When planning for our trips I'm careful not to over schedule ourselves. Yes, we could probably do three museums in a day, but would we really enjoy it? And especially when we return to our favorite locales, I tend to sprinkle out our planned activities, knowing that we'll probably return in the future. And since we'd be spending a good amount of time in Paris, I only scheduled or made reservations for about every other evening.
On this day, I made plans to visit the Cluny Museum whose collection covers the Middle Ages. I had always wanted to visit the Cluny for one main reason which I'll detail a bit further on in this post.
But first; did you know that there are 8 fontaine petillantes; that is, sparkling water fountains in Paris? Yes, for real, these fountains will dispense sparkling water at the press of a button. For free. There was one close to our hotel next to Les Halles so we decided to try it out.
I liked it; the Missus wasn't impressed. Perhaps if the weather was hotter it would have made more of an impact. I did think it was pretty neat though.
From here we headed off to the 5th passing all those familiar places.
And soon we were close to our destination. But first……the museum is located in the 5th Arrondissement which gave us an opportunity to revisit our favorite croissant purveyor yet again. Man, we could smell the butter a block away. And the line at La Maison d’Isabelle, which always moves quickly anyway, wasn't very long at all.
The shop is located right at one of the metro exits, just think, you'd be coming up the stairs or escalator from the Maubert – Mutualité metro station to be hit with the scent of butter in the air?
We got our croissant and headed on over to Square Samuel-Paty just like the last time to devour our croissants.
And it was a good as ever.
Crisp and flakey exterior, fluffy on the inside, great butter to salt ratio…..
Still our favorite in Paris.
La Maison d’Isabelle
47T Boulevard Saint-Germain
75005 Paris, France
And the Cluny is located basically across the street from Square Samuel-Paty. We arrived right after the 930am opening time, so the museum wasn't very busy, which made for a relaxed visit.
And while we loved the heads of kings of Judah that originally graced Notre Dame and were severed during the French Revolution ("off with their heads I say!!!!") in what is called vandalisme révolutionnaire, wonderful jewelry, Limoges Enamel, and the stunning stained glass from Sainte-Chapelle that depicts the story of Samson; there was one collection I wanted to see.
It's a series of 6 tapestries completed around 1500, famously known as The Lady and the Unicorn. Upon entering the room we were stunned; it is one of those times when seeing a renowned work was actually more impressive in person.
The 6 tapestries, made of wool and silk were amazing. It is generally accepted that each one represents one of the senses.
Though you might ask, "why are there six tapestries". The sixth work has the inscription “À mon seul désir” (To my only desire) and has been interpreted in many different ways.
As for me….well, I happened to see Frankie in the tapestry and perhaps he knew we would be visiting on this day! We'd have another reminder of F during this trip as well. We were comforted knowing he was watching over us.
Seeing this was one of the highlights of our trip….
I have a feeling we'll return; if only to see that tapestry again!
Musée de Cluny
28 Rue du Sommerard
75005 Paris, France
We strolled back to the hotel and took a nice break. We'd be headed to Montpellier the next morning. We had enjoyed our meal at Le Petit Bouillon Pharamond at the end of our last trip to Paris, a big plus was that it was very close to our hotel, that we went to see if we could get a table. Man, there was a line to get into the Boullion, even at the ungodly dining hour (for Paris) of 6pm! So, we needed a "plan B". There was a place I'd had on my "list" for a while, it seemed a bit touristy, but has quite a history. Au Pied de Cochon was founded in 1947, at that time Les Halles was still considered the "belly of Paris" and Au Pied de Cochon fed the hungry masses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We thought it might be fun just to drop by and see if the place had an open table.
And this quite colorful brasserie still had tables available. You gotta love the decor as it just oozes almost stereotypical Frenchness.
As you can figure by the name of the place, pork is king here.
The bread provided was a nice and crusty baguette.
Which came in handy since the Missus, wanting Her beans, ordered the Cassoulet de Pied de Cochon ( 27 €).
She liked the beans, thin skinned and creamy. The garlic sausage was decent as well, though all that pork was a bit over-the-top for Her. This also needed some salt as well. The Missus did a nice job of finishing this off!
