Paris Comes to Philly!

The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts paid tribute to France last Saturday. It was a warm spring day, with flowers blooming, and birds singing, I was looking forward to going to my first fair in the city. Broad Street was closed in order to hold a ferris wheel, french street entertainers, acrobats, live bands, french food vendors, and even grass! Bf and I stopped to meet his brother and sister-in-law for some wine at Tria on the way up to the fair. After some catching up and a glass of champagne for me, I was reminded why I don't drink during the day. I tried to gather some energy and we all left for the fair.

They imported grass into the middle of the city! As you can tell Philadelphians flocked to this area to have picnics, drink wine, and even do some dancing on the imported grass. I imagine my little french dog would have loved to have joined us, oh well, I'm sure he was sleeping peacefully back at the apartment.

The fair was so incredibly crowded it was difficult to stop and enjoy all the little french nooks and crannies. I'm sure we missed a lot but here are a few pictures of what we captured. They had strung white lights between the buildings and this really added to the European atmosphere.

The is my first real shot of city hall. To get the best picture you have to stand in the middle of Broad Street and um, its a six lane highway so its not that easy. I was excited to get this to include the ferris wheel and some of the lights. You can't tell from the picture but there must have been a hundred people in line for the ferris wheel. I made a comment to bf that I was thankful we weren't toting any kids because I don't have the patience to stand in a line like that. Hopefully one day I will!
Here are some other pictures that I found on a website for PIFA, I won't even try to take credit for these!

This was one of the street performers that we did get to stop and watch. She was moving elegantly to classical music when all of a sudden water started shooting out of her hands and eventually out of the top of her head. That's when things started to get weird.

Then on Sunday morning bf and I set out to enjoy the spring day with Riley. It was the first day of the season for the farmers market that I wrote so much about last year. It was also bf's first trip there, after having to hear about it all winter. Needless to say, it was crawling with people, baby strollers, and dogs. Riley was carried through the market in order to avoid any unwanted doggie brawls. We had planned to get breakfast at the market and were happy to see a food truck parked on one of the cobblestone streets. We both ordered hot sandwiches from Renaissance Sausage (my sisters are so excited to check this out next time they're here) and walked to Penn's Landing.

I got this picture from their website but its exactly what it looked like that day.

After eating and enjoying the view of the water at Penn's Landing we walked back home. We chatted about how we'd been dreaming about days like that all winter and it was finally here :) Happy doesn't even begin to describe the feeling I had that morning.

On the way back I asked bf to stop at a plant sale at the Physick House. I didn't buy anything but did enjoy a quick tour of their gardens. Another place that has outdoor events (I'm just saying!).

After all this, we dropped off Riley so he could nap and we went to get some coffee. I still hadn't been to the Bean Exchange and ever since they had been on the news (something sad happened here about a month ago), I've been wanting to go. I know the mood of this blog is happy but this is the reality of living in a city and it only feels right to mention some of the more unfortunate things that happen here. I've been wanting to go since last summer but supporting this local business has been on my mind more lately. Its a cute little coffee shop that looks like it would be super cozy in the winter, with a large fire place in the back. I especially loved all the marble countertops and large built in bookcases. The coffee was ok but the company was excellent.

After this it was time to get serious about the upcoming work week, bf and I went our separate ways and it was back to the daily grind. Although I have Mondays off now, so it wasn't too challenging the next day...