Dinners at Champeaux

Tags

art, Belleville, Canal de l'Ourcq, Champeaux, Conservatoire de Paris, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, La Grande Canopée, meals, Récitals de fin de l'année, Sherard, Zhizhong

On Monday we went up to Belleville one last time to pick up the small Clem Letrusko painting that Sherard had purchased on Friday, and to visit a few galleries that were on our must-see list. We had planned to make this a relatively restful day, but as it happened we kept seeing additional pieces that we wanted to buy, which required us to walk down the hill to an ATM then back up to the artist or gallery to buy the piece. We ended up walking 11 miles on our “rest day”!

For dinner I proposed a nearby restaurant, Champeaux, beneath the Grande Canopée. It looked quite stylish, and wasn’t terribly expensive. Besides, I had an ulterior motive: I had been reserving restaurants through the website of The Fork/La Fourchette for years. I had gotten some nice discounts but I had never accumulated enough points to use them before they expired. I noticed that I had enough “Yums” for a $10 discount, and Champeaux was one of relatively few restaurants that accepted them! We both enjoyed our meals and we particularly loved the wine they recommended: Triennes IGP Méditerranée Viognier Sainte Fleur Blanc 2018, which Sherard subsequently discovered can be found in the U.S.!

Sherard and me on Monday at Champeaux

My salmon on Monday at Champeaux

I proposed a range of options for Tuesday, Sherard’s last day. He selected thesis performances by students graduating from the Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse, Récitals de fin de l’année.  I enthusiastically agreed, since I really enjoy these accomplished non-touristy (and free) concerts. In retrospect, however, I probably should have recommended something closer to home, or in a less familiar direction, since this was in the far north-east corner of Paris, close where we had already spent most of the week, so the walk was both long and partially repetitive.

We watched a couple of good performances but then needed to go get some food. Eventually we found a modest place on the Canal de l’Ourcq for a traditional lunch. After eating we walked home along the canals, and over to the Galerie Vivienne to find some vintage postcards Sherard had noticed earlier in his stay. With that mission accomplished we headed home, after a 12 mile day.

My friend Zhizhong joined us for dinner. I had reserved at an Italian place in the neighborhood, but when I mentioned our meal the previous evening at Champeaux Zhizhong’s eyes lit up, so we decided to cancel my reservation and go right back there for dinner.

Sherard, Zhizhong and me on Tuesday at Champeaux

My cod on Tuesday at Champeaux

Sherard and Zhizhong with soufflée desserts on Tuesday at Champeaux

My strawberry rhubarb dessert on Tuesday at Champeaux

Champeaux gets a quite good overall rating of 8.8 on The Fork, and we really enjoyed both meals, but I have to admit that it has some flaws: Service was somewhat uneven, and the greeting our first night was downright strange, with the maitre’d being busy talking with a couple of policemen and a waiter being unable at first to find our reservation. The portions aren’t large and the prices aren’t cheap, but we had enough to eat both nights, and the bill wasn’t punishing: 40 euros per person including wine and desserts. You would pay more at a similarly nice restaurant in Boston. The location in a shopping center is admittedly a bit odd, but the room itself is light and airy and stylishly decorated. All in all I think the critics are being churlish; Champeaux is good value for money.

Zhizhong and I stayed up past midnight solving life’s problems, but Sherard had an early flight so he went to bed after dinner. In the morning he headed out to the airport without waking me, but left a nice farewell note on a vintage postcard.

Art in Paris: Belleville Open Studios

Tags

art, Ateliers d'Artistes de Belleville, Belleville, Belleville Open Studios, Belleville Portes Ouvertes, Catherine Arnaud, Clem Letrusko, contemporary art, flâneur, Geneviève Baudoin, Jean-Pierre Lourdeau, Lou Perdu, Marie Drouot, Paris, Portes Ouverte des Ateliers d'Artistes de Belleville, Sherard

Tourists flock to the cafés of St.-Germain-des-Prés, like Les Deux Magots, which were frequented by cutting edge artists and intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century. But they are long gone, driven away by those very tourists, and the higher prices they are willing and able to pay. Creative people will generally be found where rents and absinthe are cheap. Where is this now? Quartiers populaire like Belleville. This is one reason why I look forward every year to the Portes Ouvertes des Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville (AAB) – Belleville Open Studios. I’ve enjoyed this event in several prior years: 2015, and most notably last year, 2018, with my nephew Andy. I had particularly liked two artists last year, Jean-Christophe Adenis and Sophie Herszkowicz. I was deterred by cost last year but this year I was able to find a small painting by Sophie Herszkowicz that displayed her talent and fit my budget. I’m jumping ahead of the story, however.

