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The tony eighth arrondissement is located on Right Bank of the Seine River. This district is part of the business and tourist center of Paris. Its land area occupies less than 1.5 square miles (about 3.9 square kilometers) and has a population of about forty thousand but is home to over one hundred seventy thousand jobs, more than any other Parisian district.
L’eglise de la Madeleine is a church built to honor Napoleon’s army. Towards the end of the Twelfth Century the site contained a Jewish synagogue that was seized and consecrated as a Church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. In 1757 construction started on a new church, one demolished prior to completion. Then a new church was started but work ceased during the French Revolution. Napoleon and others got involved and finally the church was consecrated in 1842, almost one hundred years after rebuilding commenced. The building is Neo-Classical but inspired by a Roman temple at Nimes in the south of France. You can’t miss its fifty-two Corinthian columns, each twenty meters (over sixty feet) high.
The Madeleine’s organ is top of the line; the famous composers Camille Saint-Saens and Gabriel Faure were church organists. I am told that this is THE place to have your wedding and the list of Madeleine funerals is quite impressive including the likes of Chopin, Saint-Saens, and Josephine Baker.
The Palais de l’Elysee (Elysee Palace) is the official residence of the President of the French Republic. It hosts meetings of the Council of Ministers. The gardens are the site of a presidential party on July 14th. If you manage to wangle an invitation take my advice and don’t talk about storming anything.
The Palais was bought by Louis XV as a residence for his mistress Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, better known by the name Madame de Pompadour. Louis’s political opponents hung signs on the mansion’s gates “Home of the King’s …”. Even worse she was blamed for the Seven Year’s War. Later the building went through some hard times serving as a furniture warehouse, a print factory, a dance hall, and finally as home away from home for those Russian Cossacks who occupied Paris in 1814. Let’s just hope that they didn’t put their feet all over everything. Once they cleared out things started looking brighter for the Elysee. Napoleon III used to meet his mistresses there when he resided at the Tuileries Palace only an underground passage away. A French President died there in the arms of his mistress right before the end of the Nineteenth Century. In a weird incident during World War I a gorilla escaped from a nearby zoo and tried to kidnap the wife of the President of the Republic. Believe it or not a President of the French Republic and member of the Academie Francaise, Paul Deschanel, was said to jump into trees during state receptions, possibly imitating this unnamed gorilla.
The Elysee remained empty during World War II. Charles de Gaulle lived there from 1959 to 1969 but preferred receiving official state guests at a nearby building. To quote him “I do not like the idea of meeting kings walking around my corridors in their pyjamas.” Socialist President Fran?s Mitterrand often returned at night to his Left Bank lodgings or to a friend’s appartment elsewhere. Don’t pity the poor forsaken Elysee; its estimated annual budget for drinks alone is one million euros, well over one million dollars.
The Arc de Triomphe is a monument honoring French soldiers, in particular those who served in the Napoleonic Wars. It is situated in the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle, once known as the Place de l’Etoile, at the western end of the Champs-Elysees. This monument, built in 1806, is 165 feet (over 50 meters) high and almost as wide as it is high. It is the second largest such arch; the largest one can be found in Pyongyang, North Korea. Its design was inspired by the Classic Roman Arch of Titus. The interior walls list over 500 French generals and the names of major battles of the Napoleonic wars, somehow omitting Waterloo. When Baron Haussmann redesigned Paris he redid the neighboring Place de l’Etoile, heightening the Arc’s visual impact without solving those nasty traffic jams that just happen when a traffic circle serves twelve busy avenues.
Both France and Germany have held victory marches past the Arc de Triomphe. Beneath the Arc lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of World War I with an eternal flame, the first in Western Europe since the end of the Fourth Century. Would you believe that a drunk was able to extinguish this flame? Can you guess how? You might climb 284 steps to the top, or you can take the elevator and walk 46 steps. And yes, there is a replica at the Paris Las Vegas resort.
