Sunday 15 May - Monge, Mouffetard and more

The weekend carpet seller on the rue de Levis has gone up in the world.  He used to cover an old Volkswagen bug with his carpets.  Now he has some proper stands to show off his wares which he is now selling our of a large station wagon.

The RATP has installed condom dispensers in the Metro stations.  This might be a good idea for OC Transpo - heaven knows I have been screwed by OC Transpo so many times it would be good to do it safely.

The Monge Market is only open on Sundays and, although it is just a local one, the range of foodstuffs available is truly amazing.  One fromager has an incredibly wide selection of cheeses - and this despite the wonderful selection of items available daily on Mouffetard which is very close.

An amazing selection of cheeses

This fountain adds some calm to a busy market.

Pate de foie gras

From Monge we walked a couple of blocks to Mouffetard through a continuous flea market.  Mouffetard is also a lively place on Sunday mornings with many food shops and street performers.

 There was an excellent jazz band

In the square at the bottom a group gets together every Sunday.  There is an accordion and a couple of chanteuses.  They distribute song sheets for the crowd to join in and there is dancing.

We then decided to walk to the Jardin des Plantes where the rose and poppies were in particularly good form.

The plane trees provided a good deal of shade.

In the hothouse

In the hothouse

A petrified tree trunk

 Lunch at Volcan was slow and while Mary's was OK Colin's was very poor.  We then went via the jardins de Luxembourg to watch the kids sailing boats on the pond and poking the ducks with their bamboo sticks.  There were several ponies and donkies for hire.

There then followed a route march past the Invalides, the Eiffel Tower to the Trocadero.

Views of the Invalides are always spectacular when the sun shines on the gold roof.

There were a lot of people around the Eiffel Tower.  There hasn't been any appreciable rain for some time and the wind was blowing up dust storms.  There were many oriental couples getting married  and having their pictures taken in this area.

We took the Metro home from the Trocadero and relaxed to give our feet a rest.