Show me the way to the next pizza bar

Oh, don't ask why. There seems to be a proliferation of pizza places in Paris. I don't remember seeing so many, everywhere. Maybe I just wasn't looking, but I don't think that's the case.

This pizza bar is on the rue du Quatre Septembre.

It wasn't lunch time yet and I didn't eat here. I continued my Sunday morning walk westerly, toward the Opéra, humming a Doors tune.

Le Vaudeville

Here's a restaurant that Ken and I have actually eaten in. It was back in the '90s after going to see Véronique Sanson give a concert at the Olympia. We were looking for a place to eat that was open late, after-hours. We found this place on the rue Vivienne across from the Bourse (the Paris stock exchange) and it was bustling. In fact, the restaurant was packed to the rafters.

Le Vaudeville in the morning. It opens at 8:00am, seven days a week.

It's a big place, but the only tables available, two of them, were in the "non-smoking" section. Ha! Those two tables were completely surrounded by the rest of the restaurant. One didn't need to "light up" to smoke at those tables. Smoke hung thick in the entire dining room. That didn't bother us much, as we had a habit of enjoying cigarettes while on vacation in France (not any more). Since then the law has changed to prohibit smoking inside restaurants. That's a good thing.

Here's a photo that Ken took showing Le Vaudeville as it looked when we ate there in the late '90s.

The restaurant is a full-service brasserie that specializes in fruits de mer (shellfish) and other seafood, but I don't remember what we ate. I do remember that it was good and we had a great experience.

Another restaurant

Still in the same neighborhood, on the rue Vivienne. This is an Italian restaurant called Daroco. It fronts the street, but also has windows into the Galerie Vivienne. Passages and galeries in Paris are the 19th century precursors to shopping malls. They're glass-covered passageways, often between buildings, lined with shops. Their translucent roofs bring light into the galerie while protecting shoppers from the weather.

Part of Daroco's dining room seen through the windows inside the Galerie Vivienne.

I passed by in the morning before the restaurant opened for lunch. I could see the staff inside busily preparing for the day and getting the wood-fired oven ready for pizza making. Yum. But I would not eat here this day.

La rue Vivienne

Running north from the Palais Royal is the rue Vivienne. Along its western side is the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (the French National Library). The old one. The new site over on the eastern end of the city is often called the TGB, or Très Grande Bibliothèque (the Very Big Library), a play on words with the TGV, France's high-speed rail train.

Looking up the rue Vivienne from the Palais Royal.

Opposite from the old library, which is undergoing renovations right now, is this restaurant, Le Grand Colbert. It's named for the finance minister who served under King Louis XIV. I walked up the street and liked the contrast between the building's art-deco façade and the scaffolding on the old library.

Le Grand Colbert, open "non-stop" from noon until midnight.

I don't know anything about this restaurant, other than it's famous. I don't know whether it's good, or expensive, or not. Oh well. Something to research, maybe, one day. Let me know if you've been there!

Le Grand Véfour

Here's a restaurant that I'll probably never dine in (too rich for my blood). It's called Le Grand Véfour, located on the northern end of the Palais Royal. It was established in 1784 by a man named Jean Véfour. In 1953, the restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars under chef Raymond Olivier. After thirty years with three stars, the Véfour was reduced to two stars, but in 2000 chef Guy Martin got the third star back.

Le Grand Véfour, with the garden of the Palais Royal in the background.

The third star was taken away again in 2008. Guy Martin, now quite a celebrity, bought the restaurant in 2011 and remains the Véfour's chef. He hosted a television series on food called Epicerie Fine that ran for 35 episodes, most of which we've seen over the years.

Théatre du Palais Royal

After leaving Saint-Sulpice, I made my way over to Odéon and the boulevard Saint-Germain. I new a café there that I liked and, sure enough, it was bustling. I sat in the window and had a café and croissant. After that, I headed along the boulevard to a branch of my bank to get some cash from the ATM. I walked back along the river to Notre Dame, then across Cité through the Place Dauphine, where I saw another bride and groom, dressed in their wedding clothes, getting their picture taken.

The theater is on the northwest corner of the Palais Royal.

I continued walking around the Louvre on the rue de Rivoli to where the Comédie Française backs up against the Palais Royal. I went through the garden enclosed by the Palais (and saw several more wedding parties being photographed. It's a thing!) and exited on the north side. I didn't take any pictures during that entire walk, until I found the Théatre du Palais Royal. I don't know why.

Two more

Here are two more views of the Saint-Sulpice church and its fountain. The first is a wide-angle close-in shot that seriously distorts the perspective. But so what?

The fountain has amazing lions.

The second is just one of those shots I take in passing without really thinking about it. I'm not sure what I was going for, maybe the water in the fountain, but I like two buildings in the background framed by the fountain and the church. There's no obvious subject, just another throw-away image, but I don't throw any images away (I don't post every photo I take, either).

Another of the lions.

We all take photos we don't like, but that doesn't mean they're bad. There's usually something about them that someone will like. And these days, with digital photography, taking too many photos doesn't cost any more than taking too few. And a lot of adjustments can be made with software to salvage images with minor problems.