On the morning after our previous evening's "carb-fest", we arose nice and refreshed. I had just planned for one place to visit during the day, so we could just kind of make things up as the day went by. The Missus wanted to try someplace different for this morning's coffee, so we headed over to Rue d'Argout right off of Rue Montmartre to Matamata Coffee Bar.
Man, all these boutique coffee places seemed to have popped up over the last couple of years. Anyway, the Missus ordered a pour over and I got a coffee and a scone to start my day.
The Missus thought the pour over here was a bit weaker than Motors. I enjoyed the scone. Service was quite nice.
Matamata Coffee Bar
58 Rue d'Argout
75002 Paris, France
It was a bright, sunny day and our destination for the day did not open until 2pm, so we could just do our Flânerie thing.
We stopped while crossing Pont au Change when we saw what looked like the police dive team either doing an exercise or perhaps actually searching for something?
We decided to swing by Notre Dame to see what was going on in terms of restoration and construction. Like so many, we were horrified to see and read about the fire at Notre Dame back in April of 2019.
I had read that Notre Dame is scheduled to reopen in 2024 and we were curious to see what work was going on.
Illustrations and photographs of the fire, damage, and restoration are posted on the boards surrounding the church.
And it's really difficult to determine what work is going on from where we stood.
We do hope that Notre Dame returns better than ever.
We walked the length of Île de la Cité and crossed over to Île Saint-Louis via Pont Saint-Louis. We were just here the previous day, but things seemed even more serene on the Wednesday.
Check out this outdoor dining set-up! It's basically taking up a parking stall!
We decided to take a break and grab one of the outside tables at Le Saint-Regis, which seemed to be a very popular café.
It was a great place to people and pooch watch as it was just steps from Pont Saint-Louis.
We could watch folks as they crossed back and forth, going about their daily business and routines.
The Cafe Allonge was quite good as well.
As was the service. I'm sure we'll be back to relax and people watch, possibly getting a breakfast as well. This café seemed quite popular.
Le Saint-Regis
6 Rue Jean du Bellay
75004 Paris, France
Bolstered by our caffeine fix, we crossed over to the 5th Arrondissement. We were still a bit early for our visit….so we decided to see how busy our favorite boulangerie for croissants was.
Must have been our lucky day, the line wasn't very long and unlike our previous visit, they weren't out of Croissant aux Buerre,
Things moved quickly and we were in and out in a flash.
La Maison d’Isabelle
47T Boulevard Saint-Germain
75005 Paris, France
Well, we decided to find a place to have our croissant. Close to our destination was a little park; Square Samuel-Paty.
This used to be named Square Paul Painlevé, but was renamed for teacher Samuel Paty who was murdered by an Islamic Terrorist in October of 2020.
It's a tiny park, but a nice peaceful green space, full of sculptures. We were surprised to see a copy of the Capitoline Wolf, which we had seen in Rome.
We had a seat on wall in the shade and opened up the croissant….it was every bit as good as we remembered.
'
Light and crisp exterior; fluffy interior, slightly moist, perfect amount of butter and salt for our taste. It's still our favorite here in Paris.
After our last disappointing visit to a old favorite of ours, we were glad that La Maison d’Isabelle still delivered. We smiled as we headed off to our destination for the day.
Thanks for stopping by!