Les Flâneurs

We have officially become flâneurs which is a French word for "people who stroll".  Between the daily long walks and the four flights of stairs to the apartment, we will hopefully be in better shape after ten weeks (despite eating lots of fantastic food).  We will also hopefully be able to take in Paris slowly, savoring new sights a little at a time, instead of wearing ourselves out trying to see it all in only a few days. So I like this word, "flâneur".  Today's stroll took us through parts of St. Germain-des-Prés.

Near the St.-Michel metro stop is the Place St. Michel which seems to be a popular hangout for both tourists and students of the nearby Sorbonne.  The impressive fountain is by Gabriel Davioud and the central statue of Saint Michael was done by Francisque Joseph Duret.

Our walk mostly took us past cafes, tea rooms, restaurants, and shops.  (I am beginning to wonder if these establishments have paid a consideration to get mentioned on our Paris Walks cards!). 

Copper pots adorn this location of Chez Clement, a chain restaurant.

Another inviting cafe

A school; not sure, but I think "École Maternelle" is a kindergarten

An India-inspired shop window

No enchiladas?  I guess I will have to make my own...

This passage leads to the cobblestoned street of Cour du Commerce St. André.  There are many passages like this in Paris, leading into side streets loaded with restaurants and shops.  Kind of a pre-cursor to today's shopping malls.

Le Procope claims to be the oldest literary cafe in the world.  "Regulars" included Voltaire, Rousseau, Balzac, Hugo, and they had a portrait of Benjamin Franklin in the window as well.

Walking along Rue Dauphine we saw lots of other shops.  Window dressing has been taken to an art form here in Paris, with objects displayed "just so" to catch your eye.  I am planning to buy (and learn how to properly wear!) a scarf while I'm here, so I was drawn to this window in particular.

We've seen both women and men wearing scarfs -- doesn't matter that it's 78 degrees and sunny.

As we walked we also found art installations of both the traditional and underground variety.

"Ahlala" by Daniel Hourdé, at the Place de L'Institut

Some of the Parisian graffiti doesn't seem like graffiti at all to me.

We also saw another "art form" on the streets: the American classic automobile.  There were not one, but two classic Ford Mustangs driving around the neighborhood.  Both were a similar color to my dad's Chevelle.  It was for a photoshoot advertising the brand Diesel.

We had lunch at this crêperie on Rue de Seine.  After eating both a savory and a sweet crêpe at one meal I think I have hit my quota of crêpes for this trip!  But that's okay, we continued to "walk it off" after lunch.

Themed crêperie -- the "City" in question was NYC not Paris for some reason.

We passed by the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts on the Rue des Beaux-Arts. 

Enormous busts of Puget (carver, sculptor) and Poussin (painter)

But we could not walk past Ladurée without making a purchase.  It was too pretty to pass up.

From a distance Kevin thought the window looked like it was displaying small bath soaps

These larger sweets inside were very tempting...

Oh là là, what to choose?

We ended up just choosing one mini-macaron each (we did just have crêpes an hour ago!).  We found a bench near the Église St.-Germain-des-Prés (Paris's oldest church) and nibbled our tiny treasures.  Kevin's salted caramel was so delicious that my orange blossom was kind of meh in comparison.

Can't have treats without coffee, right?  We stopped to have a peek at the café Les Deux Magots, the famous literary cafe. Hemingway, Sartre and Camus once hung out here, but all we saw were other American tourists paying $9 for a Coke.  Once we saw the eye-popping prices we knew we should never have sat down, but since we were already here we just had an outrageously overpriced café crème and an espresso, and watched the world go by for a while.