Boozy lunch #1

Rocks, Les Papilles, about Notre Dame, and Ile St. Louis 

This was a food-centric trip. We wanted to eat well at old and new-to-us places. So today we had a 1230pm reservation for lunch at Les Papilles, not far from Luxembourg Gardens, in the 6th. 

I looked at google maps of the area and came across a museum that I knew husband would love: MINES Minerology Museum at Ecole des Mines. The Metro took us to Notre-Dame-des Champs.

Right outside the Metro is this statue of a soldier with a broken saber. It's "Hommage au Capitaine Dreyfus" who was a Jewish soldier accused and convicted of treason in 1894. New evidence was suppressed leading Emile Zola to write his "j'accuse" (I accuse) letter. Dreyfus was later exonerated and in 1906 made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. 

Hommage au Capitaine Dreyfus

I was the first customer of the day at Amorino (I love their ice cream!) and ate it as we walked along the wall of the Luxembourg Gardens, passing beautiful Haussmann buildings, to the Museum.

So that's how they get furniture into the apartments.

The museum is in the School of Mines. Its history paddle is out front and there's a sign on the building itself. Husband was ever so happy; he loves rocks!

We made our way up the stairs, already impressed, to the entrance where a professorly gentleman explained about the museum. There was a nominal entrance fee.

What follows are some of the photos we took. It was an impressive collection in several rooms which overlooked the gardens. One section had very pretty jewelry grade gems. And I got to touch Mars and the Moon!

We walked a few minutes down Guy-Luissac to Les Papilles. We lunched here in 2015 and really enjoyed the atmosphere and food so decided to try it again. http://herewegoagain-france2015.blogspot.com/2015/10/st-germain-and-latin-quarter.html  

It was just as quirky as before. We could see the chef was the same. Last time one of the owners served, whereas this time, two efficient women took care of us with help from a bartender. It was pretty quiet when we arrived but filled up by 1pm. 

Love those colorful tiles!

Our meal was outstanding! First course was a delicious carrot soup over yummy veggies and bacon. It comes in a big soup tureen which you self-serve over the garnishes. Delicious!

The main course was chicken with pesto pasta. I'm garlic averse, so I was substituted roasted veggies. Chicken does not have to be boring because this was delicious!

Chicken in a cassoulet

Pesto pasta for husband

My chicken and veggies

Delicious

Husband had the cheese course: blue cheese with prunes. He loved it.

We both had the outstanding strawberry panna cotta. The bartender suggested a Jurancon Doux wine to accompany dessert and it was perfect!

Jurancon is better than Sauterne, he said.

It was a really great meal with a fun, relaxed vibe. We will definitely return on a subsequent trip.

Since we were close and had never been there, we routed ourselves to rue Mouffetard, which is quite famous and popular. We walked the whole street, relatively unimpressed. I imagine shoppers love it. 

This street art caught my eye. Found out later it's by an artist named Invader and he has hundreds of pieces across Paris. So cool.

My first Invader :)

We had a little time to kill before our 3pm reservation for the Notre-Dame exposition at the College des Bernadins so took our time wandering the pretty streets, aiming for Saint-Etienne-du-Mont church. 

The Lycee Henri-IV, one of Paris' great schools, is across the street. The history goes back to 510. The Blue Guide has like 5 pages on this school. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyc%C3%A9e_Henri-IV

The Eglise St-Etienne-du-Mont was as impressive as I remembered (2015). I wasn't able to get a good picture of its pretty purple door.

This church was under construction from 1492 to 1586. It shelters the shrine of St. Genevieve, the Patron Saint of Paris. It is light filled and feels joyous inside. The rood screen--a fretted piece of stonework--was build in 1525-1535 and is unique for being preserved intact. It is beautiful.

Great-grand pere Blaise?

St. Genevieve's chapel Shrine (1853) is gilt filled and has a fragment of her tomb. Her remains were burned by a mob in 1801. 

We went to the charnel house to look at the magnificent 1605-1609 stained glass windows. There's a unicorn, of course.

Noah and the Unicorn

Back to the main church and out. St Etienne-du-Mont is a special church. 

We headed to College des Bernadins. We love walking in Paris. There's always something cool to see around each corner!

The College des Bernadins is a center for learning. Apparently they hold conferences and lectures there regularly. I read about their free immersive Notre Dame exhibit and knew we had to see it. We arrived just on time at 3pm.

It's 13C Cisternian building, the last vestige of the medieval university in Paris. 

We went for the immersive (via tablet/aka histopad) augmented reality exposition on the 850 years of history of Notre-Dame de Paris.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqGn98NPcW4&t=16s 

It covered everything from the impetus for building the cathedral, the planning, politics, craftmanship (like how the workers were paid), the remodeling in the 18thC, to the devastating fire in 2019. It was fascinating! (Well, to me. Husband bailed pretty early). I would love to see it again as I know I missed a.lot.

It was about 530pm and things were closing down. Our museum going was done for the day! I have long heard that the Institut du Monde Arabe was a beautiful building so we walked by it (Yes, very cool!) on our way to Ile St. Louis. 

The Seine is ever present in Paris. I told husband that I would love if Hydrow brought the athletes to row here! To be clear, I don't personally want to row on the Seine. I just want to work out with the Hydrow athletes while they row on it :)

There was a heat wave while we were there and the sunbathers were out enjoying it.

Paris has so many cute parks. This one was Square Barye, right across the Pont de Sully bridge from the Institut du Mode Arabe, on Ile St. Louis.

Ile St. Louis started out as a place to graze cattle, fish, dry laundry, build boats in the 1300's but in the 1600's was developed into residential plots. It has so many beautiful hôtel particulier that I was in heaven! We walked along Quai d'Anjou admiring the views.

The Hotel Lauzun is a hôtel particulier  owned by the city of Paris and theoretically open for tours but they denied my request, stating they were closed. One day I will enter these doors!     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_de_Lauzun

This is the carved and ornamented downspout for the Hotel de Lauzun. 

Ile St. Louis is still very residential and quiet. It would be a dream to own a place here!

My new favorite door!

We crossed Pont de la Tournelle over to Ile de la Cite, where Notre Dame is located. It was much busier on this island.

We retraced some of our steps from when we stayed on Ile de la Cite in 2015 to end up at Au Bougnat, which we have loved since then.

It was 615pm and the bar at Au Bougnat was empty. We were used to seeing the regulars there having a pint or glass of wine. The server (a very nice young woman) and chef were in the prime seats, smoking, with fumes coming into the bar. The beers on tap were more expensive IPAs, not the regular Pelforth. It was not the same. We had one drink and skedaddled. So sad :(

I had read about Chef Yann Brys' new place, Patisserie Tourbillon, on Ile St. Louis. He is the 2011 winner of the prestigious Mellier Ouvier de France, which is France's highest accolade for Culinary Arts, awarded every 3-4 years. It's a very big deal. So, of course, we had to try out his new place, opened only three weeks before our visit. And, yes, everything was beautiful and our selections were so very delicious! 

Why is becoming a Mellier Ouvier de France such a big deal? Read on:

https://www.eater.com/2018/11/30/18118337/mof-meilleur-ouvrier-de-france-french-chef

Taste buds and bellies happy, we Metro'd back to our apartment and relaxed for the night. Another fabulous day in beautiful Paris!