June 4
Neighborhood-at-a-Glance:
Les Halles and the 1er Arrondissement
Music: Arletty, "Coeur de parisienne," from Ça c’est Paris
Whoever looks into the depths of Paris gets dizzy. Nothing so
fantastic, nothing so tragic, nothing so superb.
—Victor Hugo
This area is full of history, and features some great specialty shops. Savor the blend of traditional and modern, where old and new architecture and shops will vie for your attention. The journey will draw you back to another era with lovely palace gardens; if you are tired of picturesque Paris, though, this walk also shows you around a grittier part of town.
1. We begin this walk at one of the best-decorated Métro
stations in Paris, Louvre-Rivoli. With a few statues on loan from
the museum above, this secret underground entrance (you have to use the
west exit) to the Louvre lobby provides an excellent way to bypass the
long security lines filing through the more public glass pyramid at ground
level, if you’re ever in the mood to get your Louvre on. Today, however,
we will exit to the (hopefully) sunny streets above.
Just outside the Métro station exit, the small church of the
Oratoire du Louvre across from the massive Louvre is worth a look.
Out front, a statue commemorates admiral Gaspard de Coligny.
More about him below.
2. Now turn south and head down Rue de l’Amiral de Coligny.
On your left, you’ll pass the office of the mayor of the 1er
arrondissement along with Église Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, the
exact geographical center of Paris and once the royal parish church for
the kings of France when they migrated from Île de la Cité
to the Louvre in the 14th century. It’s known for its flamboyant
Gothic porch, which dates back to 1435. One of its less inspiring
historical moments was the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, in which
the aforementioned Amiral de Coligny and thousands of Protestant Huegenots
who had gathered for a wedding were slaughtered by the Catholic king of
the time, Charles IX (truthfully, though, by his none-too-calm mother,
Catherine) in revenge for an uncovered plot to assassinate him. On
a more pleasant note, the Maison Cador at No. 2 houses the Pâtisserie
Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, a salon de thé (tea salon) that
dates back to 1867.
3. When you get to the river, turn left and stroll along Quai
du Louvre. Across the Seine, the Academie looms over the picturesque
Pont des Arts.
From the rooftop of the department store La Samaritaine at No. 2 Quai
du Louvre (if, that is, the new owners ever deign to reopen it, currently
scheduled for 2011!), take in a spectacular panoramic view (the same one
Jason Bourne used to spy on his setup meeting in the remake of The Bourne
Identity), or go to the ninth-floor terrace bar to soak it in with
a drink. Although not the highest point in town, the store is well-positioned
and offers helpful explanations of what you’re looking at.
4. Head along the crowded, pet-shop-lined Quai de la Mégisserie
to Place du Châtelet, the wide, sunny plaza on this side of the Pont
au Change. On the square is the historic Théâtre du
Châtelet. Feel free to join the natives in cooling your feet
in (or splashing your face from) the tall fountain in the center of the
place.
5. Then head north, up Rue Saint-Denis to Place Sainte-Opportune.
Laguiole, a world-famous knife shop, is at No. 1. Fittingly enough,
King Henri IV was assassinated during a traffic jam at the intersection
with Rue de la Ferronnerie in 1610. Talk about opportune....
Over at No. 12 Rue de la Ferronerie is Papeterie Moderne, the antique
shop specializing in the city's trademark signs. They can also make
custom ones for you.
Now that you’re well-armed courtesy of Laguiole, you can feel safe
day or night continuing north past the Fontaine des Innocents, just next
to Les Halles.
6. The city’s central market occupied this area for centuries,
but “the belly of Paris,” as Emile Zola called it, moved to a suburb in
the 1970s, making way for today’s trashy underground mall, where you can
find electronics galore during the day and hooligans galore after dark.
If you feel like a detour, Pharamond (at No. 24 Rue de la Grande Truanderie,
just one block north of Les Halles) is a great café that dates back
to 1832. If you don't, head out back of the mall to the much more
pleasant greenery; the Bistrot d'Eustache to the south on Rue Berger is
also a popular hangout.
7. Cross this pleasant garden space along Allée Saint-John
Perse, heading along its northern edge to Saint-Eustache, which dates from
the 16th century and is more impressive inside and out than its small size
might lead you to expect. The small church is Elizabeth's favorite
in Paris, and we'll return to visit it another day. Circle the church
to the northeast and take a peek at the comical Impasse Saint-Eustache
(any dead-end street—and there are a lot of 'em here—is an "impasse") and
Le Cochon à l’Oreille at No. 15 Rue Montmartre (another ancient
café, "The Golden Pig") before circling back around to Dehillerin
at No. 18 Rue de la Coquillière, another exceptional culinary equipment
shop. (Hooligans, remember...you may need more than one knife.)
