4 days in Paris, France - 09/30/2023-10/3/2023

Day 1- Paris 5th-9/30/2023

We rented an Air B&B on rue Monge in the 5th Arrondissement.  We used to live around this neighborhood a long time and since we have a little time we decided to trace back our footsteps to our old neighborhood.

The Pantheon in the background.

I used to live here on passage du clos Bruneau.

The door looks exactly the same, even the color of the door is still the same.  Our apartment was on the 2nd floor.

This alley use to be dark but now all the exterior is washed and it looks bright and much nicer than when I used to live here 40 years ago.

We are now headed to rue Mauberg.

This used to be Thanh Binh, the only Vietnamese grocery store back then.  It was so popular with the Vietnamese community back in 1975.

Now the store is gone and it is now a Vietnamese restaurant.

My sister in law used to worked at La Coupole, a high end restaurant but it is no longer there.  It is now Restaurant Gladines.

The famous Aux Merveilleux de Fred store.

Frederic Vaucamps is a pastry chef and made the Merveilleux cake popular by adapting the recipe to make it extremely lightweight.  He opened his first store in 1997 in Lille and the cake is very popular.

Merveilleux cakes on display

The cakes looks absolutely fabulous.

On the right is Eric Kayser boulangerie.  Eric has stores worldwide now and back in the day I remember his tiny first store on Rue Monge..

Eglise (church) Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet on rue de Monge. I passed by this church so many times and  Ican beleive I never went in.  Today I am going to go in and take a look.

This is a Catholic church in the center of Paris constructed between 1656 and 1763. The facade was designed in the classical style

The West front completed in 1937 with the main doorway and the bell tower on the left.

The entrance of the West front.

The interior is so beautiful.  The apse (semi circular recess) was designed by Baltard in 1862

View of the altar from the nave.

The Altar

The organ above originated from the ancient parish church of Saints-Innocents, constructed between 1723 and 1725

In 1961, the organ underwent electrification, and from 2007 to 2009, it underwent a meticulous reconstruction, marking its second revival.

During mass, the sound of the organ is absolutely harmonious and received a lot of praises.

Stained glass windown with Jesus Christ on the cross and the ceiling on the right.

The Martyrdom of Saint John the Evangelist at the Latin gate by Charles Le Brun

The church have a few beautiful paintings.

Painting of Jean Vignaud 1775-1826 representing Jesus resuscitating the girl from Jaire

Statue of Saint Nicolas, the patron of the church with saint Catherine of Alexandria.

NEXT... Dinner at Geosmine, Paris