A Nice Day in the Marais

Place de Bastille

Rental bikes in the Marais

Place des Vosges, oldest square in Paris

Place des Vosges

Chateau near Place des Vosges that is being renovated

Old flooring in Musee Carnavalet

Gardens at Musee Carnavalet

Lunch a emporter (accents everywhere) Our takeout lunch!

Today was a low key pleasant day in our neighborhood. We visited the Cognacq-Jay Museum which I had seen last week and enjoyed immensely. This visit, we rented the audio so it was a lot more informative. We saw another 17th C mansion on our walk so we checked it out. It had a few old paintings in it and some very modern decorative arts including furniture. There was a small cafe in the building with petite tables set out in the cobblestone courtyard. We took a delicious sandwich with us to share back at our apartment but first we visited an old tea shop Marriage Freres from the mid 1800's that has more than 560 selections of tea. The men, and only men, who work there wear linen suits and use brass scales to measure out the tea from large metal cans. There is a menu to help make your selections and some small tins of the more popular tea to give a sniff to see if it might be to your liking. It was a step back in time with all the large tea tins and the wooden shelves and floors. I asked if I could take a photo but it was not allowed. Would have liked to have bought some tea but it was crowded and a little intimidating! We visited the Carnavalet Museum this afternoon which tells much of the history of Paris but the 18th C French area wasn't open so hope to pop back there tomorrow and see that small objects that belonged to Marie Antoinette. Tonight we walked out to Ile Saint Louis for a Berthillion ice cream cone then came back to pack up so we have a free day tomorrow; our last in Paris this trip.