Haute Chocolate!

Bon jour, mes amies,
As the weather had turned cool for the day, I packed my kindle and ticked off one of my life goals today.  But first.  When I got home the first thing I checked was to see if Crazy Guy was outside my window.  Nope.  C'est bon.
Paris is a walker's city.  On the major streets the sidewalks are very wide and lined with chestnut trees, this time of year in full leaf.  If you start out early enough one catches the alluring aromas of fresh bread from the boulangeries instead of cigarette smoke and car exhaust which will meet you later on.  I got some more cash and then proceeded down toward the Seine, determined to exercise my museum card.
My goal was the ancient heart of Paris, the Ile de la Cite, and the original site of the village of Lutetia founded by the Parisi Tribe, but the site I targeted were rather later than that.  By the time I got to the Palais de Justice where my sites were located, my morning tea had caught up with me.  The Concergerie where I'd hoped to find a toilet was still closed and the line for Sainte Chapelle looked too long.  I back tracked to Boulevard St. Germain.
Now when I stayed in Paris last, I was on the Right Bank, but I regularly crossed the river and then availed myself of the free public toilet just off Boul Mich while blessing the then mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe in my heart.  Fortunately I found the facility free.  They are kind of smelly, but they are safe and they get cleaned after each use.  And they are free!
Then back to the Palais de Justice to get in line for Sainte Chapelle to find in my absence the length of the line had tripled and there was a sign explaining that we museum pass holders had to get in it like the other chumps.  Fine.  So I waited.  There's always going to be a line for nearly everything is Paris, and Sainte Chapelle is worth the wait.  One reason the line moves slowly is the security at every site.  You have to open your bags at the very least and often have to walk through a metal detector.
Sainte Chapelle was built by St. Louis--the Twelfth, I think he was as a reliquery for the crown of thorns or at least some thorns purporting to have belonged to it.  It's a small building and quickly fills up.  There are two floors.  The first one is beautiful, but you want to go upstairs to the glorious Rayonnant Gothic chapel with the walls made of stained glass.  The windows honor the saints, the Virgin but were also meant as a visual teaching text to a largely illiterate society.  The pictures can be read, and information placards available in several languages will explain them.  But mostly I reveled in the exquisite colors and celestial light.
The next stop bounces us forward in time several centuries although the Concergerie was part of the Medieval palace complex that included the Louvre.  It's famous for a later use--as a prison during the French Revolution--which had a tendency to devour its own children.  The most famous prisoner was the Queen--Marie Antoinette, and you can visit her cell and see a few belongings she left behind as she was taken to her death.
Well, that was grim.  I crossed the river to the right bank and was right back in my old neighborhood. There was an interval, which I think I'll save for the end of the post, but after that I visited the Museum of Decorative Arts.  This is right next door to the Louvre and is much less crowded and as worth seeing.  On offer is late Medieval and Renaissance wood carving, tapestries, painting and some furniture and ceramics--to start with.  The furniture and other decorative items go forward in time through Rococo and ending with Late Twentieth Century.  As always I especially appreciated the gorgeous period rooms.  Since I was there last the Museum has acquired an incredible collection of Art Nouveau objects.
I took the metro part of the way home, so I could stop at a Greek deli and then I walked the rest of the way, but what you really want to read about is . . .
Angelina!  Ever since I heard of this place I wanted to visit and drink deep of the celebrated Chocolate Chaud Africane.  But it used to close in July!  But now, not only is it open, there are branches.  In fact I could have visited the one in the Jardin d'Aclimation or the one I passed yesterday on my wanderings, but I held out for the original.
There's going to be a line.  The place is Very Popular with Tourists although some French folk were there as well.  It's a lovely room just very crowded and a bit noisy.  It's expensive.  My hot chocolate came in a jug accompanied by a small container of whipped creame.  I also had some sparkling mineral water.  Shall we have a sip?
What they do reportedly is melt a chocolate bar in the milk, but the recipe is secret.  The result is chocolate richness that nearly did me in.  I took small sips, mixed in the creame, and had to resort to the water, so I didn't die of chocolate overload.  I had my kindle, and I read (in tribute) a story by a friend of mine that features the ecstatic consumption of hot chocolate and cream.  Afterwards I apologized to my arteries, but they realized I wasn't all that sincere.  But you wouldn't want to do this too often!
A demain.