L'Alsace aux Halles, at No. 16, is an all-night seafood bar, while nearby
Le Coq-Héron is an amazingly tucked-away budget restaurant.
Over to the southwest is the domed Bourse du Commerce (not to be confused,
by the way, with the other Bourse trading floor, which we'll see
in the next walking tour), where the grain exchange of old has given way
to the modern electronic commodities exchange of today.
8. Behind the Bourse, we travel southwest down Rue Jean-Jacques
Rousseau for a short distance. A quick detour through the nearby
Galerie Véro-Dodat provides an excellent excuse to window-shop;
Robert Capia has an interesting curio shop at No. 26.
9. At the end of the galerie, we will find ourselves on Rue Croix
des Petits-Champs; turn right and head north toward the Place des Victoires.
Along the way, you will pass the Banque de France on your left. Make
the block, heading west down Rue des Petits Champs.
10. At Rue Vivienne, take a left and head down to the Jardin
du Palais-Royal, lovely and very hidden, despite its central location.
Also tucked away nearby is Le Grand Véfour at No. 17 Rue de
Beaujolais, a luxurious old café, and the Fontaine Molière
on the site where his house once stood, on the western side of the Palais-Royal,
as well as the "incredibly" cheap bistro L'Incroyable, at No. 26 Rue de
Richelieu.
Although the palace itself (once Richelieu's, and later a den of iniquity)
is now government offices and closed to the public, you can still stroll
the length of the arcades, taking in the eclectic array of shops and galleries
and the goings-on in the central garden, where locals meet at lunch to
play pétanque.
Not with these balls, though. That would be a tad rough
on the rotator cuff.
You may want to stop at Muscade, at No. 67 Galerie de Montpensier in
the northwest corner, for lunch, or at No. 95 to see Anna Joliet's collection
of music boxes.
Decide for yourself what to make of the prison-evoking modern black-and-white-striped
columns in the Cour d’Honneur, at the southern end...
...then relax in the lovely flower garden and indulge in some people-watching.
11. Heading down the western side of the Palais-Royal, we come
to the delightful Théâtre de la Comédie Française,
home of France's national comedy troupe, at No. 2 Rue de Richelieu, whose
boutique is full of reprints of comedy sketches, old-fashioned puzzles,
playing cards, and other theatrical memorabilia.
Nearby, the delightful store Boutique du Palais-Royal has an impressive
selection of miniature figurines, from Napoléon's army to the Smurfs.
(They're still huge in Europe.)
12. Here at Place du Palais-Royal, we head down Rue Saint-Honoré
along the immense length of the Louvre. Dating back to 1880, Café
Verlet at No. 256 is a cozy lunch spot pungent with the aroma of freshly
ground coffee. It beats the aroma coming out of À La Civette,
a cigar shop at No. 157. Peek in at Colette at No. 213; featuring
eclectic clothes and accessories, this hip boutique is the style mecca
of Paris and perhaps best known for its basement water bar, where customers
sit at large, spare tables and order from the extensive water menu.
Don’t worry—there’s food too. Lost in the immensity of the Louvre
is the Museé des Arts Decoratifs, a (much) smaller museum located
on the outer edge of the Richelieu wing shown here. Not accessible
in the usual way from within the Louvre, it's a sight you have to be willing
to seek out. Across the street from it is the Museé du Louvre
des Antiquaires, a half-museum, half-shop that sells antiques.
As one of the ritzier neighborhoods in Paris, the 1er arrondissement
contains apartment buildings that are just a bit fancier than ours.
Must be nice.
Continuing along the Rue de Rivoli, you'll also pass Saint-Roch, a
remarkably narrow 17th-century church which is also oriented along an unusual
north-south axis. Should you need official advice or booking assistance,
the Office de Tourisme has been recently moved from its old site on the
Champs-Élysées to No. 25 Rue des Pyramides.
13. Turn right, up Rue du Marché Saint-Honoré.
In the midst of all this modern shopping-mall architecture, Le Rubis, at
No. 10, is a wine bar famous for how little it has changed. Here,
amid dust-covered bottles of wine, one feasts on hearty lentils with ham
hock, cheese, or salami sandwiches and puckery lemon tart.
At the north end of the Place du Marché Saint-Honoré,
visit a branch of the famous Parisian bakery Poilane at No. 42 for a pastry,
and Philippe Model at No. 33, where fabulous hats as colorful as Easter
eggs perch delicately.
