Last November I was designing an issue of France Revisited by gathering together an assortment articles and stories about Jews, Jewish sights and Jewish history, particularly in Paris. I thought I’d call it the Hanukkah Issue. That was to be followed by a Christmas/New Year Issue before I would head off on my East Coast lecture tour in January and February.

But then the parties started—the cocktail events, the tapas evenings, the teatime happenings, the association dinners, the afternoon interludes, the “I’m only in town for a couple of days” pleas, the holiday celebrations—and before I knew it Christmas trees littered the sidewalks of Paris, New Year wishes came and went, and then I was on the road in the U.S..

There, I plotted my return, considering material that arrived from contributors and other texts that I might write. Should I transform the planned Hanukkah issue into an Semitic Food Issue, a WWII Issue, an If I Were A Rich Man Issue, an Evolution of the Marais Issue? – for I had articles on all those subjects and more.

But our first ideas are often the best, and a look at the articles I had on hand led me back to the Hanukkah Issue – except that the candles have long disappeared. So let’s get down to basics and call this issue by its rightful name: The Jewish Issue.

Here are the 9 articles, interviews and stories that comprise France Revisited’s March Jewish Issue

1. Love and Latkes. Canadian humorist Melinda Mayor, the Menschette of Montmartre, sent this piece about the trials of being a latke-lover in Paris. Melinda has previous contributed a piece about the trials of motherhood in Paris.

2. Passover and the 11th plague. New York writer and filmmaker Max Kutner tells of his first Passover in Paris and an encounter with the 11th plague.

Two articles about wealthy Jewish banking families that have left their mark on Paris:
3. The Rothschilds of the 19th century: A Riches to Riches Story.

4.  The Nissim de Camondo Museum: A Glory and the Tragedy

Views, one personal, one collective, of WWII deportations and the Holocaust
5. An exclusive interview with Paul Niedermann, a Holocaust survivor, currently living just outside of Paris. His extraordinary story is told though a text and interview by Janet Hulstrand. Janet, you may recall, previously introduced readers to American poet James Emanuel.

6. The Deportation Memorial and The Shoah Memorial. A look at two memorials that merit a place on the list of every traveler, whether Jewish or not.

7. In search of a Jewish Quarter: Rue des Rosiers, the Marais and the Jewish Food Court of Paris.

8. Noshing in Nice: Bread and the Bagel. The ever-perceptive Daniele Thomas Easton went looking bread in Nice and came home with bagels. Readers may recall Daniele’s review of the movie Sarah’s Key.

You might also want to return to an older editorial about anti-Semitism and the traveler.

Read them all, learn, discover, travel, comment, enjoy!

Gary

The post France Revisited’s Jewish Issue appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

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Adidas, Kookai, Minelli, Annick Goutal, Fred Perry, The Kooples, Kusmi Tea. Does that sound like the making of “the Jewish Quarter” to you? It doesn’t to me either, but those are among the signs—along with “falafel, 5€50”—that one now finds on rue des Rosiers, the 1000-foot long street in the Marais that was once a main artery of Yiddishkeit in Paris.

Even well into the 1970s a visitor, few as they were, might have peered into storefront or observed local residents gathering in the street or returning from work and sensed a neighborhood, a community, whose lifestyle and traditions were visible, alive and collective, whether Ashkenazic, Sephardic or Parisian.

Now, however, the tradition most followed on rue des Rosiers is that of a shopping mall, with a Jewish-theme food court to one end and familiar international clothing brands to the other. It can be hard to see the history for the falafels.

Jews were known to have lived on the City Island in the 6th century and later on the Left Bank, and records indicate their presence in the Marais by the 13th century. Nevertheless, due to successive expulsions and limitations on the activities of Jews, notably in the 14th century, there were in fact relatively few Jews in Paris at all between the 15th century and 18th century, when Jews began trickling back. Nevertheless, due to successive expulsions and limitations on the activities of Jews, notably in the 14th century, there were in fact relatively few Jews in Paris at all between the 15th century and 18th century, when Jews began trickling back. Still, it’s unlikely that there were any Jews in the Marais when, in 1791, during the Revolution, France became the first European country to grand Jews full rights of citizenship. By the early 1800s Jewish presence in the Marais was well established. Jewish arrivals in the quarter, and throughout Paris, took on greater amplitude in the second half of the 19th century, with large movement of Jews from Alsace and Lorraine, where more than half of the Jews of France had lived. Others arrived from Eastern Europe (Romania, Austria-Hungary, Russia), particularly between 1881 and 1914, in the same pogrom-fleeing waves that reached American shores, and Jews continued to arrive in the Paris region into the 1930s.

The Marais thus became home to a grouping of diverse Jewish communities that included Alsatian, Russian, Polish and other Ashkenazic traditions, along with Portuguese and Spanish Sephardic traditions, then in the minority here. In the initial decades of the 20th century one could therefore easily believe that the center of the Marais, comprising large swaths of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements, was Paris’s “Jewish quarter,” though there were in fact mostly non-Jews living throughout this working-class area, much of it very run down.

