Carette and the Marais

 After buying our combs and making a quick stop at the Merci store, we walked to Place des Vosges to get lunch at Carette.

Merci Store

Despite the weather forecast and blue skies when we left home, it started raining as we left Merci to head to Carrette. That is Paris. Always be ready for rain! 

Arcade at
Place des Vosges

Kate at the entrance
to Carette 

Carrette is known for its hot chocolate and we wanted to warm up and also compare it to the hot chocolate at Angelina's. It arrived with a towering bowl of whipped cream.

Hot Chocolate and
Whipped Cream

Zucchini and Sweet
Potato Potage
With Croutons

We ordered some warm soup and had a delightful lunch. 

View from Carrette outside
to Place des Vosges

The hot chocolate was not quite as heavy and intense as the hot chocolate at Angelina's. They had yummy looking pastries but we were too full to try any of those. Kate and I highly recommend Carrette and their hot chocolate.

When we left, the sun had come out and we walked around Place des Vosges and the Marais toward Hotel de Ville.

Walking Along the Park 
at Place des Vosges

Place des Vosges Arcade

We walked down rue des Rosiers. It is an old street (its name goes back to 1230) in the Jewish Quarter of the Marais that was originally just outside the wall around Paris. It got its name from the rose bushes that grew next to it in the gardens outside the Paris wall.

Rue des Rosiers

The famous L'As du Fallafel is on rue des Rosiers. The lines are a lot shorter in January.

We were surprised to find the other Fallafel shop across the street (the competition when the lines are long at L'As du Fallafel) had been replaced with a Krispy Kreme donut shop. I did not bother to take a picture of the Krispy Kreme shop. I was too sad to see its looming presence on this historic little street.

Sacha Finkelsztajn
'Father and Son since 1946'
Yiddish Traiteur

Chagall Window Painting

Many Jews were rounded up during the Holocaust from this street and neighborhood with the complicity of the French police. It is always a bit sobering to walk here and think about the sadness and fear. Many memorial plaques on the buildings tell their stories.

Side Street in the Marais

We went home under blue skies. Another beautiful day in Paris.