I'm getting spoiled again -- another beautiful day in Paris -- and it was off to visit a new farmers' market, a new part of Paris and a new museum!
Farmers' markets here are so prevalent that you can literally go to a different one every day of the week, and, if you didn't mind traveling a bit, you could probably go to a different one every day for the better part of a month without leaving the city limits!
Today it was Marche Monge in the Latin Quarter section of Paris. A fairly small market by comparison, but that translated into mangeable crowds and friendlier people who just casually meandered their way through the stalls -- no rush, no hurry, talk with the vendors, a very low-key event! I was pretty much a "looky loo", not really needing anything and just looking to see what they had.
Stayed for about half an hour and then set-off to walk the neighboring streets and alleys. Can't identify it yet, but each area seems to have it's own character. Many neighborhoods you need to get off the main street to find the small, charming boulangeries, boucheries, chocolatiers, etc... -- in the neighborhood I was in this morning, they all semed to blend right in with larger businesses on the main streets. Stopped at one of the boulangeries and had a cup of coffee and what looked like an apple turnover (had a special name that I didn't recognize) -- very good and the amount of coffee was double what I've come to expect and decent (nice surprise)!
The Latin Quarter encompasses the Left Bank and the Sorbonne (university) areas and you can feel the different vibe -- people were dressed differently and had a different look to them -- still very multicultural -- in the other areas I've been in the typical "person" had dark hair and brown eyes and dressed pretty much in black -- here, anything seemed to be acceptable -- blond hair, grey hair, red hair, long, short, t-shirts, jeans, hats/no hats, casual/formal -- very much like what you'd see in the States. I was a ways away from the "touristy" areas and while the small shops selling crepes and kebobs and pizza were still there, it was much more casual -- owners stood in front of their shops and smoked a cigarete, talked to people on the street and seemed in no hurry to make a sale versus the "touristy" area where it's all about making money -- kind of charming.
Then it was on to the museum -- it's housed in a fifteenth century mansion that was built over Roman baths built pre BC and has a eclectic collection dating from then until the 1500's. It's all fascinating but one of the highlights is an exhibit of sculptures (and pieces) originally decorating the Cathedral of Notre Dame. During the French Revolution, it was not only Louis XVI who was despised, the hatred also ran towards the church, it's officials and monuments -- thus, Notre Dame apparently had quite a bit of anger directed at it by the revolutionaries including partially demolishing it. Much of what is in the colletion was apparently used for foundations for other buildings or was buried as rubble and only discovered by chance in 1977. It is now on display in the entry hall to what's left of the Roman baths.
A portion of the baths is remarkably preserved and consists primarily of what is referred to as the "Frigidarium" or cold baths -- a large area with a forty-five foot high vaulted ceiling and two levels, the lowest being the cold bath and the upper apparently reserved for warm baths in actual tubs. Apparently, people (primarily athletes) got pretty filthy back in those days, mostly covered in dust or sand. They would enter the baths and begin an involved process of exercising (to sweat and clear the skin pores) then swab themselves with an oil/herb lotion, exercise some more, scrape their skin to remove the grime and then bath in the hot and cold baths. Along the way they apparently took time to read, eat, drink and socialize -- it wasn't a totally hygenic experience but had a strong social component. Officially the baths were reserved for males but the museum had documents from Roman officials warning that women were not allowed (and drawings of women in the baths exercising) which implies that females were present and may have had something special to offer to the males to help relax them. The building and displays were very impressive and it was "other-worldly" being able to actually run my hand along the walls that others had touched over two thousand years ago.
The other notable attraction at the museum was a set of six huge unicorn tapestries (8'x20') dating to around 1500AD -- exquisite! (I apologize for the quality of the photos but the room was intentionally kept somewhat dark so taking photos was a challenge.) The tapestries represent the five senses with the sixth being a mystery as to what it represents -- the craftmanship is just amazing.
After the museum, I walked over to what has become my favorite creparie on the Left Bank and wandered around eating the crepe (apparently getting myself a little too close to a building being seriously guarded by soldiers with machine guns) -- I think it was a French government office of some kind. A couple of you reading the journal have asked me to take more photos of people so I tried -- people here aren't crazy about having strangers take their picture so it needs to be done discreetly.
Took the Metro back to the apartment and did a laundry -- again pushing buttons on the washing machine until something happened! (No pictograph instructions, just paragraphs in French I think telling you how to use the machine -- and you can guess how useful to that is to me at this point in my French lessons.) Actually got it to work twice -- no clue how -- swear I pushed different buttons each time!