During the German Occupation of 1940 to 1944 the French police certainly knew how to distinguish a Jewish address from a non-Jewish address; they had identity files, now visible at by the Shoah Memorial, indicating with a large J (for juif) which were Jews. The massive round-up of Jews throughout the Paris region in July 1942, followed by mass deportations to the death camps, removed the “Jewish” from any sense that this was “a Jewish quarter.”

After the war some of those who had managed to flee in time and some of the few who survived the camps returned to the Marais, where, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they were joined by Sephardic Jews arriving from North Africa as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco gained independence from France. Though the Jewish presence in the Marais was dramatically reduced compared with the pre-war years (most Jews arriving from North Africa settled in other quarters or in the suburbs), rue des Rosiers and surroundings still visibly formed a Jewish neighborhood.

And now? Are travelers correct in thinking when coming to rue des Rosiers today that they are actually visiting “the Jewish quarter”? Is the presence of Semitic fast food and a few Judaica shops a reflection of a vibrant local community or of successful ethnic marketing or of a combination of the two?

Let’s take a look at what’s here.

Clearly there are Parisian Jews around—clearly, that is, if you walk by one of the active synagogues and religious schools just off rue des Rosiers or look into a kosher butcher shop or one of the less tourist-directed bakeries or visit on a Jewish holiday. A Jewish vocational school still operates at 4 bis rue des Rosiers. On Sundays cliques of Jewish adolescents from throughout Paris gather on the street, though they can be lost in crowd of other visitors, for every Sunday is a non-religious holiday in the Marais and the occasion for all comers to celebrate the pleasures of a stroll in the city.

Otherwise one is more likely to catch a glimpse not of neighborhood life today but of the neighborhood that is no longer here: The façade of the old  baths (closed in 1989); a plaque indicating that an attack was carried out against Jewish targets by a Palestinian terror cell on August 9, 1982 at the restaurant Jo Goldenberg , killing 6 and wounding 22 (the space is now occupied by a clothing shop); a sign in the middle of the street stating that this was the Pletzl or little square, the crossroads of the old urban Jewish village (in 1900), and signs here and on neighboring streets (rue des Ecouffes, rue des Hospitalières-Saint-Gervais) telling of deportations to death camps.

Synagogues of the Marais

Attesting to the centuries-old presence of Jews in the Marais, specifically the former parish of Saint Gervais, rue Ferdinand-Duval came to be called rue des Juifs (Street of the Jews) in the late Middle Ages. It was briefly a closed street, though not a ghetto per se since Jews also lived elsewhere in the city. An unsuspecting visitor is unlikely to walk up that little street today thinking that it might ever have been “a Jewish street,” until arriving at its northern end, where it spills into rue des Rosiers. You’ll find more by going one parallel street over in either direction, to rue Pavée or to rue des Ecouffes, where the neighborhood’s Jewish religiosity is more readily visible.

For security reasons, you’ll have to settle for an outer view of the Art Nouveau synagogue at 10 rue Pavée and the religious school across the street. The Pavée Synagogue (the synagogues in Paris are generally referred to by the street on which they’re located) was built in 1913 for the Union of Communities (Agoudas Hakehilos), largely comprised of Orthodox Jews of Russian origin. This high, narrow synagogue was designed by Hector Guimard, the architect famous for designing the entrances to the first Paris metro stations. The Pavée Synagogue, the only religious building to his credit, is less exuberantly Art Nouveau than the metro work, but the rising curves are undeniably his. It was dynamited on the eve of Yom Kippur 1941 by French Nazi sympathizers at the same time as several other synagogues in Paris. Guimard wasn’t Jewish but was married to a Jew—an American at that. Already in 1938 Guimard and his wife had fled Paris at the specter of war and moved to New York City, where he died in 1942. The Pavee Synagogue was restored after the war and is now listed as a Historical Monument. The building also houses aid services for the Orthodox community.

With a kind word and perhaps a small donation, visitors may be able to enter one of the smaller synagogues just off rue des Rosiers on rue des Ecouffes.

The largest synagogue in the Marais is at the district’s eastern edge, on rue des Tournelles, between Place de la Bastille and Place des Vosges. The Tournelles Synagogue, also listed as a Historical Monument, isn’t open for impromptu visits. Those interested in visiting this beautiful structure, built 1867-1876 with Gustave Eiffel’s company involved in the creation of its metallic skeleton, can contact the synagogue in advance to request permission (Synagogue de la rue des Tournelles, 21 bis rue des Tournelles, 75004 Paris). The Tournelles Synagogue backs up to the Vosges Synagogue whose entrance is at 14 place des Vosges. During the Jewish harvest-time holiday of Sukkot passersby will see a hut or sukkah installed on the balcony above the arcade on the square. There’s another handsome synagogue, built in the 1850s, in the northern part of the Marais, at 5 Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth. Taken together, these synagogues attest to the diverse community of Jews had spread throughout the Marais by the end of the 19th century, a century that saw the number of Jews in Paris increase six- or seven-fold. Many more would arrive in the following decades

Neither Rue des Rosiers nor any other area of the Marais was a closed ghetto, though portions might be considered a ghetto in the sense of being extremely run down. Jews were clearly a sizable presence in the Marais by the end of the 19th century, their numbers continuing to climb, however Jews lived throughout Paris in varying density. Rue de la Roquette (past the Bastille just east of the Marais) and Belleville were also had noticeably dense Jewish populations. While some who had distinguished themselves on the social ladder remained in the Marais, others preferred to live in the city’s upscale quarters, such as near the boulevards and quarters being modernized by Haussmann’s transformations of Paris. (Read about the Rothchild family here and the de Camondo family here.)

