Portrait of the Day; at the end of the Tuilleries
We did laundry which again caused a later start for the day, especially because the woman who opens the little market here (which houses the "laundry" didn't arrive until more than a half hour after expected (8:30 instead of 8:00). We walked to our train station and went to Pigale.
Because we have a visitors' pass for the transport system, we can get in and out of the Metro wherever and as often as we like. This day, at the spot where we needed to change trains we went above ground to see where we were.
Portrait of the Day; at the end of the Tuilleries
Many of the streets in Paris have names that change every 30 meters or so. The maps we have don't indicate every name change along the way. This makes it hard to gain our bearings when we first come out of the Metro. We had this problem twice in one day. We finally found our appointed street and began the climb up Rue Lepic to the top of the mount. Our map had an indicator of a "Musee d'art Juif" at the very top of the page. Because there's not topographical information on the map we had no idea that it was on the "other side of the mountain." On the way back down the north slope we passed the Musee de Montmartre. We stopped in to ask about the origin of the origin of the name Montmartre and I noticed the "thinking of you" Modigliani postcard among those for sale. When we got to the Jewish museum we learned that it was indeed the precursor to the museum we had seen the previous day. We found a little shop to have a cup of tea and our prepared sandwiches.
We took a train back to the Marais district and continued to wander the streets. Along the way we found an intersection named for Jacob Kaplan who had been the Chief Rabbi at an earlier time (and who has a postage stamp honoring him as well).
On another day we started at Ile de la Cite for a walk through the Cathedral de Notre Dame.
When we got on the Metro a man sitting near us was busy reading Tehillim.
On the far end of that island in the Seine is a memorial to the deportees, which was closed for the day. We got back to see it on Sunday.
Across the river is a town called (the name of which I need to check) which is a sister city of Holon (near Tel Aviv).
We also happened upon a building nearby with a plaque memorializing Edmond Fleg who wrote the poem "To Be A Jew" which is in the Gates of Prayer.
Many years ago, a fellow I worked with said: "When you're Jewish, the whole world is Jewish!" I have often repeated that phrase. Sometimes I see "Jewish" when it is not there, as in the name of this clothing store on the Left Bank of the Seine:
Note the "kosher" symbol in the clothing store's name.
Did you know that a "horned Moses" appears on one of the walls of the Louvre?
We saw many posters advertising a movie ? a play ? showing in Paris called Le Vieux Juif Blonde:
After six days in Paris, walking for about five hours every day, in and around various neighborhoods, rarely going into the official tourist attractions, with much more to see, we have to travel South.
This is the subject for an entire section of the site (not yet created). In the meantime, you should know that we found plenty of chocolate. Too often, the shop was closed.
