Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Île St-Louis, St-Sulpice, and a Mystery

Île St-Louis is the island Notre Dame is not on.  That's Île de la Cité.   Today's self-guided walking tour focused on this tiny island famous for ice cream. real estate, and being the long-time home of Marie Curie.

In France to ensure that the purchaser knows what kind of poultry she is purchasing, the butcher shops often leave on the head, the feet, or some feathers, or some combination of these three.


On a sidestreet we saw this drainpipe shaped like a fish.


The church of St-Louis had this pretty little angel holy water font.


After Île St-Louis we headed over to St-Sulpice on the Left Bank.  This church is the setting for a key scene in Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code.  Here's the famous transept with the rose line leading to it.


For lunch we went to a noodle restaurant where they were making fresh noodles in the back.  My photo of the noodle maker isn't very good because of glare from the glass wall he stood behind, but here's a photo of our lunches.



Now for the mystery.  The Pont des Arts is famous as a bridge on which lovers lock a padlock inscribed with their names and throw the key into the river.  This happens on Pont de l'Archevèché too, but on that bridge they also tie plastic bags, pieces of fabric, etc.  Here's a photo.


I have no idea what this means.  So, I'm holding a contest.  The first person who posts a comment explaining the correct significance of the plastic bags (including documentation so I know you didn't make up the answer) will win one of the Miraculous Medals I purchased last week at the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal.

Here's a photo of today's market purchases:


Today's cheese:  Specialité Bourgogne

5 comments:

  1. I have no idea what the plastic bags are about. The heads on the pou;try is very disturbing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. no documentation but i bet its a budgetary issue. no money for a lock but still want to appear romantic? tie a bag on the bridge! plus you gain points for spontaneity...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Margaret -- what happened to my comment? I posted some info about the plastic bags and it's poof! not here. It was about Bernard Buffett.

    Buffet created more than 8.000 paintings and many prints as well.

    He committed suicide[3] at his home in Tourtour, Southern France, on October 4, 1999. Buffet was suffering from Parkinson's disease and was no longer able to work. Police said that Buffet died around 4 p.m after putting his head in a plastic bag attached around his neck with tape.

    This excerpt from Wikipedia. Hope you're having a great time. It all sounds so yummy.

    Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations, Kathy. You are the lucky winner of a Miraculous Medal. I'll mail it to you when I get home. I believe you have my email address, so please send me your address so I know where to send it.
    Very impressive researching.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whoo hoo! I'll have something to remember your trip by and it will remind me how totally jealous I was/am. I love your blog. Thanks so much for sharing all your adventures.

    ReplyDelete