One cool feature of the Belleville Open Studios is that each artist contributes a small piece that is available for purchase, for 45 euros, in the AAB gallery at 1, rue Francis Picabia, M° Couronnes. Sherard and I got there just after opening, at 2 pm on Friday, to have our best shot at one of these. The small pieces that most interested me were already sold, but Sherard was taken by — and snapped up — an oil painting by Clem Letrusko of a pink crucified bunny.

Sherard with the small oil painting by Clem Letrusko (lower left) that he purchased on opening day.

Installation by Clem Letrusko based on a sculptural version of Sherard’s piece

The staff explained that we would have to return on Monday, the last day of the Open Studios, to pick up the piece, so that it could remain on display until then. This was of course no problem for flâneurs like ourselves.

Next, we looked at all the sample art works to decide which studios either of us wanted to visit. There were several that we both liked and several that only one of us liked, since there’s no disputing about taste. We circled each studio that either of us wanted to visit on the AAB map, then set out to see as many as we could that afternoon. We only saw a fraction of the 176 participating artists, even though we spent several hours on Friday, went back for a few hours on Sunday and explored for several more hours on Monday.

Here are some works that I particularly liked:

The studio of Catherine Arnaud, which I fell for in 2015.

Sculpture by Marie Drouot

Works by Jean-Pierre Lourdeau

Scary portrait by Jean-Pierre Lourdeau. Sherard asked me why I liked it and I replied that I didn’t exactly *like* it but I was impressed and affected by it. Maybe not something I’d like to wake up to every morning but it makes me feel a certain kind of way.

Seule by Lou Perdu

Geneviève Baudoin in her Belleville studio

Sometimes the environment of the studio is as interesting as the art!

I’ll post separately for the artists we bought works from.

Update: Just for fun, here are similar photos that I took, one year apart. Le plus ça change !

2018

2019

Last Weekend

Tags

Anti-Macron, Anti-Macron demonstration, apartment, bande dessinée, Belleville, Café des Anges, church, departure, Grand Fête, head on a platter, John the Baptist, Jourdain, Latin Quarter, Le Jourdain, Lisa, Macron, meals, Metro, neighborhoods, Paris, Place Saint-Michel, tourists, touristy, typanum, Village Jourdain, Zhizhong

The open studios walk Andy and I took a couple weeks back ended up in a neighborhood of Belleville called the Village Jourdain. I had noticed a banner for a festival being held there on my last weekend, so on Saturday morning I headed over to see what it was like.

A flâneur at the Village Jourdain festival

The festival was very charming and almost 100% local. There was a brocante (tag sale), shops and restaurants, a stage with local performances, and lots of convivial people. Anti-Macron demonstrators took advantage of the crowd to organize an impromptu sing-along, with lyrics on banners set to a popular tune.

An anti-Macron sing-along at the Jourdain Festival

There were many budget lunch options but since it was my last weekend I felt like going a bit upscale. Fortunately I was able to get a seat at the bar of Le Jourdain, a delightful seafood tapas place a few blocks from the center.

The happy dining room at Le Jourdain

The service was friendly and professional and the food was excellent; the kitchen was somewhat slow but I was in no hurry.

Seafood tapas at Le Jourdain

More seafood tapas at Le Jourdain

After lunch, on a whim, I strolled up to the pretty neo-Gothic church on rue de Belleville, across the street from the Jourdain métro station, for a tour offered by the parish priest. I assumed that it would take about half an hour but I didn’t anticipate the gusto with which the priest would explain every facet of the church’s history, architecture and decor: it ended up taking 90 minutes!

19th Century Neo-Gothic church at Jourdain

The priest explained that the tympanum is like a bande dessinée (comic book)

At left, John the Baptist’s head is about to be chopped off. At right, it’s being served up on a platter.

