We began with a sleepy, quirky village part by exiting the
Lamarck-Caulincourt metro station and turning around immediately to climb the
hill via old stone steps, under the shade of mature trees. We veered off to the right on the shady
Avenue Junot so that we could visit the charming lane called Via Leandre once
again. That is one of the few places you
can find real townhouses in Paris.
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| Looking at Pont Neuf from the Passerelle des Arts |
Continuing along the Avenue Junot, we noted the memorable
modern house
designed by Alfred Loos in 1925 for the writer Tristan Tzara. Not far away, across the street, the
fascinating sculpture of a man coming through a stone wall captures our
attention. It is by the Jean Marais, and
was installed in this quiet spot in 1989.
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| Sculpture by Jean Marais, "Le Passe-Muraille." |
The street changes names to the rue Norvins, and it leads
right into that other kind of Montmartre, jam packed with souvenir shops,
questionable cafés, and lots of tourists from all over the world. The change is sudden, abrupt.
We looked off to the right at the busy Place du Tertre, with
its outdoor cafes in the middle and portrait artists all around the edges,
drawing the faces of willing tourists.
Walking on, we paused for a moment to listen to an elderly
busker playing the accordion near the side of the Sacre Cœur church. Tom put a euro in his case. We turned the corner and gazed up at the
elaborate church, then, turning our heads, we looked out at one of the spectacular
panoramic views of the city.
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| View from Montmartre, in front of Sacre Coeur |
Moving on through the plaza in front of the church, we
stopped to watch three young men who were tap dancing on squares of
plywood. They had a tiny boom box that
was putting out a lot of sound. Tom
admired their techniques and talents as percussionists, and so he put a few
euros in their hat.
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| Tom just put some euros in the tap dancers' |
We descended the steps of the rue Maurice Utrillo. I was thankful we weren’t climbing them;
there are so many! We passed by the outdoor
cafés at the bottom of the steps, and went on through the garden to the east of
the Sacre Cœur steps. We were in that
quiet, country village of Montmartre again. We paused to talk to and photograph a
beautiful, young, orange-and-white cat who was lolling about and mewing for
attention, just over the little fence next to our path.
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| Cat in the garden on Montmartre |
Suddenly we were at the base of the Sacre Cœur steps, and
were thrust back onto a busy, noisy commercial street with more souvenir
shops. We turned left and began our
descent, out of schizophrenic Montmartre, down the rue des Martyrs, into the heart of the right bank.
We were thirsty, and Tom was hungry, so we began to look for
a quiet café terrace just off the rue des Martyrs. We wanted to be away from the traffic, and we
needed to be in the shade.
At last, we saw something on the rue Choron that would do
nicely. Actually, we each saw different
things. Tom spotted bright red tables on
the north side of the street, and I saw wooden tables under a mustard gold awning
on the south side of the street. I was
puzzled about why Tom was veering to the north.
He laughed when he realized the red tables belong to the
FranPrix grocery. We’d never seen a
FranPrix with café tables in front.
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| View from Chez Vous -- lots of parked motorcycles and cafe tables in front of FranPrix, on the rue Choron. |
So we settled in at a table on the south side of the street,
at a place called Chez Vous, around 4:30.
After we ordered beverages, Tom went inside to ask about something to
nibble on. A charcuterie and cheese
plate was suggested, and soon it appeared before us. It cost only 10 euros, and it was so very
generous! Once again, we had to spirit
away some of the food in a shopping bag.
Chez Vous, at 15 rue Choron in the 9th
arrondissement, has some pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor, so you might want
to try it if you are going to be near there at lunch or dinner. We recommend it for drinks and snacks, for
sure. It is a friendly place, and prices
are very reasonable.
Restored for walking, we continued the descent toward the
Seine. At the boulevard des Italiens, we paused to
photograph the top of the old Credit Lyonnais bank headquarters. We visited this fascinating building during
Heritage Days in 2012, and I wrote about it in my Paris Journal on September 17
of that year. Memories . . . .
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| Top of the old Credit Lyonnais building at 19 Boulevard des Italiens, in the 2nd arrondissement |
By the time we reached the Louvre, we were thirsty
again. Tom bought a bottle of water for
a euro from one of the illegal vendors.
The water sellers are the one type of illegal vendor that I don’t mind;
they aren’t competing with legitimate businesses because there are no
businesses selling water out there in these vast stretches of space where we
walk, along with so many others. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
We walked under an archway in the Louvre and skirted around
the great glass pyramid. We walked
through another arch to be in the Cour Carrée, where we rested on a bench for a
while. A man played the flute in the
archway behind us, putting sound to our relaxation.
We rose and walked through another archway, leading to the
crosswalk to the Passerelle des Arts, with the Institut de France standing
boldly on the other side of the Seine.
Soon we were back on the left bank again – our home turf.
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| The Passerelle des Arts and the Institut de France. |
Turning right to walk for a bit along the Quai so we could
reach the rue Bonaparte, we soon noticed that the Beaux Arts school had lots of
reconstruction/renovation going on. I
look forward to visiting when the work is done.
Soon we were at the Place Saint Sulpice. We entered the church and paused for a short
time. The church interior was still warm
from the heat wave that passed two days ago.
It takes a while for all those stones to lose the heat.
 |
| Saint Sulpice altar |
Then it was time to meet a new friend for drinks at the Café
de la Mairie, on the Place Saint Sulpice.
We’d never met him before. David
was introduced to me via Facebook. His
girlfriend’s aunt is a friend of mine on Sanibel. David was about to start a four-month study
program at Sciences-Po, a part of the Sorbonne.
He’d never been in France before.
Over drinks we talked for an hour and a half about places he
might go and things he might do while in this best city on Earth. He’s about 25, graduated from Kent State University,
and studied at Stanford Law. He’s a
charming, smart young man.
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| Place Saint Sulpice |
Then Tom and I took the metro home. We decided that at last we would dine at the
neighborhood brasserie, Le Commerce Café (not the same as the Café du
Commerce). Amazingly, we’d not been to
our casual neighborhood brasserie yet this summer! Le Commerce was busy, but still had plenty of
room for us. Tom ordered pasta alfredo,
and I ordered the Obama Burger (because it comes with both sautéed onions and pickles, plus a mysterious but good “sauce Americaine”).
We’d forgotten how copious the servings are at Le Commerce. The generous portions are no doubt one of the
reasons why the café is so popular. I put
aside most of the hamburger bun, and gave most of the fries to Tom. Still, we had plenty of food left on the
plates when we were done. The server was
concerned, and once again we had to explain that the food was good, but “c’est beaucoup.”
Back in the apartment, we read in the evenings. That’s when Tom reads the news (which I read
in the mornings), and when I read books or watch Netflix movies on my Kindle Fire. We haven’t turned the TV on yet this summer.
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| Angel in Saint Sulpice. |
Books I read this month include The Dream Lover: A Novel of George Sand, by Elizabeth
Berg, and Paris Without End: The True Story of
Hemingway’s First Wife, by Gioia Diliberto.
I recommend both highly. In both
cases, I was impressed with the amount of research done, and with the quality
of the writing.
I also read The Paris
Key, a novel by Juliet Blackwell, which was good entertainment, but not in
the great literature category.
Soon, I’ll probably be reading novels that take place in
Florida.
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