Can you say, "Surprise!"?

After having seen Julia & Julia, and having learned about and fallen in love with Julia and her flair for French cooking, I knew that this year, I would have to take a look at Julia's Paris. The Cordon Bleu cooking school is still open and offers classes to aspiring chefs, the French still baste their food in butter, and Paris is still amazing. We knew all this. I was curious, however, as to what had become of Julia Child's house in Paris. Where was it? What was it now? Was there an itty bitty plaque?

This called for an expedition. After my adventure at the Musee d'Orsay, and having googled the address before going, I set off to find 81 Rue de l'Universite in the chic 7ieme arrondissement. It was pretty tricky to find; Google had been grossly mistaken of its location, and Paris is very easy to get lost in, mainly because the streets are not arranged in a handy-dandy grid system. But sure enough, I found it after a long walk in extreme heat.

The house is located in a very quiet neighbourhood just beyond the Boulevard Saint Germain. I was the only person on the street, aside from a bus load of French Gendarmes who looked at me with suspicion when I started taking pictures. I found the house, however, and was pleased. I'm also pretty sure that the movie was filmed there, as well. This fact, however, needs to be verified.