I Love Paris in the Springtime……
Friday 26 May – and we’re in Paris!!!!
The weather is amazing, everyone is strolling around and enjoying the Spring sunshine and long sunny nights and so are we! By the time we checked in and got ourselves organised it was a bit late to go too far, so we settled on a great little Bistro near the end of our street, a beautiful onion tart and a glass of Chablis was enough for me, saucisson and red wine for Geoff.
Saturday 27 May – one whole day here so no lounging about for us – we have a plan for the day!!! As in Athens, both Geoff and I have “done” Paris more than once so no need to be rushing about to see all the obvious landmarks. First stop was the Marché de St Quentin almost opposite our hotel, built in 1866 of pink brick crossed by green cast iron arches, it looks like an indoor village square, it’s only small but by golly, the stalls looked exquisite, as if they had been curated for a film set! The colours of the fruit, vegetables and flowers, the beautiful displays of cheeses, charcuterie, meat and fish – almost too good to eat! We settled on a punnet of huge juicy raspberries, but promised ourselves a petit déjeuner tomorrow morning prior to leaving Paris.
We both agreed that the Left Bank was where we wanted to spend the day, so off we went onto the Metro and Voilà! - 20 minutes later we were on Boulevard St Germain, named in honour of Bishop Germain of Paris 496 – 576 and because of its proximity to the Church of Saint-Germain-des Meadows dedicated to him.
It was buzzing, everyone out enjoying the warm weather, cafés were full, some like the famous Deux Magots and Café de Fiore with long queues. We walked along, admiring all the beautiful French fashions and rather fabulous shop windows enroute, until we came to Le Bon Marché, the very first Parisian department store built in 1853 by Aristide Boucicaut. A son of hatters, he understood the need to offer more choice to buyers and with his wife Marguerite, they transformed the shop into a “cathedral of modern commerce”. The interior fittings are the work of Moisant and Gustave Eiffel who applied their research in terms of the industrial metal architecture to create a structure to let in the light. Unfortunately the building suffered a devastating fire in 1915, and was then rebuilt in an art deco style, but still incorporated the original Moisant and Eiffel metal architecture.
I thought Fortnum and Mason, and Harrods’ food halls were pretty incredible until we walked into the food hall here – we didn’t want to leave! Shelves of mustards, jars of truffles, truffle pasta, truffle paté, truffle chips, truffle oils, foie gras, olive oils, counters of beautiful quiches, pastries, salmon, fish, beautiful breads and patisserie – the choices were endless, and the displays were amazing, we were literally walking around with our tongues hanging out! The good news was that you were able to purchase your food and there were tables where you could sit and enjoy it. We shared a lovely selection of pâté, a creamy chicken vol-au-vent, pickles, tomatoes and quiche, followed by coffee and cake!!! Yummy!
The Store is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the French fashion brand Sézane with “Sézane en fleurs” and there are a number of features dedicated to it, notwithstanding the incredible atrium decorations of huge peonies and outsized shopping bags. French fashion and Brands at their finest!
Next up we were on a mission. In 2002, my eldest son Ben spent a year living in Paris and I was keen to go and look at his apartment again for old time’s sake. Located in the 5th Arrondissement on the Boulevard Saint Germain, on the 3rd floor of No. 14, it looked exactly the same, with the café Chez René still serving the locals on the street level, but sadly the phone box outside where I used to ring Ben for chats at designated times (no mobiles then!) had gone – no need for them anymore!
Around the corner is the restaurant Tour d’Argent, famous for its house special of individually numbered pressed duck, and its Michelin star (and also being the first restaurant in France to use a fork, in those days to prevent gentlemen from staining the immaculate fashionable ruffs which were worn around the neck!). But bugger the duck, I was more interested in it’s ice cream cart set up on the bank of the River Seine outside!!!!
The Place des Vosges in Le Marais in the 3rd & 4th Arrondissements was next on our list. It’s a square, the oldest in Paris, designed on an almost square plan, 140 metres on each side, surrounded by 36 red-brick apartment buildings with white limestone chainings and steep blue slate roofs, built between 1605 to 1612 (the writer Victor Hugo lived in No 6 between 1832 and 1848, other famous tenants include Maximilien de Béthune, the 1st Prince of Sully, Henri IV’s Finance Minister in No 7, Marguerite Louise d’Orléans, wife of Cosimo Ill de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany at No. 15, Cardinal Richelieu in No 21 and the famous post-impressionist painter Georges Dufrénoy in No 23 – blimey, this all sounds a bit like the line up in Coronation Street, but there was no Rovers Return in the corner!) . The plans for the square were entrusted by Henri IV to the architects and the work was constructed between 1605 and 1613. It has been protected since 1960’s and no work on the facades can be done without the agreement of the architect of the buildings of France. The centre of the Place des Vosges is occupied by the Square Louis-XIII and is bordered by rows of linden trees and four fountains, and pretty much all of the shops are art galleries which made for an interesting circuit! Enroute back to the Metro we popped into the Duke of Sully’s private mansion (which now houses the Centre of National Monuments) and had a nice little rest in the gardens!
Back to the hotel for a quick change and out again for our last Parisienne experience. The Basilica of Sacré -Coeur, built at the end of the 19th century and perched high on the hill in the 18th Arondissement of Montmartre (sacred hill)– we were keen to get here and see the sunset over the Parisian rooftops – and we were not alone! Thousands of people had the same idea which made for some tricky photographic sessions trying to get some shots without the hoards in them!!!! Geoff did quite well given the circumstances! We also went inside the church where there was a Mass being said – so beautiful in there. We have certainly not been short of seeing some stunning mosques and churches on this holiday, and Sacré Coeur rates very high on the list.
Cocktail time followed, and we walked down the charming cobbled streets of Montmartre, one of the most famous places in the district of Paris which appeals to artists and creatives, plenty of portraits being sketched (I have one of yours truly done in 1974 and now residing in a lock up in Penrose!) and a fabulous atmosphere on this sunny May evening. Two G&T’s sitting outside Café La Boheme gave us a delightful viewing platform of all the activity unfolding around us. Dinner at a local bistro and our final “kodak photo opportunity” stop of the night – Pigalle the red-light district, just below Montmartre, was where we snapped a few photos (along with everyone else squeezed onto the traffic island in the centre of Boulevard de Clichy) of the Moulin Rouge. Temple of the French Cancan dance troupe which is made up of 80 artists and dancers, their current show is called “Féerie” and includes all the sets and sumptuous feathered costumes you would expect from a show at the Moulin Rouge.
And just like that, we ticked Paris off the list and are now off to sample a glass of wine or two or three….in Bordeaux!