Week 43: A Walk Through Paris

View of the Eiffel Tower from the Pont Alexandre III, where you feel like you're in an Opera

We had a wonderful week full of activity and fun. We experienced our first shirt-sleeve weather since last fall. Oh spring, how we love you! Farid left for home mid-week, but not before we took him to Paris and introduced him to some of our favorite corners by way of a half-day walk around the city. I thought I would take you along with us. One of the best ways to discover the city of light is simply to start walking. The following itinerary takes you in a wide circle around the center and past lots of beautiful landmarks.

Starting at the Place St. Michel, turn towards the river and descend onto the quai.

 A blimp over the river at the Place St Michel

Down by the river you walk towards the Louvre, passing under the Pont Neuf. And no, Pont Neuf doesn't mean bridge #9, it means new bridge. It's actually the oldest standing bridge over the river.

 The Pont Neuf

You can walk back up to street level before you get to Pont des Arts, which spans from the Academie Française to the Louvre. Cross the river from the left to the right bank.

 Academie Française

Enjoy the views left and right. You will see the Ile de la Cité on your right with its charming park at the very tip. Great place for a picnic.

View from the Pont des Arts towards the Ile de la Cité

Pass through the courtyard of the Louvre Palace and into the courtyard of the Pyramid. This is a perfect place to sit and enjoy the sun, the water, the people, the view. You can experience the grand axis of Paris here.

 The Pyramid of the Louvre

Pass under the Louvre through a passage that leads to the Rue de Rivoli. You'll be able to enjoy an expansive view of the interior of the museums' statue gallery.

 The statue gallery of the Louvre

Cross Rue de Rivoli, heading towards the Palais Royal. There is a busy café just there, next to the Comédie Française (the national theater) where it is quite pleasant to take a quick cup of coffee and enjoy some people-watching.

 Enjoying a cup of coffee in a popular Paris café

Pass through the sculpture garden where children and skaters love to play. Here is one of the many examples in the city of modern and ancient living together in harmony.

 Sculpture garden of the Palais Royal

The gallery of the Palais Royal houses some of the most exclusive and expensive stores and restaurants in Paris. It's fun to peek in the windows.

 Galleries at the Palais Royal

The garden of the Palais Royal is a glorious place to sit and enjoy the sun, the birds, the fountains and the pretty people.

 Palais Royal Garden

At the back end of the garden, exit through the gallery onto a little street, mount some stairs and find yourself just across the street from the Passage Vivienne, one of the most beautiful in Paris. It's well worth a detour into the covered passage to discover the shops, restaurants and light-filled space.

 

Passage Vivienne

Exit at one of the side doors or out the front and turn towards the statue of Louis XIV on horse back. You're at Place des Victoires, with its beautiful curved buildings and elegant facades. The Bourse (the French stock market) and the National Library are just down the street.

 Place des Victoires

At this point you turn back towards the river and follow small streets towards the church of St. Eustache, built in the 16th century and recently restored. This is another spot to stop, sunbathe, frolic and generally enjoy life.

 Church of St Eustache

Pass Les Halles and Beaubourg (Pompidou Center), which are currently undergoing renovations. Continue into the Marais and enjoy exploring this popular neighborhood, with some of the oldest buildings in Paris.

 Street in the Marais

The Marais is a perfect place to have lunch. There are lots of great restaurants both cheap and expensive.

 lunching at a falafal restaurant in the Marais

Turn towards the river again and be sure to pass by the Hôtel de Sens, former royal residence and one of the very oldest buildings left in Paris. It is now a museum, library and very nice book shop.

 Hôtel de Sens

Walk through the Village St. Paul, with many interesting shops and cross over one of the bridges onto the Ile St Louis.

Pont Marie

Walk the length of the Island towards the Ile de la Cité and enjoy the many galleries and shops along the way.

Rue St. Louis

Now you simply must stop, no matter the season, weather or time of day and purchase an ice cream cone from Berthillon. This is some of the best ice cream you will ever taste. You can choose between many flavors. Enjoy your cone by the river and catch a few rays of sunshine, or watch the street theater on the bridge.

Standing on the tip of Ile St Louis

The boats go by. If the day is fine, you will feel like you're at the center of the world. You probably are.

 View from Pont St Louis

Cross the bridge back to the Ile de la Cité and enter the back garden of Notre Dame Cathedral. If it's summer you might have a free concert here.

 The park behind Notre Dame, a very pleasant place to rest

 Why not enter Notre Dame and enjoy the stained glass windows, especially if it's a bright sunny day.

 Rose window, Notre Dame Cathedral

Cross back to the left bank right in front of Notre Dame to see the oldest tree in Paris at the garden of St. Julien le Pauvre, one of the oldest churches in Paris, built in the 13th century.

 The garden at St Julien le Pauvre

The historic Shakespeare and Company is on the quai, just down the street. They were shooting a movie in front when we passed so we couldn't enter, but normally it's a wonderful bookstore (English language) to browse and enjoy. Sitting and reading in a corner is encouraged.

 Shakespeare and Company bookstore

 You will have a lovely view of Notre Dame from across the river.

