I Love Paris

Lutetia at the time of Julius Caesar.
Asterix Volume 6: Les Lauriers de César (©Udezero)

... but, non modo amo Lutetiam, urbem ad Sequanam, sed totam quoque Galliam. 

During his professional life, Red Baron was often in Paris. While my conversation partners worked at the CEA at Saclay, I stayed overnight in Paris and took the suburban train to the center of the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives the following morning.

I loved and still love the small hotels in the Latin Quarter. In the evening, I went to the theater. I saw Bertolt Brecht in French (!): The Life of Galileo at the Comédie Française and Mr. Puntila and His Man Matti at the Théâtre Marigny. Hilarious.

For breakfast, I had one or two pots of coffee, a crispy baguette, fresh from the bakery, with butter from a bowl and strawberry jam from a large jar. Delicious.

When the hotel didn't offer breakfast, I went to the nearest bistrot du coin de rue and enjoyed la formule café-croissant.

The lobby of the Saint Paul Hotel (©Google Maps)

On my last organized visit to Paris with a small group of twelve people, I again stayed on the Left Bank in the Latin Quarter, this time at the Hotel Saint Paul on ...

This name rang a bell. The Duc d'Enghien from the House of Condé was a key figure in the Battle of Freiburg on August 3 to 5, 1644. The House of Condé is a cadet branch of the French royal house of Bourbon.

The Great Condé - as he was later called - commanded the Armée de France and joined Marschall Turenne with his Armée de L'Allemagne to recapture the city held by Bavarian troops under Franz von Mercy. Read more about one of the bloodiest battles of the Thirty Years' Way here in German.

In the following, I'll report in several blogs about this fantastic and probably my last stay, where the price-performance ratio of our tour company was outstanding. Red Baron was exceptionally high and delighted to show his beloved Paris to someone close to him who had never been to the City of Light before.

After checking in, our group set off on its first walking tour to explore the Latin Quarter.

At the end of our street, a bust of Charles Aznavour greeted us. Here is one of his greatest hits. I dedicate it to the one accompanying me. 

Next stop: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where you'll find the famous café frequented by well-known literary figures, Les Deux Magots. 

The name comes from a 19th-century play titled Les Deux Magots de la Chine. In fact, inside the café, you'll find two statues of Chinese mandarins perched on a central pillar, gazing out over the room. They are the Deux Magots and have become iconic symbols of the café. 

Red Baron had always confused that word with mégot (cigarette butt), which isn't so far-fetched, because the place was named after an icon of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Juliette Gréco. She knew Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Jacques Prévert, and many other philosophical and literary figures and was called la Muse de l'existentialisme.

L'Eglise de Saint-Germain-des-Prés is one of the oldest churches. It was part of an abbey and was consecrated in 558. The name refers to Saint Germanus, who was bishop of Paris from 550 to 576.

The nave is presented in a transitional Romanesque-Gothic style.

On our way to the Quai Voltaire, we passed the former Hôtel d'Alsace in Rue des Beaux-Arts 13, where Oscar Wilde once dwelt and died.

On the other side of the River Seine, the Louvre Palace awaits our visit.

The journey and the many new impressions of the afternoon had made us hungry.

 Cosy Au Père Louis (©Google Maps)

Our group ended the first day in Paris in style with a three-course dinner at the restaurant Au Père Louis.

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