Wealth in the Marais

Even when Jews returned to the Marais after the war the strong Jewish presence had existed on the southern side of rue de Rivoli and rue Saint-Antoine was, by the late 1940s, largely absent; the homes of French and foreign Jews and non-Jews had been expropriated for the purposes of rehabilitating an “insalubrious” zone. Little by little the Marais lost its craftsmen and its peddlers as it became home to the middle class and to government projects. Yiddish, so frequently heard and read in the Marais prior to the war, had largely disappeared by the end of the 1950s. Another accent arose, that of Sephardic Jews arriving in numbers from North Africa in the 1950s and 1960s. Sephardic rituals replace Ashkenasic rituals in certain synagogues, notably the synagogue on rue des Tournelles that was split in two to accommodate the distinct ritual interests of the Marais. On rue des Rosiers and nearby streets the neighborhood’s Jewish presence remained clear in the cafés and restaurants, local grocers and shops, with some now preferring couscous and bricks over herring and latkes. But the Marais as a whole was on the way upscale. “The Marais” wasn’t yet a call to stroll and shop, to see and be seen, but by the 1980s public funding was pouring into the area to restore its noble historical buildings—the 17th-century mansions and the town houses on Place des Vosges—and poverty, the hallmark of pre-war Jews in the Marais, no longer had a place here; the working class had been pushed to the edge of the city and into the suburbs. The Picasso Museum opened in one of those mansions in 1985, a turning point in terms of the neighborhoods visibility to visitors to Paris. The decade witnessed an acceleration of a transformation of the district’s local population, in the use of its storefronts and in the way in which the Marais was viewed from outside the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. Visitors from elsewhere in Paris and from abroad began to arrive. Gay bars and businesses opened just west of rue des Rosiers and within a few block of rue des Archives.

With rising real estate prices and an increasing number of visitors through the 1990s, shops began catering to clients from beyond the neighborhood. Rue des Rosiers, the remaining portion of the Marais to stake a claim to being the Pletzl—the ever shifting center of “the Jewish Quarter—, once again began to lose its local Jewish identity, though this time without anyone being murdered. Briefly Paris had the distinction of having side by side a Jewish village by day and a gay village by night. That held for about a decade, but as the Marais gained in desirability for increasingly upscale residents and visitors, any sense of neighborhood anywhere in the district largely evaporated.

Of course, Addidas, Kookai and Fred Perry shops on rue des Rosiers can be Jewish operated, as can the real estate on rue des Rosiers, but only foreign Jewish visitors and native anti-Semites consider this a Jewish quarter anymore. Similarly, only visiting LGBTQ individuals and French homophobes consider the area around rue des Archives a gay quarter. Otherwise, visitors are unlikely to have any idea who actually lives in these areas.

The 2000s saw the arrival of something new on rue des Rosiers and perpendicular streets, a new kind of Diaspora. This time it wasn’t a wave of Jewish immigrants arriving but of Jewish recipes, from New York—deli fare, pastrami sandwiches and the like. Oh, there had been pastrami sold here before, but the new deli restaurants marked the transformation of this small portion of the Marais into a Jewish-theme food court.

Though regrettable for those expecting to be visiting a Jewish enclave and a local community, this is simply part of the evolution of the city, just one of many formerly distinct neighborhoods that have been transformed by market forces in recent decades. The neighborhoods of Paris can still be distinguished by architecture, monuments, museums and history, but they are increasingly homogenous with regards to populations living and visiting there.

Wealth is the historical feature that the central Marais most recalls. After all, nobility and financiers began buying up lots here in the second half of the 16th century, and during the 17th century this became the most fashionable quarter of Paris thanks to the construction of Place des Vosges and of dozens of noble mansions. That was before there was a significant Jewish population here. It was the downfall of French nobility during the Revolution that gave Jews the freedom and elbow room to increase in numbers in the Marais. It was persecution elsewhere, hope for a better life and a need for community that caused the number of Jews in the Marais to swell in the late 19th century. It was also sense of security, hope and community (along with fun) that led to the opening of gay bars and businesses nearby in the late 20th century. The Marais was less desirable for business ventures then. Now, 400 years after the royal inauguration of Places des Vosges, the re-establishment of the Marais as a prized destination and residential area is a sign not such much that it has lost its Jewishness as that it has regained its lettres de noblesse—at least de bourgeoisie.