 Notre Dame

Finish the walk by enjoying the many streets in Saint Germain des Prés. You'll hear as much English being spoken here as French, as it is one of the favorite spots for the 50,000 Americans who live here and the many, many more who visit.

 Saint Germain des Prés

If you're lucky, you could end your day with a cultural event as we did. We enjoyed Jos' opening night at the Theatre du Rond-Point on the Champs Elysees. I had another lovely sunset walk through the Jardins des Tuileries to get to the theater. But that is another story.

Quinn came to the theater too and enjoyed sharing the limelight with his father.

After the show, a reception for Jos and Quinn takes center stage

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Our week ended with a concert in Alençon with our friends Jonathan, Renata, Anne and Christine. We saw Marianne Faithfull on her first stop in Europe to promote her new album Horses and High Heels. Recommended!

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If you'd like a map of the walk described in this post please send me an email and I'll return a .pdf file to you. If you simply leave me a comment requesting the map, I may not be able to find your email address, so an actual email is much more efficient.

Week 36: Paris Now & Then

By Marville. Paris before Haussmann's extensive renovation, 1860-70. From Paris, secret et insolite.

Ah beautiful and ancient Paris! Of course I haven't seen every city in the world, but I still recklessly proclaim that Paris must be the most exquisite of them all. How could there be another to compete? I never grow tired of its winding streets and layers of history. Rick and I are currently reading a book together entitled  Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb. It is the story of the city told through the true tales of some of its famous historical inhabitants. We were fascinated to hear about one of the first professional photographers in the city, Charles Marville, born in Paris in 1813. He was hired by the government to document the old Paris streets before Haussmann, during the Second Empire, rebuilt and modernized Paris. The wide boulevards and typical Haussmann grand and uniform buildings certainly changed the face of Paris.

If you want to get a flavor of more ancient Paris, you can wander around the Marais of course, an outlying immigrant neighborhood in Haussmann's day, which did not receive his attention. Another corner of the city that was slated to be demolished and rebuilt was just across from the Place Saint Michel where the rue St André des Arts commences. Napoleon III and his minister, Baron Haussmann, were ousted before they had the chance to begin this phase of work.

After reading about this, Rick and I were motivated to take a closer look, since the rue St. André des Arts is probably one of the streets in Paris I know better than any other. Emily and I spent a summer living in an adorable fifth floor walk-up not far from here and I got to know the neighborhood very well indeed. Here's the photo Marville took in 1865:

Here's mine taken a few days ago:

Not much has changed. There is a side entrance to Metro St. Michel right on the Place. I had never discovered that before.

We had a very pleasant day in Paris while Quinn was at his nanny's. Emily left us in charge for a few days while she visited Jos in London, where he was directing a comedy routine for a slapstick festival.
We strolled around and took advantage of the opportunity to do some errands in the city.

We chose a good day for exploring, with only a sprinkling of tourists to contend with. The sky alternated between gray and blue, the temperature was cold but not frigid. We traced a wide arc from the edge of the Latin corner through St Germain des Prés, over the river to the right bank, through the Tuileries Garden, then back across to the left bank, where we stopped in at Sennelier, my favorite Paris art store. Along the way we enjoyed the views.

I love the jumble of architectural styles in this left bank neighborhood of Paris.

At the intersection of the 5th and 6th arrondissements.

My favorite way to get from St Germain des Prés to the right bank, is down the rue St. André des Arts, turning right on the rue de Seine, which takes you past many art galleries. I love looking in the windows. You also pass La Palette, a typical Parisian café where the food is simple but good and the waiters sufficiently rude to make you feel you've had an authentic experience. At the end of the street you walk through a little passage that leads to the quai and the large Place in front of the Academie-Francaise.

 

The pedestrian-only Pont des Arts, has my favorite view of Paris looking up and down the river. Ile de la Cité and Notre Dame in one direction and La Tour Eiffel in the other. Here, again, you get the sense of the ancientness of the city, as the architecture of many centuries comes together to create this contemporary view.

At the other end of the bridge, on the right bank, is the Louvre Palace. We had loosely planned to spend a couple of hours in the museum but forgot that it is closed on Tuesdays, so instead we enjoyed a tour through the grounds and a visit to the underground mall where you can also view the ancient foundation walls of the modern Louvre.

The bare winter trees reveal the Musée d'Orsay on the opposite bank. We walked along the quai and crossed back over the Pont Royal.

We decided to have lunch at Mariage Frères, the famous tea purveyor. Upstairs is a charming restaurant which was practically empty. Generally you can hardly get a seat, but this time of year is the ideal moment to visit. We hadn't been here in several years.

Because the kitchen wasn't busy, they allowed me to order high tea, with attractive and delicious tea sandwiches, even though the menu indicated it wasn't officially available before 3PM.

We had a pleasant leisurely meal in their sunny dining room. Rick ordered dessert. He was allowed to choose between several delectable kinds on their sweet cart. He settled on the house specialty, a crème brûlée raspberry cake.

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Quinn turned two on Thursday. Mama arrived home in the afternoon and we had a celebration. Balloons are always a hit.

Since Christmas Quinn definitely understands the concept of packages and unwrapping.

He was able to blow out his two candles. When you ask him how old he is, he will tell you "two" but making his hand hold up two fingers instead of one or five is going to take some practice.