The Zadkine Museum, a new restaurant and the Cluny Museum

May 18, 2019 — Day 9 (Saturday)

Saturday is yellow-vest demonstration day in Paris so we started the day checking to see where the manifestations were and which Metro lines would be affected. Research done, we took the #83 bus to the Zadkine Museum. It drops you right at the entrance gate although it's a little hard to spot. There is a small black gate between two large buildings and a tiny sign for Musée Zadkine so we walked right in. You walk through the gate, down a driveway and see the house/museum tucked into a courtyard. It is free and very friendly. We walked through the house and since the promised rain hadn’t started, we went through the garden and his atelier. There had been a large couple pulling suitcases in the house before so we returned after they left to get a better look at some of the sculptures and a kindly museum worker offered to take our picture. Fun! [Musée Zadkine, 100 bis, rue d'Assas, 75006 Paris; tel: +33 (0)1 5542-7720] Click here for the Zadkine Museum web site

Garden of the Zadkine Museum - Paris

We left the Zadkine and walked through the Luxembourg Gardens toward St. Sulpice where I got photos of the Fountain of the Orators on the square. Continued on to Café Bergamote on rue Montfaucon near Hôtel Clément. The chef from our favorite and now-closed restaurant Bastide d’Opio is there so we decided to try it. Food was good; service was painfully slow and ambience nonexistent. Too bad but at least the food was good. I had Peg’s beef brochettes and Ed got magret de canard. The other customers all seemed to be Oriental and had a guide of sorts helping them. Interesting experience . . . We weren't sure if they were a tour group or not but the very pleasant Oriental young man seemed to be helping all of them even though they weren't sitting near each other. Perhaps he was just a very helpful young man.

We walked to the Cluny Museum to discover a new entrance in a very modern addition. We paid and entered and climbed the stairs to the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. They are gorgeous and we love them. We wound our way through an exhibit on the senses and symbolism relating to the tapestries, climbed down to the Roman Baths and enjoyed a special one-month exhibit of Kings of Judah sculptures from Notre Dame de Paris. Then we looked for the rest of the museum and couldn’t find it. We finally asked at the ticket desk and learned the old museum is closed for renovations until at least 2021. Sad . . . [Musée du Moyen Age - Cluny, 28 rue Du Sommerard 75005; Tél : +33 (0)1 5373-7800]
Click here for the Cluny Museum web site

Then we tried to get home. The buses were running short routes that didn’t work for us. This was caused by demonstrations. We waited for a while, finally gave up and took the Metro that was very crowded. Got off at Censier-Daubenton, shopped at Androuet for cheese and Saines, our boulangerie, for bread and a couple Religieuse pastries for dessert. Relaxed until church at St. Medard. We had a very good organ to go with the pretty bad cantor. A few sprinkles of rain accompanied us home and after supper we had a real thunderstorm. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.