Day 4 The Latin Quarter

Tuesday's objectives: See the Rodin museum, the Church of the Miraculous Medal & find La Maison Du Chocolat for the Chocolate & Pastry walking tour

December 28 we thought of Colin - Happy Birthday from Paris!  On this day we were all over the Latin Quarter, the Left Bank - it is huge! We took the Metro and learned how to change lines, following the signs by color, number and destination.  We started our day at the Rodin museum which has The Thinker in the garden and The Kiss inside the hotel that was his home.  He was a prolific sculptor and a master of sculpting the human body in marble. I must admit, while I admire the artistry I am not a huge fan, whereas this was a touchstone moment for Bill who loves sculpting and it was a big reason for him to even be in Paris.  My summary comment... marble porn.  OK, that's a bit strong, but some of the sculptures I had never seen before and I found myself imagining how these erotic poses came to be...  Anyway, he is hugely popular and did some amazing work.  For someone with zero depth perception (me) it is unfathomable how someone can create works of art from hunks of rock.  

Bill's POV: 

Musée Rodin, Metro ride to Varennes Station.  Rodin was clearly a prolific sculptor and designer.  Elise said he was a dirty old man.  Probably so.  His sculptures are certainly a departure from the classical styles at the Louvre.  

We next took the Métro to the area close to where the Chocolate & Pastry Tour start ~ a gift to us from Dan & Ann.  First we went Le Bon Marché, a large Nieman-Marcus-type department store (nice restrooms).

Then to Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, the church of St. Catherine Labouré ~ a beautiful chapel with a simple gift shop run by the convent nuns. Lovely.  

Then we went to La Grande Epicerie ~ a fabulous grocery store.  It took a while to find a simple bottle of water, plus a sandwich to share & some take-home goodies.  We were too cold to wait outside for the tour, so we slipped into a little restaurant for coffee - perfect.

Bill's POV:

From the Rodin museum, we took the train to Sèvres-Babylone.  We walked to Le Bon Marché, a department store, a bit pricey. From Le Bon Marché, across the street is the chapelle Notre-Dame de la Médaille Miraculeuse.  This is the convent Saint Catherine Labouré joined and the site of her apparitions.  Next stop was La Grande Epicerie, for sure the most interesting grocery store I have ever seen.  We bought a sandwich to share and 5 Sel Gris as gifts back home for the kids (and two for us). 

Pastry Tour:
2:00pm (14:00) We met our group outside La Maison du Chocolat ~ Not quite sure what the guide's name was ~ He was très French, so his English was with a heavy accent.  He was quite knowledgeable about the area and the various shops.  I lost count, but we sampled or took samples with us of chocolate éclair, infused chocolates,...

...sourdough bread and shortbread cookies, ...

 

...AND macarons, which are all the rage here in Paris - light & airy cookies with a filling to hold them together.  Wonderful!

The neighborhoods were quite urban with upscale shopping and fabulous architecture ~ buildings, now mostly apartments ~ from the 1800s.  There was one "Where's Bill?" moment when he disappeared from the group, but then caught up with us having slipped into a jewelry store to buy me a bracelet... or, perhaps just to warm up, but the bracelet was a sweet surprise.  

We also saw an historic hotel: Hôtel Lutetia and Saint-Sulpice church, one of the churches from "The da Vinci Code" movie.  Quite an experience all 'round.  Thanks, Dan & Ann!

It was a cold, misty Paris afternoon, but we again managed the Métro & gratefully came "home" to Hotel de Lutece ~ a welcome, warm site to rest our tired feet! 

We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Sens'o Italian restaurant, a delicious 3-course dinner.  It was a big food day!

Bill's POV:

The pastry tour started across from a café where we had café crème while waiting.  La Maison du Chocolat seems to be one of the more famous of the many chocolate shops in Paris, a great place to start the tour.  From there we went to a bakery.  Across from the bread shop, I stumbled into a jewelry store called Metal Pointu's.  The bracelet I bought is metal with a bit of Oriental marking on it, 32 Euros, a gift for Elise.  From there, we went to Pierre Hermé a maker of "Macarons." These are a sort of cookie and candy combined to make a very nice treat.  They are available in many flavors.  They look like little bitty hamburgers.  Since the weather was cold and had become drizzly, we headed to the Saint-Sulpice Métro and went back to the hotel.