Oct. 29th: Chocolate and Rain

Wednesday - Mercredi

The morning was taken up with blog entries and organization, coffee from Chaize and eventually, a baguette of my own.

For the Frenchman on the go: Baguette!

I’ve been wanting to do that so very French thing where you have a baguette and you nosh on it all day, whenever you need a bite of bread.  As we headed out for the day, we stopped at the nearby boulangerie, Union, and grabbed a single baguette, which I think was like $1.50.  Delicious and fresh. We were aiming to get to a chocolate store that has been open since the 1760’s, La Mère de la Famille, and, while we might have done well to take the Metro, we decided to walk.

The intended route became a meandering one which is kind of the way it works out because the street system here is so intricate.  We came first to the Place de la République which is a wide plaza with one of those amazing statues to which pictures never do justice.   Here’s one anyway.  They finished the statue in 1883, but the entire area was converted to a roaming plaza in the 2010’s.

Another random place to sit with your skeleton mask on.

Moving on, we traversed random sections of the city and came upon a random arch from some time gone by city entrance (apparently, we learned, not to protect the city but to collect taxes from folks coming to sell their crops and wares at the market place.). The city is a massive warren of caverns of apartments and offices, some modern, some ornate and mysterious.  The sidewalks are busy and crowded and heavily touristed.

Eventually we made it the several miles (we are walking an average of nearly 8 miles a day) to the chocolate store in which Kathy enjoyed a quick shop and we got to speak French to the staff.

Check out "Where's Kathy?" Hint: Orange bag.

We had coffee at a neat little bistro playing Dr. John music, then got back to the business of wandering.

The French version of the all day sucker: one baguette

Earlier, I had recognized the exit of a pedestrian market street I remembered from my last trip, Marchè de Montorgueil, and after the chocolate shop and coffee, we found it just as the rain began.  We meandered down the small street packed with cafes and stores of all types. Including a colorful place called Le Dunkin’ Donuts (I don’t know how you say that in English). The rain got heavier and at the end of the street I saw that we had arrived at the cafe Eustache, where I had first landed on my previous trip and had my first petite dejeuner.  So we dove in and sat under the awning for a several hour hang out, having wine and salads.

Pronouncing the word: Wine Or Verre du vin

After the rain let up, we stepped into the madhouse world of the Metro station called Chatelet, hoping to locate a train back to our neighborhood.  At one point, I passed through a turnstile but Kathy’s card wouldn’t let her through.  So she was stranded on the other side as we tried to figure out what to do.  My card wouldn’t work for her and as we looked around for help, some hurrying Frenchman saw our predicament and motioned for Kathy to follow him through.  

Gallantry and empathy exists in Paris.

Once home we put on rain gear and headed out for one last chicken cordon bleu from a nearby restaurant, L’Office.