If it's Saturday it must be a day for brocante markets, and sure enough there was one down in the 14th arr. that caught our attention. Just down the street from Gare Montparnasse it looked like a good candidate. The day was very cool but sunny and bright so we grabbed the Metro and made our way over there. Given that it's January and that the tourists are at a low ebb we were happy to find about 30 vendors lined along one side of the street. Once we got to Montparnasse we had about a 15 minute walk down Boulevard du Maine to where the market started. So we made our way down the line and looked at many things, it's interesting that we are getting to recognize the various vendors and what they have to offer. I think I've mentioned before that it's a relatively small community that follows this particular business, and after a time one starts to see familiar faces.
At the southern end of the market there is a mid-nineteenth century church that was built in a neo-byzantine manner so we went in to look, it is not opulent but it is attractive nonetheless. The wooden ceiling was quite beautiful and the arches in some of the chapels had either mosaic or gold leafed backgrounds, it looked like mosaic. 
After visiting the market we walked a few blocks north and into the Montparnasse cemetery, it has a number of well known French writers and artists who are interred here, like Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Ossip Zadkine, and Man Ray. We spent a little time walking through and looking but it was getting cold. Since we are headed to Sicily tomorrow we headed back to the apartment early to finish packing and have an early night.
You're right; that ceiling is amazing! Have fun in Italy.
ReplyDelete