And then there was sun!

Paris is very grey in the winter and it gets a bit depressing. When the sun comes out, so do all the Parisians. The second week of March there was one of these rare sunny days so I headed out to the Marais. As anyone who has ever been to Paris knows, le Marais is one of the oldest parts of the city and trendiest - it's where all the cool kids live.

One of the places I love the most in the city is located in le Marais - Place des Voges. I don't know why I love it so much because it can be a bit dark and in the empty places there are homeless people camping out but there is something about it.

One of the gates to enter Place des Voges

It was originally called place Royale when it was built in the early 1600s. The first to change the square's name to Place des Vosges was Napolean Bonaparte who wanted to honour the first department in Paris to pay taxes - Dept les Vosges. The name went back and forth a few times. It was also the royal residence for many years.

The main buildings are the King and Queen ones but they are not open to the public. The only really historical part you can enter today is Victor Hugo's apartment which surprisingly is free (or at least used to be). The rest of the square is now cafés, art galleries and the fashion house of Issy Miyake.

In the middle of the square is a public park that on this particular was packed with families.

From Place des Voges I headed to Viaduc des Arts. On my way through Place Bastille I was slightly interrupted by a motorcycle parade, demonstration . . .not really sure what!

My last stop of the day was Viaduc des Arts which serves two purposes, one it houses stores that sell local artisans and two it has a "promenade plantée" on top of it. Art up Deco is one of the central art stores in the building which is where I recently bought a present for myself :) but that day I just walked the promenade. Sadly my phone died mid-way so I don't really have a lot of pics to share I cheated on the first one.

This one was taken the first weekend in April

This is one of the views from the promenade.

And this was how I started to come out of hibernation . . .