Paris: Day 5, lots of things to do.

Today started with the discovery that our computer charger had died of natural causes: old age. Genna found that there was an Apple store near the Louvre. We decided to combine this errand with several other things we wanted to do. We marched off in the correct direction to end up at the weekly bird market on Ile de la Cite...only to be sidelined by a very charismatic crepe vendor near Blvd. St Germain. We are only going to buy a croissant for the road but each ended up ordered a crepe. Actually a galette, which is what you call a crepe when it is savory and made of buckwheat flour. I had one with smoked salmon and fresh creme, Bob had egg and cheese and Genna had mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese.

 Cute little glasses of espresso for Bob and Genna. She pronounced it the best she had ever had,

We enjoyed a stroll through the bird market with it's colorful fare.

 And occasionally exotic creature for sale. This chinchilla was bored by the whole thing and decided to nap.

Since we were so close, we decided to see if there was a line over at Ste Chapelle.

You can see from this photo that part of the church and the  windows are being restored.
Since we able to walk right in, we did.

The lower story.

One of the upper windows

The floor tiles were amazing.

Genna faces off with a scary griffin.

 We enjoyed our time at Ste Chapelle, but weren't quite done with churches yet. In doing some research before the trip I found several larger churches I had no memory of visiting.
One such church was right behind the Louvre on our way.

St. Germain Auxerrois has three different kinds of architecture, Roman, Gothic and Renaissance.

We spent almost as much time admiring the outside as we did the inside.

 This depiction of Mary Magdalene was repeated several times throughout the church. She has very long wavy hair, no clothing to speak of except the "apron" in front and is always holding a handful of bread loaves.





Just outside the church was a tiny little park with beautiful flowers in full bloom.

Leaving this peaceful place we charged down the very busy Rue de Rivoli in search of the Apple. We had no exact address but finally were told it was under the Louvre ???
Yes, indeed, since our last visit they have constructed a HUGE shopping mall under the Louvre.

We found the Parisian Apple guys VERY kind, polite, fast and helpful.
Our mission  accomplished, we went in search of food...outside in the Tuilleries Garden.

We shared a "sandweech jambon crudite"
and a lemon cake.

 

After lunch and since it was Sunday we found chairs around one of the smaller fountains in the gardens, joining the throngs of Parisians who were doing the same thing.

Genna and I wrote postcards and Bob napped.

 

Our walk back to our flat was through a maze of interesting small streets.

We chanced upon this bizarre centaur.














And these adorable chickens that hold your plastic bags.

Finally back on our home turf we sat for a while to watch our favorite group play boules.

Dinner was a salad, leftover roasted chicken and pasta with garlic, pure pleasure.

Paris; Day 4...Pere Lachaise

Genna at Pere Lachaise.

Today we had a very slow and relaxed morning, some of us are still adjusting to the time change and hey, we are on vacation.
We decided to take the metro to our destination. It was an easy ride with only one transfer and the true Parisian experience of a full metro car.

Pere Lachaise is the largest cemetery in the city, covering 110 acres, that is a lot of dead people. I had never been here. There are famous people buried here as well as very cool funereal art.

Random old grave.

The owl of Death.

Mary the vampire with Christ.

Chopin's Grave

 

Reflections on life after death...

We got hungry from all the wandering around and left the cemetery in search of sustenance.
It was such a beautiful day we brought our treats back to picnic with the dead.

I had a quiche with leeks.

 

Flying skeleton with trumpet.

Heloise and Abelard, together at last.

Genna had not heard the story of Heloise and Abelard, so I gave her the "Cliff Notes" version.

The question most asked when someone hears you have been to Pere Lachaise...

...have you been to Jim Morrison's grave ?? It became such a place of unwanted revelry and vandalism that there are barriers around it and a guard. There were also a lot of young American tourists on pilgrimage.

To give us energy for our walk back to our flat we had the pastries we had purchased easier.

At a small but new looking park we saw this dove cote.

We couldn't understand why the Parisians felt the need to help the pigeons. Turns out when we read the little green sign in the right of this photo, that is a pigeon contraceptive station. Yes, that's right, birth control for the birds !!

 A weekly crafts market at the Place De La Bastille had these cute new uses for old cutlery.

As we crossed the Seine I noticed the facade of this VERY famous restaurant:La Tour D'Argent. 

The dining room is up five or six stories with magnificent views down the Seine. My father took us there for my parent's 25th wedding anniversary soon after we arrived in Paris. At the time it had three Michelin stars, the most a restaurant can achieve.

This was the unassuming front of what looked to be an organic market.

They are very specific about where you can and cannot sit on the grass in all Parisian park.
This is authorized grass and as we headed home the Parisians were taking full advantage of it.

Dinner was a scrumptious roasted chicken and potatoes from the "boucher" next door. I will try to get photos. This was truly a full service store, where the butchers had beautiful knife skills and cut all the meat to the customer's exact instruction. It was great to watch.

Paris: Day 3...you can guess.

Friday morning we walked to Bob's favorite church; St Sulpice. It is famous for being very large, in fact the second largest church in Paris. It is hard to get a photo of the front it is so large.

The inside is impressive as well.

                                                                           There is a lovely chapel to St. Genevieve.

Bob loves it for its gnomon. You will need to click on the link to get the full story. I believe it was used in the Da Vinci Code.

After a leisurely stroll inside the church we enjoyed watching this fashion shoot in the square out front.

At this point, I opted to go back to the flat to rest and catch up on things.

Bob and Genna went for a very long walk which included the gardens outside of the Cluny Museum.

The church of St. Severin....

...which had great gargoyles.

Bob wanted to find La Rue Huchette, as he had fond memories of the place with the pig on a spit.








On their return through the Luxembourg Gardens, they discovered this sculpture.

It's called The Mouth of Truth, it was believed that if one told a lie with one's hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off.

Genna reading on our balcony.

Tea time pastries.

Once they returned and napped we headed out to dinner just a few blocks from our flat.
I had chosen a place called Le Relais de L'Entrecote. It is patterned after a restaurant we used to love when I lived here.

There is no menu, they serve entrecote steak, salad and pomme frites. They ask you how you want your steak and what kind of wine you would like. The salad always has walnuts and a French mustard dressing.

 The steak is a thin cut, with an amazing sauce. Half of your main course is served to you while the second half is kept warm !! The fries are to die for, so is the sauce on the steak.

Sticking with my own tradition, I had profiteroles, for dessert. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph them before we all dug in.

I am not sure if this restaurant is actually related to the one we used to go to but I can say that the food is equally as good. The service while faster than most French restaurants was not hurried. It is a bigger place than our old haunt, so when we arrived at the very early hour of 7:15 PM we were seated very quickly as the place was almost empty. We used to have to wait in line at the old place even before they were open. The tables were very close together and the service very fast and brusque. For me this place was an improvement.

Happy Bob and Laurie !!