I understood almost everything the priest said! (Addressing a group is a key professional skill for a preacher: he was speaking so slowly and distinctly that any fool could understand him.)

I had been anticipating a photo opportunity from climbing up the bell tower but in fact the most interesting view was of the excavation for modernization and extension of métro line 11.

View from the church tower of excavation for modernization of Jourdain station on métro line 11

That evening I thought it would be nostalgic to go over to the Latin Quarter, where I had always used to stay, from my student days through the 2008 trip with Andy. I tend to avoid it these days, but I do have a soft spot for the area, if not for the throngs of tourists.

A dancing couple at Place Saint-Michel, heart of the Latin Quarter

My plan had been to eat in the tourist district, as I had done for so many years, but I simply couldn’t bear it! I walked a few blocks further, to a Vietnamese place in a quieter area.

The Tourist Track in the Latin Quarter

I had planned a photo shoot along the banks of the Seine for after dinner but it started to rain so I high-tailed it home and called it a night.

On Sunday I spent most of the day at the Grand Palais (described in my previous post).

My last week had been fairly solitary, since most of the people I spent time with this year had already left. Even Zhizhong had unexpectedly been called away to China on business, but fortunately he got back in time for us to have a farewell dinner on Sunday night at one of his favorite local places, Café des Anges on rue de la Roquette near Bastille.

Farewell dinner with Zhizhong at Café des Anges

Packing at the end of a trip is infinitely easier than packing at the start, since there are almost no decisions: you just throw everything into a suitcase (after triaging liquids, sharp objects and spare lithium batteries). The only issue I encountered on Sunday morning was weight. I travel with a hand-held scale, which showed that my checked suitcase was two pounds overweight. I moved a book to my carry-on and ditched some replaceable bottles to duck under the 50 pound limit. Then I tidied the apartment, wrote my previous blog post and checked out.

The process of getting to the airport, checking in, going through security, etc. was predictably annoying, but not in any interesting ways. The flight itself, on Air France, was surprisingly tolerable. Among the 200 movies they offered I chose Jules et Jim, directed by François Truffaut, in French with English subtitles. I found all the characters believable and relateable. Jules and Jim were both in love with the same woman but in the end I was even more deeply moved by the affectionate and respectful friendship between them.

Farewell to the view from my 2018 Paris apartment

Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville

Tags

Andy, art, Ateliers d'Artistes de Belleville, Belleville, Belleville Open Studios, contemporary art, Jean-Christophe Adenis, João Ferreira, Open Studios, Paris, quartier populaire, Sophie Herszkowicz, street art

On Sunday and again on Monday Andy and I spent most of the day wandering around Belleville, visiting art studios and galleries during the four-day Belleville Open Studios, which takes place each year around the end of May. I had enjoyed this event in 2011 and 2015, though I had never engaged with it as deeply as we did this year.

On Sunday after brunch we walked over to Belleville, getting a map at the first studio we noticed (by its balloons), then wending our way up to the Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville (AAB) gallery at 1, rue Francis Picabia (M° Couronnes). At the main gallery we looked at samples by each artist and circled the studios we wanted to visit. We had to do this to organize our walk since over one hundred locations are listed, several showing work by half a dozen artists! But we also looked in on all the studios along our route, whether circled or not; we realized that we enjoyed the ones we hadn’t circled about as much as the ones we had, but it was still worth using the selected studios to organize our path.

It’s hard to pick favorites among so many interesting artists, but here are a few that one or both of us really liked:

I liked several witty and/or trenchant sculptures by João Ferreira, in a group show in the Crypte de l’Eglise Notre Dame de la Croix, which was also outstanding in 2015.

One of several sculptures by João Ferreira

I really liked the realistic Paris paintings of Jean-Christophe Adenis. So much that I would have purchased his painting from the main gallery for 45 euros if it hadn’t already sold. But when we caught up with him in person he asked 200 euros for other works of the same size. Not unreasonable, but I wasn’t quite prepared to spend that much (even though I did the next day for a cute three-dimensional work from another artist).

Small paintings by Jean-Christophe Adenis

Andy and I both liked the studio of Sophie Herszkowicz. I may actually go back and buy one of her smaller paintings.

