Paris 2019 Day Ten

Today was our last day in Paris so Annie, Kris, and I struck out on this beautiful day to see a bit more of this marvelous city. We started in our own neighborhood with a search for a special and well-loved treat for Grandmother. The Jardin des Plantes's beds are bursting with colorful poppies that made our stroll most pleasant. Crossing to the Right Bank we walked to the Coulée Verte René-Dumont, a beautiful garden on a disused elevated railway line (think High Line in NYC). Near the Place de la Bastile not far away, we stopped for some refreshment before visiting the Place des Vosges, the first bit of Classical, Renaissance city planning in the Marais. On the Rue de Birague behind the Place des Vosges, Annie found a beautiful Turkish runner for their home. Parisian Chinese noodle makers fixed us lunch on the Rue Sainte-Antoine. We decided to give the Arc de Triomphe and a walk down The Avenue des Champs-Élysées one more try. Guess what. All the stations from the Tuilleries to Charles de Gaulle–Étoile were closed because of possible Yellow-Vest activity. Ironically the demonstrators gathered at Bastille today. We saw a few of them as they began to gather, but we missed the big action. Anyway, the Metro sailed from end to end without stopping; we switched sides and directions at the first open station and headed home. Arriving back in the neighborhood, the ladies went in and I continued on to Val-de-Grâce church, which is a lovely, but not well known Baroque hospital church. Unfortunately not open to the public today.

 The Rue Mouffetard becomes quite market-like at the bottom

 Kris found her treat for Grandmother here

 Rue Mouffetard

 Well, what do you know? Another Wallace Fountain at Place 

Bernard Halpern -- I do have a problem! 

 Moslem mosque near the Jardin des Plantes

 A pleached alley of trees

 Wonderful poppies

 Rosemary in bloom

 Springtime in Paris

 KBT and AW in the Jardin

 Plums in bloom

 The Seine from the Pont D'Austerlitz

 Garden on the former railway bridge

 Coulée Verte

 View of the Avenue Ledru-Rollin and the 

Saint-Antoine Quinze-Vingts church from the Coulée Verte

 The Coulée Verte inspired New York's High Line

Coulée Verte 1993, High Line 2009

 Place de la Bastille

 Refreshment at the Génie on the Boulevard Beaumarchais

 Place des Vosges, 1605

 Pavilion de la Reine is the northern gate of the place

 From prestigious royal development, to slum, to tony 

neighborhood in just 400 years

 Ann shopping for a rug at a shop on the Rue de Birague

 The Pavilion du Roi is the southern gateway of the Place de

Vosges that opens into the Rue de Birague

 Chinese noodle house on the Rue Saint-Antoine

 Handmade noodles

 Mind-boggling magic how she turns it into noodles

 Delicious wok-fried noodles with crispy chicken

 An accidental firing of the camera with a very familiar view 

and memory for those who are constantly looking 

down to avoid a stumble

 Fantastic Baroque Saint-Paul Saint-Louis church

where the Rue Saint-Antoine meets the Rue de Rivoli

 I love churches

 Stacked classical layers

 We finally took the Rue de Navarre exit from the Place Monge 

Metro Station that comes up right at the foot of 

the Rue Rollin steps -- it was a climb!

 Val-de-Grâce 

Possibly the finest Baroque church in Paris

Around the corner for Italian supper

Posing diners

Delicious bruschetta

Annie picked the winner: linguini with artichokes, 

sundried tomatoes, and jambon

Gelato for dessert

Another nice day, the last in Paris. There will be more, but this is all for now.

OXO

D.

Paris 2019 Day Nine

What a day! The Marché Monge next to our metro stop was in full swing this morning. It is filled with every good thing; the temptation was too great and we did buy. Our destination today was the Père-Lachaise Cemetery, a beautiful hilly spot where loads of famous people are buried. We had a delicious lunch near the cemetery at a cafe with the unlikely name of Le Bear Café. Once again, it was excellent. We have only had one stinker: the sandwich Grec in the Latin Quarter, and even it wasn't bad. After lunch we went to see Frank Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton, a new art museum completed in 2014 that looks like a ship close up, but is supposed to look like floating clouds. Problem is, it's huge and you can't get back far enough to see the whole thing. I found it very interesting and beautifully crafted. AW, SKT, and KBT headed back to our flat and I kept on to see the other Hector Gimard édicule or canopy-covered metro entrance at Porte Dauphine. It has enclosed sides with some interesting details, but I think I prefer the Abesses station that we saw yesterday. We are home now relaxing, sipping hot drinks as the evening cools, eating chocolate, and enjoying this very pleasant flat.

Marché Monge

High fashion at marché price points

Un peu de fromage

Des légumes

Des olives

Du poisson

Des écharpes

Père-Lachaise Cemetery

Do you think Oscar Wilde would be upset that they broke off

the sculpture's junk with a hammer? -- well protected now

from the hoards 

The ups and downs of cemetery plots

Annie's GPS led us in a straight line through the cemetery, avoiding 

circuitous cobblestone streets, but navigating some steep bits

Jim Morrison's well-visited grave

Tombs upon tombs

Winding streets lead up the hill, and down, too!

Annie's photo of Paris to the west

Le Bear Café in the neighborhood where I lived in the 80s

Couscous de poulet for AW

Croque Madam for Dickie

Hamburger for SKT and KBT

They treated us well and offered us postprandial libations 

Were we on display in our window-table seats, or did we 

just have a street view? Both, perhaps

Flowers on the Avenue du Père Lachaise

Back on the Metro

Fondation Louis Vuitton

Design by Frank Gehry

A remarkable design

Detail

It is so large that you can't get a clear view of the whole thing, and the

trees in the Bois de Boulogne don't allow a clean view

I had seen pictures, but the scale was so much more than I expected

Metro entrance at Porte Dauphine by Hector Guimard

Plant-like Art Nouveau details

Interior Art Nouveau panels

Details, details

A little gem from around 1911, well preserved, well loved,
and still in use

Once we got home, nobody wanted to go out, so we just snacked. Tomorrow is our last day of adventure in Paris, so there will be more to see. This, however, is all for now.

OXO

D.