The Jewish Food Court

French and foreign visitors from beyond the quarter now frequent rue des Rosiers primarily for the shopping and the falafels—falafels, enjoyable as they may be, aren’t a reflection of local community or agriculture or known-how but of what visitors are happy to purchase. Hungry visitors will line up at the falafel window at L’As du Falafel as though the several other similar stands on the street had all failed their latest health test or lost the recipe for frying chickpea balls and slicing cabbage. The devotion to queuing there, particularly on Sunday, is partially due to the perverse lingering effect of an old article in the New York Times, partially due to the hawkers out front (once you’ve paid you’re stuck waiting), partially due to the fact that it’s kosher, whatever the latter may mean to the vast majority of those in line. As to quality, if you’re a serious student of fried chickpea balls and sliced cabbage in Paris then you should try them all. But if you simply want to eat a falafel pita sandwich any stand will suffice.

The street’s other hotspot is Chez Marianne, which takes its French republicanism seriously enough to present itself as French first, Jewish second. Chez Marianne, at the corner of rue des Rosiers and rue de l’Hospitalières Saint-Gervais, serves all kinds of delicious Mediterranean mush (eggplant, hummus, tzatziki, tarama, tapenade, etc.) as well as falafel, so there’s something for everyone. It isn’t kosher and so is open daily noon to 11pm. There are other choices in the area for a decent pastrami sandwich and well-oiled latkes, as well as some fine Ashkenazic bakeries. And there’s one remaining café that on weekdays still maintains a neighborhood feel, Les Rosiers, at #2 on the rue. Meanwhile, while fast foodies are now able to enjoy pastrami sandwiches and other New York imports in other quarters of Paris as well (e.g. meaty Freddies Deli in the 11th or vegan MOB in the 13th), while falafels are more common than crepes on some streets.

But I digress. The purpose of this article is not to recommend specific eateries in the Jewish food court or to speak of recent influences to the Paris fast food scene but rather to encourage those interested in Jewish history to look beyond the 20 years of Marais history represented by the Mediterrean-meets-NY-deli food offerings on rue des Rosiers. Enjoy them, enjoy that lingering scent and that occasional glimpse of the Pletzl and an old Jewish quarter—and why not enjoy them insightfully after working up an appetite at more instructive sights? The Deportation Memorial, the Shoah Memorial and the Holocaust Center would be fine places to start. You can begin by reading about them in this next article.

© 2014, Gary Lee Kraut

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It’s hard to imagine that a district as well-trodden as the 6th arrondissement would still have anything resembling a backstreet, but if a backstreet in Paris can be defined as a street with neither thru-traffic nor croissants—selling croissants requires sufficient morning traffic or an elementary school nearby—then rue de l’Abbé Grégoire fits the bill.

Ferrandi, the French School of Gastronomy

Actually, there are croissants on rue de l’Abbé Grégoire, but they aren’t for public sale. They’re made as a practical exercise during baking class at the Ferrandi School.

Ferrandi is well known in Paris’s gastronomic circles for its secondary school curricula covering all aspects of the culinary arts and the restaurant business, from chef to manager. The school also offers short and long programs for amateur or professional chefs, and foreigners may apply for any of the school’s programs.

The culinary school also houses one of the best kept gastronomic secrets in Paris. Anyone, upon reservation, can become the well-fed guinea pig for the cuisine and services of the school’s young and budding chefs and restaurant staff at Ferrandi’s two dining rooms, les restaurants d’application.

A 3-course lunch menu is served Tues.-Fri. for 25€ or 30€, depending on the dining room. A 3-course dinner menu is served Mon. and Tues. (45€) and the occasional Thurs. (40€). Prices exclude beverages; there’s a decent wine list here. The students in the kitchen and in the dining room are being trained in French gastronomy, so whether achieved or not in every dish and every gesture, each meal has gastronomic leanings in its preparation and service.

Each table is requested to select a variety of dishes so as to give the chefs practice in the full range of the day’s menu. Come as a couple if you like, but as a restaurant experience a meal chez Ferrandi is especially endearing for a party of four or more. You’ll find the wait staff more willing to speak with diners than other waiters about town (students are expected to attain a certain proficiency in English) and you may even have the occasion to meet the young chefs before they head to their next class, or out for a smoke.

Ferrandi Paris, 28 rue de l’Abbé Grégoire, 6th arr. Tel. 01 49 54 28 00. Saint-Placide (line 4) is the closest metro station to Ferrandi and to the shops below, while the Rennes station (line 12) is just a bit further.

Backstreet doesn’t mean that Abbé Grégoire is difficult to find (the liberal, revolutionary abbot himself is entombed in the Pantheon) but that the neighboring streets are more commonly shopped and strolled and transited: rue du Cherche-Midi, rue de Vaugirard, rue Saint-Placide, rue de Rennes.

