France – Day 3

We walked through the Marais in the morning to experience Paris waking up.

I had a croissant, and Sam had a pain au chocolat. We left with the cheese bread in the bag for future snacking. From Tout Autour du Pain, we decided to use the city bike, Vélib’, to get to our first Paris museum. Parisians are very confident in their riding, which means stopping in the bike lane is as insulting as complimenting German wine while in Paris. The City Bikes are built like tanks. They are heavy and not particularly agile, but once they get going, you can go anywhere. Sam did not feel comfortable on the bike, so the ride was a bit precarious, but we made it to Boulangerie du Parc Monceau for our second pastry. 

It’s Paris, and we are getting a lot of steps in every day. Two pastries are entirely ok, right? Tout Autour du Pain is a better bakery, and I enjoyed it much more than Boulangerie du Parc Monceau. 

We abandoned the bikes and walked to the Musée Jean-Jacques Henner. This was a little under-the-radar museum I heard about while researching this trip. Before I ran across the museum, I didn’t know much about Jean-Jacques Henner, but I fell head over heels for some of his work.

Jean-Jacques Henner is a French artist well known for his mastery of light and shadow. As mentioned in earlier posts on this blog, nudes are my favorite painting subject. Our bodies are complex, unique, and beautiful, and capturing our bodies suspended in a moment seems an impossible talent. None are alike, and they certainly were during the actual creation of the painting. Whether it is simply a muscle flexing during a studio pose or the persona aging because of the length of the commission, I find capturing our bodies fascinating.

Henner was a master of the sfumato and used it to create many delicately rendered nudes. There is something of a subtle sensuality and melancholic beauty in many of his paintings, but when being his technical mastery is certainly apparent.

I loved this museum. It’s not overrun with tourists and lets you enjoy the artist and his work. Anyone visiting Paris to look at art should put this on their itinerary. From there, we decided to explore the beautiful public Parc Monceau. It was a nice way to find shade as the afternoon heat increased. We gave ourselves the assignment of locating the park’s statue of Frédéric Chopin. The place is certainly worth a stroll. If any readers want to treat me, The Death Of Saint Sebastian by Jean-Jacques Henner is currently for sale for $15,601.10; the frame is included, and shipping is only $1,820.13. I would be eternally grateful.

Afterward, we had a small lunch at Chazelles Cafe. We had glasses of rose with a salad for Sam and eggs and mayo for myself. The cafe is fine, but also nothing spectacular. We then did a bit of shopping, buying new shoes from a charming boutique called Emling Courcelles – 17ème. It’s very nice to return to the USA with some Parisian fashion.

We took our purchases and strolled to the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs-Élysées. I was uninterested in getting close to the Arc de Triomphe and being under its arches. I was fine looking at it from the sides; maybe that was wrong, but what impressed me was its imposing nature over the traffic rather than the detailed sculpture I may have missed.

Before the heat started to rage, we went home for an afternoon nap at the apartment. The afternoon nap plus a bit of laundry was a standard for our trip. It made it easy to escape the heat, and as I recovered from whatever illness took me, Samer started to have something feel unwell, but the symptoms were different than mine.

We decided to explore the area near the Luxembourg Garden. I had never heard of it before, but Samer knew little about it. It’s a 60-acre park in the middle of Paris. It has manicured lawns, tree-lined paths, flowerbeds, and ponds. We stayed in the park until it closed, handled by French officials blowing whistles and telling everyone to leave before they locked the gates. 

We walked past the Panthéon and down Rue Mouffetard. I had no idea what the Panthéon was, which exposed how little I knew about French history. Samer explained it is a mausoleum for esteemed French citizens, which led me down a rabbit hole that week, eventually learning Josephine Baker is kept there. We did not tour or explore it but simply skirted past it. Rue Mouffetard is a very old street in France with picturesque storefronts and restaurants. It feels like a street scene from Moulin Rouge.

Samer made several dinner reservations for Paris, but we had nothing planned that night. We ate at Caluche, and I thought it was delicious and probably one of the best meals I had in France. It’s French cuisine, prepared well, without trying to resurrect some French chef from the 1920s. Our server was exceptional, and I asked him to pick the wine by the glass for us, and he nailed it each time. Exceptional experience, and if people want good food, not pretentious, with an expert level execution, please go here.

What a day in Paris. Even in a heatwave, I had great pastry, rode a bike, shopped, strolled down the Champs-Élysées, explored parks, and ate exceptionally well. Even under the weather, this day felt wildly successful.

Next: France – Day 4