7 June 2022.
We put our Navigos through their paces today. We started out by taking the line 5 to Bastille and switching to no. 1 and exiting at the Saint Paul stop. This was another of of our old neighborhoods and we relished being back here.
I wanted to pop in to Saint Paul church to see if I could find the tomb of François de la Chaize (1624-1809), better known as Père Lachaise. He was confessor to Louis XIV who gave him a large tract of land east of the city which the good father turned into a retreat for his Jesuit brothers. The land was eventually confiscated by the state and after going through several owners became the cemetery best known for its famous burials and bearing its one-time owner's name.
A search through the small former Jesuit church proved frustrating however. There were a number of lovely alcoves with sarcophagi but not one of them was marked. Nor was there any information in the church identifying the location let alone the names of the prominent burials.
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| floral fun on rue Saint-Antoine near the Saint-Paul Metro |
It was a short walk from the church to our first major goal for the day: the newly renovated
Musée Carnavalet. As the Museum of the History of the City of Paris the
Carnavalet is just simply amazing in both its scope and collections. The arrangement walks the visitor through the history of the city chronologically and is (mostly) successful in its effort. It had been some years since we had been here and in fact it has undergone a major renovation in the interim.
And the work shows. It was nice to see they kept the Signage room as the beginning of our experience; all the signs, large and small are from businesses that once thrived and prospered in the city but eventually became nothing more than historical oddities.
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| the Signage room is still the introduction to the museum |
Soon you find yourself in the lower level (we might say basement) where the prehistorical and Roman collections are located.
Here one can find a number of tombstones and even sarcophagi from the 3-5 centuries AD. Apparently, in the late 19th century an ancient cemetery was discovered during construction to create the nexus of major boulevards that are today
Saint-Michel and
Les Gobelins. The "Saint Marcel necropolis" yielded quite a few fascinating artifacts which are well-marked in the museum and indeed the museum's refurbished collections are well-signed in both French and English.
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| the skeleton is a reproduction, and not original but, as the sign makes clear, included for effect |
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| taking a break |
If you're a Protestant who holds grudges you'll want to skip over this next image. . .
But on a more comforting note is
the story of this rather incredible woman.
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| painter Adélïde Binart |
And for one a quick study of one helluva life -- which should make us wonder what we do with our days today --
you must read about this woman.
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| Madame Tallien |
My personal favorite among these incredible stories told in this museum has always been the very well- and oft-told tale of Juliette Recamier, salonniere extraordinaire and one of the great beauties of her time. She not only successfully fought off the advances of Napoléon I but became lasting friends with his archenemy Madame Germaine de Staël, which speaks volumes about her character.
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| by François Gérard |
Once our browsing of the collections was done we made our way to the museum cafe in the inner courtyard of the museum to have a bite of lunch and a glass of wine. Susie had a scrumptious-looking focaccia and I had something called a Turkish egg, basically a poached egg with sautéed eggplant and creme fraiche.
From the
Carnavalet we made our wayback to the Saint Paul Metro and took the no. 1 west to the Clemenceau stop. Exiting the metro station one is immediately greeted by Charles de Gaulle forever striding down the
Champs-Elyssés on 26 August 1944 welcoming the liberation of Paris from German occupation.
Leaving Chuck behind we turned to face the
Grand Palais, closed during its renovation for the 2024 Olympics. But our objective was across the street, the small palace, or
Petit Palais. It was just by chance that we happened across a notice that there was an exhibition at the
Petit Palais of the works of Giovanni Boldini (1846-1931).
Known as the "king of swish" for his unique swirling brush style, Boldini was one of the hottest portrait painters for the wealthy and sophisticated Europeans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
From the
Petit Palais we headed back to the metro but this time took the no. 13 south to Duroc where we switched to the no. 10, getting off at Cluny-Sorbonne. We then walked up Boulevard Saint-Michel to the
Jardin du Luxembourg. It was an absolutely gorgeous late afternoon to be in the gardens and we were not the only ones to have that idea.
From the jardin we walked back and across the boulevard onto Avenue Gay-Lussac where we caught the no. 27 bus to the Place d'Italie.
Getting off just short of the place we popped into boulangerie Les Gobelinois for 2 baguettes and 2 religeuse (for me). Across the street from the bakery was a Vietnamese restaurant where I got a rice dinner to go (Susie was still full from her lunch).
It was a short walk back home and in for the night.