Colorova, Pastry Shop and Tea/Lunch Room

Guillaume Gil, the chef and owner of Colorova, a shop across the street from Ferrandi, is a 2004 graduate of the school, pastry section. Though he speaks highly of education at Ferrandi, it isn’t an attachment to the school that brought him to rue de l’Abbé Grégoire but the possibility in 2012, at the age of 31, to deploy his dream of operating his own business after honing his skills as an apprentice at the Plaza-Athenée, as commis chef at La Maison Blanche and as second and then chef at the Terrass Hotel.

At first glance, Colorova could be taken for an architect’s office, a frame shop, a design shop or a decorator’s showroom. You’ll likely first notice the light jade Smeg fridge to one side of the window and the Florentine nest of tables and woven-fabric-covered footstools to the other before catching sight of the presentation counters. And even then you might notice the slats that decorate the side of the counters before the array of pastries on top. But there they are: Guillaume Gil’s beautiful and delicious creations, and behind one of the counters, the man himself, working away with an assistant or two in the open kitchen.

About ten different pastries appear on the counter on a given day. Since the pastry presentation isn’t the focus of the room, the offerings of about 10 different pastries can appear rather sparse, but that illusion disappears as soon as you take on the challenge of trying to select one.

Gil’s luscious modern pastries stray noticeably if slightly from the canons of classic fine pastry-making without being avant-garde, e.g. a commendable caramel mousse tarte with a ring of speculoos and peanuts; a candied raspberry and chocolate tart; a café mousse with amaretto mascarpone. Gil eschews traditional pastries such as éclairs and basic fruit tarts. Viennoiserie (croissants, pains au chocolat and other morning pastries) are also absent, other than on weekends and holidays, when Colorova serves what has become a very popular brunch (26€ or 35€, reservations required). Weekday lunch, also prepared by Gil and his assistance, is also available. Pastries remain his true expertise.

The large minimalist boutique area and additional seating area, both enlivened with splashes of color, have an air of refinement but neither snobbery nor exclusivity. Anyone will feel comfortable here. In the morning and during afternoon tea, Colorova is a fairly quiet place that makes for a sweet, perhaps romantic linger.

Since Gil’s aren’t pastries that one can easily eat while walking, it’s best to choose one and have a seat. Pastries cost 4€50-5€50, so you might as well take a seat and savor the pleasure along with a Lov Organic tea or Nespresso coffee or a thick hot chocolate for overkill. A nice breakfast is also available at 12€ consisting of a slice of soft, delicate French toast (from a brioche made here); a whipped vanilla cream, caramel and apple compote; a hot drink and orange juice; bread (not made here), and homemade jams, a chocolate spread and a caramel spread.

Colorova, 47 rue de l’Abbé Grégoire, 6th arr. Tel. 01 45 44 67 56. Open Tues. 10am-5pm, Wed.-Fri. 7:30am-7pm, Sat.Sun. 9am-7pm. Weekend brunch is served at three seatings: beginning at 11/11:30am, 1/1:30pm and 3:30/4pm.

Le Vin en Bouche, Wine Shop

While Colorova, at first glance, looks like a design shop, Le Vin en Bouche, when I first walked by, looked as though someone had left the door open to the back pantry. I say that fondly because this quirky little wine shop and tasting room has an inviting spirit that comes from the knowledge and personalities of its two dissimilar owners, Vincent Martin, 41, and Jonathan Jean, 24, either of which would make a fine drinking companion.

Vincent Martin is a Ferrandi graduate, where he studied the culinary arts from 1993 to 1995 after three years in hotel school and where he discovered an aptitude for and an interest in the subtleties of wine. He was head sommelier at La Truffière, where he worked from 2000 to 2010 and helped develop the gastronomic restaurant’s tremendous wine cellar. He and Jean met when the latter, then in his teens, was hired as his apprentice.

Combining Martin’s great experience and Jean’s knowledgeable and engaging enthusiasm, they opened their little shop as peers in 2012. Whether you come upon one or the other you’ll get expert advice on an eclectic selection of wines and spirits and can pursue the conversation with them or with your travel companions over a glass and some well-selected charcuterie or fromage at the narrow table by the brick wall. They also offer wine tasting workshops and events, and Martin continues to advise restaurants and individuals on constituting wine lists and wine cellars.

Martin has personally visited each of the vineyards represented in the shop. But that’s not the end of his purchase policy. More than a dozen bottles are open at the shop at any time. The purpose of the open bottles isn’t simply to give clients a taste or larger pour, but also because Martin believes that for a wine to be worthy it must, among other qualities, be able to stand up to having been opened for a week or so. He continues to test open bottles for up to ten days to understand how they evolve. They’re simply recorked after each taste, without any air pump device, and either left on the table or placed in the wine fridge. “It’s a little extreme,” he acknowledges, “but I don’t like to leave things to chance.”

