Paris: The Birthday Trip - Day 3 (part 2)
left and right: 'Midnight in Paris' in the morning (see text below).
centre: Main door, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
Monday, July 29, 2013
We left the Jardin du Luxembourg and set out for the Pantheon hoping to see Foucault's pendulum. We arrived to find renovation and repair work underway and the pendulum had been moved to Musée des Arts et Métiers. We decided that we needed to find a cafe and would have to come back.
We were soon bewildered and lost in the tangle of little side streets but a kind Parisian recognized the 'lost tourist' look and stopped to offer his help. We thanked him and he was walking away when he stopped and came back to ask us if we were aware that a number of scenes in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" had been filmed in the area. We weren't, of course, and so he led us to the church steps where 'Gil' (Owen Wilson) would sit and wait for the car that would take him back to the Paris of the 1920s. And of course we had to take photos of each other on the steps (see photos above).
Les Deux Magots
Next we set out to find Paroisse Saint-Germain-des-Prés, one of the oldest churches in Paris, and to our surprise found that two famous cafes, Les Deux Magots (photo right) and Café de Flore, are just across the street in the Place Saint-Germain des Prés. It seems that wherever you go in Paris you will see more than you set out to see.
Some of the 'names' associated with these cafes: Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Bertold Brecht, Ernest Hemingway, and of course Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
It was now about 1:00 o'clock and we were beginning to feel the full impact of the heat wave that continued to engulf most of France. The city had put up electronic signs, many in english, advising everyone to avoid the sun, drink lots of water etc. People who had to work outside were making full use of the water fountains - not just drinking the water but splashing it over their heads with a sigh of relief.
Our next destination was St. Sulpice and we refilled our water bottle and set off, moving from one island of shade to the next.
left: View of St. Sulpice and the Fontaine Saint-Sulpice.
centre: Window, Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
right: Door grill.
Although the interior of St. Sulpice is beautiful and the famous elaborate pulpit with its sound enhancing carved oak canopy was a favourite of Revolutionary orators, and The Marquis de Sade was baptized here, as was Charles Baudelaire, and St. Sulpice was the site of Victor Hugo's marriage, what has really stayed with me is the Fontaine Saint-Sulpice in the square in front of the church -or rather its lions which are so beautifully sculpted that, as Denise said, "You feel they are about to leap from the fountain".
A crouching lion, Fontaine Saint-Sulpice.
Previously: Day 1, Day 2 (part 1), Day 2 (part 2), Day 2 (part 3), Day 3 (part 1),
Next: Day 4 (part 1)