Christmas in Paris preview

I'm going to do a bigger post on all the decorations once they're up; many won't appear for another week or so.

But Bon Marche has put up all of its stuff, and I have to say it's the most elaborate window display I've ever seen.  They alternated fashion-themed windows with windows that are actually cute little stories about stars, having sound and animated and everything.  I wish I could take a good video but it's in French and so dark inside the little booths. 

Now there are even more lights up along the street, I'll take a picture of that sometime.

The life of stars

The rain from stars

Head in the stars

Lights from stars [I was going to translate this as "starlight" but the story is about how stars got their lights, their colors, etc, so I thought this was better.]

The alternating windows are pretty simple: designer dresses posed with pretty star decorations.

The stories are really cute for kids to look at.  A narrator talks gives a 2 or 3 minute speech about each of the themes - the stars are characters and he explains how they came to be, what they do, and how they came to look as they do.  There are little animations set up to go with the stories.  You can see that each of those black structures actually covers part of the sidewalk - they're like short hallways that you can walk through and look at the windows. 

I've taken 3 year old M twice already and she keeps wanting to go back. 

Notre Dame will set up lights and a big tree (like Rockefeller center), the Champs Elysees has lights and decorations all along it, and there will be a number of traditional Christmas markets.  I'll go exploring next weekend or the one after and take some pictures for you!

2nd arr

I have to admit, I knew little about the 2nd arr before doing research from this post.  As far as I knew: historically it had three very distinct sections (more on that later), is now home to the financial district and a shopping district, it had no monuments or museums of note, and was very small.  So after reading up on it a bit, I took a little trip out there today to see what was interesting and take some pictures for my dear readers.  For this reason, and because there is distinctly little in terms of history to talk about with this arr, this post will be rather picture-heavy.

And a disclaimer: the view screen on my camera is broken so when I take pictures I have no way of knowing if they're good or not.  I hope for the best, but this is why many are oddly centered or blurry.  Sadly, it makes it so that I hardly ever get good pictures of far-away stained glass or art in the churches.

The 2nd is the smallest arr, only almost one square km (about .38 square miles), but like the 1st it has a large number of businesses in comparison to its size.  Unlike the 1st, though, the 2nd's business life is not at all tourist-based: it is the home to most of Paris' financial district and the current Bourse, the stock exchange.  The western end of this arr is bounded by the Opera/grand magasin area - which I talked about a bit in this post.  It's a pretty bourgeois, commercial area with a lot of later 19th century architecture, wider streets, and not a lot of residences.

Here is the Bourse today (apparently it's a favorite place to park tour buses on the weekends):

 

It's only about a 7 minute walk or so from the old Bourse, which I discussed in the post on the 1st arr.  It's also very close to the Louvre and Palais Royal - so you can tell that this is a wealthy, higher-class area of the city.

This place is obviously no longer the headquarters of the Bank of France (does the Bank of France even exist anymore?  I'm not up on the French banking system) but I don't really know what it is.  It's a government building, though - you can tell because it has a huge flag on the entrance.  Anyway, it's in the same area as the current financial center.

So this area of the 2nd arr is pretty calm and staid - a complete contrast to the eastern end of the arr, which is, keep in mind, less than a third of a mile away.  I knew much more about this neighborhood.

To the east the 2nd arr's boundary is the Rue St Denis.  This street has been notorious since the early Renaissance for having a thriving, incorrigible trade in um, ladies of the night.  And that particular business is still going strong there, although the red light district now centers around the Pigalle area, a shortish walk away.  

Police as far back as the 14th century have complained how these ladies had their rooms all along this street - in fact this very street gave rise to the term "bordello":

You can see that this street is very narrow and not paved as such - this section has a definite medieval feel, and boasts some of the best-preserved medieval points of interest outside of the 4th and 5th arrs.  Now there are lots of Middle Eastern fast food restaurants, pizza places, and cheap clothing shops.  Funnily enough, I took this shot of the historical prostitution row in front of a church:

These two things on the outside of this rather unassuming church made me more interested in going inside it instead of continuing down Rue St Denis:

"St Leu and St Gilles parish, diocese of Paris.  Chapter church of the knights of the Order of St Sepulchre of Jerusalem"

The Latin: house of God and door to heaven.  The Hebrew: YHWH (I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong - aren't you glad I'm passably bad at so many languages?)  So...these things probably don't look like much, but together they said to me, "Knights Templar!!"

