperies on our street so we decided to give another one a chance. It didn't disappoint! Plus we didn't have to wait in line—and the crêpe man wears a bow tie every day. Doesn't get better than that.

A cheese crêpe for €2.50! And a cute Asian boy.

This past week there was a public holiday called Assumption Day (it's a Catholic thing). We celebrated by trying a new pastry: the religieuse. We realized after the fact that it is the perfect pastry for this holiday, as religieuse literally translates to "religious" and the pastry is made to look like a nun.

Oh, and it was super tasty. Give me all the chocolate ganache!

We people watched while eating our religieuse and I experimented with panning as people walked past!

Shooting from the hip on Rue Mouffetard.

Oops... More food. Now you know what we spend our free time doing. We bought this from a bakery that we also went to last year in Paris, only when we stumbled upon the bakery this time around, we discovered that they won an award for the best croissant in Paris! So we bought a pain au chocolat.

And a croissant. Bahaha. Look at that baby. Brought to you by lots and lots of butter.

I'm really enjoying little detail shots these days... This was taken on the Seine where lots of little booths are set up selling vintage books, prints, etc.

This tree mural and poem are just down the street from us. Makes me smile every time.

This past week we discovered that a supermarket on our street offers free, fresh herbs! You cut however much you want and pack it up in a cute little bag and you can go on your merry way. Is that fantastic or what?

We want to Les Invalides with our friends! It's basically a museum dedicated to the era of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Our friends Michael and Courtney! They were in our ward in Provo and have been here for an internship and WE ARE SO GRATEFUL. Oh, and they happened to buy a frame at the flea market before coming to the museum, hence the framed portrait.

Taken inside the chapel at Les Invalides.

L'Église du Dôme! Napoleon's tomb is in this enormous church.

Marginally obsessed with the stained glass.

Phone photos that are much poorer quality and have a drastically different feel but it's okay because they make me happy:

There's a bowling alley on our street that we have yet to find!

Fig violet and blackberry macarons.

Cute Asian boy at Institute.

Seemingly strawberry blonde girl with cute Asian boy.

Alllll the heart eyes for Paris.

This painting was tucked in a corner at this chapel at Les Invalides. Still not sure what it's called or who painted it, but its colors blow me away.

Part of an exhibit about Charles de Gaulle, a French politician. Clever play on French verb conjugation.

I was in heaven looking at all the old film photos in this exhibit. I told our friends that in my past life, I was a documentary photography in the 50s/60s/any era that used solely film...