Ah, the rooftops of Paris: the 50 shades of grey in zinc and lead, the profound blackish-blue of slate, the seductive curves of copper green, the murky nuances of red tile and the occasional sparkle of gold.

Looking out over the city from just the right height—the upper floor of the Pompidou Center, the towers of Notre-Dame, rooftop terraces, apartments on the eighth floor and above—the view is romantic for some, lusty grey for others, a commercial dream for roofers—altogether Paris.

In recent months the most attractive view over the capital has been from District Hall of the 9th arrondissement, where District Mayor Delphine Bürkli is spearheading the committee to present the rooftops of Paris as a candidate for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Municipal Council of the City of Paris on Oct. 1, 2014 approved Bürkli’s wish to develop the candidature for UNESCO recognition, and the project was publicly launched on Feb. 5, 2015. Candidature can take several years to reach maturity.

Bürkli speaks of the rooftops of Paris as “a chef d’oeuvre of human ingenuity” and of the desire to enable Parisians to “conquer the 7th story” and buildings’ “5th façade.” (That’s the 8th floor in American parlance since the ground floor isn’t counted here.)

UNESCO lists cultural, natural and mixed sites whose cultural and/or natural heritage is considered to be “of outstanding universal value.” (Intangible cultural heritage is inscribed on another list.) The “outstanding universal value” of the rooftops of Paris is currently less clear than their economic and touristic appeal. Therefore, in addition to recognizing the historic value of the rooftops, Bürkli and the committee that’s been created to develop the UNESCO World Heritage proposal have expressed the wish to see the “underexploited” heights of Paris used for restaurants, bars, pools, vistas and gardens.

The committee claims that candidature for UNESCO listing is not an attempt to halt development and that their project is not an attempt to counter the construction of towers and skyscrapers on the edge of the city. (The latter has of late been the subject of the big tussle of Paris urbanism. The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo is very favorable to the development of vastly higher rising buildings on the inner edges of the city.)

The committee to develop the candidature for UNESCO World Heritage Listing includes Bürkli, who is a member of France’s conservative UMP party; Gilles Mermet, a journalist and photographer, author of the book “Les toits de Paris où l’art des couvreurs” (The rooftops of Paris or the roofers’ art); Alexandre Missoffe, project manager for the public transportation company Transdev; Olivier Boileau-Descamps, businessman and former political candidate (UMP), and Angel Sanchez, president of the Syndicat des Entreprises de Génie Climatique et de Couverture Plomberie, an engineering and roofing syndicate.

It can take several years to prepare candidature for UNESCO World Heritage Listing. The most significant hurdle is pre-selection by the French government for placement on UNESCO’s Tentative List, after which the final project for candidature is fleshed out before being presented to the concerned international committee. France regularly presents two items—cultural, natural or mixed—to UNESCO each year, and competition among the projects vying for pre-selection is fierce.

Indeed, an entire travel magazine, not to mention a serious school of history, politics and economics, could be devoted examining French ambitions for gaining UNESCO World Heritage Listing, so fascinating are the sites vying for “universal” recognition and so rich, complex and political is the process of forming a viable proposal.

UNESCO typically elects to list one or two properties each year at its early summer committee meeting. In 2014 the Decorated Cave of Pont-d’Arc joined the list as a cultural heritage site while Gwoka, music, song, dance and cultural practice representative of Guadeloupean identity joined as intangible cultural heritage.

France isn’t alone in Europe in its quest for UNESCO validation for their cultural heritage. Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom also run at the head of the pack, a sign of both the historical offerings of the Old World and the value of UNESCO imprimatur in the tourism industry. As an example, a 30% increase in the number of visitors to Albi Cathedral followed within two years of the listing in 2010 of the town’s Episcopal City (of which the cathedral is the centerpiece). Of course, it wasn’t simply the listing that did this but also efforts to showcase and promote the cathedral. The two naturally go hand in hand.

Heritage—whether local, regional, national or “universal”—goes well beyond showcasing a specific site. It involves wider territorial notions of heritage, the political and economic considerations of preservation and, most visibly, all of the issues associated with tourism and development around the given site. Sites (often a series of sites brought together under a common theme of heritage) covering large and diverse the territory naturally raise complex questions.

Current examples of such large and diverse territories on UNESCO’s Tentative List are the Funerary Sites and Memorials of the First World War on the Western Front (in France and Belgium) and the Landing Beaches of Normandy of the Second World War. Those sites were preselected by France to join the Tentative List in 2014. The full project of each candidature may not be complete for examination to the international committee until 2017.

© 2015, Gary Lee Kraut

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The diner there has direct contact with the kingpin. He isn’t someone who might stop by to see you later if he has time or who might have skipped town altogether to open a new venture in Japan, but someone who is in the dining room with you and who knows that you’re there. You’re free to ignore him, of course, but his role is to pay attention to you.

