Easter Monday in Paris

Monday, Easter Monday in Paris was, as you might expect still part of the holiday in France. Tied in with the Christian component is the fact that schools here and possibly throughout Europe for all I know, are in the midst of spring break. Families have set themselves adrift all this week looking for peace of mind, harmony of spirit and an inexpensive meal for four (or five or six or. . .)

Susie and I headed out fairly early – well early for us at any rate – and got on the no. 9 Metro at St. Ambroise, changed to the 6 at Nation and got off at Bercy, still on the right bank. We had two objectives in the morning: first to find the Bercy train station and second to stroll through the little gem of a green space, the Parc de Bercy. (photo above: what some folks do while on holiday in Paris -- pull up a chair in the Tuileries and sleep.)

We had little trouble in finding the train station since it was just around the corner from the Metro. The station is tiny and serves largely as the conduit for the auto train and the night trains out of Paris. We wanted to check on the availability of a night train from Paris to Florence. Nope, there was nothing available unless we wanted to sleep with four other people. Hmmmm. Tempting but no thanks.

Scratch that idea.

So we walked back out into the sun and strolled into the parc, and through part of the Jardin Itzakh Rabin before heading back to the Metro.

Taking the no. 6 to Place D'Italie we changed to the no. 7 and got off at the Pyramides. (In honor of the Battle of the Pyramids in Egypt, so don’t even think of looking for pyramids here.) We walked through a quiet downtown Paris -- Easter Monday after all -- and eventually made our way to the always lively rue Montgoreuil for lunch. We found a comfortable spot in the shade at the Café Centre Ville. The food was tasty (we both had omelets) and the wine cool and crisp. The people watching was superb:




After a leisurely lunch we strolled through the slightly seedy green space of Les Halles. (Have you noticed the widespread use of the word “leisurely” in my blog entries? There is a very good reason that: It’s the key to our success in Paris.)

I always try to picture what Les Halles must have looked and smelled like when it was the city’s central food market. And then I try to visualize what it must have looked like long ago when it was the city’s largest and oldest cemetery, back before the rotting corpses started to get in the way of the growing markets on the cemetery’s periphery and of course finding their way into the basements of nearby homes.

Then I stop all the visualizing and enjoy the moment.

In fact we didn’t dwell on such matters but rather found our way to the one of the city’s most remarkable streets: rue de Rivoli. We joined the tens of thousands of tourists crammed beneath the portico on the warm, sunny Monday afternoon. Although most shops in Paris were closed, not the ones along this stretch of the city's Golden Tourist Trade route -- every color (usually bad) and size of T-shirts and sweatshirts ("I Heart Paris," "University of Paris," "Sex Instructor," etc.) to rhinestone letters spelling "Paris" on women's thongs to Eiffel towers in all sizes. This is the place to find that special something for folks you really don't like.

And yet this is the same street where you’ll find some of the city’s swankest hotels: like the Hotel Meurice, which served as the German headquarters during the Second World War (no plaque to note this fact as you might imagine). You’ll also find Angelina’s beneath these porticos. Home of the city’s best hot chocolate, Angelina's may seem trendy or touristy but trust me the place is comfortable and you can catch your breath here and enjoy some truly fine and reasonably priced sweets as well.

Rue de Rivoli is also where you'll find two of the largest new English-language bookshops in the city: Galignani’s (which also has a very large selection of French language books) and W. H. Smith (motto: “We have the largest selection of over-priced books in the city”).

(Sorry Marie I know you like W. H. Smith but get this – a book by Lucy Moore entitled Liberty: The Life and Times of Six Women of Revolutionary France retails in the US for $16.95, for under £9 in the UK and at Galignani’s for €16.50. At W. H. Smith the same book sold for more than €35!)

Nearing the Place de la Concorde we decided to swing out from under the portico, cross the street (“rue”) and into the Tuileries where parents were helping their kids get settled onto ponies for rides, for photos, for sale, I have no idea.

From one end of the Tuileries to the other, from the Place de la Concorde to the Louvre, the crowds swarmed. Not a chair was open, not a bench unoccupied:




After we reached the Louvre we go on the nearby no. 1 Metro and then off at Bastille. We walked home and relaxed before getting the call from Marie.

About half-past six we caught up with Marie at a café next to the Square de la Roquette, which had once been part of an enormous women’s prison and is now some of the most beautiful greenery in the 11th arr. She had just shown a couple of friends around some of the special haunts at the nearby Pere Lachaise and the three of us were headed out for dinner.

We walked up to the no. 2 at Philippe Auguste, switched to the 6 at Place d’Italie (“place d’It” as Marie called it) and walked down Avenue des Gobelins to Blvd Francois Arago. We were looking for a particular Senegalese restaurant, Chez Blondin. I had come across this place is an article written by Clotilde Dusoulier for a recent issue of Budget Travel magazine. Anyway we soon found the restaurant but as often happens during a holiday it was closed (and it shouldn’t have been normally).

So it was back to Avenue des Gobelins but this time we turned north into the 5th arr. and walked straight to Les Delices d’Aphrodite (4 rue de Candolle). Susie and I had one of our most memorable meals here last September. And we weren't we disappointed this time. The three of us got the assiette degustation, an incredibly scrumptious and flavorful tasting menu, matched with a wonderful rose wine from the Aegean. The service was again efficient, courteous and very friendly.

After dinner we said au revoir to Marie – she was off to stroll through Paris to the Metro at Chatelet and home to the northern edge of the city. Susie and I headed off for the no. 5 Metro at Saint Marcel and off at Bastille and a short walk home past Leon Blum. Marie's quite right: there's really nothing quite like strolling this city at night.

Wish you had been here,

Steve