A Day in Paris
After just twenty-four hours in Paris, I couldn’t wait to report on what went on. Last fall I’d ready an interesting book written by an Australian journalist who married a Frenchman and eventually moved to le premier arrondissement in Paris. In Almost French, Sarah Turnbull lovingly describes la rue Montorgueil, a pedestrian walkway with lots of small shops and a nearly village-like feel to it. We really enjoyed taking in all of the sights and aromas of the nearly one-kilometer long street: the wonderful cheese shops, a century old restaurant named L’Escargot, the delicious-looking pastries and prepared foods at Stohrer. The latter, an institution in Paris since 1730, was the first to bring baba au rhum to the city.
From there it was a short bus ride to la place de la République and le canal Saint-Martin. The canal, originally built in 1825, was designed along with other similar structures to bring fresh water into the city. Today there is still some boat traffic on the four and a half kilometer waterway, but most of it is apparently to carry tourists through the various locks and dams to the Seine. Beside the canal we came upon l’Hôtel du Nord, which was identically reproduced on a stage set in the 1930s by Marcel Carné for his movie of the same name. Whence the famous line of actress Arletty: « Atmosphère ? Atmosphère ? »
After a very nice lunch on a beautiful day with the professor whose presentation we translated in February, we took le métro back to the 14e where our hotel is located. From the subway station we walked through the cimetière Montparnasse. A small crowd was gathered at the tomb of Sartre and Beauvoir; some ladies were filling up watering cans for the flowers on their family’s graves. We spent a little time on this lovely day wandering the well-kept alleys looking for the gravesites of famous people like singer Serge Gainsbourg and authors Maupassant and Baudelaire. Paris has so much to offer and we were happy to be exploring for several days to come.
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