Okay, I don't necessarily think the knights of St Sepulchre were like the Templars, but the Hebrew inside the triangle and the point this church makes of mentioning its ancient connections to the orders in Jerusalem definitely makes me think it was part of the whole secret church society thing back in the day.

This is just outside my realm of knowledge, but I do find those orders fascinating.  

As I looked around the church my suspicions were confirmed: they kept referring to the Jerusalem knights, how they were separated from their home churches, and it was founded in just the right time period, in 1235.

Anyway, it's a pretty cool church inside, though the outside is not much.

It's bright and airy (in stark contrast to the next church) and the stained glass was nice.  There was a medieval crypt towards the front housing the bones of St Helen; it was super cool but not lit and there were people praying so I didn't want to take flash pictures.  I'm glad I went in, although I knew pretty much nothing about it.

The church I was actually heading for was Notre Dame des Victoires, one of only three places of note in the 2nd arr (including also the Bourse and the national library, which I'll get to in a bit).  I had never been there and didn't know much about this one, either, except that it's pretty well known.

Before I got there I went through the Place des Victoires, a little shopping circle a couple of blocks down from the Louvre.  The statue is Louis XIV, who indeed had probably more than his fair share of victories.  The buildings are mostly 17th century, to go with the 17th century king.

Moving right along...here is the facade of Notre Dame des Victoires.  I was struck by how much it reminded me of the 17th century churches in Italy - in shape and decoration.  I don't particularly like that style, though.

It looked rather dead from the outside, so the inside was a bit of a surprise.  Upon entering my thoughts were something like, "holy...holiness!"  I immediately got the impression that this is the most religiously active church I've seen in outside of probably Sacre Coeur.  

The number of candles!  They must spend a good deal of time worrying about fires.  I go into a LOT of these churches, but I have never seen this many candles lit.  This church seems to be pushing a few saints (or soon-to-be saints) pretty hard.

Here is St Theresa's (of Lisieux...I think) shrine.  Poor thing, a weird reflection is making her eye look rather deformed.  

And here's one of a couple that is titled Bienheureux...which means very happy, so I'm not sure if they're venerable or blessed.  Sorry.  Also this picture sucks.

 

And just next to these two was one for the last pope.  Every shrine in this church had at least 100 candles I would say.

It was one of the most dark and somber churches I've visited here and I felt distinctly unwelcome taking pictures.  I tried to get some shots of the frescoes around the front alter, which were really nice, but when I got home I saw that they didn't come out at all.

So, I've gone through the western and eastern ends of the 2nd arr, but what is in the middle?  Shopping.  Lots of it.  One of the oldest shopping districts in Europe, actually.

Before I get to that, though, I read that the former location of France's national library was near the shopping area so I went to check it out.  I was expecting a large, imposing, possibly Baroque or neo-Classical building; this is what I was not expecting:

Most of the library appears to be in those metal trailers.  You can see a bit of the building in between them but I couldn't even get into the courtyard.  Oh well.

So, the middle of the 2nd arr is home to the first malls ever.  In the mid-late 18th century some rich people enclosed some of their private property, tiling the floors and putting in glass ceilings, and renting out the space to merchants.  They would set up shops in long rows called passages, often connecting, and people could stroll through and go to a wide variety of shops without going outside.

Most of these are gone but this few in the 2nd arr have survived.  Today they have an interesting mix of shops, one of which - an antique book seller - I had to really restrain myself from going into.  They're pretty narrow and don't get a ton of shoppers today but they're nice for an interesting stroll.

Aside from these passages, there is also a whole section of the middle area that is blocked off to cars, all made up of narrow streets filled with shops, restaurants and cafes.  It's very cool, and a great place to spend a leisurely day shopping.  If you are interested in the everyday street fashion of Parisians, definitely check out the Montorgueil section of the 2nd arr.

Finally, the last things!  In my wanderings, the 2nd arr has offered the most amusing restaurant/cafe names of any other area.  My favorites:

These two happen to be across the street from each other. The first one is called "The White Wolf" and the second is "The Three Little Pigs."

Speed Rabbit Pizza just made me laugh.

Things not to miss in the 2nd: the Montorgueil shopping area and the enclosed passages, and the St Leu St Gilles church, if you're into that sort of thing.  Everything else I discussed was interesting, but not imperative to see.

Food, part II

So last week I discussed the general food culture here, but I also wanted to share the more practical aspect: how one buys food here. 

There are three types of venues at which to get groceries: grocery stores, open air markets, and specialty stores.

