Closed Mondays

The French cherish their time off. One example: many places are closed on Mondays.

We started the day with another attempt to sample some of the top croissants. After some disappointing croissants recommended by some English-language travel sites, Greg switched to one in French. Some bakeries were on both English and French lists, but some were definitely only on the English lists, which may explain some of our disappointment. We decided to start with Boulangerie Utopie. After riding the Metro across Paris, we reached the bakery to discover they are closed on Mondays. Whoops, we should have checked that beforehand. Nearby was Moon Croissant. Greg could not find the bakery on Apple Maps, but he had an address from the French-language list, so we walked towards it. We were a few blocks away when we spotted it! We walked inside, and were told that they recently moved locations (explaining why we couldn’t find them in Apple Maps). And we also learned this was their first day of being open on a Monday. To our initial disappointment, we learned that they were sold out of the 300-croissants they make each day. But they still had a great selection of pain au chocolat, flavored croissants and brioche. We got one pain au chocolat, one cinnamon brioche, one almond croissant and one hazelnut-milk chocolate croissant. They were all great, especially the pain au chocolat. We were so full that we decided to skip further pastry stops. And skip lunch, too.

Next, we had tickets for the weekly English language tour of the Musée de l’Orangerie, adjacent to the Louvre. The museum was crowded because other places, such as the Musée d’Orsay, are closed on Mondays. Despite that the tour guide was a bit dry, we enjoyed several things. First, the giant Monet water lily paintings are true masterpieces. The tour guide explained that Monet designed the rooms for these huge paintings, and vice-versa. We also learned that he took 12 years to complete these paintings. Based on their size and scope, that’s no surprise.

Second, the museum currently has a special exhibit of the collection of Berthe Weill, a French art collector who helped discover Picasso. Her taste and eye for emerging artists was impressive.

In the afternoon, we took a very long walk across Paris. We started by walking to Dehillerin, one of the oldest and best known cookware stores in the world. The items were stocked from floor to ceiling. We didn’t buy anything, but it was fun to browse. Next, we walked to Notre Dame. We walked into the famous cathedral just in time for 6pm mass. The organ was lovely, and there were no signs of the horrible fire from a few years ago. Next, we walked across Place de la Bastille to our restaurant, Chez Paul. In other words, we walked across Paris from our hotel in the 8th to the restaurant in the 11th, with some detours along the way. This gave us a good appetite for a great Parisian bistro. Greg ordered foie gras and dourade, while Amy had French onion soup and duck leg confit. It was hard to tell which was better on Amy’s dish: the duck or the garlic roasted potatoes. For dessert, Amy ordered the profiteroles, which were fantastic. Greg, as he often does, asked the waitress to surprise him with her choice of dessert. She was a bit flustered, as this must not be something the French do. However, she met the challenge perfectly with a wonderful Tarte Tatin. A delicious way to close the trip.

While our trip to Paris is coming to an end, we have another trip just days away! Stay tuned!