A quiet Saturday morning; the sun is on and off and it looks pretty dark to the west right now. Someone from BHV, the big Paris department store just called and said they’d be bringing the second bed in about 20 minutes. That’s good news since we thought we were going to have wait around half the day for the bed. But not now.(photo: Jardin des Plantes.)
Yesterday, Friday morning, started out overcast and quite chilly, but by midday the sun had broken through. After a relaxing morning we grabbed our Metro passes and headed out for western Paris. We walked to our nearest Metro station (Censier/Daubenton) and hopped aboard the no. 7, getting off at the Louvre. From there we walked through the Tuileries Garden then skirted the Place de la Concorde and walked along the right bank of the Seine to the Pont de l’Alma, crossed to the left bank (“rive gauche”) and stopped briefly at the American church. We had hoped to pickup some information but the various English language publications such as the Paris Voice and FUSAC are on holiday through August. We did grab some flyers for language lessons and then headed back out into the street.
From the church we walked a few short blocks to the Metro stop at Les Invalides (where Napoleon is buried six coffins deep) and hopped on the no. 8 north to Place de la Madeleine, in the center of which lies the hulking mass of stone church called, surprise Ste Marie Madeleine (“Mary Magdalen”). Modeled on the Parthenon in Athens this massive structure is surrounded by some 52 Corinthian columns (so I’ve read) and is impressive for its sheer size (and the substantial construction going on all around the church and the Place) but also from the fact that, well, it doesn’t look like any church we’ve seen in Europe. Apparently it was the church of choice for the cream of Parisian society in the 19th century. Go figure.
More tempting to us however, were some of Paris’ finest food shops surrounding the Place. Here are the adult toyshops for serious gourmand: Fauchon, Hediard’s, shops catering to just caviar and several specializing in foie grois, while just down the rue de la Madeleine at no. 3 is the enormous wine shop and restaurant, “Lavinia”. They have a huge selection of wines form around the world: whther you’re looking for Ukranian wine or silver Oak from California, a Brunello or reserva Rioja you’ll probably find it here, as well as a huge selection of whiskies and cognacs and armagnacs. Plus there is a café/restaurant and wine bar.
We turned right off of rue de la Madeleine onto Rue des Capuchines and a short block later turned right again down rue de la Paix to investigate the Place Vendome. Aside from the Ministry of Justice and a handful of high-end shops there is little to see there and even less shade as well – and since the sun was out in force by this time we backtracked to Rue des Capuchines and continued eastward, although the street changed names to rue Danielle Casanova. We stopped for a lunch of bread, cheese and greens at the café “Fuxia” on the Place du marche St. Honore.
We crossed Avenue de l’Opera, and on our left up the avenue we could see the Place de l’Opera dominated by the huge Opera Garnier. The avenue, we are informed is kept free of trees on purpose so as not to obstruct the view of the building and a spectacular view it is. Built between 1865 and 1872 the construction was slowed when it was discovered there was a huge water table directly beneath the building. This had to be drained and replaced by a large concrete well, thus, says the Rough Guide, giving rise to the “legend of an underground lake, popularized by Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera.”
As one strolls through this part of the city the Rough Guide to Paris suggests keeping an eye out for the “passages” or “galleries”. These are early 19th century covered shopping and business arcades covered with painted ceilings, lots of wood and full of character. Some 100 of these passages existed in 1840, but most were destroyed later in the 19th century by Baron Haussmann, prefect of Paris (akin to the mayor) under Napoleon III. He was tasked with rebuilding the city and worked his “magic” to transform Paris into the city we see today with its wide, straight tree-lined boulevards. These little passages seem to pop up out of nowhere and the several we saw along our route we packed with tiny cafes and shops selling antiques, clothes, jewelry, wine. Anyway if you’re heading down Rue Danielle Casanova/Rue des Petits Champs watch for several of these remarkable little arcades, in particular Galleries Vivienne and Colbert.
Rue des Petits Champs becomes Rue Etienne Marcel at the Place des Victoires and we continued our walk to the now (in)famous Les Halles. Originally the site of the city’s central food market for more than 800 years it was radically altered in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The market was moved out to the suburbs we are informed, and the wrought iron and glass pavilions were torn down, replaced by one of the city’s ugliest landmarks. Even the Parisians who usually eventually forgive everything (such as the Eiffel Tower and the Pompidou Centre) have refused to embrace this tacky underground shopping mall. The singular redeeming value is that there is some attractive green space on the surface but even that is marred by buildings which seem to have no purpose – and no life – and that come straight out of a poorly made science fiction film. Still, we came across three middle age German women painting watercolors so who are we to say.
We didn’t dally long at Les Halles, but quickly headed for Blvd. de Sebastopol, where we turned right (south) and headed toward the Hotel de Ville (city hall) and to the department store BHV. After taking a few backstreet shortcuts we found ourselves among 30,000 or so other folks seeking to make the most out of the sale days before they left for the weekend. And so we did too.
After we picked up a few things for the apartment we hiked a few blocks to the Metro station at Chatelet and caught the number 7 back to Censier/Daubenton. (photo: view from our balcony.)
We have resigned ourselves to the fact that we could spend the rest of our lives in this city and still barely scratch the surface (or underground for that matter). That’s a truly wonderful thing, too.
Wish you were here,
Steve
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