Martin and Jean’s small selection echoes their “passion for the wines of small winegrowers that truly represent their place of origin [terroir],” as Martin says. That’s a formula, at once trendy and old-fashion, that the traveler is well-advised to take as his own motto while getting to know French wines.  In wine tastings with those unaccustomed to French and European appellations, Martin joins many small-shop owners in saying that one of his tasks with New World consumers it to get them to loosen their focus on expecting a particular taste from a particular grape varietal.

These aren’t necessarily pricey wines. Most are in the 15-35€ range, along with a splash of more expensive wines from notable low-yield vineyards. There’s no Bordeaux in the shop, as Martin explains, because he finds that too many vintners and traders of the Bordeaux region have generally opted to sell through large distribution channels, meaning that any retail price that he might have for such wines would far exceed their price in chain shops, which would in term make him and Jean look like a price gougers. Actually, Martin does have some well-aging Bordeaux along with along with other “vins de garde” and old vintages in a private cellar in the 5th arrondissement. Those wines are also available for sale, so knowledgeable wine-lovers might wish to inquire about wines beyond those found in this wonderful little wine pantry.

Le Vin en Bouche, 27 rue de l’Abbé Grégoire, 6th arr. Tél. 01 42 22 02 97. Open Mon.-Sat. 10am-8pm.

© 2013, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Paris Street Talk: Gastronomy, Pastries and Wine on Rue de l’Abbé Grégoire, 6th Arr. appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

It was in the 1960s that the rehabilitation of the Marais took off, thanks to Malraux’s Bill (La loi Malraux) initiated in 1962 by President De Gaulle’s Minister of Culture. It didn’t happen overnight and for a while property remained affordable (that was the time to buy) and courtyards wide open to outsiders (that was the time to visit). It took the Autumn Festival of classical music (alas no more) to bring the magnificent heritage of the Marais to the attention of the public and to nudge the public authorities into restoring it.

Today the Marais is a secret to no one and is saturated with day trippers and tourists on weekends and holidays. La Place des Vosges is the most expensive square in Paris, as it was right from the beginning, the city’s first open-air square — La Place Royale —, inaugurated in 1612 on the occasion of the double betrothal of Louis XIII to Anne of Austria and of their respective siblings.

Surrounded in neat order by 36 brick-and-stone townhouses, these were occupied by the most prestigious families of the nobility, among them the maternal family of Madame de Sévigné, the great letter writer who was born at no. 1. Or the Duc de Sully, the retired Minister of the murdered Henri IV, who resided on the  southwest corner of the square, no. 7, now the French Heritage Trust (Caisse des Monuments Historiques), complete with an excellent bookshop. His daughter married into the great Rohan family, several members of which lived in this palace in the years that followed.

A branch of the Rohan family, married to the equally great Guénémée, resided at no. 6, on the southeastern corner of the square. It was a fabulous palace “all gilded and painted by Cotelle,” whose sketchbook of the drawings were made for this palace is now kept at the Ashmolean Library in Oxford.

The splendor was gone by the time Victor Hugo lived in this townhouse (1832 -1848), now his museum. So was the lovely garden. For after the court moved to Versailles (1682), the Parisian aristocracy shifted its centre of gravity west, causing the remote Marais to decline. The French Revolution dealt it a final blow; which is why Victor Hugo could afford to occupy an entire townhouse at this address. It is also during the French Revolution that the square was renamed after the Vosges, a thank-you gift to the newly created department (district) in eastern France for being the first to pay its taxes to the new republic.

Today Dominique Strauss-Kahn, now famous outside of France for the Sofitel chambermaid affair, and his wife Anne Sinclair reside on the Place des Vosges, in a 240 square-meter (2583 square-foot) apartment, though not a full townhouse. You would have to belong to the uppermost financial echelon to own a full-size townhouse in this kind of neighborhood, like the ruling family of Qatar for example, the new proprietors of the listed Hôtel Lambert on the eastern edge of the Ile Saint-Louis, now undergoing major restoration.

Apart from sharing this superb address in two different time zones, Victor Hugo and DSK, reports have it, also shared an insatiable sexual appetite. Victor Hugo was the most notorious fornicator of 19th-century France, resisting neither glamorous actresses nor humble chambermaids. During his time on Place des Vosges he seduced la petite boulangère from the corner bakery still standing on rue du Petit-Musc, south of rue Saint-Antoine. A back staircase in his study allowed him to repair unseen to his rendezvous by way of the Impasse Guénémée. I knew nothing about Victor Hugo’s connection to the boulangerie when I was a student round the corner in the early 1970s, and bought here occasionally my pains au chocolat and baguettes. The hotel across the street where the two of them retired was demolished in the 1950s.

DSK was thrown into jail, publicly humiliated and castigated, perhaps career-wise ruined. Victor Hugo was adulated as a national hero and honored with the biggest funeral ever held in the capital. Two million Parisians gathered along its itinerary, all the way from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon.

Other members of the Rohan family lived at the magnificent no. 87 rue Vieille du Temple west of Place des Vosges, now part of the National Archives. Between 1766 and 1778  they had Caron de Beaumarchais as a neighbor, now no. 47 of the street, the Hôtel Amelot de Bisseuil, alas invisible from the street behind its splendidly carved doors that won’t yield.

