Paris in the (almost) Springtime

I figured I ought to finally get around to posting about last weekends adventure, which was a little jaunt up to Paris. I mean, why not? It's not like I'll be able to spend the weekend in Paris, just because, very much longer. Besides I'd never visited the Louvre and I think I would have been a bit ashamed to leave France without going. So I decided I might as well do it right and after booking an evening train north for Thursday night, I bought an advance admission ticket and set aside the entirety of Friday for what turned out to be the biggest crash course in Art History ever. On Friday and Wednesday evenings the museum, which is the biggest in the world, stays open an extra three hours. With the doors open from 9:00am to 9:45pm, I figured I ought to be able to just about do it all, and I very nearly did.

I had managed to book perhaps the sweetest youth hostel in Paris, and spent my nights in a restored 17th century townhouse on a cobblestone street a few blocks from the Town Hall and a mere block from the Seine, i.e. the very heart of Paris. On Friday, as planned, I got up early and walked down to the Louvre for my tour de l'art. I beelined it straight for the Mona Lisa to beat the crowds and spent a few minutes just chilling right in front of the picture. Honestly I liked the Venus de Milo better, and there were plenty of equally impressive works in the museum. I stayed for ten whole hours before calling defeat and left Islamic art and French sculpture from the 5th to 18th for another day. After which I walked down the Seine and over to l'île de la cité, the smaller of the two islands in the Seine and paid homage to Berthillon, Paris' most famous ice cream shop. I got a tiny, tiny scoop of their famous honey nougat, and yes, it was tasty!


Saturday I devoted to tasting my way through Paris, and I started with breakfast. I wanted to visit the catacombs and on my way stopped at the highly recommended boulangerie Pauline. I bought a croissant and rye raisin roll and took them to the Luxembourg Gardens to enjoy, though a park guard whistled at me for walking on the grass. Whoops. But it was quite possibly the best croissant I've ever tasted, so flaky and almost crisp on the outside, but so soft and buttery in the middle. The catacombs were closed, so I walked up to the Rodin museum where I sat and read in the gardens. Some of his most famous works, such as the Thinker, are outside anyway. For lunch I spent an embarrassing amount of money to sit on the terrace of one of Paris' most famous cafés, le Café Flore, once upon a time frequented by the likes of Sartre and Picasso. I had a Croque Madame, which is basically a toasted Swiss cheese and ham sandwich with a fried egg on top. It's also probably the first food item listed on the cuisine page of every single French 101 textbook. The Croque Monsieur is the version sans egg. I spent the rest of the afternoon window shopping and enjoying the almost spring weather in Paris.


And of course I made my way to Pierre Hermes for a late afternoon dessert. Pierre Hermes is perhaps the most famous pastry chef in Paris today, and the line trailing out the door was further evidence. I selected a little chocolate mousse cake, which I somehow managed to keep until after dinner for dessert, and though I'm not a big Macaroon fan, it seemed necessary to at least sample a few, considering it's a Paris specialty. They were incredible. I sat in front of the St. Sulpice church and almost eat every one. Only Pierre Hermes could make a flavor like Vanilla-Olive Oil irresistible. I also sampled Raspberry-Litchi-Rose, Pistachio and White Truffle-Hazelnut.

On Sunday morning I wandered through le Marche de la Bastille, a market known for its wide range of ethic food. Since national museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, I went museum hopping for day. The rest of the morning I split between the Picasso museum, since it's one of my favorites, and the Victor Hugo museum. After a quick trip to Montmartre and a walk by the Moulin Rouge, I headed down to the Modern Art museum in the Centre George Pompidou. I enjoyed the earlier part of this century, but most of the works from the past fifty years went right over my head. When I left I was shocked to see a line down the stairs and all the way across the square outside the building. I haven't the faintest clue how I waltzed right in a few hours earlier, but I'm certainly glad I did. I stopped at Angelica, another of Paris' most famous pastry creators, and I picked up one of their specialties on my way up to the Champs Élysées. Le Mont Blanc, appropriately named for the mountain of whipped cream piled on top a meringue cookie, and then incased in a thick layer of chestnut cream. It was lunch.


The rest of the night, I checked out one of my favorite neighborhoods of Paris, the old Jewish Quarter. It's quaint and well kept with great bakeries and little shops. I enjoyed a legendary Falafel for a late Sunday night dinner over my book, and escaped the pouring rain Monday morning on an early morning train home to a new week of class.