Sunday September 29 was the coldest day of our trip so far. High of 14C. But no rain!! We took the Métro to Les Halles. Our intention was to see the Surrealism Exhibit at the Pompidou Museum.
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More subway lines now have barriers between the tracks and the trains.
The #1 line has had them for a while. The #4 has them now. |
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| Subway poetry- entitled "Jesse Owens", |
When we got off the Métro, we first took a walk up one of our favourite food streets- Rue de Montergueil.
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| Advertizing the Penguin movie |
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| The famous Stohrer patisserie- |
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| Inside where a purchase was made |
We initially got in one long line outside the Museum that turned out to be for the Pompidou library. We then got into the line for folks without tickets-- after about a 20 minute wait spent chatting to the folks behind us, we saw a flashing sign that the Surrealism exhibit was sold out for the day. We were going to wait a bit longer and see one of the other exhibits, but Alain talked to a person near the front of the line who said to come back another day as the Museum was "exceptionally" closing early. We have never experienced lines like this at the Pompidou. I guess Sunday is museum day in Paris. As a contrast, we had no trouble getting in quickly to the Musée d'Orsay earlier this week.
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| Lines outside the Pompidou-- they extended far to the right of the booths |
So we were back to being flâneurs (wanderers) in the city-- one of our favourite things to do. We stumbled on a Pralus bakery with the famous La Praluline brioche with pink pralines. Auguste Pralus (1920-1997) opened a pastry shop in Roanne in 1948 and became a Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 1955, the same year he invented La Praluline. August's son, François Pralus, took over the business in 1988. François also became an exceptional master chocolatier, one of the few to make his own chocolate from beans to bar. We encountered two of his stores in Lyon a few years ago. There are 18 stores in France today.
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| La Praluline- on the top shelf--- beautiful chololates as well |
We walked down Rue Rambateau, one of the streets we used to frequent when we stayed in the Marais for three months in 2011. It was always a great food street and now has a fabulous mix of chocolate, cheese, fruit and vegetable and even fish stores as well as some cafés.
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| Outside the cheese store |
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| Lots of cheeses |
We then made a brief stop at the Museum of the National Archives. They were in between exhibits, but the building was still open.
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| Inner courtyard of the Archives |
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| Lovely plantings |
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| Getting ready for an exhibit entitled: Made in France: Une histoire du textile (starting October 16) |
The Museum of the National Archives is housed in the Hôtel de Soubise. One can admire a number of Rococo-style rooms in this former prnicely residence. The Hôtel de Soubise was confiscated during the French Revolution and sold to pay the Soubise family creditors. In 1808 it was acquired by the French State and became the headquarters of the National Archives.
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| The Prince's Salon |
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| The Large Study |
We walked by the Carnavalet Museum--- it now has a lovely courtyard café, that unfortunately was just closing.
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| Lovely courtyard setting |
We stopped for a coffee at Cortado Café, which has coffee beans from Nomad, a coffee roaster in Barcelona. They also have a small Spanish tapas menu.
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| Outside the café |
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| We had two cortados and shared a pan con tomate |
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| Great tee shirt logos |
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| Mural up the street from Cortado |
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| More fashion week showrooms |
After some additional wandering, we headed back to the apartment where Alain cooked a lovely dinner of the dorade, potatoes, green salad and we finished our bottle of wine. Apple cake for dessert.
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