Carnavalet, Petit Palais, the Luxembourg Gardens and a bus ride home

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. 

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.

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.

the skeleton is a reproduction, and not original but, as the sign makes clear, included for effect

taking a break

If you're a Protestant who holds grudges you'll want to skip over this next image. . . 

Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), queen of France from 1547-1559

For more information about her go here and see her possible role in the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

But on a more comforting note is the story of this rather incredible woman.

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.

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.

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.

"On a bench in the Bois de Boulogne" 1872

"Crossing the Street" 1873-75

"Conversation at the café" 1879

the actress Alice Regnault 1884

two women sketching

"The Marquise Luisa Casati with Peacock Feathers" 1911-1913

"Portrait of Gladys Deacon" 1916

From the featured exhibition rooms we strolled through the main gallery and permanent collection, always free, by the way.

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.

Letter from Paris 24 April

Today there was no plan, no itinerary nothing special but just BE in Paris, strolling, taking in the space and feeling the energy of this incredible city. In local terms, a flâneur and a flâneuse undertaking together flânerie of the city.

It was a day like many others in the past and yet utterly different in the things we observed, the places we experienced as we wound ourselves through the city.

don't let the entrance fool you

After a leisurely morning we made our way to the Marché des Enfant Rouges. Opened in 1628 it is reportedly the oldest covered market in Paris and was named after the children who were clothed in red and lived at a nearby orphanage.

We were in search of Miam Miam, a food vendor specializing in sandwiches and located inside the market, a suggestion we found while watching "Alice in Paris," a series streaming on Amazon Prime. It took us a few minutes to find the entrance to the market — right under our noses at 39 rue de Bretagne. Once inside it was controlled chaos — few actual food purveyors it was mostly a collection of food stalls with seating scattered here and there. Since it was lunchtime it was crowded and with narrow aisles it was rather claustrophobic.

Anyway, our vendor, as it turned out, was closed Tuesdays. So we opted to leave the Marché and go in search of something a little less hectic.

Once back onto rue Bretagne we passed a common sight in the city:

Back onto rue Bretagne we strolled a block or so looking for just the right place for lunch; we tend to operate on hunches; the kind of hunch that says "you'll know it when you see it." And we saw Iovine.

We walked inside and were met by an amiable young man who motioned us to a small table; okay they were all small tables where with one sitting along a banquette facing the other. After ordering a brace of cocktails we settled in for a leisurely and, as it turned out, delicious lunch. Susie’s salad came with wonderful toasted bread with melted stracchino cheese; my salad came with large chunks of tuna and olives with a side of small slices of thin crust pizza. All washed down with two glasses of the house rosé.

Both of us were so taken with the friendly atmosphere, the wonderful people — it was small, very small — and the chance to speak Italian that we immediately decided to return for my birthday dinner.

look at those chunks of tuna!

pear ricotta custard for dessert/dolce

After lunch we made our way to our favorite department store: BHV (Bazaar Hôtel de Ville). After using the bathrooms (5th floor) we browsed through their book section and I found two books on Paris Cemeteries to add to my collection. Since we got a discount coupon with our purchase Susie will most likely return to browse the baking and women's clothing sections before we leave.

From BHV we walked past the Hôtel across the Seine, skirted the crowds at Notre Dame and made our way past Musée Cluny and one of my favorite statues, of Montaigne, turning up Boulevard Saint-Michel to the Jardin de Luxembourg.

Hôtel e Ville

history is literally right on the street

Near the Musée de Cluny we came the ubiquitous signs of the far past and the present in sight of one another:

charging stations are becoming more prevalent

Montaigne smirking at all passersby who think they don't have the time to meditate on life's quirks.

a fascinating sculpture near the rue Soufflot entrance to the jardin

Leaving the Jardin we walked up rue Gay-Lussac looking for another restaurant, Les Papilles thinking we might make reservations for an upcoming dinner but it was closed that day. So we meandered past the Institut Curie on rue d'Ulm, over to the rue Mouffetard, picking up some rotisserie potatoes along the way. From the "Mouff" we made our way to Avenue des Gobelins and then took back streets over to our apartment, both of us feeling the fatigue in our legs from a good day of flânerie in Paris.

Once back home and still full from our wonderful lunch we had a light dinner of rotisserie potatoes.

Next: a birthday wish come true and fascinating Parisians.