Something Old, Something Planty

Bon jour, mes amis
We Parisians have a break from the heat today--just for today unfortunately, so I decided to seize the opportunity to walk a lot.
Scouting around on the internet I discovered that the Musee de Cluny or National Museum of the Middle Ages was waiving admission charges today. Hot puppies! I cried.  More money to spend on cheese.  As it happens I spent it on something else, but that's for later.  I set out carrying my umbrella just in case and took a detour.
Rue Mouffetard is the food market street of the Latin Quarter and is largely pedestrianized.  I highly recommend a visit.  Whatever your appetite I would wager it would be catered for either on the street itself or just around the corner.  Things were just getting going when I walked down it this morning.  It was bustling and lively when I walked back this afternoon.  There are two fancy cheese stores, chocolate and pastry shops, fruits, vegetables, butchers, fishmongers, and some ethnic eateries.  Also I was thrilled to discover a branch of my favorite gelaterie Amorino.
But although I looked and drooled, I kept going--but vowing to return.
I noticed what appeared to me to be an unusual number of homeless men sleeping on benches or in doorways.  There were beggars, too, settling down for a day's begging.  Now like other EU countries France has an excellent social welfare system.  No one need beg or be homeless.  The men appear to be alcoholics not yet ready to dry out.
I got to the museum just before it opened and expected a crowd, but no.  There were just a few of us, and the visit was leisurely and uncrowded.  Now I have developed a taste for Late Medieval Art, and I also enjoy the building itself, as monks used Roman Baths as their foundation.  First up was a special exhibition of some Southern German polychrome wood carvings.  They are marvelous!  The figures are lively and naturalistic as well as expressive.  All of them are highly individualized, and their personalities seem to pop out at the viewer.  Drapery and poses both add to the vividness of the figures.  What most people come to see is the famous tapestry series, The Lady and the Unicorn, and most people are right.  It's wonderful.  The tapestries seem to be an allegory of the five senses, and besides the lady and the unicorn, they feature a rather monkey-looking lion, various small dogs, deer, bunny rabbits, birds, and a servant girl.  Unfortunately the gardens were closed for maintenance, but they are also worth seeing.  The garden is planted with medicinal herbs that the monks used to make their remedies.
My next target was the Jardin des Plantes or botanical gardens.  I made the mistake of following the signs instead of my intuition and took the long way around.  This meant I had to walk by the hideously ugly University of Paris, Jussieu "campus."  I don't like saying negative things about places I visit, but truly this complex is irredeemably awful.  If I had to attend, I'd be so depressed I wouldn't be able to learn anything.  And, no, I didn't take any pictures.  You'll have to google it.
Finally I found the entrance to the park and enjoyed a pleasant fragrant wander around the flower beds and tree-lined walks.  If you want more there's a zoo and various natural history museums.
At length it was time to go home--via Rue Mouffetard.  On my scouting mission I came across a boucherie offering rotisserie free range chickens (poulet fermier) from Normandy.  And the juices from said chickens were allowed to drip down and cook potatoes.  Admit it.  You wouldn't have been able to resist either.  Now these are prime products and are costly.  But I will get several meals from them.
And now at last it's time to eat!  OOH.  What do they do to these chickens?  Raise them right, I guess. The flesh is so succulent.  The skin so rich tasting.  And those taters?   Beautifully done and tasting of spuds--and a sprinkle of rosemary.  I added salt.  Excuse me while I gormandize.
A demain.