Grocery stores are for everyday, packaged and/or processed items.  They aren't even close to as big as American grocery stores and are much more limited.  Usually they don't have much other than food items - though some will have a limited selection of toiletries and cleaning supplies - and you have many fewer options.  For example, in a medium sized grocery store here you would find probably two shelves maybe 5 or 6 feet wide of dry cereal selections, which is like nothing compared to most medium-sized American grocery stores.  So you have a much smaller choice in most things like that, simply because the French aren't big on food like that - but you have a very wide array of things like jams/preserves, yogurt, cheese, pork products, and "biscuits" (which are not American style biscuits but British style - simple cookies, more like "digestives").  Also any French grocery will have a large selection of wine and possibly beer and liquor.  Finally, the produce section is very, very small because most people buy produce at markets.

Here are two grocery trips for me, two weeks apart.  The first was a BIG trip for me!  Usually my week's groceries come to around 25 euros but this one was almost 40.

Going from top left: delicious little snacks that are basically thin crackers dipped in dark chocolate; eggplant cooked in tomato sauce (I often use this on pasta); two jars of lentils (I LOVE lentils and can eat one of these in one sitting); yogurt (I think); pesto sauce; tomato sauce with pancetta; apple juice (I'm obsessed with this store's brand bio apple juice, it's the most delicious ever! But unfortunately they run out of it a lot so I had to get an inferior one); banana, pineapple, and coconut smoothie; vegetable tortellini; pasta; 4 cheese ravioli; dark chocolate mousse; shredded cheese; chicken soup mix.

Second, from today!

Two types of pasta; two jars of lentils; yogurt; strawberries in syrup (it goes very well with the almond cake below); caramel rice pudding (OMG wasn't meaning to get this but how could I resist?); vegetable tortellini; those same dark chocolate dipped crackers; sandwich bread (first time I've ever bought packaged bread here but last week I got peanut butter so...); plain rice cakes.

So as you can see, I get some basic staples, snacks, and beverages from these stores, mostly.

Second type of place, open air markets.  Most of the markets in Paris are open three days a week (they alternate usually with another one in the area), and there are a lot of them.  I live within less than ten minutes walking from two, and about twenty minutes walking from four. 

These markets have all kinds of things.  I know I've talked about them before, because I love them, but I took some pictures today (and felt extremely stupid doing so!).  Although my current market is bigger than the one near where I lived over the summer I don't like the vendors as much.

All markets start with little metal stalls that are built each market day and taken down in the late afternoon.  Then they spray down the squares, getting rid of any produce left on the ground.

My pictures represent only a small part of the market, as it's difficult to get everything in a few shots.  I would estimate that there are 2 florists, 2 carpet/cloth people, 2 seafood people, 2-3 butchers, 4-6 fruit/fruit and vegetable sellers, 2 only-vegetable sellers, 2 bakers, 2 laitiers (eggs, milk, yogurt, creme fraiche), 2 cheese sellers, 1 Lebanese/Middle Eastern seller, 1 dried fruit, nuts, olive person, 1 herb/spice person, 1 foie gras/pate person, 3-5 jewelry people, 2-3 clothing people, 1 scarf-only person per larger weekend market. On weekdays not as many food vendors come and there are generally more clothing/jewelry people.

Here is a carpet/tablecloth/general cloth seller, on the left, and flower seller on the right.

Two vendors that sell fruit and vegetables.

The dried fruit, olives, and nuts guy.

One of the seafood sellers - this one had a HUGE line today.

This one in the foreground is an odd mix - they sell dried herbs, olives and olive products, various traditional southern French spreads, and specialty savory breads ("pain" means bread).  Across from them is a butcher.

One of the florists, and some fruit in the background.

This fruit and vegetable seller's stall is the whole length of this shot - from the leeks in the foreground to the corner of that other produce seller in the back.  Generally the produce people get stalls like this and everyone else gets like half of this space.

I tried to get a shot from one end of the square to show how big the market is but this was a fail.  It covers one big square block.

Inspired to make myself a Thanksgiving feast, I got some extra desserts at the market today.  :)  I already had some salad stuff and couldn't find any green beans without a long line so no vegetables today.  Here's what I got:

Bananas, clementines, apples, hummus and pita, dried apricots, an almond bread/cake thing, and a chocolate fondant.  Normally at this time of year I've been getting grapefruit as well but it didn't look great this week.  If I were at my other market this weekend I would have also gotten some stuffed grape leaves, tabbouleh, and moussaka from my favorite Lebanese food guy.

