Île St-Louis, Quartier Latin (Rue Mouffetard), Jardin du Luxembourg

Bonjour!
So today, what started off as a trip to Épicerie Thanksgiving with Leah, an American friend, for some pie-making essentials hard to find in French stores (pumpkin in a can, evaporated milk, brown sugar) turned into a walking tour of Île St-Louis, which I hadn't really visited until now (!!) but which Leah knows pretty well, and then a stroll around le quartier Latin, via Rue Mouffetard, known for its markets and all around quaint-ness.  And then I headed to le jardin du Luxembourg to catch the last rays of this very sunny day before heading home.
Île St-Louis, one of the city's two islands and part of the 4th arrondissement, is also one of the oldest parts of Paris.  It's a very small island, without even a metro station serving it--you have to go via footbridge, car, or bus--and it's very upscale, with lots of cute, pricey little boutiques.  Since it was Sunday, most places were closed, but there were plenty of cafés and restaurants open, and since it was so warm and sunny, and since I still hadn't tried any glace Berthillon (ice cream by Berthillon, a very famous French ice cream maker), we got some to go and ate in the sun while listening to some lovely live music in the street!  I decided to try a flavor I'd never seen in the U.S.: spéculoos, or speculaas in English, according to the article on wikipedia.  I thought it tasted a lot like gingerbread; at any rate, it was delicious!  I've also seen spéculoos here in the form of a cookie (the traditional form, I believe) and as a sandwich spread, but I hadn't tried it yet.

Mmm!  Spéculoos ice cream!

the musicians who serenaded us on Île St-Louis

A close up of la glace--there were bits of spéculoos cookie inside! 

Le pont St-Louis, between Île St-Louis and Île de la Cité

Then we left the island and wandered through le quartier Latin.  I've been meaning to visit Rue Mouffetard for a while now, and Leah often walks there, so off we headed!  Like I said above, it's known for its markets (although since we were there in mid-afternoon, there wasn't much going on since the stalls are only there in the mornings on Sundays) and for its quintessential old Parisian character--it's really what you think of when you think of classic Paris: a small, cobblestone street, with shops on the ground level and apartments above...

Another orange tree!!  This one was in the Latin Quarter, in someone's yard...

Rue Mouffetard

And then I decided to get in a last bit of sun at the Luxembourg, because it wasn't too far away and because I like sun and because the Luxembourg is always great!  It was fun to see the garden on a Sunday afternoon--there were so many people there!  And lots of dogs, too...  They've brought their palm trees into the greenhouses already, but they had some really lovely chrysanthemums there now, and it made for a very pretty autumn afternoon!

Le petit Luxembourg, with the Luxembourg gardens, Senate building,
and Sacré-Coeur way in the background! 

The 'mums of the Luxembourg! 

Look at all the people!

A close-up of the flowers--they were beautiful in the sun!