The son of a watchmaker, turned arms dealer, Beaumarchais founded here the Rodriguez and Hortalez Company for the purpose of selling arms to the budding American nation in its fight against the English. He also used his time here to compose an opera and, more  famously, to write a play, Le Mariage de Figaro, better known internationally in Mozart’s operatic version, a satire on the popular theme of troussage de domestique (the rolling up of a female servant’s skirts) as the journalist Jean-François Kahn (JFK) referred to the DSK affair.

Although they have the same family name, the journalist is no relation of the ex-head of the IMF, but he does happen to be a long-standing friend of his wife. This exacerbated the furor caused by his comment which sounded as though he was condoning DSK’s demeanor because it’s culturally commonplace and traditionally played down. Not so Beaumarchais who, most daringly in his play, on the eve of the French Revolution, questioned the right of a nobleman to the thighs of his female servant (le droit de cuissage), an audacity for which he was briefly jailed by order of the king.

Hailing from 21 Place Royale half a century earlier, the Duc de Richelieu and great nephew of Cardinal Richelieu bragged about his sex life with all the female residents of the square. At times the duke could be violent, notorious for experimenting with his victims on his famous armchair. The Duke went on to seduce the regent’s daughters and their cousin, but when he carried off three of regent’s mistresses, the latter had him removed from Paris by appointing him Ambassador to Vienna.

Incidentally, Mozart too stayed in the Marais, in the magnificently restored Hôtel de Beauvais, at 68 rue François Miron. The palace was built for Catherine Belier, Anne of Austria’s lady-in-waiting and better known to history as Cateau la Borgnesse (one-eyed Kate), a gift from the Queen for having initiated young Louis XIV to the facts of life! A century later seven-year-old Mozart stayed here with his father and sister Nennerl. The threesome was the guests of the Ambassador of Bavaria, Count Van Eyck, whose residence this was. Today this is the Administrative Court of Appeal which graciously keeps the courtyard open to the public. On its façade can be seen the carved heads of Cateau and of Anne of Austria. On your next visit to the Marais, don’t forget to drop by.

Thirza Vallois is the author of Around and About Paris, Romantic Paris and Aveyron, A Bridge to French Arcadia. Around and About Paris, Volume 1 is now available on Amazon as an ebook.

Thirza’s selection of businesses that enjoy the patina of time and/or are well-known landmarks:

Fine lodging, a 4-star hotel:
Hôtel Pavillon de la Reine. 28 Place des Vosges, 3rd arrondissement. Tel 01 40 29 19 19.

Fine dining, Bernard Pacaud’s 3-Michelin-starred restaurant:
L’Ambroisie. 9 Place des Vosges, 4th arrondissement. Tel. 01 42 78 51 45.

Dining with a side dish of operatic singing:
Bel Canto. 72 quai de l’Hôtel de Ville, 4th arrondissement. Tel. 01 42 78 30 18.

A favorite timeless old-time tearoom:
Le Loir dans la Théière. 3 rue des Rosiers, 4th arrondissement. Tel. 01 42 72 90 61.

Tequila, margaritas, guacamole, nachos, quesadillas, and perhaps a smattering of beautiful people:
La Perla. 26, rue François Miron, 4th arrondissement. Tel. 01 42 77 59 40.

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and allowing myself to be surprised by details without feeling that I had to learn or appreciate or buy anything in particular,…

a real neighborhood, with a locksmith-shoemaker…

and a restorer of old plumbing…

and shops that don’t scream “tourists, deposit your tourist money!,”…

the kind of neighborhood where I’d go without lunch plans and instead check menus and decor as I walked around before settling on, say, a good Indian restaurant (Maharaja), or a bistro/wine bar (Oh Bigre), or something contemporary (La Family),…

or perhaps be tempted by the food shops to create a picnic…

and head past the little church (Sainte Marie des Batignolles) that I’d feel no tourist obligation to visit…

to the neighborhood park, where I might stroll the paths of the city’s most charming English-style garden…

then sit on a bench enjoying my picnic while observing various species of ducks and geese at play or at sleep and contemplating an ominous, pigeon-dropped statue of turkey vultures (or eagles?)…

before leaving the park to sit in a café, where I’d think, “Now this looks like a nice quarter to live in, how come I’ve never read about it?,”…

then I’d probably take the metro to Rome or Place de Clichy…

and visit the Batignolles quarter in the 17th arrondissement.

(c) 2010, Gary Lee Kraut

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North of the Seine in this corner of the city, in the 12th arrondissement, construction in the 1980s was focused on the Bercy and Cour Saint Emilion quarters, with Parc de Bercy at its center. Those quarters are now well established. Far more interesting from an urban planning point of view and thus of particular interest to the exploring Parisphile is the zone south of the Seine, in the 13th arrondissement, a project that goes under the official name “Paris Rive Gauche.”

