2026-03-19 France: March 30 Through 04/02 – More French and Paris Sightseeing

Monday, 03/30 – Saint Sulpice. Once again, Mary is having French classes in the morning and emersion experience in the afternoon. We (Mary and Tanguy) took an Uber over to the area around Saint Sulpice for lunch where we ate at a restaurant that specialized in Basque cuisine.

The food was good and the café was charming. We walked by a couple of interesting pastry shops...

including one with some enormous meringues.

We stopped at one with one specific and interesting items. Tanguy said they were a bit like eclairs in that they were filled with a cream, even though they are round. The texture looked interesting, so Mary bought one. And, yes, the texture of the pasty was a bit like an éclair and the chocolate filling was very creamy and tasty.

From there we walked over to the Place Saint Sulpice. The fountain was running.

The cathedral.

After taking a few photos there we headed into the Saint Sulpice Cathedral. Paul, Chloe and Mary had visited the cathedral together and later attended a concert there. But Tanguy was able to share some specifics about the cathedral that Mary didn’t know before.

There was an art class in the cathedral. Everyone had a large sketch pad.

The murals on one side of the nave looked fresh and probably been cleaned recently. The other side, the murals were still quite dirty but a few of them had sections that had been cleaned, so you could see the before and after.

Of particular interest was the Chapel of the Holy Angels where two murals and the ceiling had been painted by Eugene Delacroix.

Other photos of the cathedral interior.

From there we visited an old but very updated book store to browse through the bookshelves.

Near the end of the afternoon, we stopped at Pierre Herme Patisserie for hot chocolate. It was better than most but not as good as Angelina’s or Carrett’s.

They did have a very decadent looking pastry display inside.

Tuesday, 03/31 – Musée Marmottan. Paul joined us this afternoon for our afternoon emersion. We are visiting Marmottan, a museum that is well outside the central Paris area. We had lunch in a restaurant that was in an old train station. The food was South American inspired, so the décor was 1800’s train station meets South American tropics. And the food was very good.

We then headed out for a short walk...

to the museum. It is in the home of another couple who collected art and then turned the home into a museum and art gallery.

Photos of some of the mansion rooms and art.

There were a large number of portraits by a portrait painter named Louis-Leopold Boilly.

We liked the paintings by Berthoe Morisot, a French woman painter. She was an early member of the Impressionist movement.

There was also an extensive collection of medieval art.

In addition to the beautiful home itself and a great art collection, the museum is also the home the largest Monet collection in the world.

Monet’s last son donated his entire collection of his father’s paintings. The lower level was full of gorgeous Monets.

This one, Impressions of a Sunrise, is the painting that gave the name to the Impressionist movement.

Wednesday, 04/01 – The Bon Marche and Souffles. Mary decided to take a few photos of the lobby of the building where she is taking classes.

We had lunch at Le Récamier, a restaurant that specializes in souffles. Mary chose a goat cheese and black cherry souffle for lunch. Very yummy. And she couldn’t resist trying the chocolate souffle for dessert. She only ate part of it. It was ok but not a spectacular chocolate dessert.

They then wandered over to the Bon Marche, the first ever shopping mall.

Some lovely spring flowers in the garden where we saw the Bon Marche.

We went inside to look around. The theme for the decor was getting back to the farm. So there were hay bales suspended from the ceiling with farm animal on top of them. The mall definitely seemed very much like a large mall in the US.

We also stopped at the adjacent La Grande Épicerie where Mary bought a couple of cookies to take back to the hotel.

Then it was a short stop at the Chapel of the Miracle Medal. According to Tanguy, it is the tenth most visited place in Paris. Probably because it is very much a pilgrimage site. The chapel was very crowded, unusual for most of the churches we visit. It appeared that most people were there for confession.

We stopped at Angelina’s for a quick hot chocolate. This location is very quiet compared to the Rue de Rivoli location where all the tourists go.

Then it was on to Deyrolles.

Deyrolles dates from 1831 and bills itself as providing…”Two centuries of history in the service of Nature, Art and Education”. It’s main claim to fame is taxidermy. However, unlike most taxidermy we have seen in the past, these specimens are beautifully maintained. Not scruffy at all. There were a lot of birds,

bugs,

and a variety of large animals and merchandise to sell.

Thursday, 04/02 – La Marias and Ile Saint Louis. Tanguy has been bringing in chocolate croissants for breakfast. Today he also brought in canelé. It is a small French pastry with a caramelized crunchy exterior and a custardy (and almost rubbery) center. Interesting flavor. Turns out it is rum and vanilla.

Lunch today was at Aux Vins des Pyrénées, a bistro specializing in French food from the southwest of France. Again, excellent food.

Then we started wandering the La Marias area. Mary found an interesting shop and stopped in to look around. She found a couple of scarves and refrained from buying a lot more that she was interested in.

Things we saw in the La Marias were some more ramparts dating from the reign of Philippe Auguste, king of France who had the ramparts build to protect the city when he went on crusade to the Holy Land.

There was a girls school founded by Saint Vincent de Paul, small back alleys and lots of interesting (and very big) doors.

And lots of interesting food shops.

We also headed out onto the Ile Saint-Louis where we stopped at the little Church of Saint Louis of the Island.

Saint Louis, also King Louis IX, was the only French king to be canonized. He reigned in the 13^th century.

We stopped by Berthillon’s, known for their ice cream. There was a long line out the door but there was a Berthillon’s café next door with plenty of sitting room so we went there for some ice cream.