This Saturday began with a trip to one of Paris' oldest markets, took us past one of Europe's oldest universities, and ended in the company of some of the world's finest modern art.
A fine way to start a Saturday morning is at the historic Marché Mouffetard. Clustered along the steep Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter, this street market has everything your taste buds desire: fresh bread, local cheese, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, and delicious desserts. Ernest Hemingway, in his memoir A Moveable Feast, described it as "...a wonderful narrow crowded street market".
We started at the bottom of the street and worked our way. Here's some of the beautiful food and signage we saw along the way:
Here is the view from the top of Rue Mouffetard, looking south.
Our next stop was the Panthéon of Paris. This was one of the most surprising sites of our entire visit. It was absolutely colossal on the outside, and just as impressive inside its stone walls.
One of the most interesting parts of the Pantheon was its underground necropolis. Unlike the famous Pantheon in Rome which honoured the gods, Paris' pays tribute to mortal figures. Prominent people who have been interred here include Voltaire, Rousseau, Émile Zola, Marie Curie, Louis Braille, Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, writer of Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables.
After a quick lunch, we made a loop to walk past Le Sorbonne, the historical site of the former Collège de Sorbonne at University of Paris, but now houses several important research institutions. The original Collège de Sorbonne dates back to 1257, and notable alumni include Dante & John Calvin.
We grabbed a quick afternoon coffee at Le Rostand (which was superb), and then crossed the boulevard to our next destination: the magnificent Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens).
The park, which is the second largest in Paris (after Tuileries Garden), is the garden of the French Senate, housed in Luxembourg Palace (pictured below).
The most delightful part of the park was a pond where children could rent small wooden sailboats, release them onto the waves, and redirect the boats as them came to shore. It was perfectly picturesque.
The More You Know: Gustav Eiffel, architect of the Eiffel Tower, is also the designer of NYC's Statue of Liberty. There are actually three replicas of The Statue of Liberty in Paris: one at Luxembourg Garden, one on the Pont de Grenelle bridge, and one at the Musée des Arts et Métiers.
After spending a little time at Luxembourg Garden, we headed north along Rue Tournon, and made a quick detour to the Église Saint-Sulpice. This church, filled with paintings by Delacroix, also contains one of the world's largest organs, comprising of 6700 pipes. Stunning.
We veered East, en route home, but made sure to pass by Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche (Street of the Fishing Cat). Almost an alley, it is the tiniest street in Paris - only 1.8m wide and 29m long. There are plenty of legends, but no one is quite sure of the origin of the name. How charming!
As we walked home through the Marais, I had one more establishment circled on my map – a restaurant called Le Loir Dans La Théière that was supposed offer the best tarte au citron (lemon meringue pie) in the city. And was it ever. The photo might not do it justice, but the meringue was easily 5 inches high. Heavenly.
We were a little tired an dehydrated, so we made our way home to République for an afternoon siesta.
Post-dinner, we were ready to take in one more museum visit on our epic 4-day Paris Museum Pass. On Day 7, The Louvre had covered prehistory until the 20th century.
On Day 9, the Musée d'Orsay had us covered from from 1848 to 1915.
We were now in for a dose of modern art at the super modern Pompidou Centre.
Even as you approach the building, you know that something interesting lies ahead...
The Centre Georges Pompidou was completed in 1977 by two Italian architects. With a bold, exo-skeletal facade - exposed ventilation, plumbing, walkways and stairs - this museum has now become infamous for it's "high-tech", post-modern architectural style. When one of the architects won the coveted Pritzker Prize in 2007, the jury praised that the avant-garde Pompidou Centre has "revolutionized museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city."
Inside, the Pompidou Centre boasts the largest collection of modern art in Europe, with over 40,000 rotating works. We were able to get a intimate look at some seminal 20th century artists, including Picasso:
Duchamp:
And Rothko:
Here were some of my favourite pieces outside the art history textbook. Aurélie Nemours:
Yaacov Agam:
and Sylvie Fleury's playful nod to Modrian:
As well, the museum had a nice collection of pieces for typography lovers:
Nicholas Chardon:
Jason Rhoades:
(artist unknown):
And that was our day. Beautiful food and gardens and modern art - it's going to be difficult to leave this city in 4 days.