Paris Rive Gauche? But isn’t that the Saint Germain Quarter and the Luxembourg Garden? Doesn’t Rive Gauche mean famous pastry shops, baby Diors, boutiquey hotels, cute little restaurants, and a café for every mood? Referring to a recent construction zone so far removed from the well-known charms of the 6th arrondissement may indeed sound like sacrilege. This, however, is the Rive Gauche of the 21st century, another Left Bank.

The new Paris Rive Gauche

It may not be quaint or charming or picturesque, it may not have buzz or hype or chic, it may not have stellar chefs and famous chocolatiers, just yet, but ignore the existence of this quarter at the risk of holding an outdated vision of Paris.

Covering a zone previously defined by docks and industry and rail yards, the Paris Rive Gauche project stretches 1.25-mile (2-km) along the Seine from Gare d’Austerliz to the edge of the city and several hundred yards uphill. The project is divided into a half-dozen “quarters” with forgettable names like Austerlitz Sud, Tolbiac Nord, and Masséna-Chevaleret, so for the time being it’s best thought of the National Library or BNF quarter, even though that library is the least appealing part of the area.

Inaugurated in 1996, the François Mitterand National Library (Bibliothèque Nationale de France – François Mitterand) was built as a beacon to the intellectual grandeur of France, but architecturally it comes across as an empty conversation. The library space itself is practical enough, and there’s an attractively foreboding otherworldliness to the inner garden/woods that’s at the heart of the complex, but the vast esplanade within the four corner towers is a sad, windswept zone. And the view of the complex from the river isn’t the least bit inspiring. Perhaps something will be done to make the esplanade more welcoming in the coming years.

What is Paris without its old stones?

In the absence of notable history (architectural, urban, or otherwise), Paris Rive Gauche raises the question as to what Paris is without its old stones.

Paris Rive Gauche might actually be seen as an attempt to create a utopian quarter of Paris, a place where cultural institutions, government, residences (both subsidized and free-market), medical research centers, galleries, shops, café society, universities, fashion and creation centers, sports, cinemas, restaurants, shopping, nightlife, and residents and visitors happily and productively coexist in a zone that simultaneously connects with the historical center, with older neighborhoods nearby, with the close suburbs, and with the river.

That’s a lot to ask of a single development zone—which is precisely why it’s so interesting for the urban travel and the Parisphile to come have a look, even if, as noted above, the zone offers neither charm nor chic.

How to visit the 21st-century Left Bank

If approached as a waterfront area one might begin a visit to Paris Rive Gauche either from the Chevaleret metro station then by walking along the Seine or from across the river at Cour Saint Emilion then by passing through Bercy Park and over the seductive Simone de Beauvoir footbridge to the Left Bank and the National Library. Arriving by bike is another alternative.

But the most startling way to enter into 21st century Left Bank Paris is to enter directly into the heart of the zone by taking the RER C or metro line 14 to the Bibliothèque François Mitterand station and exiting onto Avenue de France.

Avenue de France, the wide, main street behind the library, naturally looks more like new Berlin than it does old Paris. Though it has existed for several years now, the avenue still feels at certain times of day like a street to nowhere or a street to nowhere or main street in an abandoned town. That impression will undoubtedly change though as the surrounding area develops and connects both physically and psychologically with the rest of Paris. There’s a crane in the distance in the photo above.

The riverbank

Already the riverbank attracts a trickle of visitors throughout the year. A steadier stream comes this way from May to September as the riverside has begun to earn its place on the warm-weather map of Paris due to its outdoor lounge-cafés, party boats (e.g.Batofar), the Josephine Baker floating pool (2006), and occasional outdoor summer activities.

Commerce is as yet relatively subdued between the river and avenue de France. Nevertheless there are movie theaters, live theaters, bookshops, bakeries, cafes, and brasseries, galleries and bookshops to remind you that this is indeed Paris. The zone’s busiest store to date—and a major Saturday draw to the area—is Truffaut, the large plant and pet business.

Further developments

Along with the National Library, other institutional projects have begun opening their doors. The Institut Français de la Mode in the old docks by the Austerlitz train station opened in 2009. The Paris-Val-de-Seine School of Architecture and a research center of the Pitié-Salpêtrière university hospital and are now taking shape. A new university campus, Université Paris 7 – Diderot, began welcoming some students in 2005, with the number increasing each year and expected to grow to 30,000 students and staff when the campus is completed in 2012. That same year the tramway ringing the city will be arriving in this sector. As all of the above takes hold and new residential buildings are completed, more restaurants are sure to open.

Though development of the quarter has been steady for 15 years now, fall 2012 appears to be the time that everything will come together, making this zone in full-fledged and effervescent part of the city. New constructions will continue for several years beyond that.

No need to wait though. Twenty-first century Paris Rive Gauche, the other Left Bank, is already on the map.

* * *

For further information about the Paris Rive Gauche project visit the official site.

For return travelers looking for a stroll in one of the lesser-known 19th-century quarters, see this France Revisited photo-report about the Batignolles quarter in the 17th arrondissement.

© 2010, Gary Lee Kraut

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