Bonjour Family and Friends!
Today we went across a tiny street to a patisserie - boulanger called Cafe Salon de The (pronounced "Tay"). Alex - the person who rented this apartment to us, advised that the baker at this patisserie was "starting to get better," as apparently there had been some complaints. We ordered two coffees and two flakey, buttery pastries filled with warm puréed apple, which were delectable. No complaints from us.
From there we walked over to the market on Boulevard St. Germain to see if there was anything new. There was the usual lovely fruits and vegetables, piles of different types of olives, sausages, cheeses and other things like scarves, jewellery and clothing.
From there we wandered over to the Fountaine Saint-Michel in Place Saint-Michel in the 5th arrondissement. (I should mention that the city of Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements, or districts). It is a very large monument of the Archangel Michael treading on a dragon, carrying a banner and sword. There are two dragons on the lower level, each spewing water from their mouths. While we were standing and looking at the monument, a gold ring dropped on the ground in front of us. The person then picked it up and asked me if the ring belonged to me. I said, "No", and then he offered to sell it to me. I waved him off, finding it hard to believe that anyone could fall for this silly scam.
From there we walked over to L'Eglise St. Sulpice on Place St. Sulpice to see another historic cathedral in which construction began in 1646. Apparently the Marquis de Sade was christened in this church, but if you know anything about him, you know that he grew up into a nasty, depraved individual. On a more interesting note, Victor Hugo was married here. Apparently the organ in this church is one of the world's largest, with 6,588 pipes. As well, everyone knows that St. Sulpice played an important role in the book, "The Da Vinci Code". I think I might re-read this when I get home. One very spectacular thing I should mention, is that you could watch a video in the church, of people being baptized in water. The water came pouring over their heads in slow motion, splashing down their faces. It was absolutely stunning to watch. (There is even a website for this called Baptism@benjaminb.com.)
We left St. Sulpice and stopped at the very old cafe of Les Deux Magots (which means "two figurines from China"), in the Saint-Germain-des-Pres area in the 6th arrondissement. It's famous, because at one time it was a rendezvous area for the literary and intellectuals of the city. (Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce and others). The cafe once belonged to a fabric and novelty shop on the same site, that turned into a cafe. If you go in the doors of the cafe, and don't mind feeling a twinge of embarrassment for a few moments, you can get a photograph of two large magot (Chinese salesman) statues who keep watch over all the people who might be sitting around and philosophizing.
After this, we carried on and walked across the Pont Neuf Bridge which spans over the Seine. This brought us into the 1st arrondissement, just south of Rue Montorgueil. The Pont Neuf is the oldest bridge on which construction began in 1578. The reason we went over the Pont Neuf was to go to 'Le Chien qui Fume' (The Smoking Dog) Bistro for lunch, which dates to 1740. The address is 33, Rue du Pont Neuf, in case anyone is interested. Apparently a lot of the farmers who brought their fruits and vegetables to the old market of Les Halles from surrounding farms, would stay and eat in this Inn,(now a cafe. Eventually the area around the Inn evolved into a red light district, because Les Halles market never slept.
We were happy with our lunch there, and it was fun to see this beautiful, old bistro. If only walls could talk! I tried the parma tagliatelle and Ron had the salmon tagliatelle, and we both found the cafe interesting. There were lots of old pictures on the wall of the old Les Halles market.
I found out about The Smoking Dog bistro when I learned about the old market system of Paris called Les Halles. For 800 years this market was the centre of food distribution in Paris, and it was called, "The Belly of Paris" by Emile Zola. The market was a shelter for merchants who came from all over to sell their products. Vegetables were sold during the day, but it was at night that the fish and meat vendors went into full swing. Thousands of tons of meat were bought, butchered, traded and sold. This market was also a meeting place for the citizens of Paris. Naughty things also took place at the market, where prostitutes found favour with many of the robust butchers and meat carriers. To the north of the market was rue Saint Denis known for its "slimmer prostitutes".
There was a Parisian photographer named Robert Doisneau who captured Les Halles as it was, in some of his famous photographs. Last spring,there was a display of his many of his famous photographs. (I nearly cried myself to sleep when I discovered this).
Sadly, the success of Les Halles was its own undoing. The traffic started to become a serious problem, and the site was destroyed in 1971. Now, there is an underground mall there, and a lot of building and construction taking place over the old market site. The market was re-located to the suburb of Rungis, which I didn't find myself that interested in.
It was said that when the food market was moved out of Les Halles, Paris was eviscerated. How I wish I could have seen this glorious market!
After walking around the area in stifling heat and humidity, we headed back to the cool apartment for a break.
We sat around for awhile looking out the apartment windows and listening to life out on the streets. After sharing a baguette and cheese and some fruit in the late afternoon, we headed out on the metro in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. We got off at the Trocadero stop and walked to Trocadero Square. We sat on a stone ledge where there was an excellent view of the fountain canons shooting out water. Just beyond the fountains, the Eiffel Tower could be clearly seen.
When we got to the tower, we could see there was construction going on and some fencing in the square. You couldn't stand directly under the centre and look up. But nothing stopped the large groups of people who were happy to be so near to this amazing structure.
We sat on the grass amongst many other people looking at the Eiffel Tower. It's hard to believe that the tower was very unpopular when it first appeared on the Paris landscape in 1889, and many people didn't think it fit into the Paris architecture.
Tonight however, lots of people enjoyed the warm summer evening while sitting on the grass (or the Champs de Mar) in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. In the evening, the tower lit up around ten pm, and within minutes all the lights began to twinkle. When this happened the crowd of people relaxing on the grassy area gave a delightful cheer. People jumped up and began snapping photos and then sat back down to resume their picnics. When we decided to leave, there were still lots of people savouring the sight of this world famous structure...
No comments:
Post a Comment