This was a pretty small market trip for me, because as I said I didn't get any vegetables.  I usually get one head of lettuce, one or two carrots, one or two cucumbers, some green beans, and anything else that catches my eye. 

Third place to buy food: specialty stores.  I wanted to get some pictures of some of these storefronts but haven't been able to/haven't had my camera on me when I passed.

Types of specialty stores here - at least one in every neighborhood: boulangeries (bakers - all types of bread, sandwiches, quiches, tartines, breakfast pastries)/patisseries (pastries) - often the same but not always; poissoneries (seafood); fromageries (cheese); laitiers (eggs/milk/yogurt/milk products but not always cheese); boucheries (butchers - often, but not always having poultry in addition to other stuff); volailles (just poultry); vignerons (wine).  Foie gras/pate stores are not quite as frequent but I see them all over as well. 

I mostly frequent the boulangeries, fromageries, and vignerons because I basically never buy meat and get my eggs and yogurt from the grocery store.  But many French people, especially smaller households, will go to each of these stores pretty often.  The couple I lived with a few years ago would go to every single one of those places probably about once a week, a grocery store about once a week, and the markets twice a week.  For two (three including me) people.  This is pretty much unthinkable in most of the US because it seems inconvenient - but really, you get such better quality foods and often at better prices than a grocery store.

Also you get to know the vendors/proprietors and that's always nice.  They can get a feel for the things you buy frequently and will often give you free samples or lower prices a bit.  I've talked about my friend the Lebanese food guy before, but I'm also recognized by two produce sellers at my old market, one of the bakers at my new market, and the wine store guy around the corner from me.  For example, the baker guy (from whom I bought the almond and chocolate cakes above) knows that I want to try the pain d'epices, a traditional type of French bread, but I've never really wanted to buy the whole thing - so today he told me that next week he'll be giving out samples of a special orange pain d'epices and he'll give me half of one for free if I get there before noon.

I actually really enjoy food shopping here because it's a much more interesting and personal experience than it often is at home.  And, I'm not sure whether I think this just because I like the experience better or because it's true, feel like the products are better than what I would generally get in the United States, or even if I got everything just from grocery stores here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was my Thanksgiving dinner:

Salmon and tuna sushi, an apple, and a smoothie.  Yum!  But not quite your traditional Thanksgiving.

I found an American food store here and I know that they have mixes for stuffing and gravy and some other things that might have been nice, but I was so busy during the days this week and generally was out of work too late to get there (it closes at 7pm).

I was going to Skype with my family but evidently they all forgot that was happening.  So instead, here am I doing a blog!  It's definitely the most pathetic Thanksgiving I've had.  Maybe this weekend I will get the food and make myself a post-Thanksgiving feast.

Anyway, from what I've seen most French people are aware of Thanksgiving's existence, but are unsure what it's about.  One asked me how it's different from Christmas, and J keeps mixing them up (when I told him Thanksgiving was today he said, oh, you don't have Christmas in December?).  I found that pretty amusing - it takes a bit of explaining to get them straight on both holidays.  Especially when I get into what it's supposed to commemorate and the fact that that incident is almost completely made up...

Also most were surprised that it's supposed to be on a Thursday.  I guess that's too specific for people who make the "holiday" of All Saints' Day a week and a half long!  J was absolutely in raptures today when I described to him all the food we make/eat on Thanksgiving, it was cute.  He would definitely love a day that's all about eating to excess. 

I hope you all are having a good Thanksgiving!  I'm going to do a bunch of posts this weekend, so stay tuned.

1st arr

The 1st arr is one of the most interesting, both in terms of history and present day.  It takes up a small area of the right bank and about half of the Ile de la Cite, one of the small islands in the Seine. 

It is the least populated, most visited, and most number of Parisian commuters per day.  This is because is has a huge amount of tourist attractions, tourist shops, restaurants, and businesses - and not a lot of residences.  Wikipedia tells me the 1st arr only has a total of one middle school and one high school.  Things you can find in the 1st arr: the Louvre museum; the Palais Royal (royal palace); the Tuileries gardens, which have the Orangerie and Jeu de Paume art museums; the churches of Ste Chapelle and St Eustache (my commentary on that one here); the Chatelet/Les Halles shopping district and commuter area; Place Vendome shopping area, which has many of the most exclusive jewelers and fashion designers; the "old" Bourse, the previous economic center of France, which is still very active in the government's economy; the headquarters of the Paris police; the Conciergerie, a huge former prison.