Paintings by Sophie Herszkowicz of her studio

Our favorite, however, was the show of kinetic artwork by Laurent Debraux at Galerie Eko Sato. This still picture gives only an idea of the variety:

Kinetic sculptures by Laurent Debraux at Galerie Eko Sato

This video gives you a somewhat better idea of this highly recommended exhibition:

Here’s the link to my full photo set, starting with some vivid Belleville street art we saw along the way, and including additional works by most of the artists mentioned: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qtwx5ec67DYJA1Aw2

We ended up getting to nearly all of the circled galleries before running out of time and energy.  The project was a very satisfying way to start Andy’s visit. Not only did we see a lot of fascinating art (diluted but not obscured by the inevitable mediocre stuff), but we explored a lively and non-touristy quartier populaire, got to see the insides of many artist studios and apartments, and met some nice and interesting people. It may in fact be the most-non-touristy beginning to any of my guest visits!

Update: Here’s a photo set that includes more Belleville Art: Art of Belleville, Paris

Mot du jour: quartier populaire. Lisa explained earlier in my stay that this means a neighborhood of down to earth folks, i.e. workers, artists, unemployed people and other not-rich citizens. Like Belleville!

On My Own Again

Tags

Aarchna, art, banlieue, Belleville, clouds, Danube, Eiffel Tower, flâneur, France, Il faut se méfier des mots, Ivy covered cottage, Jordain, Kristoffer, la Mouzaïa, Nausicaa Favart Amouroux, One must mistrust words, Opéra, Opéra Garnier, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Paris, Pré Saint-Gervais, quartier d’Amérique, Rosa Bonheur, rue de Belleville, rue de Crimée, rue du Télégraph, semaphore, Télégraph, Un Tapis de Poésie, villas, Water towers, weather

On Sunday morning I saw Kristoffer off on the Roissybus at Opéra. The ticket machine at the bus stop was broken but he was able to buy a ticket from the driver (since he had prudently saved 11 euros in cash).

Opéra Garnier looking lovely, in a rare moment of sunshine

Paradoxically, you have to stand at a traffic island in the middle of rue de l’Opéra, where the sides are blocked by other buildings, to see the full dome, and the pitched roof over the main theater.

In prior years I’ve just sent departing guests out the door with detailed instructions, but a Boston friend has taught me how nice it is to see someone off. This is especially true when I’ve been handling navigation issues for my guest while we’ve been together, so he may not have gotten particularly comfortable with the métro, etc. How I have remained oblivious to this all these years is a mystery, but it’s not too late to teach this old dog a new trick! (Though note that I didn’t go all the way to the airport and back; let’s not get carried away here!)

This year’s sojourn has been very sociable. A series of old and new friends have stayed with me for several days each: Jared R, Sherard, Omar and Kristoffer, and I’ve spent a lot of time with other visiting friends, including Jared W, CN and Arturo. As in other years I’ve seen a lot of Zhizhong, and I’ve started catching up with other French friends as well. Earlier in the trip I stayed with Charlie and Markevin near Toulouse and spent a couple of afternoons with Grégory in Bordeaux, not to mention my new Korean friends. This has been great fun, but it has also left me with less alone time than in prior years, and has greatly changed the blogging dynamic. From a discipline that I followed (almost) every evening in 2010 it has become a binge project that gets a week or two behind, then takes me a day or two to catch up! All a long way of saying that it’s different, but quite OK, to now spend a few days alone.

Sunday afternoon I headed over to Rosa Bonheur for old time’s sake. The weather has continued to be a mix of sun and rain, but there was a pretty good crowd on the terrasse. I didn’t get into any deep conversations but I did exchange a few nice words with a young woman who was there with her young son and older mother.

Rosa Bonheur, finally open and busy

After finishing my beer I strolled over to the area of little “Villas” to the west of the Park des Buttes Chaumont, which I now see is called la Mouzaïa or the quartier d’Amérique. I added a few shots to my Picasa/Google photo set on la Mouzaïa then continued on to see some of the open studios in an area I had not previously visited, the city of Pré Saint-Gervais, a banlieue!

