![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.frenchbychoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/begonias-at-Recamier.jpg\" "\\"begonias")
<\/a>Begonias blooming in Sq Recamier<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Architecture in this area: ornate stonework and ironwork<\/p><\/div>\n
And, the recamier sofa is named for her: she reclined while she entertained her callers. Back out to the street, we found Lutetia, a hotel that takes up the whole block and whose facade was carved with grapes and pears.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Ornate carvings on Hotel Lutetia, Gestapo headquarters in WWII<\/p><\/div>\n
During WWII, the hotel was a Gestapo base, and after liberation, it became a shelter for refugees from concentration camps. \u00c2\u00a0Then, across the street to Square Boucicaut, honoring Aristide Boucicaut, whose small 19th century hosiery shop has expanded to become Au Bon Marche, the trendy, expensive, department store of the Left Bank. \u00c2\u00a0Naturally, we stopped in Au Bon Marche, the main store is one of the iron-framed buildings, attributed to Gustave Eiffel. \u00c2\u00a0Then, across the street to the second shop, La Grande Epicerie, the fabulous gourmet grocery store.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Chandelier made of glass bottles in the "queen" of gourmet grocery stores, Le Grand Epicerie<\/p><\/div>\n
Then, back on the walking tour, to Rue du Cherche-Midi, a street packed with little restaurants and bars. \u00c2\u00a0We passed a long-established bucherie, an iron facade for a cafe, the Musee Hebert, displaying the art of a 19th century artist, pretty well forgotten. \u00c2\u00a0We slipped into the Embassy of Mali, to check out the elegant staircase and entrance hall – naturally well-guarded.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Shrimp and Veal were lunch choices<\/p><\/div>\n
Then to lunch, where Mike indulged in roasted veal and I had shrimp with cocoanut milk and wild rice.<\/p>\n
To continue the tour, we slipped through an underground passageway, where we encountered the walk’s first saint: Vincent de Paul. Together with Louise Marillac, he founded the daughters of charity – laywomen dedicated to helping the sick and poor. \u00c2\u00a0The Chapel of St Vincent de Paul was heavily ornamented, built in 1826, and on top of the altar, is a shrine to him of silver by Odiot. \u00c2\u00a0The shrine is reachable by a hidden staircase behind the altar; part of the shrine is a wax-likeness of the saint.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Alleyway courtyard with access to homes and businesses<\/p><\/div>\n
This area is characterized by wonderful architecture, dotted here and there by very modern buildings that stand in great contrast. \u00c2\u00a0We peeked in a doorway off rue Vaneau to see a pretty little cul-de-sac with houses and businesses tucked off the street.<\/p>\n
Around the corner, we stumbled into the Jardin Catherine Laboure, with its gardens of flowers, vegetables, fruit trees and herbs. \u00c2\u00a0The garden was created on the site of the vegetable garden of the Daughters of Charity.<\/p>\n
Round the corner again, and we encountered the second saint of our walk: Catherine Laboure, a farm girl who became a Daughter of Charity, who in 1830 had two apparitions. \u00c2\u00a0The Chapel de la Medaille Miraculeuse, or the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal, has become a place of pilgrimage with the shrine to the saint at its center.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Brussels Sprouts in Laboure Garden<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Pears in Laboure Garden<\/p><\/div>\n