We’ve had some scheduled items on this year’s trip. However, we’ve had plenty of chance encounters. On our first full day we went to the Church of St. Denis. This is a very old church that’s the burial place of much of French royalty, from Dagobert and Charlemagne to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. St. Denis was the first bishop of Paris. The Romans beheaded him in the 3rd century. Then he walked up Montmartre Hill, head in hands, still preaching. His bones are in a reliquary behind the chapel.
On Monday we went to the Les Halles neighborhood to visit the holy shrines, Librairie Gourmande and Dehillerin. I walked out of the former with three cookbooks. We didn’t get any cookware at the latter.
Recipes from Syrian exiles.
The one on the left is from a well-known blogger. I bought the one on the right to mollify Julian when he saw the title of the one on the left.
On Tuesday we went to Place St. Michel and Ile de la Cité. On the way out of the Metro, Julian looked at a boquiniste along the Seine and saw a vintage 1930 cookbook. (No, I didn’t coax him into buying it.) Lunch was at the Café St. André, where we had hot drinks last year
The score from the banks of the Seine.
.
We went to St. Chappelle with about 5000 of our closest friends. Our friend Bruce left us to get ready for his night at the opera. Then we FINALLY got into Notre Dame. In previous years the line to get in was too long. The church was decorated for the holidays. The side chapels were interesting. We took the train back to the apartment and got some takeout at a traiteur around the corner.
More adventures to come.
2 comments
Author
It was a package deal. He wanted to me to buy the French pastry book. In return, I got to buy Chocolate and Zucchini.
How did Julian ever let you buy that!!!!!!!!!!!