The Market on Rue Cler

The market along Rue Cler in the 7e arrondissement, near the Eiffel Tower, overflows with locals visiting the boulangeries, fromageries, grocers, butchers, delis and other food shops.  We made a trip to the market this afternoon, ducking in and out of brief rain showers after which the sun would make its appearance.

Then we took a bus across town (all on the Left Bank) to an open-air market along the Boulevard St. Germain.

It was a good day.

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Linda and Ruth -- lunch at a local brasserie before shopping Rue Cler market

Linda and me

Linda bought a "sugar cake"

Only allowed one cookie on my diet.  Think I'll take this one.

Linda's sugar cake

Abbey of St. Germain de Pres

Spent some time in the church across from Les Deux Magots in St. Germain the other day.  

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Les Deux Magots umbrella tables outside Abbey St. Germain des Pres

One wonders.  And sympathizes.

This man was praying with his head pressed up against the saint.

Loved how the colored light from the stained glass windows played upon the chairs and floor.

Park outside the church

The window from which the light played upon the chairs.

Notices of concerts at the church.

Lea Seydoux in Midnight in Paris - Rain scene

We have light rain on and off today.  Might be stronger tomorrow and/or Monday.  So it's time to remember Woody, as I look out down Rue de Babylone.

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And out the back...

Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise

Spent three hours walking (slowly...sore knees and uphill) around Pere Lachaise cemetery hunting for certain graves we wanted to see and stopping to read many others.  We missed Haussmann's, darn.  And we were too tired to hike to Moliere, Sarah Bernhardt, Balzac, Marcel Marceau, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, Francois Truffaut, Charlie Chaplin, Seurat, Gertrude Stein and a few others, to my great regret.  It was, though, the most beautiful 70-something sunny afternoon for it and no crowds. 

September is certainly a good month for Paris.  How nice to finally be able to travel in the off-seasons, versus when I was teaching and relegated to summers, Christmas break and spring break, the most highly traveled times.

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Changing buses at the Bastille.  Well, at the monument commemorating the Bastille, which, of course, was burned down during the Revolution.

Lunch before touring the Bastille.

Rossini's grave

Breaking and entering

Walking uphill on cobblestoned streets for three hours.  Whew!  (Though right here it is rather flat.)

More walking

Reading the historical fiction, Paris, by E. Rutherfurd, I learned of  Abelard and Heloise, French hero and heroine, and I just had to find their grave.  Such a sad tale of love denied.

Another view of Abelard and Heloise's tomb.

Chopin

Ceramic flowers put on many graves

Cobblestone marker showing the way to Jim Morrison's grave.

Jim Morrison

And Linda brought a bottle of vodka to leave.

Fence in front of Jim Morrison's grave

Edith Piaf

(Hear her here)

The spot where the last Communards of 1871 were rounded up and executed.  Vive les Communards and all that they stood for.  We are still fighting for some of the same things they did.

Close up

Dachau Memorial

Buchenwald memorial

Auschwitz memorial

Oscar Wilde

Linda observing the tradition at Oscar Wilde's tomb


And we still have Napoleon's tomb to visit in Hotel des Invalides, which is a short walk from our apartment.  That, at a later date.  I love having weeks here to really explore the whole of Paris -- history, art, music, fashion, food, and its way of life -- at a leisurely pace.

Les Deux Magots

(Sorry, I guess IPad photos don't enlarge.)

The Birth of Coffee and literary legend

(from Wikipedia)

 

In 1884, the store gives way to a coffee liqueur in the same boat. Many writers like Verlaine, Rimbaud or Mallarmé then get used to meet there. The Café "Les Deux Magots" begins to play an important role in the cultural life of Paris.

In 1914, Auguste Boulay buys coffee (which is in the verge of bankruptcy) to 400,000 francs. In the 1920s, the café hosts the Surrealistsunder the leadership of André Breton, long before the existentialists who made ​​the beautiful nights of the cellars of the neighborhood.

^d].

In 1933, a small group of surrealist friends in the café terrace learn that the Prix Goncourt was awarded to Andre Malraux for his book The Human Condition. Deeming it too academic price, these surreal decide to start their own literary prize they call prices Deux Magots 1. This event marks the birth of the literary legend of coffee 1. The "Deux Magots" will later frequented by many famous artists including Elsa Triolet, André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, Picasso, Fernand Leger, Prévert, Hemingway, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir or Raymond Queneau ^{[ref. required].}