Rue Mouffetard
Itinerary for day 5 was St-Germain-des-Pres. Philippe advised that we shop at Le Bon Marche in St-Germain rather than Galeries Lafayette as the latter is more crowded and both malls sell similar stuff. Since we bought a 2-day boat pass, we thought might as well enjoy a nice boat ride to St-Germain. And that day, we took a different route to take the Batobus. That's where we discovered a street market gem that is Rue Mouffetard. It was only a 5-minnute walk from our B & B yet the century old street market offered us a whole new sight-seeing experience. I love the cobbled stone street and the authentic old market feel. It was my best morning walk in Paris. I took lots of pictures of the sights and things that the people at Rue Mouffetard took for granted and I absolutely adored.
The street market sold all sorts of things - breads, fruits, seafood, poultry, chocolates. It even hads a provision shop that sold all kinds of nick nacks. I bought the most useful thing in Paris in that shop - a pouch towel - which the Parisians use as a loofah but I see its usefulness in holding ice cubes to nurse a headache or fever.
Humongous prawns and squids.
This basket of colourful watering cans were found in a provision shop selling nick nacks and the pouch towel I bought.
Cheese!!
Pastries in France are really exquisite and yummy but the best ones have yet to come...
We saw this humongous Nutella at one of the creperies. Biggest bottle of gooey ecstasy I have ever seen but not found in any retail store. If little prince saw this, he would have thought he had died and gone to heaven.
We didn't get to walk the entire Rue Rue Mouffetard, as the street was pretty long. We proceeded to Jardin de Plantes, a public garden near the Batobus stop and stopped to smell the tulips and cherry blossoms.
A Batobus stop taken from the boat. (Top)
The weather turned really hot on this day. At about 11am, we braved the heat and did the perfuntory walk in St Germain where lots of unique French boutiques could be found. I found the famous French perfume store, Annick Goutal , as recommended by Lyne and some magazines, and let my nose did its work. While I let the scents sink in, we headed towards the direction of Le Bon Marche and found lunch at Le Pre Aux Clercs, a crowded bistro near St Germain. You could get a decent prix fixe menu, or set meal, at less than 20 EUR. My hubby got the fish with bastami rice while got the duck breast with sweet potato - always get the duck, I say. We also tried the French onion soup which was so-so but the duck and fish were good.
With a full belly, we headed to Le Bon Marche, my first shopping opportunity in France. My hubby liked the place - not crowded, no tourists and I didn't enter any fitting room even once. Clothes there were all brand names with price tags that would burn a hole in my pockets, if I had one. But I found my Annick Goutal perfume and my Longchamp bag there. I had told my hubby before we went to Paris that he had to buy me a bottle of French perfume. The one he got me was perfect. Love the smell and the whole packaging.
The weather was really hot and we were craving for the famous Berthillon ice-cream, so we took a Metro to Notre Dame. Didn't manage to see the cathedral that day as it was close to 5pm when we reached there. Saw a queue outside an ice-cream parlour that had the Berthillon sign and we got really excited. My vanilla and caramel was so good and the cone biscuit was crunchy. Think my hubby had the nougat and coconut. Despite the ice-cream tasting divine, we found out the next day when we returned that it was not the bona fide Berthillon. The original shop was a lot more posh and just a few shops away. But both my hubby and I agreed that they tasted equally good.
Street perfomers along the bridge. They were good and people were buying their albums on the spot.
They say that this particular spot is the centre of Paris and that if you stood on it, you would return to Paris. We stood there for a while, taking pictures...
When dinner time came, we wanted to try soupy ramen. There were a number of Jap restaurants near our B & B but we went for the Yoyo Ramen, a small shop that sold simple Jap food. The spicy beef ramen was very good. The katsu don was little less authentic. 
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