A Walk To A Paris Market

Walk down the river to the end of Isle de la Cité.

Along the way you will see Shakespeare and Company; that's a place where one buys English language books.

It is also famous from Hemingway's time in Paris.

When you get to Square René Viviani, go in and look for the oldest tree in Paris.  

There is also one of Paris' oldest churches; it has served multiple purposes over its life. 

For several hundred years starting 1000 or so years back, it was a way station for pilgrims who were doing the St Jaques. 

There is still the spring that provided the water for the compound's various religious and commercial purposes.

If you were to go out the back exit of the square you would go by Eglis St Jean de Pauvre and head toward Eglis St Severin.

But don't do that; go back the way you came and continue down the quai.  

When you get to Pont de l'Archevêché, cross over to an accretion of commerce where there is a bike/motorcycle shop and some cafés and find rue Bievre.

Walk to the other end of rue Bievre. 

Notice Place de Madame Mitterand on your right as you go.  

Bievre used to be a small tributary stream to la Seine; it was converted into a sewer pipe in the late Middle Ages and a street sometime after that.  

There is a really good Chinese restaurant just as you come out of the canyon of rue Bievre. 

At this point you will be at a complicated intersection of smaller rues converging on Boulevard St Germain.  

Cross over St Germain to the obvious - I hope it's still there - collection of markets.  

Depending upon the day there may be the transient market which is a large collection of sellers of all kinds of meats, poultry, produce, kitchen goods, used stuff, clothes and a lot of things I can't remember.

The permanents include a poissonnerie, a boucherie, a wine shop and a boulangerie that is supposed to be the latest and greatest.  

It replaced the one I used to go to in 2018 and earlier; I can't imagine the new one being better than the old one was. 

Last year when I was there for November I was semi-crippled, so I couldn't walk that far, so I don't know if any of the stuff I am enumerating is still there.  

The plague got a lot of my favorite places close to my apartment, so who knows what else bit the dust?

As near as I can tell, the fromagerie is still there.  

It's Laruent duBois; it has great cheese.

When you are finished with the market, go back to the river turn, left and walk to Pont St Michel.

Stop and have a wine at le Départ St Michel.  

If you don't mind smokers get a table outside; if smoke is out get a table in the first row inside the glass window/wall.  

Watch as people from all over the world go by in their most colorful plumage.  

A major exit tunnel of the RER and Metro disgorges masses of people right in front of where you will be sitting.  

It's pretty interesting.