Essentially, you can't walk a couple of blocks in the 1st arr without finding another landmark.

I can't take credit for any of these pictures except the last one.

The old Bourse.  I guess was kind of the equivalent of the NY Stock Exchange.

The Place Vendome - the column is modeled on Trajan's column but describes Napoleon's exploits.  This one is a copy of the original, which was destroyed in the Commune uprising in 1871.

Inside Ste Chapelle.  The walls of this little church are almost entirely made of breathtaking 17th century stained glass.

The Tuileries gardens, just beyond the Louvre palace.  That ferris wheel is there seasonally but I'm not exactly sure when, as I don't think it was there this past summer.

St Eustache, next to Les Halles.

It's pretty easy to see why the 1st is the most visited arr in Paris, especially frequented by tourists and those who serve tourists.

As I mentioned in the last post, the 1st arr is considered the oldest area of Paris.  It's really not, as other areas were inhabited by the Gauls and Romans first, but the city of Paris as "Paris" was indeed more or less founded on the Ile de la Cite.  The government was set up just across the river, and from the fall of the Roman Empire until approximately the mid 17th century this tiny area of Paris ruled all of France.  The monarchs lived in the Louvre Palace (and its earlier incarnations) from early medieval times until the reign of Louis XIII (early 1600s), when they moved across the street to the Palais Royal.  They lived there for about 50 years until Louis XIV (mid-late 1600s) moved everyone to Versailles.  Almost the entirety of the French court - meaning all the nobles who made up the king's counsel and the minsters who ran the judicial system, the economy, the military, etc - had to live within an easy distance of the king, so most lived at least part of the time there, too.  For this reason the Bourse, which was the center of the economy until the 20th century and the central office of the police and military, were set up in the area, and the most important churches were there as well.

So this tiny area, not even one mile square, was the headquarters of France for almost one thousand years - and during much of that time France was the preeminent country in Western Europe.  It governed and created the culture and fashion for half a continent.

However, when Louis XIV moved the court outside Paris the two royal palaces were more or less abandoned and the nobles moved their homes away from the center of the city.  Members of the emerging middle class - so, bankers, merchants, etc - moved into the area and over the next century it had a strange dichotomy between these wealthy, business-minded bourgeois, and starving, homeless artists and vagabonds who squatted in the abandoned palaces and their grounds.

The Louvre itself was in such disrepair and provided shelter to so many homeless that the government considered demolishing it before the Revolution in the late 1700s.  This didn't happen in time, though, and when the revolutionaries took over the government they again made their headquarters in the Louvre and Palais Royal.  They destroyed the third royal palace, the Tuileries, during the Revolution, and all that remains of that today is the garden.

When Napoleon came to power he, too, decided to live for a time in the Louvre.  He was the one who started the art gallery in the palace that is now the most famous museum in the world.  He and his descendant Napoleon III built up their collections, which were seized but kept in the palace after the fall of the 2nd Empire in the mid 1800s.  From that point on the Louvre has only been a museum.

Two lesser-known museums are close by, as well: the Orangerie and the Jeu de Paume.  The Orangerie takes up an area that was dedicated to growing orange trees during the monarchy's tenure in the Tuilerie palace.  The museum was built specifically to house the large collection of Monets that the artist gave to the French government towards the end of his life.  He also gave instruction on how the building should be set up to display his paintings.  Today it has possibly the best collection of Impressionist paintings outside of the Musee d'Orsay, just across the river.  The Jeu de Paume is also a small museum, and it generally has rotating exhibits of lesser known, more modern artists.

Today, as you might imagine, it has a rather busy, impersonal atmosphere.  The architecture is gorgeous and the whole arr is nice to look at, but everything is very sterile, carefully set up to be a tourist trap.  I always like the idea of visiting the 1st arr but when I get there I'm generally frustrated by the hordes of slow-moving, lost tourists and the overpriced tourist shops that always seem to ooze out onto the sidewalks.  The restaurants aren't great (although it does contain Hemingway's favorite spot, which is kind of a cool, but way overpriced, bar) but not terrible, and generally cost too much for their quality.  If you've never been to Paris it's definitely worth a visit but unless you're in one of the many museums there is no reason to stay very long.

Best spots in the 1st arr: the Louvre (duh); the Orangerie; Ste Chapelle (and generally the Ile de la Cite); Angelina's, a cafe with the best hot chocolate ever; the little walking area right next to Les Halles; Bar Hemingway.