Bleu Blanc Rouge...the chairs are back

I went for a walk up to the Sacré Cœur this morning post school drop off, I haven't been up there so early for a while. As I approached the Place de Tertre, the small roads leading up to the Place were blocked with white vans. White vans everywhere.

If you ever wondered when they set up the restaurant tables and chairs again, after having taken them down in November some time. Well it was today.

The Square was buzzing with activity.

The Sacré Cœur provided a lovely back drop to the metal poles.

Deliveries carried on as usual.

If a tree got in the way, they just cut a hole to let it pass through.

Chairs, tables and planet-destroying-terrace-heaters were stacked up every where.

And the colour theme was definitely bleu blanc rouge. Vive la France!

Iconic Parisian park chairs

The green chairs in the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Jardin des Tuileries are an iconic symbol of Parisian parks. I've been trying to find some information about the history of their design and have had little joy. These days there are two main types, the ones for reclining. These rather dark green ones are in the Jardin des Tuileries.

As are these upright ones.

Here are some in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

These two are chatting.

Apparently, according to my mother who lived in Paris at the time, these particular ones were introduced in 1954. I can confirm, for a fact, that they had the same chairs in 1969...in the background is one of the first Maclaren buggies as well!

More Parisian park chairs can be seen here (thumbnails) and here (slideshow).

Please...take a seat

Parisian park chairs and benches are an important and enduring symbol of the City of Lights. 

Perhaps most notable are the green chairs to be found in the Jardin Luxembourg or the Jardin des Tuilleries. They sometimes gather together in clusters...

...or on their own.

I saw these in the Merci Concept Store, the Parisian park chair has become a sought after trendy icon.

Here is a bench in the Parc de Bercy, the very pale mint green is unusual for a Paris park bench.

More benches in the park below the Sacré Cœur.

Periodically a park bench will disappear and return a week later, freshly painted. I think this may happen to these quite soon.

Here are two chairs in the Tando Ando Meditation Space at UNESCO. 

Artists' chairs on the Place de Tertre.

Shiny chairs at Parc de la Villette.

And then of course there are the infamous Parisian café chairs. 

Red ones. With snow

Without snow.

Red and black.

Light brown.

Middle brown.

Dark brown.

Turquoise.

And of course, rainbow chairs as seen stacked outside the L'Eté en Pente Douce cafe just to the east of the Sacré Cœur. 

Place de Tertre, the Square on the Hillock

Today I discovered that Tertre means 'hillock' in French. That explains where the Place de Tertre, situated just to the West of the Sacré Cœur up on the hill, gets its' name.

I've been going up there quite often lately early in the morning and enjoying the calm before the crowds arrive. Apparently 8 million tourists visit the Sacré Cœur every year. If you divide that by 365 you get an astonishing 22 thousand a day! Obviously a false per-day figure but it gives a sense of the magnitude of Montmartre and the Sacré Cœur's popularity.

At 8.30 in the morning, however, the Place de Tertre is empty and calm with just the restaurants getting ready for the day.

Lots of empty seats. 

Artists setting up their stalls.

But not Pierre...yet.

The first caricaturists half heartedly  look for customers.

The sun is low in the sky.

The calm before the storm.