So it is with Jean-Frédéric Guidoni at his notable restaurant Jean in Paris’s 9th arrondissement, a district between the Garnier Opera and Montmartre with an indistinct reputation and thus many surprises.

Mr. Guidoni mastered the skills of operating a dining room long before opening Jean in 2002. For twenty years, from 1981 to 2001, he served as maitre d’ at the venerable Taillevent. Given that experience it’s no surprise that the dining room at Jean runs so smoothly.

In addition to his front-man skills, Mr. Guidoni is no slouch at hiring chefs. The restaurant received a Michelin star in 2006 and has maintained its star since Anthony Boucher took over the kitchen in 2008. In 2011 Attilio Marrazzo replaced Anthony Boucher as chef. (Jean has maintained its Michelin star in 2012.)

Out of extravagance, hedonism and a mutual acknowledgement that we had the entire evening ahead of us, we ordered the 7-course wine-paired tasting menu. It’s as though we’d entered Mr. Guidoni’s home, thrown off our coats and called out “Bring us food. Bring us drink. Show us what you and the chef are worth. Show us a good time. A glass of Champagne to start, s’il vous plaît.” Politely, of course.

Jean is a setting for poised and well-heeled lunches and dinners but it feels neither stiff nor overly formal. It can indeed be romantic in the evening—perhaps not young romance but comfortable romance.

Despite some hesitation from the younger servers, the teamwork here is evident, an advantage of having the quarterback in the dining room rather than in the kitchen.

While this is clearly a gastronomic restaurant, the décor is reminiscent of a luxury bistro or a classy tavern: red banquettes, fabric-covered walls, plush red drapes on the upper third of the wall, a glossy white ceiling. In another reincarnation this space could easily be transformed into an American-style saloon due to its pale wood show-bar with brass hand and foot rails, its old brass cash register on the counter and its wooden staircase in the back. There’s seating for 38, with several cozy corner tables for 2 to 8, plus a private dining room upstairs best suited for a group of 10 to 12.

A fresh and sincere succession of dishes and a wise choice of wines followed: a tomato-goat cheese-zucchini-macadamia nut appetizer; escargot risotto; vivaneau (fish) with grilled eggplant and green pepper; a fine and delicate pigeon; a well-rounded selection of cheese (goat, brie, cantal). The well-conceived desserts were nevertheless a bit heavy as a finish to such an extensive tasting menu.

This is the kind of French gastronomy that wins friends more than awards. It’s special without being unique, rich without being exclusive and served in a highly comfortable restaurant that’s amiable without being chummy.

Jean hits a smooth, even note for relaxed yet fine dining… in the gracious presence of Jean-Frédéric Guidoni, the master of the house.

What’s in a name?
The name of this restaurant, Jean, has no direct relation with the name of its owner, Jean-Frédéric Guidoni, though the two are now inseparable. When Mr. Guidoni purchased this restaurant it was called Chez Jean. He dropped the chez “because it sounded too much like a bistro,” he said, however some still refer to this as Chez Jean or Restaurant Jean, and it is sometimes confused with the well-known L’Ami Jean (whose awning reads Chez L’Ami Jean).

To set the record straight then: the name of this restaurant is simply Jean, which is not a sign of self-indulgence on the part of the owner whose name is Jean-Frédéric. It’s only natural, though, when he comes to your table, to want to call him Jean.

Jean, 8 rue Saint-Lazare, 9th arr. Metro Notre-Dame de la Lorette. Tel. 01 48 78 62 73. http://www.restaurantjean.fr/. Open Mon.-Fri. Fixed-price lunch menu at 46€. Fixed-price dinner menus at 48€ (3 courses), 65€ (4 courses) and 95€ (7 courses), without wine. About 70-75€ à la carte, without wine.

© 2011, Gary Lee Kraut

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Simply request directions to a pizzeria, however, and you risk getting pointed directly to mediocrity. Instead, ask for a good pizzeria—because nothing flatters Parisians more than an inquiry that treats them as arbiters of good taste.

Pas n’importe quelle pizzeria, mais une bonne=Not just any pizzeria, a good one!

If you ask me…
My own neighborhood on the eastern side of Canal Saint Martin in the 10th arrondissement has become one hip pizza party. My local favorite is Trattoria Gran Sasso due to the sincerity of the pizza, the friendliness of the owners, and the good omen that one of them is often at work at the oven in time-honored pizzaiolo fashion. There’s also Maria Louisa, a large, upbeat pizzeria serving classically thin-crusted pizza. And there’s Pink Flamingo, a largely take-away pizzeria shed, offering creative pseudo-ethnic pies that are too conceptual for me and taste a bit like a business plan. For pasta I would send you to Maria Louisa’s sister restaurant La Madonnina, though I tend to be onanistic when it comes to pasta dishes, preferring my own.

