Another round of walking in the morning and museum in the afternoon

This is the Jardin du Palais Royal. I have visited this garden before but this time there is construction going on at one end of the garden and a construction barrier has been erected. It took until today for me to remember to go in the other entrance and see if the rest of the garden is affected by the construction. The answer turned out to be "no".The Palais Royal was the early 17th century home of Cardinal Richelieu. It passed on his death to the crown and was the childhood home of the infant king, Louis XIV. Louis became king at the age of 5 but government was in the hands of a regent. Louis lived here until he was 14 when he returned to Versailles.

Our morning walk took us towards the Marais and past Eglise Saint Eustache, the church with head and hand sculpture. The sculpture is interesting but the church also is quite impressive. The church is nearly as large as Notre Dame and includes some of the same building techniques such as the flying buttresses.Saint Eustache is next to Les Halles, the traditional site of the Paris Farmers Market. The Market was moved to the suburbs in the 1970s and the area was converted into a surface park and an underground shopping mall. The green arch is one of the major entryways into the park and is meant to remind the viewer of the great halls which were present on the site when the area was a market.This is the Fontaine des Innocents. There was a cemetery on this site, the Cimetiere des Innocents, a cemetery primarily for children. The bones were moved to the Catacombs in the 18th century and this fountain, originally constructed in 1549, was moved to the site as a memorial.The fountain is located just around the corner from the National Museum of Modern Art, usually known as the Pompidou Centre. There are two museums of modern art in Paris, the National Museum and a City museum. The recent art theft which coincided with our arrival here occurred at the city museum.The Pompidou Centre is often described as a building turned inside out. The escalators, elevators, air and water ducts have all been placed on the exterior of the building.

Next to the Pompidou Centre is the Place Igor Stravinsky. The Place is dominated by the first contemporary Parisian fountain.The church there in the background is Eglise Saint Merry. The site of the church dates to the 7th century but the building of the church was not completed until 1552. The northwest turret of the church contains the oldest bell in Paris, from 1331.

I would recommend against any raspberry croissants unless they come in a bag like this one. I had it translated for me earlier and have forgotten a bunch but there is stuff on the bag saying that those who raise good grain harvest good bread.We weren't even going for fancy pastries, just a little something for second breakfast, or maybe it was elevensies, but from left to right a chevre and tomate tart (goat cheese and tomato egg pie, a tiny quiche if you will), pain au chocolat amandes (a croissant like pastry with a line of chocolate down the middle and in this case almond paste), and a champignon tart (mushroom egg pie).Here is our peerless guide and translator at our "home" metro stop, the one closest to our apartment.The two of us were on our way to my personal major pilgrimage of this trip. I realize that this is a bicycle blog and that this whole travel thing seems to have risen up and swallowed the bicycle content whole. Well, not so fast, buster. Today I went to Cycles Laurent. The shop was founded by Marcel Laurent, two time winner (1938 and 1939) of what was at the time one of the major races on the cycle calendar, Bordeaux-Paris.The shop boasts of three generations of service and is a very, very serious bicycle shop. A very pleasant French lady assisted us. It felt like she was having almost as much fun as we were.

So here it is, my personal top reason for coming to France.The jersey is a replica of the Team France jersey from 1958. The nice lady suggested I try it on to assure proper fit and I had another one of those uniquely French moments. The nice lady led me over to a corner of the shop behind where the mechanic was working on a bicycle and hung the jersey up for me on a set of hooks on the back side of a post. She went back to the main part of the shop and it was obvious to me that there wasn't a dressing "room". There was a try on "area" and I was in it. So the mechanic, three other customers and I shared that corner of the shop while I tried on the jersey. It was a very, very French moment. That's just the way they do things, they didn't think it was odd or unusual so I went ahead and acted as if it wasn't odd and unusual for me.

The jersey fit is parfait.

Later on we went to the Orangerie Musee. Monet, Renoir, Gaugain, Cezanne, Picasso, Klee, a few other I cannot recall at this moment. Monet produced paintings specifically for two large spaces on the upper floor of the museum. Here is Mrs. Smith and Wireless in front of one the mural size works.The two of them are off finishing up their day at something called the Virgin Super Store. We are watching a little tennis.