14. Continue north, veer left onto Rue Danielle Casanova, then
left again at Rue de la Paix, where the world’s most renowned jewelers
have set up shop. Window-shop your way down to Place Vendôme,
home of many of the bankers and wealthy elite, and where the Audrey Hepburn-Gary
Cooper film Love in the Afternoon was filmed in 1957. The
143-foot (22.8-liter) Colonne Vendôme is an imitation of the emperor
Trajan's column in Rome; the spiral bronze relief, forged from 1200 captured
cannon, tells the story of Napoléon's victory over the Russians
and Austrians at Austerlitz.
The sumptuous Ritz (from which Princess Diana and Dodi El-Fayed left
on their final night in Paris) and its swank Ernest Hemingway bar is at
No. 15...
...while No. 13 has an copy of France’s official measure of the meter
carved directly into the wall there beneath the windowsill.
(Hey, I teach math.)
"Jolly Hotel Lotti, get your adverbs here...." Wait, I'm getting
mixed up.
15. Continuing south, we turn right to return to Rue de Rivoli.
At the corner are two noteworthy hotels: the Intercontinental Hotel, designed
by Opéra architect Charles Garnier, and the Meurice hotel used by
the Nazi occupiers as their Paris headquarters. For a selection of
English-language books, you can always browse the shelves of W. H. Smith
at No. 248 Rue de Rivoli.
A quick detour off of Rue de Rivoli to the right at No. 36 Rue du Mont
Thabor takes you to Le Soufflé, an old cozy restaurant that specializes
in just that; or, you could opt for a hot chocolate at the pretty salon
de thé Angelina at No. 226 Rue de Rivoli.
Either way, you can savor the sights of the Église Notre-Dame
de l’Assomption at the nearby intersection of Rue Duphot and Rue Cambon.
A Polish church, its favorite son is honored in a recent shrine out front.
Across the intersection from the church is—apparently—the Musée
des Lunettes et Lorgnettes, a museum dedicated entirely to spectacles and
sunglasses. I think it's located somewhere above this optician's
shop (that would be fitting...), but I can't be certain, as I've
never actually found the museum, search though I might.
Maybe I need glasses.
16. Ol' crazy Robespierre kicked up his feet in front of a roaring
fire after a long day of executing people at his home at No. 398.
After making sure you don't get snared in any long-long-postponed roundup
of the usual suspects, turn left onto Rue Saint-Florentin. If you
find yourself in need of some serious modern-day sanctuary (more
than the local churches can provide), the American Embassy is tucked away
near the corner of Rue de Rivoli and Rue Saint-Florentin. Maybe they're
just trying to keep a low profile for times when the locals don't love
us so much, but it's not exactly a secret, and there's always a few people
waiting in line to get through security. Fear not, we got the Marines.
17. At Place de la Concorde, turn left to head into the entry
of the Tuileries gardens.
As you enter the Tuileries, note the Jeu de Paume building on your
left. Formerly a royal tennis court, it now houses temporary exhibits.
The Librairie des Jardins, to the north of the gate, specializes in garden
books and accessories.
The Musée de l’Orangerie, to your right, houses Monet’s vast
panels of water lilies.
18. Continue east through the Tuileries, stopping at Dame Tartine
or one of the other cafés beneath the leafy chestnuts.
Savor the elegant lines of this formal garden, with its symmetrical
fountains and rows of trees...
...and the grand axis that aligns the palace with the Place de la Concorde’s
obelisque,
the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, and the contemporary
Grande Arche de la Défense.
Along the northern edge is Place des Pyramides, in which can be found
a gilded statue of Joan of Arc that is the focus of pilgrimage for royalists
even today.
19. Continue across the gardens and under Napoleon's slightly
more modest Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel toward I. M. Pei’s controversial
pyramid.
You have now technically entered the grounds of the Louvre, whose astonishingly
grand Denon and Richelieu wings run along both sides of the courtyard;
it is in these immense galleries that most of the works of the Louvre are
housed.
Descend beneath the pyramid (where today, folks from all over the world
seem to enjoy doing the exact opposite of the reverent genuflecting
of The Da Vinci Code) to the Place du Carrousel.
Aside from housing the museum entrance, it is lined with shops.
The Café Marly has a prized location on the north side of the square,
under the arcades with a view overlooking the esplanade. (You will
pay dearly for the privilege of drinking here.)
20. Returning to ground level, proceed east through the Sully
building, where you will come to the Cour Carrée. This is
the oldest part of the Louvre, dating to the early 16th century.
Though impressive by day, it is more luminous and ethereal in the evening.
This marks the end of the walking tour; upon exiting through the far side
of Sully, we have returned to the Louvre-Rivoli Métro station.