Day 11: July 10th, 2016, Sunday
We started later today than our usual ambitious touring plans. Janine and I were noticing that Olivia was starting to wear thin on our constant movement so we decided to not visit the Cluny museum and also drop St. Chapelle from our agenda as well. We made an impromptu stop at a Sunday morning farmer’s market near our bus stop and shopped around for souvenirs. Janine found a preserves table where she bought a couple of items, but there wasn’t much else that looked good for travel. After the farmer’s market, we hopped on a bus back to the Isle de Cite to visit the Conciergerie.
The Conciergerie
The Conciergerie was originally built as a palace until the Louvre was constructed at which point it held an administrative role and then converted into a prison. The prison is best known as the last stop before the guillotine during the French Revolution. Many famous prisoners came through here such as Georges Danton, Charlotte Corday, Robespierre, and Marie “Let them eat cake” Antoinette.”
The museum displayed various types of recreated holding cells to show that not all were equal. Those with money could get an upgrade from the drab wet dungeon floor to something with a bed and desk.
Also on display was a recreation of Marie Antoinette's spacious holding cell. The original cell was converted into a chapel in her honor during the restoration period after Napoleon. Compared to what I assumed from watching various History channel reenactments, her room was pretty nice.
I was also impressed with how well they kept the prisoner's court yard intact after so many years.
We tried to be as nimble as we could be with Olivia walking through this medieval prison, but she was in a particular mood. It is amazing how well a screaming toddler voice can carry through stone corridors. Once again, we took turns going through the small exhibits while the other entertained Olivia. It was frustrating to say the least.
Crepes and Wine Shopping
I wanted to help Janine knock off some things on her Paris must do list and one of those items included crepes. I went online and tried to look for the best crepe place nearby. I made sure to walk a fine line between pretentious and tourist crap joint. I have been to upscale creperies before and I feel that there is something lost in the ideal of this basic food when restaurants try to hard to dress it up with upscale toppings and fillings. I found a place in the Latin Quarter, some people would say this place leans closer to tourist crap joint, but their food was good and decently priced. Janine and I each ordered a ham and cheese crepe and it came with a nutella crepe as well. We waited upstairs in their dining area that looked as it probably did centuries ago and waited for our food. I enjoyed the crepes, but Janine felt that there was too much cheese to not feel disgusting afterwards. We left the joint and noticed a lot of food vendors standing out front waiting for customers, the places looked very dead. All of them, regardless of what kind of food they served (Greek, Vietnamese, Sandwiches) all had crepes.
Janine and I wondered with Olivia for a short bit looking to shop for some wine and then play the day by ear from there. As we walked to the wine shop, we saw everyone was dressed for the big Euro-cup match against Portugal. There was a lot of flag waving and random honking around us in a “yay team” way, not the “out of my way!” variety. The wine shop we visited was serviced by an older expat woman who was patient with us as we stumbled through explaining what we wanted in a wine. We are used to the Napa variety, but she quickly dismissed the wine from there saying that it was basically undrinkable. I chuckled and thought of the famed “Judgement of Paris” wine tasting where French judges rated a Cali wine best overall compared to french in blind taste test. As we were deciding, a couple came in and Janine drummed up discussion with them as I pensively starred at the wine selection. They were an American couple who sounded like they make frequent visits out to Paris, the husband sounded like a British national though. Apparently he was lucky enough to score tickets to the game tonight. We told them we would watch the game through hearing the boos and cheers of the patrons beneath our apartment. I eventually picked two wines, one was a merlot (the owner refuses to sell the Bordeaux) and a chardonnay. We packed up the wine and walked back home for a restful afternoon back at the apartment.
La Procope and the Eurocup
I would feel that I would be doing a disservice to myself if I didn't eat at the cafe where the major players of the Enlightenment, American Revolution, and French Revolution got their coffee fix. As mentioned earlier, the Cafe La Procope turned into a higher end restaurant and I didnt feel entirely comfortable walking in with shorts and a t-shirt. We walked over to the restaurant and had a nice dinner.
The restaurant was really dead. There were only a handful of patrons in this large two story restaurant. This was due to the fact everyone else in town were cramming into bars and cafes for the final Euro cup match. The food was pretty good and Olivia was relatively well behaved enough for me to enjoy my surroundings. After dinner, I explored around the restaurant taking in the history and looking at the various works hung on the wall of the cafe’s history.
Several cafes had so many patrons that they were overflowing into the street. The evening in our apartment was surprisingly quiet. We didn’t make a strong effort to put Olivia to sleep till later assuming that the streets would be erupting in noise. As the family was laying in bed watching Antman from the projector in the bedroom, I kept an eye on the score and saw that it was 0-0. I knew it was over during overtime when I heard a Frenchman scream “Noooooooo!” outside the window. That was the sign that France lost to Portugal. Olivia was too enamored with Paul Rudd to fall asleep, so we sent her to her own bed for the night.
