Flâneur á Paris

Saturday March 18 was mainly sunny and warm, with a 10 minute rain shower mid-afternoon, and a high of 16C.  A lovely day to flâneur à Paris. We had decided to spend most of the day wandering in the 6th and 7th arrondissements on the left bank.  We also had a list of shops we wanted to check out.  So it was a walk and shop day.

Emile Zola with an accompanying quote from Germinal (1885)

We deeked into the Luxembourg Gardens for a few minutes.  Beautiful flowers and some greenery.

Near entrance to the Luxembourg Gardens

Runners and cherry blossoms in the Gardens

We walked by Église Saint-Sulpice.  It is the third largest church in Paris.  Construction of the present building, the second church on the site, began in 1646 and finished in 1870.

Saint-Sulpice with the two mismatched towers.

We stopped at Pierre Marcolini chocolates to buy some of their delicious chocolate covered marshmallows.

Lovely Easter display

We passed an enticing little coffee kiosk and stopped for a coffee.  One of the best we have had in Paris.  It is called Café Nuances and they roast their own beans.  They have a larger flagship store in the 1er arrondissement.  

Café Nuances kiosk- very colourful and excellent coffee

We walked to one of our favourite streets, Rue du Cherche-Midi (6th arr.).  At the corner of Cherche-Midi and Rue de Sevres is Le Centaure (The Centaur) by the French sculptor César (1921-1998).  It was inaugurated on October10, 1985.  The half-man, half horse bronze made of metal tools (bolts, a shovel, a rake) is a tribute to Pablo Picasso, a friend of the artist.  César was inspired by the many creatures that populate Picasso's world.  It also has a Statue of Liberty on its chest and is topped by a likeness of César's head.  César was at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement and is best known for his use of recycled metals.

Le Centaure

We stopped at a new small restaurant called Kaplan on Rue du Cherche-Midi.  

Inside the restaurant

Looking in

We shared a very tasty tuna toast with a large piece of chèvre and a small salad

Further down the street was one of our favourite chocolate stores: La Mère de la Famille.  We stopped to pick up a few of their dark chocolate bars with orange pieces.

At La Mère de la Famille

It was then on to the Bon Marché department store.  Though not a big department store fan, the Bon Marché always has an interesting theme in both their windows and throughout the store.

Comme un poisson dans eau

The theme carries on in the store

Such a beautiful building

After a quick tour of the store (they also have a great book and paper section), we passed the famous Hôtel Lutetia which underwent a major restoration a few years ago. It was built in 1910 in the Art Nouveau style. It is named for an early pre-Roman town that existed where Paris is now located. In the late 1930s, the Lutetia was a gathering place for anti-Nazi German exiles and during the early days of the war it was filled with a number of displaced artists and musicians.  

Once Paris was occupied in June 1940, the hotel was requisitioned by the Abwehr and used to house the officers in command of the occupation.  When Paris was liberated in August 1944,  the Lutetia was used as a repatriation centre for prisoners of war and returnees from concentration camps.   The Hotel was closed between 2014-2018 for the most recent renovation.

Hotel Lutetia 

We then paid a visit to the Paul Smith store on Rue Raspail.

Always a well designed store

Alain with his new colourful Paul Smith tee

A stream of police cars buzzed by

More bunnies at the Ladurée store- Alain was looking for his favourite pan au chocolat pistache- unfortunately, they were sold out by late afternoon.

As we were walking towards the Seine, we passed by the Roger Viollet photography gallery on rue de Seine, which was having an exhibit: Une Histoire Photographique des Femmes au XXe Siècle (A Photographic History of Women in the 20th century).   There were a number of people in the gallery, and it looked like an interesting exhibit.

Poster for the show

The notes for the exhibit noted that the social order of the early 20th century was based on marriage and that it was a very patriarchal society.  By the age of 25, single women used to wear hats on Saint Catherine's Day.

Jacques Boyer, Le drapage du corsage chez Worth, Paris, 1907.

Maurice-Louis Granger, Baigneuses. Deauville (Calvados), August 1913.

Jacques Boyer, Modiste lisant le journal Le Petit Parisien, Paris, 1899.

Excelsior, Grèves à Paris au sujet de la semaine anglaise (repos le samedi après-midi pour les employées de la mode) et contre la vie chère.  May, 1917.

Branger, Femmes à la terrasse d'un café, Paris, vers 1925

The notes went on to talk about the progress women made in the 20th century, noting that the changes were the result of a long fight mostly led by women: suffrages, political activists, philosophers, lawyers, artists and scientists.  "By the end of the 20th century, women gained their independence and acquired all the rights equal to men.  It is true that mentalities are still sometimes behind the laws, but the woman of 2000 is a woman with free choice".

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923)

Boris Lipnitzki, Coco Chanel (1883-1971), Paris 1936

Jack Nisberg, Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1975), Paris, 1936

Henri Manuel, Colette (1873-1954)

Lipnitzki, Joséphine Baker (1906-1975), Paris, 1936

Gaston Paris, Front Populaire. Cortège, place de la Bastille, Paris July 14, 1936.

Marcel Cerf, Fête de l'Humanité. Une milicienne républicaine espagnole.
Garches (Haut-de-Seine), 1936

Collection Roger-Viollet, Front Populaire. Défilé du syndicat C.G.T. des femmes de ménage,
laveurs de carreaux, etc. Paris, July 14, 1936

On April 21, 1944, women were granted the right to vote, due to their role in the resistance movements during WWII.

