Mosquée de Paris
For a sorta out of the normal visit in Paris, one can try the Mosquée de Paris. It's the largest Mosque in France, and by wikipedia's estimation, one of the five largest in Europe. There's some ginormous one that just opened in Rome, and two other larger ones opened in Russia (2005) and the UK (2003). Unlike its modern counterparts, this mosque was completed in 1926 after WWI. This is an unlikely visit in Paris simply because it's not about butter or pastries, or even about classical European architecture. What's amazing about the Mosquée de Paris is that once you walk in, it's almost like another world. Everything about the building looks spectacular.
There's a little garden in the middle and it's a pretty place to walk around and take in the surroundings. The mosque looks to have more tourists than mosque-goers when we visited in the afternoon.
When you're finished with the visit, you can walk around the corner to this cool little tea shop that's selling super sweet mint tea and some Middle Eastern pastries. The pastries are inexpensive as far as pastries go in Paris, but at 2 Euros per pastry, it's nearly double the price of most croissants from bakeries.
They sell loukum and the version sold here is strictly without nuts. The guy was stingy with the rose water flavor and gave us lemon and mint. Both good, but man... if they were studded with pistachios, they woulda been better!
Powdered sugar always gets me. I used to lose those powdered sugar donuts in a box at a grocery store. Could eat eight at a time, easy. So I got these ones that look like horns. The name for it is like antelopes' horns or something like that.
There was also this little thing that looked like a birds nest and was soaked in honey. Crunchy and sweet, and I think there was some filling in the middle. But I really wasn't paying too much attention to it, because there was a lot to eat.
We also tried this almond cake that was also soaked in honey. I'm sensing a theme here... After all these desserts all I wanted was a drink of water. You wouldn't think that all this sugar would induce a nap, but that's what we did after eating the desserts. Naps on city vacations are quite underrated.
La Grande Mosquee de Paris
2 Place du Puits de l'Ermite.
Paris, 75005
33 1 45 35 97 33
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I like that place. Did you have sparrows flying all around your head, buzzing you like jet fighters?
FN
September 27, 2011 2:53 am
@FN,
Yes indeed, those little sparrows are all over the place. I couldn't get a good picture of them though, it was quite dark in there for my camera. They would swoop down and eat the leftovers at the tables. birds...
Danny
September 27, 2011 11:06 am
That's the one place I wish I had visited when I was there. It's looks beautiful. Maybe next time.
Siobhan
September 29, 2011 11:21 am
@Siobhan,
Definitely worth checking out next time!
Danny
October 7, 2011 2:02 pm