Oranges and L'Orangerie

Saturday, October 27. Breakfast at home. We are going to walk to the Place d'Aligre to see the outdoor market, so I decide to drop off dirty sheets at the Pressing on r. Rambuteau. As it is Saturday, and the man who picks up the laundry only comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and as next Thursday (November 1) is Toussaint (All Saints Day and a national holiday here), the sheet will not be ready to be picked up until Tuesday, November 6th! It's a good thing I have others.

En route, we visit l'Eglise Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux, a lovely church with a white stone interior and a vaulted ceiling where there is a beautiful painting of The Adoration of the Shepherds by J.M.N. Bralle dating from 1834. The first stone of the present church was laid in 1685. The standard monumental grand organ. There is also an amazing Baroque-Rococo pulpit with medallions of inlaid ivory and wood depicting the parables. We buy a few postcards from the older woman in the Office d' Accueil. She is so delighted that we have stopped in to see her church. This visit reconfirms for me that there are many little treasures in Paris that you'll never find in a guide book.

Side Bar: Jean-Marie Nicolas Bralle (1785-1863) appears to be a largely forgotten painter. I can find nothing about his life; only an entry in what appears to be a Ministry of Culture inventory of art holdings indicating that another one of his paintings is at Versailles (Musee National du Chateau et des Trianons). All in all not such a shabby legacy, however, to have one painting at Versailles and another at a beautiful church in Paris. Many would be happy with less.


Marche d'Aligre. We walk through the always-pleasing Place des Vosges and out through the Hotel de Sully to the r. Saint Antoine and the Place de la Bastille. I intend for us to walk out the r. de Charenton but goof up and take us down the Avenue Daumesnil instead. So we have to make a little detour. Finally arrive at the Place d'Aligre with its bustling outdoor market, selling lots of trinkets and bric-a-brac along with the usual fabulous displays of fruits (including some we don't know, such as Figues de barbare and Kaki), vegetables and fish.

We wander back to have lunch at Cafe Bastille. Lyn has clafouti (a kind of "quiche without crust"), made with eggs, milk, onions, goat cheese, tomatoes, thyme. I have penne with gorgonzola, tarragon, black olives, tomatoes, snow peas. Both are fabulous. Cote du Rhone for wine. We finish off with a wonderful tarte au poire aux fruits rouges et creme d'amandes and coffee.

We hop on the metro at Bastille to the Place de la Concorde to visit L'Orangerie as I want Lyn to see the newly renovated space. Once again, it is astonishing to think that the waterlilies are in the same space - the building is so different. We spend a lot of time with the Paul Guillaume collection and discover two painters previously unknown to either of us. One is a woman, Marie Laurencin; the other is Andre Durain. More on these dudes later.


We cross the river at the Pont de la Concorde and walk down the Quai Anatole France to the Musee d'Orsay, not to visit the museum but for something much more important: crepes at Evangelista on r. Bellechasse! Lyn has citron et sucre; I have creme de marrons (no surprise there; I'm in such a rut.). So now we have to walk off the crepes before it's time for dinner! Down to Blvd Saint Germain, r. de Buci, r. Saint Andre des Arts. We cross the river to Ile de la Cite on the Pont Neuf and down the stairs to see the Square du Vert Gallant at the western tip of the island but the park is closed for "repos hivernal." Dommage. However, we end up walking down the r. de Harlay at the back of the Palais de Justice; I don't remember ever having been here before or seeing the back of the P.J. It's so imposing that it could be the front (who knows? maybe it is.) It is in the process of being cleaned and the stone just gleams.


We cross on the Right Bank and stop at bakery on r. Saint Martin to pick up croissants for breakfast tomorrow morning and then home to rest.


Our dinner at the Grizzli Cafe is, in a word, divine. Lyn has maki d'aubergines with shrimp and coriander and the Dos de Cabillaud with mushrooms. I have Poireaux vinagrette and Saute d'agneau avec deux haricots (green beans and white beans). Wine: Saumur Champigny. For dessert, we share tarte au citron & meringue. Coffee.

Post-prandial stroll is the Walk of the Three Churches: Notre Dame, St Julien le Pauvre, and St Severin. We have fun in a tourist shop next to St Severin, trying on hats. Home to bed.