As we are coming to the end of our France trip, for one of our last days we visited “The Belly of Paris”. We started our commute around 10am taking the 13 line to Champs- Élysées Clemenceau and transferred to the 1 line to our destination, Louvre- Rivoli. We existed the train station and met Professor Zinder who started our tour by showing us different shops along the street we met and telling us some history about them. Continuing our tour, we first stopped at the Bourse de Commerce- Pinault Collection. A museum that was brought together by François Pinault over more than fifty years. The museum of contemporary art brings together works that illustrate the diversity of themes that run through the art of our time.
Our next stop, we visited the street Rue Coquillière between Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Rue Du Jour. Here there are popular restaurants such as Au Pied de Cochon. These restaurants are turned over and new restaurants owners open up their own every few years. Many of the restaurants situated in Paris back in the day had no menu, you’d simply walk in, have a seat, and be served whatever the chef / owner had prepared for dinner.
Then we visited the Église Saint- Eustache, a parish in the heart of Paris. It has a blend of gothic structure and classical details. After researching I learned that it became a parish in 1223 and was renamed Saint‑Eustache in 1303 after acquiring relics (physical remains or personal belongings). This place is more than just a church, it is a historical landmark and a cultural icon.
Our next area of visitation was a street that I had walked along before, Rue Montorgueil. This street had even more restaurants, patisseries and shopping stores, some being popular European brand skin care like Nuxe and clothing and accessories like Guess. Professor Zinder introduced the class to a store that sells chocolates, candies and other food items called “G. Detou. Most of the students purchased chocolates as gifts to bring back home which I enjoyed because I got a great variety.
Lastly, we walked up to “Plaq”, a chocolatier that resources chocolate and makes their own varieties of chocolate and chocolate desserts. Here we tried chocolate shots which consisted of pure chocolate with water or pure chocolate with milk.
This concluded our Belly of Paris tour and class was dismissed.