Don’t, however, mistake the above for recommendations, just friendly pizza advice for my neighborhood. There are a handful of notable Italian restaurants in Paris, but take anyone’s pizza suggestion as a reason to cross town and you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Pizzeria da Carmine
Nevertheless, I was recently introduced to a pizzeria that I might consider going out of my way for—well, at least into the next arrondissement, the 9th. For a traveler that means a place to keep in mind when visiting Montmartre (18th), which begins a few blocks further up the hill.

Pizzeria da Carmine serves Italian comfort food with character and with a jovial and harried Neapolitan spirit. Though new to me, Carmine is in fact an old standard in the netherworld of the 9th arrondissement, just below Montmartre, between metro stops Pigalle and Anvers.

In truth, I can only speak for my own order that evening: the overstuffed pizze di Carmine. What this smorgasbord pie lacks in delicacy it more than makes up for in fresh and tasty excess: tomato sauce, mozzarella, Parma ham, pancetta (a cured pork), egg, eggplant, grilled zucchini, grilled peppers, artichoke, fresh mushrooms, sautéed onions, grana padano cheese, and arugula, all served on or in a partly folded, fluffy crust.

There are less ambitious pizzas on the menu, along with pasta and several carne dishes, but for my appetite the pizza di Carmine is the way to go for at least one person at the table—at the risk of pizza envy. The Carmine is a stretch for a single appetite. Still, it’s a selfish, gluttonous pizza that’s reluctant to be shared, except for stingy forkfuls doled out around the table so as to try my dinner companions’ pasta dishes, which, though fresh, will then seem too polite compared with this self-absorbed pie.

Caveat emptor
As we were paying the bill, I was reminded of a recent trip to Rome for not only was the pizza equally appetizing but, happily fed, every time left a restaurant in Rome I couldn’t help feeling that they’d somehow slipped in a 10% tourist surcharge into the bill.

I thought of that trip while standing at the cash register chez Carmine (one pays the manager-cashier rather than the waiter at the table) because coincidentally—or not— the four of us were handed a joint tab of 99 euros that included precisely 9 euros of whimsy. The ensuing conversation with the managing cashier went something like this:

“We didn’t have the glass of vermouth that’s indicated on the tab.”

“I know, the computer prints out ‘vermouth’ no matter what you have, but your aperitif still costs 5 euros.”

“But there was no extra aperitif, just the three Camparis.”

“But there are four of you, right?”

“Yes, but we only ordered 3 drinks.”

“Well how was I supposed to know?”

This was followed by a mock argument in Italian between the manager and the waiter, after which the manager told us, “His handwriting is so bad. I always tell him to write clearly… Alright. Then that makes it 94 euros.”

“And there’s a problem with the wine charge. The waiter told us that the bottle of Sicilian wine was 14 euros, not 18 as shown here.”

This was followed by a discussion as to which bottle we’d actually had (a hearty Sicilian that was surprisingly good for the announced price), some more Commedia dell’Arte with the waiter, and the manager finally showing us someone else’s bill as odd proof of the confusion being in good faith.

A caveat emptor that couldn’t spoil a wonderful, gluttonous pizza feast. Just be sure to check the bill.

Other comforts
If in this area just below Montmartre but not in the mood for pizza or pasta, two other hotspots for comfort fare are located on the food-happy Place Toudouze, one block away from Carmine. No Stress Café is a laid-back tight squeeze of a restaurant-bar where, among its hip mix of Franco-world dishes, I’ve fond memories of a nice dripping hamburger, an unusual treat in Paris. Kastoori, a well-established Indian restaurant, is next door.

Pizza and pasta restaurants near Canal Saint-Martin
Gran Sasso, 13 rue Jacques Louvel-Tessier, 10th arr. Metro Goncourt. Tel. 0142457079. Closed Sunday. (A on map)
La Madonnina, 10 rue Marie et Louise, 10th arr. Metro Goncourt or République. Tel. 0142012526. Closed Sunday. (B on map)
Maria Louisa, 2 rue Marie et Louise, 10th arr. Metro Goncourt or République. Tel. 0144840401. Closed Sunday. (C on map)
Pink Flamingo, 67 rue Bichat, 10th arr. Metro Goncourt or République. Tel. 0142023170. Closed Monday. (D on map)

Restaurants below Montmartre, near Pigalle and Anvers
Pizzeria da Carmine, 61 rue des Martyrs, 9th arr. Metro Pigalle or Anvers. Tel. 0148782801. Closed Sunday and Monday. (E on map)
No Stress Café, 2 place Gustave Toudouze, 9th arr. Metro Pigalle Tel. 0148780027. Open daily and late. (F on map)
Kastoori, 4 place Gustave Toudouze, 9th arr. Metro Pigalle Tel. 0144530610. Tel. 0142012526. (G on map)

© 2006, Gary Lee Kraut

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