walk 12: time travel, tricks, and treats around saint sulpice

saturday may 19.
This was a pleasant stroll through Paris, if my memory serves me correctly this was the last walk I had to do and it was also the first walk I did on my own. It was so nice to move at my own pace and just enjoy my time in Paris. I want to start off with this clip from Paris Je T'aime because this is how I felt. (Hopefully minus the American accent?)

Au Cherche-Midi: to look for noon.

I love how old and beautiful all the buildings are in Paris. Its so different from home. This whole street was a mixture of architecture from the 1600s through the 1900s. It is interesting to see the different styles side by side and compare the proportions of the floors from one building to the next.

 Poilane is a world famous traditional bakery that opened in 1932. The bread is made from stone ground flour and raised without yeast and is preservative free. I didn't go in so I can't tell you whether or not its good, but basically I have come to learn that every bakery here in Paris is amazing. I don't go a day without eating something fresh from a bakery, whether its a croissant, baguette, quiche, pain au chocolat, pain au raisin, tarte au citron...and everything is out of this world good, even if I get it from the gas station next door to my apartment. So next time you're in Paris... try Poilane if you want, I'm sure you won't be disappointed, but just know that its not the only place to get good bread.

This centaur statue by Cesar was commissioned in the 80's, made from scrap materials. I don't get it..

 Above: Théâtre du Vieux Colombier. This Theater opened in 1913 as a venue for 'bare' stage productions (plays without scenery, props, etc.) The location was risky because it was so far away from other more commercial theaters, but it was successful even after the first world war began. Today it is owned by the Comedie Francaise. (side note: in French, a "théâtre" is only for stage productions while the "cinéma", or ciné for short, is for movies. This is something I always forget because in the US if I am talking about a theater, 90% of the time its a movie theater.)

 Next stop in the book was Pierre Hermé. I was really excited to try it because 1. I love macarons and 2. Pierre Hermé has a world wide reputation for reinventing the macaron. Their pastries are described as "couture", "innovative" and "gem-like". In fact, thanks to an article in Vogue magazine, they're known as the "picasso of pastry". 
So basically I felt like a peasant as I stood in line wearing my sweater with the hole that I still hadn't fixed, and carrying my camera around my neck-basically wearing a sign on my forehead that said tourist.. To make matters worse, the macarons were at the far end of the room, so by the time I got up there to see what flavors they had they were already getting impatient with me for not knowing exactly what I wanted. I ordered a jasmin, a rose, and a jardin parfum macaron in perfect French, but then when the guy at the register was trying to ring it up I got confused and blurted out something completely unintelligible and after that he snidely told me the price in English and basically threw the macarons at me on my way out. That was the first and last time I went to Pierre Hermé. 

Oh but look how pretty they are. The macarons were literally dusted with sparkles.They were almost too pretty to eat.  Even the napkin was fancy.

I took my macarons over to the square in front of Saint-Sulpice and enjoyed every last bite. Then I went into the church, the 2nd largest church in Paris, made famous by the Da Vinci Code.However I learned that the 'facts' in the da Vinci code are based off of information invented as part of a hoax by Pierre Plantard back in the 60's. So the Priory of Sion is made up. Also, the line running through the church was simply part of an astronomy experiment in order to define the exact time of Easter Sunday. There is no such thing as a "rose line". There is a meridian line in the Paris Observatory that was once considered the Prime meridian of the world (today it is in England), and throughout Paris there are inlaid medallions along that line as a memorial to Arago.

On the way to the last part of the walk I passed this band performing outside the metro. Fun. I should have taken a video (I kind of gave up on videos when I realized that they take about 2 hours to load with the internet we have here.)

Next I sat down in the park next to Abbaye Saint-Germain. It was a nice peaceful little break. When the abbey was built in the 6th century, it was in the fields outside of Paris. Now Paris has grown all around it of course, but the garden is tucked away into a little corner so its nice and quiet. When I was there, there were beautiful silver gelatin prints of Paris for sale along the fence of the garden. Someday.. that will be me selling my photographs.

There was also a wedding going on at the abbey. All the women were wearing insane outfits like this one. It was fantastic.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Paris, Je T'aime.
xoxo Heather