Lipnitzki, Jeune fille devant un juke-box, 1956 and Le Café de Flore, Paris, June 1959.

Catherine Deudon, Manifestation contre l'année de la femme et le ministère Giroud, Paris March 8, 1975

 and Première manifestation de 5000 à 10,000 personnes pour dénoncer l'hécatombe des avortements clandestins et réclamer le droit à l'avortement et à la contraception, Paris, November 20, 1971.

There were a few other photos in the window of the gallery.

Gaston Paris, Edith Piaf (1915-1963), France, vers 1955

Studio Lipnitzki, Marguerite Duras (1914-1996), France, 1955.

Irmeli Jung, Juliette Gréco (1927-2020), 1972

Lipnitzki, Françoise Sagan (1935-2004), Saint-Tropez, 1956.

It was a treat to wander into the exhibit.  Our timing was great and we enjoyed the photographs. The joys  of flâneuring.

We walked along the river and stopped at one of the Bouquinistes (book sellers) to buy John Coltrane and Charlie Parker posters announcing their gigs in Paris in the early 1960s.

We bought the Miles Davis poster last year and had it framed.

Another view of Notre Dame at sunset

We met our friends Vicky and David from Victoria at Travline, an Israeli restaurant in the Marais, run by a couple who have Moroccan-Israeli roots.

Alain with a non-alcoholic Limonana Maison (with lemon, fresh mint and honey)

We had the assiette dégustation, which gave us tastes of four different appetizers:   Hummus, roasted beets with labneh and zaatar; cauliflower with tahini; and sweet potatoes with tahini.

David and Alain with the appetizers

Alain didn't have a lot of room to take this picture of Vicky and  I

I had a delicious Shaksouka and Alain had the grilled fish balls with yogurt on a bed of lentils, with preserved lemon

David had an amazing piece of a molten chocolate cake

We all walked back across the Seine and then Alain and I headed to the 5th and David and Vicky went the other way to the 7th.  It was a lovely meal with friends.

About 10 Police Vans whizzed by on Blvd. Saint-Germain

Sunday March 19 was much cooler than Saturday.  High of only 11C.   It was very cloudy in the morning and we were both a bit tired.  All these 15,000 to 20,000 steps days are catching up with us.  We decided not to go to a museum, but rather to walk over to the Marais and wander around.  The Marais is one of the few areas in Paris where shops are allowed to open on Sundays and a number of streets are closed to vehicle traffic.

We passed by a photographic store with this great Robert Doisneau photo of a man sitting under a sign that reads: "This place is reserved exclusively for mothers and their children".   

We walked up Rue Vieille du Temple and a number of streets that both crossed or ran parallel with that street, where we rented an apartment for three months in 2011.  We walked through the Marché des Enfants Rouges on Rue de Bretagne.  The historic market takes its name from the 16th century orphanage that used to occupy the site, the red of the children's clothes indicating that they had been donated by Christian charities.  Although the orphanage closed before the Revolution, the wooden edifice remained.  It was reopened as a food market in 2000.  The place has numerous food stalls with different types of food as well as a small fruit, vegetable and cheese section.  The place was packed with Sunday brunchers.

Long bars with many different types of food

A place to be on a Sunday

Fruit stands too

It was time for a coffee.  We saw a sign for Coutume, a coffee shop that we knew from its location near the Bon Marché.  We hadn't realised there was a branch in the Marais.  

Lots of room and not too busy on a Sunday afternoon

Alain with our coffees.

We walked up to the Cique d'Hiver Bouglione building in the 11th.  It was erected in 1852, almost a century after the advent of the modern circus.  It was built by Jacques Ignace Hittorf, the architect of the Gare du Nord and was opened by Emperor Napoleon III on December 1852 as the Cirque Napoléon. It was renamed Cirque d'Hiver in 1873.   The Bouglione family acquired the building in 1934 and it has been the Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione since that time.

Cirque d'Hiver building 

We wandered back through the Marais and went over to Place des Vosges, one of the oldest squares in Paris, and also one of the most beautiful.  We often hung there during our three month stay in 2011.

Still a great place to hang

We walked down Rue Rivoli in the Village St-Paul section of the Marais.  So many wonderful food shops, some of which were open on Sunday.  Lots of chocolates, bunnies and even a duck.  We then turned down Rue St-Paul and continued our walk to the Seine.

Chocolates and even a duck

The sun had come out again and we had a good view of Notre Dame under construction.  It is quite the project.

View of Notre Dame

Crossing Pont de la Tournelle

We cross Pont de la Tournelle and head up Rue Cardinal Lemoine until Rue Monge and then continue on Rue Monge until we reach Rue Mirbel where we make a turn.  It is then just a short hop down a few stairs and a short block to Rue du fer à Moulin, where our apartment is located.

The always busy Le Censier café at Rue Monge and Rue Mirbel.

For dinner, Alain made a pasta with tomato sauce.  He also used the last of our saucisson noisette from Lyon in the sauce.  We had a glass of wine from our new bottle followed by a green salad and poppy strudel for dessert.  On Monday, we have a visit to the Centre Pompidou planned.