Ever since our dream became reality that we are leaving the
city where we live for a small town 5+ hours away, we have turned into tourists. Places we planned on going to ‘one day’ suddenly
became more urgent. So it turned out
that one sunny Sunday we played tourists in our own town.
We parked our car in the city and went for a walk. I love walking around the city for a
stroll/light exercise; it almost feels like I don’t live there and I see
everything with new eyes.
We continued on to a gorgeous and fancy suburb, Parnell,
and called into a French weekend market at a beautiful store called La
Cigale. Cigale is the French word for the cicada insect, which is
the official symbol of Provence apparently.
I don’t know if you get cicadas where you live, but they are plentiful
in New Zealand, and particularly Hawke’s Bay, where we are moving to. On a hot summer’s day the noise of all the cicadas chirping can almost be deafening.
Because they seem to do it more in summer (they do chirp in winter but not
as much, and it’s almost a melancholy sound at that time of year), cicadas
always remind me of hot, dry summer days.
I took lots of photos of the French market so you could visit
with me too. The people who started La
Cigale years ago sound really nice, and they travel to France often to stock
their store with brocante, French soaps, clothing, cookware, linen
sprays and seemingly everything French. Later on they opened a café too. It’s busy and bustling and very French. Sadly everything is fully gluten so a celiac
like me can only look and sniff, but when I used to eat baguettes and
croissants (especially those coffee custard filled croissants covered in
toasted almonds, so good!) I was in heaven.
And there is live French music playing too.
If you ever find yourself in Auckland on a Saturday or
Sunday, promise me you'll go to the La Cigale French Market which is open until 1pm (website here). It has such a jovial and chic atmosphere and is full
of joie de vivre. The store is
open seven days a week and it’s gorgeous.
I always feel inspired when I visit and it’s a must-see for visitors
(even non-Francophiles). This is not a
paid advertisement, I am just a fan :)
After that, we carried on walking through Parnell, admiring the tiny
and expensive cottages and treated ourselves to a café lunch (isn’t that always
part of an exercise stroll?). I had an
omelette and my happy husband had mince on toast with an egg on top. Good protein meals to get us through
until dinner. The café was called Verve
if you think our lunches sounded good (they were delicious and plentiful).
Once we had rolled out of the café our long hike
back to the car didn’t appeal that much, but needs must so we walked and talked
and before we knew it we were back at our car.
According to my Fitbit we did more than 18,000 steps that day. That's proper tourist-style walking!
Do you have tourist attractions or lovely places in your town that you've never gotten to? Let me know your favourite or the first one that pops into mind, and, if you're game, let me know when you plan to make it an outing. Go on, I dare you.
Have a lovely weekend and I hope these photos have left you dreaming of France :)
Fiona