As usual there was a lot of so-so art, but I really liked several pieces by Nausicaa Favart-Amouroux.

Painting by Nausicaa Favart Amouroux

I also enjoyed a poetry reading accompanied by violin at Un Tapis de Poésie.

Pré Saint-Gervais itself seemed to have something of a Turkish tilt, but otherwise seemed quite Parisian and not scary, except for an abandoned building, covered with graffiti.

Scary abandoned building covered with grafitti in a banlieue!

Somewhat less scary in the context of its spanking new neighbors

I had actually encountered a scarier scene earlier within the city limits at Danube.

Bucolic scene at Danube. Oh, wait…

I had a nice Indian dinner at Aarchna, on rue du Télégraph back in Belleville. I was interested to learn that the « télégraph » was actually one of the earliest lines of visual semaphores, which in 1794 allowed a message to be transmitted from Paris to Lille in three hours that previously took three days on horseback. That’s why it was placed on the highest hill in Paris, also why there are now water towers on the same spot.

Water towers on rue du Télégraph

After dinner I walked down rue de Bellevile as the sun went down (around 10 pm!). Here are a few atmospheric pictures from my day as a lone flâneur.

Ivy-covered cottage on rue de Crimée, near sketchy Place des Fêtes

“Beware of words.”

Doorway at Jordain, rue de Belleville

The other Paris: the Eiffel tower from rue de Belleville

Lovely clouds behind a dome on rue Réumur

All day Monday and Tuesday morning I did literally nothing but catch up on my blog. Enjoy!

Mot du jour: banlieue, literally, “suburb,” but many of the inner ring of cities just outside Paris are ethnic, depressed and at times dangerous so in France the term has a sketchy resonance.

A Flâneur is Born

Tags

4ème arrondissement, Alésia, art, Belleville, Boulangerie, Café de l'Industrie, Carrousel du Louvre, flâneur, FNAC, France, Haussmann building, Le Verre Siffleur, Louvre, Marais, meals, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, Sherard, Uniqlo

Wednesday was Sherard’s last day in Paris so we were thrilled the night before to see that the Louvre would reopen! We got up early — for us — and arrived shortly after it opened. Unfortunately, there was already a huge, raucous line. I searched online for a way to jump the queue, and was pleased to discover that the same strategy I had used other years for the Musée D’Orsay also works for the Louvre. In both cases the bottleneck is the security line, but both museums have a much shorter security line for people who already have tickets. You can buy tickets ahead of time on line or at FNAC or many tabacs, but if you wait until the last minute there’s a tabac that sells Louvre tickets right in the underground Carrousel du Louvre where we were waiting. The express security line for people with tickets is up at the glass pyramid so once you have your tickets you go there and sail past the normal security line. I was proud of having worked this dodge but I could see that Sherard was still repelled by the mob scene. I asked which galleries interested him most and when he left it to me I led him to the Mona Lisa, which I assumed he would want to see, even though it attracts the worst sort of paparazzi crowd. After that I spied a few paintings I liked but I could see that Sherard was still not into the experience.

Portrait of a Man Holding a Statuette by Bronzino, Florence, 1503 – id. 1572

Over morning coffee Sherard and I had a heart to heart talk. The upshot was that all he really wanted that day was to buy two items he had seen on earlier walks: (1) a rug he had admired during our walk through the Belleville and Couronnes neighborhoods and (2) a small painting he had liked at a gallery in the Marais. I was proud of Sherard for asserting what he really wanted in the face of the conventional expectation that one has to see the Louvre!

We got the hell out of there and headed east. The problem was that neither of us remembered exactly where he had seen the rug, so we retraced our steps: up rue de Belleville, then over to the Parc de Belleville and back down from there. Along the way we saw several pieces of street art that Sherard liked way more than anything he had seen at the musty old Louvre.

Street art in Belleville

Street art in Belleville

[Click here to download an enormous pano of the piece above.]

Just as we were about to give up on the rug, back at the Boulevard de Belleville, I noticed some Muslim stores on rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, and sure enough, there was the rug! Sherard bought it for a song, and the first of our missions was accomplished.

After lunch at the Café de l’Industrie — a sentimental favorite from my first year — we headed over to the Marais.