I got what is possibly the signature dish of the restaurant; the Tentation de Saint-Antoine ( 27 €) – "Temptation of Saint Anthony". If you recall from a previous post, Saint Anthony de Abad is the patron saint of pigs.
In case you're keeping score at home; this consists of breaded and fried pig's feet (pied de cochon), very tough and undercooked for my taste, snout, chewy and quite meaty went well with the Bernaise sauce, ears, too hard (still trying to find a version that lines up with what we had at that little Izakaya in Hiroshima, and the winnah, that pig tail…which was fairly tender with some nice crunchy bits, and was oh so porky. Maybe all the "stuff" that stuck to that tail when in use added to the flavor???? 
The Missus had a taste of all of this and agreed, that tail was good. The French couple sitting next to use had two tails as appetizers. I didn't see it on the menu; but we'd definitely come back for that.
Overall, a fun meal, and service was quite good as well.
Au Pied de Cochon
6 Rue Coquillière
75001 Paris, France
Needless to say, it was a food coma evening.
We awoke early the next morning and relaxed a bit before heading off on the metro to Gare de Lyon. I will often try to schedule our trips on the metro at hours when I believe things won't be too busy, especially when we have luggage. It's not always possible, but I try. I also try to schedule and coordinate check-out times at our locale with check-in times at our destination, and our scheduled arrival by train. We got to Gare de Lyon a bit early; this was because I wanted to grab some coffee and tea for the Missus at a place I'd heard about located in Gare de Lyon named Le Train Bleu. I had heard of Le Train Bleu, but had never really given much thought to visiting the place even though we'd been through Gare de Lyon a couple of time before. However, after listening to one of my favorites Podcasts on Paris; The Earful Tower, which I started listening to when I was missing our travels during Covid and after reading Oliver Gee's post on Le Train Bleu, I wanted to check the place out, if only for some coffee and tea. And so we got to Gare de Lyon, and found the rather discreet entrance to Le Train Bleu. And you can see why you might want to have at least some coffee here……
Le Train Bleu was originally built for the Paris Exposition of 1900 in the Belle Époque style. The setting is so regal, elegant, grand, and beautiful. It transports you to a different age.
And in the morning, it is perfectly fine to have coffee, tea, and maybe some yogurt while waiting for your train if you aren't keen of having lunch or dinner here.
The prices aren't cheap, but not bad overall.
And man, I could just keeping looking at paintings for hours…..
You might also want to read this post on Le Train Bleu.
Le Train Bleu (In Gare de Lyon)
Place Louis-Armand
75012 Paris, France
Thanks for stopping by!
Along with several stela some of which were used as astronomical devices.
And while there were some folks in the tasting room; that's not where we were headed. Maestro Antonio Carlos Mendez, known as "Cornejo" greeted us. He is a third generation Mezcalero and his production, other than help from his young sons is a one man show.
Along the way we were introduced to the various species of agave that were growing. There are almost 50 difference species of agave used to make Mezcal; though Espadin is the most common because it can be cultivated.
No longer would I be getting two meals out of this. Even the amount of rice was less. The sauces are provided on the side so as not to make the breading/batter soggy. The katsu was breaded nicely and still crisp, though for some reason the chicken tasted like it hadn't been seasoned and was quite bland. Even with the Hawaii style katsu sauce (ketchup based) provided.
The rice was moist and did the trick. While the mac salad wasn't quite as good as what I'd had on previous visits; a bit too much mayo and very bland. It needed more salt and maybe some black pepper as well.
While we didn't care much for the pita, which was too dense, hard, and "bready" for us, we thought the falafel were quite good. Crisp outside, mildy creamy interior, nice nutty herbaceousness, this was actually better than what we'd had at 
It looked pretty much the same and I'll say that the fries where just as good, slightly crisp, with a creamy interior as it used to be.
So I took a bite and…got all bread? What the heck. It seemed like about half the sandwich was all bread. Strange. I'm thinking either they are still getting used to cutting the bread in the correct manner or they are using less ingredients. Anyway, the shrimp didn't seem of the same quality and seemed overcooked and rubbery; it also looked smaller than before, see the photo below. That's the cap from the little container of sauce for the fries.