The Theatre des Champs-Elysees is an Art Nouveau theatre several blocks away from the avenue of the same name. In 1913 it hosted the initial performance of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring that degenerated from catcalls and fistfights into a full-scale riot. The Theatre is home to several orchestras and other cultural events and has managed to avoid riots for a long, long time (probably since 1913). Performances tend to be quite pricey, not surprising given the neighborhood.
The Grand Palais (Grand Palace) is a large glass Art Deco exhibition hall built for the Paris Exhibition of 1900. It recently reopened after twelve years when a glass panel fell. The Petit Palais (Little Palace) across the street is home to an art museum, the Musee des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.
The Hotel de Crillon is an exclusive luxury hotel at the foot of the Champs-Elysees in the north end of the Place de la Concorde. The hotel dates back to the mid-Eighteenth Century. Marie Antoinette was a frequent guest and took piano lessons there. This joint is so chic that its gourmet restaurant is decorated with seven different types of marble. Its top-floor Leonard Bernstein suite houses one of Lenny’s pianos. And you won’t have to demonstrate your piano skills to rent the suite. After World War I President Wilson and the American peace delegation stayed there, as did several other American presidents and the German high command during World War II. Space unfortunately precludes me from listing other fabulous, or at least famous, guests. And let’s not forget the annual Debutante Ball attracting the likes of the great, great, great granddaughter of the writer, Leo Tolstoy, the niece of George Bush, and the granddaughter of an executive vice-premier of China.
If you need to relax after thinking about this Ball and why your fifteen to nineteen year-olds weren’t invited, stop by the beautiful Parc Monceau at the northern end of the district. Unlike most French parks, it is laid out as an informal English garden. It is the site of the first silk parachute jump.
We’ll finish our Parisian tour at a train station; not just any train station but the famous Gare Saint-Lazare that opened in the 1830s. For some reason it has attracted Impressionist artists such as Edouard Manet and Claude Monet who even chose to live in the neighborhood.
Of course you won’t want to visit Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. In my article I Love French Wine and Food ‘ A Midi Viognier I reviewed such a wine and suggested a sample menu: Start with Huitres de Bouzigues (Oysters from Bouzigues). For your second course savor Bourride (Fish with Aioli, a local mayonnaise). And as dessert indulge yourself with Cr? Colane (Dessert Cream with Lemon, Vanilla, and Dill Seed). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will be happy to suggest appropriate wines for each course.
Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine German, Italian, or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and the right people. He knows what dieting is, and is glad that for the time being he can eat and drink what he wants, in moderation. He teaches various and sundry classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel, wine, and food website www.travelitalytravel.com and his Italian wine website www.theitalianwineconnection.com .
The tenth arrondissement is located on the Right Bank in northeastern Paris. Its land area is slightly more than 1.1 square mile (a bit less than 3 square kilometers). Its population is slightly under ninety thousand and offers about seventy-two thousand jobs. Two of its major attractions are railway stations. If you haven’t seen a grandiose railway station such as in Europe or Manhattan’s Grand Central Station, you really should visit some of Paris’s offerings such as described below.
This arrondissement is not particularly well known to tourists. However, if you visit here you may get a feel for the real Paris, the Paris of Parisians. You might start by viewing the Canal Saint-Martin, which links the Seine River with northeastern Paris. This 2.8 mile (4.5 kilometer) long canal was built from 1806 to 1825 under the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte. Believe it or not, in some places it is only about three feet (one meter) deep. It nearly disappeared in the 1960s to become just another highway. While there is some canal traffic, mostly it’s a place to view the boats and the locks. Recently the neighborhood has become trendy. In 1938 the Canal Saint-Martin was featured in the famous movie Hotel du Nord. And in 2001 it was once again featured in the movie Amelie. The nearby streets are car-free for the later part of Saturday and all day Sunday giving the area a unique cachet.