Sherard’s lunch at Café de l’Industrie

There was a moment of anxiety at the gallery when the painting Sherard liked was no longer on display! But after he asked at the counter the clerk brought out many similar pieces and Sherard left as the happy owner of a colorful semi-abstract portrait. Both missions accomplished, we happily strolled home through the Marais.

Uniqlo store in the Marais, in a former foundry

Sherard suggested that we eat dinner in a completely non-touristy neighborhood we had not yet visited. I took a deep breath and proposed Alésia, a typical if unexciting neighborhood in the 14ème arrondissement. I had no specific place in mind so we simply explored. Needless to say, this warmed the cockles of my flâneur heart!

Lovely Haussmann building in the 14ème arrondissement, near métro Alésia

Boulangerie in the 14ème arrondissement, near métro Alésia

The restaurant we settled on, Le Verre Siffleur, turned out to be friendly and rather stylish as well as offering a good meal at a reasonable price.

Bob’s dinner at Le Verre Siffleur, in the 14ème arrondissement

Among our pleasant conversations there was one with a young man from Dijon who gave me his number and invited me to visit his city for a few days. Sherard noted that something similar had happened with an artist earlier in his visit, and asked me whether this sort of thing occurs to me often. I responded, “Only in Paris!”

We ended the evening, comme d’habitude, with cocktails at Experimental Cocktail Club. The bartender was charmed when we mentioned our afternoon in Belleville, which she “adores.” But when we mentioned our excursion to Alésia she said, with a visible shudder, that she “never crosses the river.” Just like crossing the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge!

Mot du jour: « comme d’habitude », “as usual”.

High, But Not Dry

Tags

art, Bastille, Belleville, Canal Saint-Martin, Comptoir General, flâneur, France, Ghetto Museum, La Bocca, Marais, meals, parc de Belleville, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Paris, Place des Vosges, Point Ephémère, Rosa Bonheur, rue de Mouzaïa, Sherard, villas

Thwarted by the closings of the the Louvre and the Musée D’Orsay, I promised to take Sherard on Sunday to one of the highest points in Paris, which I guaranteed wouldn’t be affected by the floods. I was right, but … read on.

We walked across the Marais — where Sherard saw a small painting he liked — via the Place des Vosges (mentioned in my French Linen post) to the trendy area east of the Place de la Bastille, then over to the Canal Saint-Martin, which was interesting as ever.

Street art along the Canal Saint-Martin

I showed Sherard Comptoir Général but realized, seeing it through his eyes, that it was no longer the astonishing art-intensive Ghetto Museum that Alexis had introduced me to several years back, but had become just a big hipster bar with a few bits of African decor.

We walked the length of the canal up to Point Ephémère, a hipster bar in part of an old fire station that I had been reading about. We stopped in but it looked too sketchy for our bourgeois tastes. Sad for me since I like to think that a flâneur can appreciate all aspects of the city. There was a leftist political rally of some sort on the plaza between the canal and the Basin de la Villette. We stuck our heads in but it wasn’t our scene either.

Not having had much luck thus far I directed our steps to my ace-in-the-hole, the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, which never fails to charm. Imagine my chagrin when it too was closed! Not of course due to flooding — it’s one of the highest places in Paris! But it seems that the rains that preceded and caused the flood had soaked the soil and rendered certain trees unstable. There was a sign at the main entrance, however, saying that one of the ginguettes in the park was still open, accessible presumably by a safe route. There was no mention of my primary destination, Rosa Bonheur (which usually has a terrific gay scene on Sunday afternoons) but since it was close to an entrance at the top of the park I hoped it might be open as well. I checked its website and phone message and there was no mention of it being closed so we walked up along the outside of the park to the highest point, where a sign informed us that Rosa was closed. We got a quick bite at a restaurant across the street, where our only cold comfort was schadenfreude as we watched families and gay guys come up to the locked gate to discover — as we had — that both the park and Rosa were closed.

Not-terribly-good lunch on rue Botzaris

Our luck turned at this point, however, as Sherard enjoyed the little pedestrian “Villas” off rue de Mouzaïa, which led us up to the completely non-touristy Parc de la Butte du Chapeau Rouge, with a commanding view of the northern suburbs.

