Paris, Monday, November 19, 2007: The Cluny

Zagat's was a huge help in finding places to eat. But they aren't too accurate with regard to what's open for breakfast. Monday morning we planned to eat at Brasserie Balzar, but when we got there, it wasn't open for breakfast at all. We headed down the street, past the Sorbonne, to a little cafe and each got a Croque Monsieur (broiled ham and cheese on toast), except that mine was made with smoked salmon instead of ham. Decent, OK service, and, like every place we went, they had freshly squeezed orange and grapefruit juice. Aside from the pleasure of ordering 'jus de pamplemousse', the grapefruit juice, as I have discovered on all three of my trips to Paris, is really delicious. Those who put it in cans should be sent to the guillotine!





Breakfast was right in the neighborhood of the Musee National du Moyen Age (National Museum of the Middle Ages), housed in L'Hotel de Cluny and known by almost everyone as the Cluny. L'Hotel de Cluny is a beautiful building and attached to it are Roman baths from the 1st to 3rd centuries. It is remarkable to be in a building so old and to still be able to see vestiges of decoration. They also had pictures of what the baths would have looked like intact and painted. They are quite amazing. You can see a description and pictures at http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/ang/homes/home_id20392_u1l2.htm.





L'Hotel de Cluny:






The well in the courtyard. Notice the sundial on the wall behind the well.











Inside, the collection is enormous. We took an audio tour, which was a bit of a mistake because we ended up spending much longer there than we intended. We realized we were getting ravenously hungry but hadn't seen the jewel in the crown of the collection, the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries.

Capitals from the baths:

The little guys attached to this statue are really freaky. As I remember, this is a saint and penitents. I guess they put on the KKK outfits so that others can't see that they have sinned badly enough to be a penitent.

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries represent the five senses. This one is sight. You can see and read about all of them at http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/ang/homes/home_id20392_u1l2.htm. Walking into the room where the tapestries are is really an experience. The room is round and quite dark, with black walls between the red tapestries.

There is a chapel that was part of the Hotel, which has an amazing vaulted ceiling.

We couldn't find a place that appealed for lunch, so we went back to The Tea Caddy. Then we headed over to the tip of the Ile de la Cite, right behind Notre Dame, where they have a memorial to the French killed in camps. It was very modern and very striking. Afterward, we went into Le Marais. We went first to the Shoah Memorial Museum (holocaust museum) because Jim had read that there was a particular exhibit of photography there that he wanted to see. The exhibit was not there, but there was an exhibit about a priest who is going through areas in Ukraine and interviewing people who were kids or teens and witnessed mass shootings by the Germans. It was very affecting.


Afterwards we went around to some shops, although it was getting late by then. Isabel bought a carry bag that she is now using for her school bag -- very chic. And we bought a Christmas tree ornament in the shape of a Citroen with a Christmas tree on top. Both items from Sentou. We could have bought a lot more there, but the prices on most things were astronomical.

We didn't know where to eat, so we wanted to get a cup of tea and think about it. The shopkeeper suggested Mariage Freres and told us how to get there. When we saw the waiters in white coats and the overall look of the place, we decided to put it on our list of things to do another day. It was a bit daunting for just a spot of tea. We ended up going to a really nice place down the street, Le Coude Fou, which is a wine bar. Really odd murals -- Adam and Eve on ccity streets and that sort of thing -- but the tea I ordered was Mariage Freres tea and Jim said his wine was excellent. The food is supposed to be very good there, but we never got back to try it.


Instead we had dinner at Allard, which is in the Latin Quarter. Almost everyone in there was American, which was a bit unnerving, the staff was supercillious, and our table was so much in the waiters' path that my head would get bumped every so often. The food was good but not spectacular. Jim and I shared a duck that had so many olives on it that they must have stripped a dozen trees for that one dish. Isabel had Coquille St. Jacques and loved it.



Allard is in a little neighborhood adjacent to St. Suplice, which is one street over from the Esmerelda. There are restaurants everywhere and sometimes it seems that every other one is a gyro place. Isabel hadn't seen one before -- perhaps because Jim's getting food poisoning from one decades ago makes him give them a wide berth -- and asked if the meat was a giant parsnip. After that every single one did look like a giant parsnip to us. Most of the places in that neighborhood seemed quite touristy -- the area has sort of a Disney feel to it, not quite real. But there were some nice shops on the side streets -- too expensive for anything but window shopping.