ON TOUR: Paris ” An Insider”s Guide
Just in case readers think that ABTN is anti-Paris from our 2012 Olympics summary, we publish here a contribution on the French capital by Josephine Bacon, translator and traveller, an individualistic view of a fascinating city.
”I have been going to Paris, for business and pleasure, for a very long time. In one year, in the 1980s, I had to visit the generally elegant French capital no less than eight times. Despite the fact that the centre of Paris is so small in comparison to that of other capital cities in Europe, it has huge variety with poor, ”ethnic” neighbourhoods (Barb”s, Belleville), the elegant faubourgs (the 1st and 3rd arrondissements), upscale residential neighbourhoods (15th and 16th) and the trendy places (the 4th arrondissement, known as the Marais). Many visitors stumble out of the bus from Charles de Gaulle Airport at the stop next to the Arc de Triomphe, or wander disorientated around the Gare du Nord after alighting from the Eurostar train (nver change money at the Gare du Nord, you will get the worst rate on the planet!) unsure as to which hotel to pick.
Staying in the vicinity of the Gare du Nord is not much fun, apart from masses of restaurants, there”s not much to see and do and the traffic is horrendous. The nearby Quartier de l”Europe (so-called because the street names are those of the capitals of Europe) around the St Lazare train station is all residential. By the way, before doing anything else in Paris, buy the little booklet entitled ”Plan de Paris” published by Editions Leconte and available from any newspaper kiosk. Unlike the free maps which are very confusing, this equivalent of the London A-Z shows one arrondissement per page in large format and includes colour maps of the metro and RER. You are guaranteed never to get lost.
Thanks to a good friend in Paris who lives in the neighbourhood, I have now found the perfect area in which to stay, which would be convenient for just about anyone. It”s called the rue Daguerre (easy to remember as it is named after Henri Daguerre, the pioneer of photography) and it has three things going for it ” location, location, location. First of all, it is on the Left Bank, in the Montparnasse district a stone”s throw from the historic caf”s of the Boulevard Montparnasse, including Procope (whose original owner was the first to serve ice cream in a caf”) and Les Deux Magots. A stroll down the Boulevard St Germain will take you into the heart of the Latin Quarter. The rue Daguerre is incredibly convenient to get to from anywhere you might be arriving because the local metro station, Denfert-Rochereau, is of manageable proportions (not like the massive Chatelet-Od”on, where the interchange is exhausting and confusing) and it links directly with Charles de Gaulle-Roissy Airport, Orly Airport, the bus service to Le Bourget Airport, and the Gare du Nord, terminus of the Eurostar train.
Rue Daguerre (left) itself is dotted with hotels (at least six of them) and there are many more in the little streets leading off from it. But the street itself is the real attraction. At one time, it had a regular street market, of the type that are still held on different weekdays in various parts of Paris such as Belleville (Tuesdays) and Rochechouard (Wednesdays). But now, in the rue Daguerre, the stalls have turned into shops, offering a huge range of food and drink from gourmet fare (one shop sells nothing but foie gras, confit and other duck and goose products, another touts gourmet pasta including ravioli flavoured with black and white truffles) to inexpensive greengrocery. I marvelled at the Romanesco cabbages, pale green cauliflowers whose ”flowers” have extraordinary angular florets look like Mandelbrot”s fractals. There are ethnic groceries, restaurants and takeaways of every type, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Moroccan, French Antilles as well as specialities from the French provinces such as Provence and Auvergne. Interspersed with these are a delightful toy shop called ”Les Cousins d”Alice” and some elegant clothing stores and shoe shops for men and women ” in short, just about everything you could wander around Paris for days trying to find is right here under your nose. The (very good value for money) hotel at which I stayed was opposite a bakery, so when it was time for petit dejeuner the waiter just nipped over the road and stocked up on the freshest possible baguettes and croissants!
Montparnasse is also a neighbourhood of artists and art schools, the Camondo School of Architecture being just round the corner, as is the house (unmarked) that was Picasso”s home when he lived in Paris. You are also a street or two away from the Montparnasse cemetery (left), which is well worth a visit for the graves of the famous (Margu”rite Duras, Nikki de St Phalle) and the amazing mixture of monuments. The egalitarian nature of French burial customs is eloquently demonstrated here. Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Confucians (many Chinese graves) and Jews are all laid to rest side by side, without segregation. While in the district, climb the Montparnasse Tower to get a view over the whole neighbourhood. There is even a new museum, the Fondation Cartier, a glass-fronted edifice enclosing a delightful garden, full of songbirds and unusual trees and shrubs. The museum, which has just been refurbished, has changing exhibitions of modern art”.
http://www.paris-touristoffice.com