Flowers on Villa d’Alsace, off rue de Mouzaïa in the 19th

We walked back via the Parc de Belleville, and Sherard really enjoyed that area, especially appreciating a rug in a Muslim shop we passed by at some point in our meanderings.

Crowd at an impromptu concert at the Parc de Belleville

That evening we had a late dinner at an old favorite, La Bocca on rue Montmartre.

Seafood pasta dinner at La Bocca. The long thin shells are clams, although I’m not sure they are the same species as we get in the U.S. since I’ve never seen a shell like that at home

 

Three Flâneurs

Tags

Belleville, Café Le Baron, cake decorations, Chris, cobblestone street, enormous whisk, flâneur, giant whisk, glasses, glassware, incinerated motor bikes, industrial cookware, King of Pop, Maille, Matt, Michael Jackson, model, mustard, Parc Monceau, Passage des Panoramas, photo shoot, pur, rue des Jeûneurs, tattoos, terrines, whisk

Matt and Chris are born flâneurs. Though this is their first time in Paris they feel absolutely no need to check off tourist sites. Instead they are atttracted by every little alley and stairway. “Where does that go?” They are insatiably curious! This, needless to say, suits me down to the ground. I enjoy nudging them towards interesting places, and pointing out features that they might have missed. But just as often they have suggested unfamiliar routes that have opened my eyes to something new. Walking with them has reawakened my love of Paris, which had dozed a bit this year before they arrived. This post is a collection of photos and stories from our first week of wandering together.

During my first two weeks I had always turned left on rue des Jeûneurs or gone straight ahead whenever I left my apartment door. Those directions lead to the Montorgueil shopping district and the Grands Boulevards, while the only thing I knew of in the other direction was a straight nightclub, Silencio. When Matt suggested that we turn right I realized that I had never been that way in daytime. We discovered three cute local lunch places, serving office workers and graduate-level students rather than the bobos of rue Montorgueil. We ate lunch in this place and I plan to try the other two after Matt and Chris go home.

Lunch hour rush at Pur, on rue des Jeûneurs.

Quirky cake decorations. I want to be invited to that party! Looks like I’d fit right in…

Cake decorations, we think.

This scene was in lower Belleville. It looked like something from a war zone. We couldn’t tell whether it was an accident or arson, but we found it astounding that there was no police tape or indeed any indication that anyone was even aware of what must have been quite a conflagration.

A bunch of incinerated motor bikes.

Passage des Panoramas.

Really remarkable terrines.

Glassware in Café Le Baron in the 9e.

Outside a tattoo shop.

Perfect if you’re into Michael Jackson memorabilia.

Chris with an enormous whisk in an industrial cookware shop on rue Montmartre.

Matt in mustard heaven, at the Maille shop at Place de la Madeleine.

The first time I’ve seen a cobblestone street being laid down, near Étoile. This replaces an earlier version that had been partly blacktopped.

We’ve encountered various model shoots and movie teams. This fellow gave us the best photo op.

A photo shoot in posh Parc Monceau.

Friends and Food

Tags

art, Belleville, Belleville Open Studios, Belleville Portes Ouvertes, Bob Seeman, Catherine Arnaud, Chris, drag queens, Elliot, Garden of the Hôtel de Ville, Hôtel de Ville, Jardin du Hôtel de Ville, La Criée, Le Colimaçon, Marais, Matt, Matt and Chris, meals, Montorgueil, Paris, Robert Seeman, rue des Jeûneurs, Sculpture, street art, Tintilou

Friday lunch was with my Harvard friend Elliot Marks, at a wonderful little restaurant in his quartier, Tintilou. The meal was delicious and the service and ambiance were delightful. A new favorite!

Elliot Marks at Tintilou, with the utterly delectable appetizer.

My main course at Tintilou: St. Pierre, which Elliot explained is called “John Dory” in English.

After lunch I strolled over to take in some of the 100+ artist studios that were open during the annual Belleville Portes Ouvertes. I started at the headquarters (GALERIE DES AAB, 1 rue Picabia, 75020 Paris. M° Couronnes), which lets you peruse samples for each artist so you can decide which studios to visit. One of the samples pleased me so much that I bought it on the spot (as a gift for my Boston friend Bruce). I then set off. As usual most of the art left me unmoved, but also as usual I came across one artist I really loved:

Sculptures by Catherine Arnaud at Belleville Portes Ouvertes 2015. The piece in the upper left corner was her reaction to the Charlie Hebdo murders.