The Gare de l’Est (East Station) is one of the largest and the oldest railway stations in Paris. Approximately 34 million passengers per year pass through the Gare de l’Est per year, making it the fifth-busiest station in Paris. I wonder how many of these passengers have seen the beautiful statue representing the city of Strasbourg at the west end of the station and how many have seen the statue representing the city of Verdun at the east end of the station. It’s a magnificent building with lovely artwork throughout. For example, the arcade includes representations of agricultural products and the coat of arms of over thirty cities in eastern France. The ticketing hall includes a large painting of soldiers leaving in 1914 for the Great War. Both these cities are served by this station, first opened in 1849. Perhaps its most famous train was the Orient Express to Istanbul which first opened in 1883. Times have changed and the Orient Express no longer goes to Paris or Istanbul. But some of the new lines are scheduled to run at almost two hundred miles (three hundred twenty kilometers) an hour and almost ten per cent faster in the future. The station is undergoing extensive renovation; for example, removing ugly plastic that covered beautiful marble for decades.
The Gare du Nord (North Station) handles about 180 million travelers a year. It is the busiest station in Europe, and the third busiest railway station in the world. It was first built in 1846 but already partially demolished in 1860 to permit extensive expansion. The old facade is now in the northern city of Lille. The new, mid-1860s, Neoclassical railway station includes 23 statues representing destinations; the international destinations are more imposing than the national ones. The station was expanded several times and is served by several subway lines. In 2007 the station was the site of a riot involving several hundred people that lasted for eight hours. The Gare du Nord has starred in several French films including Les Poupees russes (The Russian Dolls) and American movies such as The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Ocean’s Twelve.
Some of the other sights to see in this district are the Porte Saint Denis and Porte Saint Martin erected by order to Louis XIV to celebrate military victories, the Musee de l’Eventail (Fan Museum), Musee de Cristal de Baccarat (Baccarat Crystal Museum), and, for a change of pace, the Place du Colonel Fabien, headquarters of the French Communist Party designed by a famous Brazilian (Communist) architect, Oscar Niemeyer, named in honor of a resistance hero of World War II. A more traditional Place (Square) is the Place de la Republique that is often the site of political or other demonstrations.
Of course you don’t want to visit Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. In my article I Love French Wine and Food – A Midi Merlot I reviewed such a wine and suggested a sample menu: Start with Roque Anchois (Anchovies with Tomato, Spices, Vinegar, and Olive Oil). For your second course savor Tagine de Lotte (Monkfish Stew). And as dessert indulge yourself with Cr? Catalan (Cr? brulee with Orange Flower and Aniseed). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will be happy to suggest appropriate wines to accompany each course.
Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but between you and me, he prefers drinking fine German, Italian, or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and the right people. He knows what dieting is, and is glad that for the time being he can eat and drink what he wants, in moderation. He teaches various classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his new wine, diet, health, and nutrition website www.wineinyourdiet.com and his Italian travel website www.travelitalytravel.com .
The thirteenth arrondissement of southeastern Paris is situated on the Left Bank of the Seine River. Its land area is fairly large by Parisian standards, and measures more than two and three quarter square miles (over seven square kilometers). This district population exceeds one hundred seventy thousand and is home to about ninety thousand jobs. Both population and employment figures are growing, largely due an influx of Asian immigrants.
Les Olympiades is a residential high-rise district built well over thirty years ago on a huge, elevated pedestrian esplanade complete with a shopping mall, the Pagode (Pagoda) at the center. To many people this complex looks like a smaller version of La Defense, Europe’s largest business district, situated just west of Paris. A driverless Metro (subway) feeds the complex, running every four minutes during the extended rush hour. Nearby is the huge Paris Rive Gauche project built on and near old railroad yards. Once again we are talking mostly high-rises. If that’s your bag, be my guest.
The Bibliotheque nationale de France (National Library of France) is another resident of the new thirteenth district. It was founded by Charles V in the mid Fourteenth Century at the Louvre Museum, described in our companion article on the First Arrondissement. Later the library moved to its own quarters in the same district. The new library, said to look like an open book, opened to the public in late 1996. Despite being located in a modest neighborhood, accessing library materials costs money. A famous French historian was refused a library card. While complaints abound the library does contain ten million volumes.
The Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital started out as a gunpowder factory and was converted to a dumping ground for the Parisian poor, serving as a prison for prostitutes, the criminally insane, and others of that ilk. During the French Revolution many prostitutes were freed but other residents-inmates were murdered. On the upside the hospital’s famous professor, Jean-Martin Charcot, nicknamed “the Napoleon of the neuroses” is often considered the founder of modern neurology. Furthermore it was the site of Paris’s first vaccinations, way back in 1800. La Salpetriere has become a teaching hospital. This was where Diana, Princess of Wales, breathed her last. If you are in the neighborhood you should visit the Seventeenth Century Chapelle de la Salpetriere (Hospital Chapel). By the way, the word chapel is misleading as the complex can hold four thousand people.
Unless you are a Princess Diana freak, who can blame you for not wanting to tour a hospital once famous for its rats? You really shouldn’t miss the next sight, unknown to many. The Butte-aux-Cailles (literally quails hill) is located in the west end of the district, not far from the very busy Place d’Italie. The hill is about 200 feet (65 meters) and Cailles was the family name of the family who once farmed the land. In 1783 the first hot-air balloon carrying people landed on this little hill. It was one of the strongholds of the Paris Commune in 1871, memorialized in a city square by that name. There has been so much excavation that the hill can’t support the high-rises that mar so much of this arrondissement and so much of the “new” Paris. So you’ll have to be satisfied with the co-op restaurants, trendy bars, and nightclubs that haven’t erased the village atmosphere. The Butte is home to an art-deco public piscine (swimming pool) fed by a natural hot spring. You can even enjoy vaudeville and Brazilian music. If you fall in love with any of the cute little houses in the neighborhood remember, they were once inexpensive.
The Gare d’Austerlitz (Austerlitz Station) is one of Paris’s major railway stations. It was named for a small Czech town in which the sorely outnumbered French and allied troops under Napoleon defeated the armies of Austria, Russia, and Great Britain in 1805. This railway station was first built in 1840 and extended a generation later. There are plans to rehabilitate and upgrade Austerlitz station doubling its capacity by 2020. The complex is moderately attractive but if you aren’t a railroad buff, don’t go out of your way to see it.
The Manufacture des Gobelins (Gobelins Factory) makes exceptional tapestries and has been doing so for centuries. It supplied the kings of France starting with Louis XIV. The company founder, Jehan Gobelin, discovered a special dye during the Fifteenth Century. Detractors called his company la folie Gobelin (Gobelin’s folly). I guess he showed them. Some of his descendants purchased titles of nobility and left the trade. Other family members branched out to the tapestry business and later into carpets and upholstery. Part of the complex is a museum that offers guided tours.
Of course you don’t want to be in Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. In my article I Love French Wine and Food – An Alsace Riesling I reviewed such a wine and suggested a sample menu: Start with Schniederspaetle (Onion Ravioli). For your second course savor Brochet d’I a la creme (Pike in White Wine and Cream Sauce). And as dessert indulge yourself with Strudel aux Pommes (Apple Strudel). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will be happy to suggest appropriate wines to accompany each course.
Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but between you and me, he prefers fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and good company. He knows what dieting is, and is glad that for the time being he can eat and drink what he wants, in moderation. He loves teaching computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel, wine, and food website www.travelitalytravel.com and his global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com.
