Paris: The Jewish Quarter, Louvre Courtyard and A Phallic Eiffel Tower
Good morning! Bonjour! Today we went to a small cafe in Bastille called Cafe Truc, which literally means Cafe "Stuff." It was so cutely decorated and we enjoyed a traditional French breakfast here: croissant, pain du chocolat, tea, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.
On our way to the Jewish quarter, we passed a museum with the sculpture below. The exhibit was showing all kinds of street sculpture and I recognized this from an article that was shared with me years ago. It reminded me of the other Bruno Catalano sculptures that were debuted in 2013.
Pigeon taking a bath.
Under the arches on the Place De Vosges:
We made it to the Temple Des Vosges, which is an Orthodox shul in the middle of Paris.
We were informed that the seats are full every Shabbat, and they have weddings and other special events there regularly.
There was also a reception hall that had hand-painted walls with scenes from the Bible:
Afterwards, we continued on to the Rue Des Rosiers, the Jewish quarter. On our way, we saw this fountain in the the Place Des Vosges:
Some other details that we saw on the way:
We made it! The entire street was Jewish: kosher shops and clothing and Judaica stores.
This place sold Yiddish sandwiches and food! They had a meat side and a dairy side.
We lunched at L'As Du Falafel ("The Ace of Falafel") and we made it in before the lunch rush! I got a GoldStar, an Israeli beer, and a chicken curry pita. It was scrumptious!
Then we headed off down the Rue de Rivoli (lots of shopping and malls) in the direction of the Louvre. We didn't have time to go in on this trip, but we wanted to see the courtyard! From the picture below, it looks more empty of tourists than it actually was. How exciting!
Two #realwomenhavecurves statues in the courtyard.
To enter the Louvre, you descend the stairs below this pyramid.
My sister and me! It was pretty breezy in July - a lot chillier than we were expecting.
After the Louvre, we took a train to the Opera house to meet our host.
Our host took us to the Galeries Lafayette, which are sibling malls in the same area. The first one we went into had a gorgeous dome.
The view from the terrace! You could see all of Paris.
From left, me, our host Sophie, and my sister, Stephanie.
So, this was a sculpture, not a mistake. I looked at this installation and my first thought leaned towards phallic, but then I thought, Huh, maybe it's for the Euro Cup? (Since the UEFA Cup was happening while we were there). Turns out, this enormous inflatable Eiffel Tower with Golden Eggs installation was part of the massive exhibit, "Toilet Paper," by artists Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo. They also had window displays in all the sister malls, but the content was so strange, I could do nothing but stare and not get it.
In the GL across the street, there was a gourmet food emporium and kitchen store. It was here that we bought fancy desserts for eating back at the apartment.
Eclairs for days...
This is a chocolate shoe! It could be yours for only ~$68!
Stephanie with her eclair!
We had so much fun walking around these malls. It was one of the most American things we did, but we were able to find the gifts we were looking for for our family since everything was all in the same place.
All the desserts that I bought will be featured in a later post! Stay tuned!
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