Here are some tips for things to do and places to go, when you feel that staring at the Eiffel Tower really isn%26#39;t quite enough any more.
Let me present them in %26quot;reverse%26quot; order:
20th arrondissement:
La Campagne á Paris and the old village of Charonne:
Take metro line 3 to Porte de Bagnolet. take exit Blvd. Mortier. Go up Rue Géo Chavez with the little shady square on your right. About 150 meters up there will be a long flight of stairs on your right hand. Take a deep breath and climb them - you will not regret it. On the small plateau on the top lies - sort of isolated, almost like the Lassithi plateau in Crete - the village called %26quot;the Paris countryside%26quot; (la campagne). Enjoy the small streets of Rue Irenée Blanc, Jules Siegfried and Paul Strauss (who were these people ??) with the cute cottages and flowers.
Go back to the Place de la Porte de Bagnolet. Go down Rue de Bagnolet - rather heavy trafic, not too charming - but your patience will be rewarded. About 400 meters down you come to Place St.Blaise with the old romanesque church of Charonne (presently under restoration, so no visit inside till next year). Turn left into Rue St.Blaise and breathe some real village-relaxation.
I had a really good lunch in the restaurant %26quot;Café Noir%26quot;.
18th arrondissement:
I thought I had seen about everything worth seeing in Montmartre - well, not so. When you face the Sacré Coeur at the Palce du Parvis follow the street to your right which will lead you to the downhill stairs of Rue Mautrice Utrillo - and believe me, you will be grabbing for your checkbook to buy an appartment here ! Go down the stairs to the little itsy-bitsy square where Rue Paul Albert meets Rue Muller. This must be one of the most romantic spots in Paris - have lunch at %26quot;L%26#39;éte en pente douce%26quot; and relax. After that go down the stairs of Rue Charles Nodier to the extremely colourful neighbourhood of Blvd. Rochechouart. If you are into sewing your own clothes here is the place to buy some cheap and smart material to bring home.
17th arrondissement.
Rue de Levis (see previous post). Turn right into Rue Légendre and follow this untill the square with the church in front of the park Square des Batignolles. Cosy cafés and lovely park - take a walk up Rue des Moines. Nice, relaxed, charming down-to-earth neighbourhood. One can only fear that the young and rich will spot this quartier.
13th arrondissment:
Places totally forgotten by the bulldozers in the ugly 60%26#39;ties
Take metro to Place d%26#39;Italie, go down Blvd. Aguste Blanqui. Turn left after about 150 meters into Rue des Cinq Diamants. Go uphill to the very very small village square. (Buttes-aux-Cailles was one of the last strongholds of la Commune de Paris). Have a drink in one of the cafés. Take Rue Alphand to Rue Barrault, turn left and then right into Rue Daviel. On your right hand in the Village d%26#39;Alsace - on your left hand is the small street Villa Daviel - you can actually live in a house with a small garden - smack in the middle of Paris !
Go back to Rue Barrault, follow this down to Rue de Tolbiac - turn left, walk for abouit 400 meters till you reach Rue des Peupliers on your right. Take this street, take a look at the small %26quot;villa%26quot; of Square des Peuplier - go down Rue des Peupliers to Place de l%26#39;Abbaye Henocque, turn left into Rue Henri Pape and quickly right into Rue Dieulafoy - a street with charming houses with funny, interesting roofs.
12th arrondissement:
Rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine and its old courtyards and passages - a neighbourhood %26quot;up-and-coming%26quot; ?
Take the metro to Place Bastille - go up Blvd. Richard Lenoir, after about 200 meters turn right into Rue Daval and right into Cour Damoye. Back to the Bastille - go down Rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine - the old neighbourhood of furniture carpenters. Be sure to check out all the courtyards and passages on both sides. It is very interesting to see the furniture workshops and small factories that are still producing furniture - plus some shops - which give you a good impression of how the bourgeois French furnish their homes (or how they would like to, if they could afford it).
9th arrondissement - Square d%26#39;Orleans
I love the quartier of La Nouvelle Athène. Go from Place Pigalle down Rue Frochot, Rue Henri Monnier to the charming square Place Gustave Toudouze. Have a drink, write a postcard, waste time.... Take a left into Rue Notre Dame de Lorette and then right into Rue Saint-Georges. Turn right into Rue Saint-Lazare and right into Rue Taitbout. After 100 meters go through the gateway to Square d%26#39;Orleans with the splashing, beautiful fountain. Chopin used to live here.
That was all for now - remember to bring soft, comfortable shoes or sandals !
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Wow, Gitte! You really did some exploring, and you describe everything in such detail! It seems like those places would be great for experienced Paris visitors.