I also saw part of a very strange art show. The artist dripped and mixed water and ink on a glass plate, which projected on a big screen. It was unusual, but I had to stifle the question, is it art?

Art performance as part of Belleville Open Studios. By Stefano Giorgi?

For dinner I caught up with another Harvard friend, Bob Seeman. The plan was initially for a tête-à-tête but he called earlier in the day to ask whether several of his visiting friends could join us. Of course I said it was fine, and we had a very pleasant meal. It was my first time at Le Colimaçon, though I had tried unsuccessfully to get a table there with Brian and Sheila the previous week. We all enjoyed our meals and the service, by several petite young women, was sympa. It’s a small space, with an impressive spiral staircase up to the étage (which Bob explained is called a colimaçon). Overall I consider it quite a reasonable option, although not a must.

Matt had received an ominous call from American Airlines saying that their flight had been overbooked and asking whether they would they agree to be bumped to a different flight. It turned out, however, to be Christmas in May! The flight they had booked required a connection, and got them in very late on Saturday night, but the new flight was direct and got them here at a reasonable hour in the morning. Moreover they were offered a king’s ransom in cash to make the change! It was very much win-win (except for American) so they made the change and arrived early. I took them on a walk through my neighborhood and over to the Marais, then via Notre Dame to the Latin Quarter. It was their first time in Paris so everything was a thrill, and as usual it was my pleasure to see the city anew through their eyes.

Chris and Matt getting a warm Parisian welcome! (Fabu street art just outside my front door.)

Bob and his new bff, rue des Jeûneurs.

Matt getting an angle on roses in the newly-opened garden of the Hôtel de Ville.

Chris with Notre Dame peeking shyly through the trees.

We strolled around my neighborhood, then over to the 10e. The first restaurant we went into looked ok from the outside but was completely dead inside, and after we were seated we saw that the menus were tattered. We debated how to handle this and finally we just walked out and I explained to the proprietor that we wanted a more animated place. After a bit more persistence we ended up at a zippy and tasty fish restaurant, La Criée.

La Criée on Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle.

Chris doesn’t like fish, so we confirmed before going in that they had a couple of beef dishes on the menu. Unfortunately, after Matt and I had exulted over the delightful seafood choices, and ordered, the waiter told us that there was no beef. (He wasn’t even apologetic; he said with a shrug (in French), “This is a seafood restaurant!”) Chris graciously ordered a cheese salad instead of a real main dish. It was a fine meal — for me and Matt — in a busy and bright space.

The Seven Hills of Paris

Tags

Arc de Triomphe, Belleville, Butte-aux-Cailles, Ménilmontant, Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, Montmartre, Montparnasse, Panthéon, Paris, seven hills of Paris, topography of Paris, Vélib, Vélib' Plus

You always hear about the seven hills of Rome but what about the seven hills of Paris? This reports on my scientific study of the Parisian hills, based on the Vélib’ bicycle sharing system. High-elevation Vélib’ stations are designated with a “+” sign, indicating that you will get a credit if you ride a bicycle up there from a lower-elevation station. This is important because the natural tendancy is to coast down but not struggle back up. The Vélib’ iOS app shows the location of all stations, et voila !

Montmartre: 130 m (425 ft), north. Notice all the empty “+” stations. Maybe they need a “++” category for this steep hill.

Belleville: 128 m (420 ft), northeast. (Overlaps with Ménilmontant.)

Ménilmontant: 108 m (354 ft), east. (Overlaps with Belleville.)

Montagne Sainte-Geneviève: 61 m (200 ft), south, around the Panthéon.

Butte-aux-Cailles: 62 m (203 ft), south, near Place d’Italie.

Montparnasse: 66 m (217 ft), southwest.

The Arc de Triomphe is on a little hill, though I couldn’t find its name; west.

There are, of course, less rigorously scientific ways of categorizing the Paris hills, such as this Wikipedia item: Topography of Paris.