The 19th arrondissement of northeastern Paris sits on the Right Bank of the Seine River. Its land area is approximately 2.6 square miles (slightly more than six and three quarters square kilometers). The population is about one hundred seventy thousand and the district is home to approximately seventy thousand jobs and two canals, the Canal Saint-Denis and the Canal de l’Ourcq. This district is fairly residential and is not visited by loads of tourists. In other words, by spending some time there you may get an idea of the real Paris; one that tends to be less expensive than the touristy arrondissements. The Parc des Buttes Chaumont built over a gypsum quarry and execution ground was designed for the famous Baron Haussmann, the guy who really redid Paris well over a century ago. It is one of the largest parks in Paris and contains many lovely features including English and Chinese gardens, a waterfall, and several cliffs and bridges. A major highlight is the Corinthian style Temple of Sybil that stands almost three hundred feet (about ninety meters) high. This park is one of the few in Paris where you are allowed to picnic on the grass. It has been called the most romantic park in Paris, one of the world’s most romantic cities. What could be less romantic than a slaughterhouse? To say that Villette was a slaughterhouse is like saying the Empire State Building is a skyscraper. The original complex was built shortly after the American Civil War. It was large enough and busy enough to employ over three thousand people. But over time Villette became outdated. The new slaughterhouse, already obsolete when rebuilt in 1967, measured an astounding 900 feet long and 150 feet high (about 300 meters long and 50 meters high). Instead of tearing down the building and adding to the scandal those in power launched an international competition to design the Parc de la Villette. The Parc de la Villette is Paris’s largest park. It englobes some 135 acres (55 hectares). It is the largest Parisian greenspace after the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery in the neighboring twentieth district. Of course we can’t forget the huge forest parks, the Bois de Vincennes in the southeast and the Bois de Boulogne in the west both of which are huge in comparison. The “Prairies” are vast open spaces with an excellent view of the Canal de l’Ourcq that adds to its charm. The Prairie du Triangle near the park’s center hosts regular free open-air movie screenings during the summer. Parc de la Villette has gardens unlike anywhere else. For example, the beautiful Jardin des Miroirs (Mirror Garden) is surrounded by 28 mirrors. The Jardin des Brouillards (Garden of the Fogs) is misty from all the rainbow-colored droplets generated by a multitude of fountains. A favorite, especially among the little ones, is the Jardin du Dragon (Dragon Garden) with a giant you know what that is about 250 feet (80 meters) long. And its tongue is a giant slide. Altogether there are ten thematic gardens linked by a winding blue path designed to look like a film strip. The bigger kids will prefer the six thousand seat Zenith concert hall which is devoted to rock music, political gatherings, and other noisy events. The Grand Hall of Villette has now been transformed into a cultural center and performance hall. Its showpiece is the Cite des Sciences et de l’Industrie (City of Science and Industry), the biggest science museum in Europe. It’s also the most expensive costing an estimated $642 million back in 1986. This masterwork attracts five million visitors a year. This museum was specifically designed to be hands on, educational, and fun. There is a planetarium, an IMAX theater, and a lot more. The Cite des Enfants (Kiddies Corner) has exhibitions specially designed for 3 to 12 year olds. For a change of pace visit the Cite de la Musique that’s more of a concert hall than a museum. It includes the French national collection of musical instruments that you can hear in action. If you really want to get into the swing of things the world-famous Conservatoire national superieur de musique et de danse de Paris (Music and Dance Conservatory) has been relocated and faces Parc Villette. Conservatory tuition fees are quite modest and student meals are subsidized. However, there is the minor matter of a performance-based entrance exam. Of course you don’t want to be in Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. Here is a sample menu: Start with Rillions (Big chunks of Pork cooked in Pork Fat). For your second course savor Becasse fouree au Foie Gras (Woodcock stuffed with Foie Gras). And as dessert indulge yourself with Tarte Tatin (Upside down Apple Tart). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will gladly suggest appropriate wines to accompany each course. By the way, in part because of its proximity, Parisians tend to drink a lot of wine from the Loire Valley.
Levi Reiss authored ten computer and Internet books, but would rather drink fine French, German, or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He loves teaching computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel, wine, and food website www.travelitalytravel.com and his global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com featuring a weekly review of $10 wines.
The fourteenth arrondissement is located in southern Paris on the Seine River’s Left Bank. The arrondissement covers about 2.2 square miles (over five and a half square kilometers) and is home to over one hundred thirty thousand residents and about seventy thousand jobs.
Some people will want to visit its famous Catacombs, Roman limestone quarries converted to burial grounds more than two hundred years ago. In all my years in Paris I never saw the Catacombs but never felt that I missed them. But hey, that’s just me. The Catacombs were created because improper burials caused lots of disease in the famous Les Halles market district and in fact all over Paris. These quarries by no means limited to the fourteenth arrondissement definitely reduced disease but did cause many safety problems. During the construction of Paris’s newest subway line the courtyard of an elementary school collapsed. What luck that there were no children present.
