Day 17: Marais & Saint Sulpice

Grace and I were very ambitious today. We were able to accomplish three of our required Paris walks--Marais walks 1 & 2 and the Saint Sulpice walk.

On the Marais 1 walk we were able to see the Hotel de Sens, one of the oldest buildings in Paris,walk through Saint-Paul Cathedral, Hotel de Sully, Place des Vosges, Victor Hugo's house from 1832-1848, and the Hotel de Lamoignon (which now houses the historical library of Paris). It was a pretty full walk. I was impressed by the Hotel de Sens, I thought it was a beautiful building, very princess-type building.

(Hotel de Sens)

The cathedral was also beautiful, though smaller than some of the other cathedrals in Paris. I also really enjoyed going through Victor Hugo's home.

(Victor Hugo's room)

However, I think that my favorite part was le jardin that we found by accident when we were searching for Victor Hugo's house. We left the Place des Vosges and walked through a door and then entered a very well manicured garden. I thought it was beautiful! And if it had been a pleasant, sunny, warm day, I should have liked to sit on one of the benches and finish reading the last 50 pages of my book.

(Garden we found by accident)

In between the Marais 1 and Marais 2 walks, Grace and I went to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant that was a good price with good food. Only 5 euro for my lunch, which not only was a healthy amount, but also tasted good and was healthy, unlike Pizza Hut.

(Yummy Vietnamese food)

On the Marais 2 walk, Grace and I explored the Jewish quarter. We ran into some of the others from our program at the Jewish elementary school eating falafels.

(Eating falafels)

The elementary school had a sad history--165 students from that school were deported during WWII and were killed in the Nazi camps, and their teacher was able to save some dozens of his students at the risk of his life.

Grace and I visited the Musee Cognacq-Jay. We were able to see lots of Rococo art...which may or may not have been ridiculed or ruthlessly made fun of by myself (thank you, Fili!)...though there were some pieces that I did genuinely like. But more than the pieces that were on display, I loved the museum itself. It is set up in an old house (from the 1500s) called the Hotel de Donon.

The Saint-Sulpice walk didn't actually start at Saint-Sulpice, it started just outside Hotel Lutetia, a place where many famous guests have lived, such as Picasso, Matisse, and where Charles de Gaulle went on his honeymoon. Very cool.

(Hotel Lutetia)

We saw some other neat places on the walk--such as Poilane Boulangerie, the Theatre du Vieux Colombier, outside of Village Voice bookshop, Abbaye Saint-Germain, and of course the Saint-Sulpice Cathedral itself. The cathedral is undergoing some renovations, and as such, some of the facade was blocked off with plastic and construction materials. On this walk, I really liked the Abbaye Saint-Germain. I wasn't able to get any pictures of it because it had begun to rain and I didn't want to destroy my camera, but it was a beautiful little nook in the corner of Paris. It was a peaceful place, with a little public garden that was just quaint.