Place des Vosges, Musee Carnavalet, and Falafel

Today the girls and I explored the Marais.  The Marais is the historically Jewish area of Paris (it was once outside the city walls).  It now has a large gay population and is filled with trendy restaurants and shops.   There are still many synagogues in the area and the Musee d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme is here.  I have visited it in the past and highly recommend it http://www.mahj.org/fr/index.php

It feels more like November than April here.  It has been raining on and off for the past week and there is no end in sight.  We began at the Place des Vosges, hoping that the weather would let up enough for a play on the playground there.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_des_Vosges  As wikipedia reports, "Originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m x 140 m), it embodied the first European program of royal city planning."   Today they were filming some sort of old fashioned drama, and we were nicely told to stay out of the way.  We found some tall trees to protect us from the rain and huddled up to enjoy our snack.

Can you see the play structure and slide in the corner?  The pouring rain kept us from enjoying it today.

Cold Snackers

Musee Carnavalet provided shelter from the rain and we learned a lot, too.  It is the museum of Paris history.  It is housed in two of the oldest mansions in Paris and it is free.  http://carnavalet.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/l-hotel-carnavalet  It is an enormous museum and we did not take the time to do it justice.  There were lots of artifacts from the Revolution, including Henry the XVI chess set.  We liked the art nouveau jewelry store and the sign room with shopkeeper's signs from the turn of the century.  We will return and learn more.

Sign Room at Musee Carnavalet

 

One of the many reasons I like this area of Paris is the falafel.  The girls and I had lunch at L'As du Falafel, which is named in most guide books.  Yum!  The girls enjoyed chicken shwarma and I devoured a falafel.  The girls followed up with some delicious treats from a nearby Jewish bakery.