The Latin Quarter

The Latin Quarter is one of the oldest areas in Paris.  It's called the "Latin" quarter because of its proximity to the Sorbonne, where students during the Middle Ages were required to learn and speak Latin.  Its crooked streets were mostly untouched by the Haussman revamp of Paris back in the late 1800's, so it still remains a twisty maze of narrow alleyways.  This is the Rue de la Huchette.

And this is the scene on the Rue Xavier Privas.

If you are looking for kitchy tourist souvenirs, look no further.  There are loads of shops throughout the quarter, especially along the Quai St.-Michel.

The Latin Quarter is also a great place to get a reasonably priced meal.  Restaurant owners lurk in the doorways and try to lure you inside with great deals on formules, a set menu which usually includes a main course with an appetizer or dessert, or both.  This guy struck a casual pose when he realized I was taking a photo.

Many of the restaurants specialize in local French cuisine, such as magret de canard (duck breast), lapin a la moutarde (rabbit with mustard sauce) and, of course, fondue (melted cheese).

And there are cheaper eats to be had, such as tasty gyros...

...or these sword skewers, loaded with meat and veggies.

And of course, there's always the McDonald's chain...these girls were handing out coupons from their segways.

As we crossed the Boulevard St.-Germain, we ducked into a small park to view the Thermes de Cluny, ruins of a Roman bath that date back to 200 AD.  They are part of the Musée de La Moyen Age (which we visited a few weeks ago).

We walked around the back of the Middle Ages Museum and had a picnic lunch in this pretty park.

Across the Rue des Écoles is the historic Le Champo cinema, opened in 1938.  Currently playing is the 1966 classic "How to Steal a Million", starring Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole.

We continued on the Rue des Écoles, passing by La Sorbonne (aka the University of Paris), founded in the 1160s.

This gorgeous floral wall was in the Square Paul Langevin, by the École Polytechnique building.

The display is made up of hundreds of small flowerpots attached to the wall.

Turning right onto the Rue Monge, we headed toward the Arènes de Lutèce, a stadium that is as old as the Roman baths we saw earlier.  The Rue Monge entrance is pretty inconspicuous.

But just through the door is an enormous amphitheater that supposedly could seat 15,000 people at one time.

Most of these spectators were simply enjoying lunch while watching this pétanque match.

We took the Metro home from Place Monge.  At the Châtelet station, instead of immediately changing trains, we followed the faint echoes of Mozart's Symphony No. 25 until we found this mini-chamber orchestra.

Jardin du Luxembourg

Paris seems to have a park for every occasion.  Some are a bit wild, like the Parc de Buttes Chaumont, while others are manicured to a tee like the Jardin du Luxembourg.  This is the garden that surrounds the French Senate building and it is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon.

The Luxembourg Palace was built to the specifications of Marie de Medicis in 1611.  She modeled it after the Pitti Palace in her native Florence, and had a hand in designing the surrounding gardens.  After the French Revolution, the palace became home to the French Senate.

Near the Palace is the Medici Fountain, also commissioned by Marie de Medicis.  It was moved and rebuilt in the 1860s.

As we walked past the bandstand, we saw a group of kids setting up for a jazz concert.  They were introduced as the Minnesota Youth Jazz Band, and they were pretty good.  We sat and listened for a while.

In the center of the garden is an enormous shallow pool, where little kids can sail toy boats.  It looked like a lot of fun.

This park seems to have been designed with children in mind; in addition to the boats there are wading pools and several playgrounds.  This one had a mini zip line which was very popular.



Supposedly there is a marionnette show that runs daily.  Our guidebook says 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30 pm, but when we got to the stage area at 2:30 it looked completely closed for business.  So no marionnette show today!

Instead we sat down on a bench near the fruit tree orchard.  At least one gardener was hard at work keeping all the fruit trees in shape -- we saw multiple varieties of pears, apples, and other fruits we couldn't name.

I can tell these are pears...

...and these are probably apples.

Can't have flowers and fruit without bees, right?

Google hilariously translates that as "not to walk on the lawn -- endangered bees".  

The dangerous (or endangered) bees

There are hundreds of statues throughout the garden.  Here's one you might recognize - it's the first model for Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty.

After leaving the garden, we walked a few blocks to the Église St.-Sulpice.  The baroque-style church is known for its mismatched pair of towers, which give it a slightly lopsided appearance.  Too bad I only included the North tower in this photo.

Visconti's Fountain of the Four Bishops in the church square is very impressive; one of my favorites so far.

The interior is beautiful and very different from the gothic style cathedrals that we have seen (Notre Dame, St. Eustache).

Rounded arches throughout

The gilded pulpit

Chapel of the Virgin

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.