You can take an authorized tour of the catacombs or explore them on your own. There’s a word for such people, cataphiles. Among the authors fascinated by the Catacombs are Umberto Eco and Edgar Allan Poe. With all the underground visits it is interesting to note that only a single death has been confirmed in the Catacombs during the last 250 years.
The Cimetiere de Montparnasse (Montparnasse cemetery) is the final resting place of many famous French intellectual and artists including Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre. The cemetery also has monuments to Parisian police and firefighters killed in the line of duty.
The name Montparnasse comes from “Mount Parnassus,” said to be the home of the Greek muses to the arts and sciences. To my knowledge this neighborhood was not very important for science with a single, extremely important exception. Montparnasse is home to the world-famous Pasteur Institute, one of the leaders in the fight against the AIDS virus and numerous other viruses. This neighborhood has been a center of the arts since at least the Seventeenth Century. As many other artistic neighborhoods, it boasts numerous cafes, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. But in the old days many Montparnasse artists lived in extreme poverty. In the local cafes the rule was simple; waiters did not wake sleeping artists. In some cafes such as La Rotonde, actually in the Sixth district on the other side of Boulevard Montparnasse, the artists “lent” their work to the cafe owners until they could pay their bills. In the words of Marc Chagall, “The sun of Art then shone only on Paris.” And while some of that sunshine was in Montmartre, most of it was in Montparnasse.
The famous music hall Bobino was and still is a neighborhood fixture on the Rue de la Gaite, which lies just west of the Montparnasse Cemetery. Among its famous non-artistic residents were Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Symon Petliura, an anti-communist Ukranian political leader. History does not record whether the three ever met at Bobino or other Montparnasse nightspots.
You can immerse yourself in the spirit of the times at the Musee du Montparnasse (Montparnasse Museum) located at the former studio of the Russian-born Montparnasse painter, Maris Vassilieff. Vassilieff was quite a character; she founded a canteen for starving artists and once pushed the Italian-born Montparnasse painter Amedeo Modigliani down the stairs. Afterwards she did a drawing of the incident. The Museum offers members a monthly cultural gathering. Try as they might, I don’t think they can capture the flavor of old Montparnasse.
La Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris (International University of Paris) is a complex consisting of several dozen residences for students and visiting academics. First started in 1925, many of its buildings were designed by famous architects; for example Le Corbusier designed the Swiss and Brazilian pavilions. North of the Cite is the lovely Parc Montsouris (not translated as Mouse Mountain Park) designed as an English garden.
La Sante is one of France’s most famous prisons. It includes both VIP and high-security sectors. Founded in 1867 it owes its name (which means health) to the nearby Ste-Anne hospital. La Sante was divided into four blocks to place prisoners with others from the same geographic or ethnic environment. During the Twentieth Century it was the sight of many executions by guillotine, the last one in late 1972. Near the end of World War II on July 14, 1944 political prisoners revolted. Many were massacred by the Vichy (collaborationist) forces.
Of course you don’t want to be in Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. In my article I Love French Wine and Food – A Bordeaux Rose I reviewed such a wine and suggested a sample menu: Start with Andouillette (Chitterling Sausage). For your second course savor Esturgeon a la Libournaise (Sturgeon cooked with White Wine). And for dessert indulge yourself with Fanchonette Bordelaise (Puff Pastry with Custard and Meringue). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will be only too happy to suggest appropriate wines to accompany each course.
In his younger days Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books. Now he prefers drinking fine Italian, German, or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and the right people. He knows what dieting is, and is glad that for the time being he can eat and drink what he wants, in moderation. He loves teaching various and sundry computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel, wine, and food website www.travelitalytravel.com and his Italian wine website www.theitalianwineconnection.com.
