The Place des Vosges, Monet-esque
Parler Paris Nouvellettre®
Your taste of life in Paris and France
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Monday, October 11, 2010 • Paris, France
Dear Parler Paris Reader, It's the warmest October I can ever remember in Paris. Sunny days, blue skies and warm air fool us into thinking summer hasn't ended…and the weather report is good for the next few days. Even the leaves on the trees haven't shown much sign of autumn -- the chestnuts are barely brown and the leaves haven't yet rendered them naked. It's a curiously warm October in the City of Light.
This is the time of year I would always visit Paris, when I was a tourist -- a time to treat myself to my favorite place on the planet in celebration of my birthday while the weather was predictably good. It's clear the city is awash with tourists and business people with the hotels and rental apartments fully booked up and the streets almost impassable.
The line to take away a falafel sandwich at L'As du Falafel on rue des Rosiers (number 34, 4th arr.) was the longest I'd ever seen Sunday afternoon, stretching many doors down the newly pedestrianized Marais shopping street. The 120-seat restaurant that turns their tables faster than most was buzzing louder than a bee hive.
Street musicians were everywhere, particularly in the usual places, such as Pont Saint-Louis (the bridge that links the Ile de la Cité with the Île Saint-Louis) and Place Colette (at the Comédie-Française at which the entrance to the Métro is called
"Kiosque des noctambules" [Kiosk of the night-walkers]. They must have reaped big rewards for having drawn such large crowds.
Because yesterday was 10-10-10, a most memorable date, weddings were taking place all over the city, their honking limousines rolling down rue de Rivoli en masse. Demonstrators were out, too, protesting for one cause or another. I often wonder if it really does any good, except to make the participants feel as if they have a voice.
We discovered a new restaurant, not to mention a new and upcoming "restaurant row," thanks to friends who had boasted of their recent meal for a mere 30∈ for three courses at "Pramil," 9, rue du Vertbois (01.42.72.03.60). The meal from beginning to end was exceptional. Chef Alain Pramil is a robust fellow who likes to meet his clients and learn their reactions to his creations. Since we had cleaned our plates to the point of licking them, he seemed pleased and we left thinking when we'd be back -- not soon enough.
This northern end of the 3rd arrondissement near Metro Arts-et-Métiers is really taking shape, especially this particular street famous for "Chez l'Ami Louis" (number 32) and Anahi Argentinian Restaurant at the corner of rue Volta that appears to have been bombed and never repaired (number 49, rue Volta). Here restaurants such as Pramil are popping up turning the once rather industrial little neighborhood into a hip spot for trendy residents. For all you would be property investors, I have always believed this part of the district would be strong for appreciation and now the signs show this to be true.
It was impossible to get tickets online until the end of the month to see the Claude Monet 1840 -1926 exhibition at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais on until January 24, 2011, but a short wait rendered us entry to see a lifetime of his work (over 200 paintings) gathered from many major foreign collections by Réunion des Musées Nationaux and the Orsay Museum. The crowds were thick inside the galleries, but fortunately his lusciously colored impressionist works are best viewed from a distance, enabling the eye to see the detail that is indiscernible up close.
It's a particular phenomena to impressionist painting that the blobs of paint which up close are just that, blobs, but when viewed from a distance present a detail that your eye and brain fill in, so to speak. After the exhibition, as we walked through some of the parks of Paris taking in the brightly lit scenes, it was easy to see the flowers and trees from an impressionist's eye, wondering how Monet would have rendered it.
Paris herself took on the ambiance much like an impressionist painting as I rediscovered my own city this past weekend, allowing the various elements of the surroundings act as thick blobs of colorful paint to turn the impressions into vivid detail. Monet simply helped clarify the already stunning canvas we call "The City of Light."
A la prochaine...
Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris
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P.S. Tomorrow be prepared for a general strike, meaning transportation all over France will be interrupted. That won't stop us, however, from meeting from 3 to 5 p.m. at PARLER PARIS APRES MIDI just as we do the second Tuesday of every month. So, if you can walk to La Pierre du Marais, at the corner of rue de Bretagne and rue des Archives (3rd), then please stop in! For more information, visit Parler Paris Après Midi parlerparis/apresmidi.html for details. See you there!
P.P.S. In light of the strike on Tuesday, the Parler Parlor French-English Conversation Group will close exceptionally this one day. For more information, visit parlerparlor.com