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well, Shoesy, that depends on what kind of picture you want to take back home. I love to walk around in the neigbourhoods and streets where people live and work - also because I get Paris %26quot;under my skin%26quot; better this way. And because I have this silly idea of wanting to see all of Paris - I have bought some books about the %26quot;secret Paris%26quot; and I use those as an inspiration for tour-planning. Sometimes it takes me to places that turn out to have been shut down or that are under reconstruction or to villas (residential areas/streets with gardens) that now are closed off with high wrought-iron gates, so noone except residents can enter. Well, that%26#39;s part of the charm (even though I at the time throw some juicy curses at the French habit of fencing everything for %26quot;privacy%26quot;).
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I%26#39;ve been meaning to ask you, Gitte.......how many times have you been to Paris? Just curious.
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1973 - with my dear departed father
1977 - on the way home from language school in Grenoble
1979 - with campus room-mates
2003 - with my teenage son (mummy%26#39;s precious Gustav)
2004 - with my mother, Gustav, and my sister%26#39;s teenage son
2005 - on my own
2006 - on my own in May and in July
p.s.
going on a holiday with you mother........hmmmm..... well, they say you have to try everything once....... I also tried escargots and frog legs once and I do not feel any urge for a retry.....
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Thank you Gitte you have just taken me down memory lane! I used to work on Rue Legendre and know the area so well. I also, if I chose, walked back to the metro through Rue de Levis in the evening. It was like walking home through a supermarket only a hundred times better. As the market was just closing at that time there were the most amazing bargains to be had. It is not a part of Paris that gets mentioned often, I%26#39;m so glad you enjoyed it.
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Bonjour GitteK,
Les Batignolles, where I was staying last December and Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where I was staying last May are two of my favorites méconnus part of Paris.
Have you visited la Cité Lemercier, with the villas and the little front gardens it is hard to believe one is in the middle of Paris, Jacques Brel used to lived there. As you mentionned the quartier is a interesting mix of working class, artists and bobos. Truffaut fit perfectly in the decor.
Near Faubourg Saint-Antoine, I really like rue Charonne where you can find l%26#39;église St-Germain de Charonne dating from the 11 century and the place with the solar clock. There is so much Paris to discover it is a endless joy.
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%26gt; I really like rue Charonne where you can find l%26#39;église St-Germain de Charonne dating from the 11 century and the place with the solar clock.
Luckyluc - the church you mention in on rue de Bagnolet, it is the same one that GitteK mentions in the 2nd paragraph of her 20th arrondissement entry.
BTW the church is still open on weekends at the moment if you want to see inside. You can also take a look in the graveyard behind to see the tomb of %26quot;Robespierre%26#39;s secretary%26quot;.
For getting back to the centre you can either take bus 76 which runs to the Louvre via Bastillle from rue de Bagnolet or walk up thro%26#39; the graveyard and continue to place gambetta where you can either get metro line 3 or bus 69 (which goes to the Champs de mars via Bastille and the Louvre).
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luckyluc:
No I haven%26#39;t been to Cité Lemercier - but have passed close by. I tried to visit Cité des Fleurs on the other side of Avenue de Clichy and Villa des Arts close to Cimetière de Montmartre. But both were closed wiht high irongates to keep strangers outside - only residents may enter. That makes me so mad - since it is one of the less charming traits of the French. Both places are / have been ordinary streets, but special in the respect that there were gardens and interesting houses to look at. But as soon as the rich and mighty move in, there is no more sharing.
I have also been to other villas in Paris where the same %26quot;shutting-the-less-fortunate-out%26quot; is being done.
As to the church St.Germain de Charonne I don%26#39;t think it is open even on Sundays - all the interior has been torn down and it is one big dusty building site inside (I had to sweet-talk the man watching the entrance just to have a peep inside only last week, so I know.) - but you can visit the small cemetary behind the church.
The story about %26quot;Robespierre%26#39;s secretary%26quot; is (I believe to have read it somewhere) totally made up. The person was a building-painter and a drunkard, but he loved to tell that story about himself.
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Rebonjour Gittek,
Regarding Cité des fleurs, I just push open the gates and walked down the street since there was already a guide tour of about 10 people visiting the street. If you check the listing in Pariscope under visites-conférences you will see that the Batignolles tour included la Cité des fleurs, so you should not be to concern about visiting.
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OK - will do next year. Only problem is how I manage to disguise myself as a group of 20......
Maybe I should by a (cheap) bunch of flowers - ring one of the doorbells at the entrance and present myself as a florist%26#39;s delivery girl.........