The 20th arrondissement of northeastern Paris is located on the Right Bank of the Seine River. Its land area is 2.3 square miles or a sliver less than six square kilometers. The population is over one hundred eighty thousand and the district is home to about fifty five thousand jobs. The arrondissement contains two special neighborhoods, Menilmontant and Belleville discussed below but we’ll start with the Twentieth’s number one tourist attraction, the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, the largest cemetery is Paris and frankly one of the best-known cemeteries in the world. This slice of Paris attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. While there are several metro stations serving Pere-Lachaise many tourists prefer the Gambetta station right near the tomb of Oscar Wilde and from there its downhill in more ways than one. This property occupies almost 120 acres (almost 50 hectares) and includes several war memorials.
This unusual tourist attraction is named for Pere François de la Chaise, confessor to Louis XIV, who lived on the property some three hundred years ago. For health reasons cemeteries were banned in Paris way back in 1786. When Pere-Lachaise Cemetery was established by Napoleon in 1804 it was far from the city. To drum up business the remains of La Fontaine and Moliere were transferred there the same year. Then in 1817 the supposed remains of the famous couple Abelard and Heloise were reinterred on the property. Within a few years its population went from a few dozen to well over thirty thousand. Today over three hundred thousand have been buried without counting those who were cremated. The notables who repose here include the French writer Honore de Balzac, the French actress Sarah Bernhardt, the Polish composer Frederic Chopin, the American dancer Isadora Duncan, the American singer and songwriter Jim Morrison whose grave has a full-time security guard, perhaps the French Resistance leader Jean Moulin, the French singer Edith Piaf, and the Irish writer Oscar Wilde.
The Mur des Federes (Communards’ Wall) is also located in the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery. This marks the spot where 147 Communards, the last ditch defenders of the Belleville workers’ district, were shot in May 1871 effectively marking the end of the Paris Commune. The cemetery and in particular the wall are a short of shrine for French left-wingers and many of their leaders are buried in the vicinity.
Belleville which means beautiful town is a Parisian working-class neighborhood situated mostly in the 20th and 19th arrondissements with a bit of overflow into the 10th and 11th. It was once an independent village and distinguished itself during the fight for the Second Republic in 1848 and the Paris commune from 1870 to 1871. It’s quite a colorful area and is home to a large Chinese community. Tuesdays and Fridays you’ll find farmers from the region selling their wares in an outdoor market on Belleville Boulevard. Many artists now live and work in this district. According to popular legend the incomparable singer Edith Piaf was born under a lamppost on the Rue de Belleville. This part of Paris was featured in many films including the 1951 Casque d’or (Gold Cap), the 2003 Triplets of Belleville, and the 2007 biography of Piaf, La Vie en Rose (Life Through Rose-Colored Glasses), the name of one of her signature songs.
Of course you don’t want to tour Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. Let me suggest a sample menu: You might start with Escargots de Bourgogne (Snails in Parsley Butter). For your second course savor Fondue Bourguignonne (Beef Fondue). And as dessert indulge yourself with Poires pochees au vin de Bourgogne (Pears poached in Burgundy Wine). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will be happy to suggest appropriate wines to accompany each course.
Levi Reiss authored ten computer and Internet books, but would rather drink fine French, German, or other wine, paired with the right foods. He loves teaching computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel, wine, and food website www.travelitalytravel.com and his wine, diet, health, and nutrition website www.wineinyourdiet.com.
The 4th arrondissement is located on the Right Bank of the Seine River. It is one of the smallest in Paris with slightly over 0.6 square miles (1.6 square kilometers). While its population is only about thirty thousand the district provides over than forty thousand jobs. The Ile de la Cite (Cite Island) was already inhabited in the First Century B.C. by a Gallic tribe known as the Parisii who gave their name to the city. Our first stop is world-renown, tasty, not very high in calories, and won’t cost you a lot of money. It’s on the magnificent Ile St-Louis one of the two Parisian islands in the Seine.
Berthillon makes great ice cream and has since 1954. It believes in natural ingredients and flavorings and uses no preservatives or any of that junk. It is usually closed during the last two weeks of August.
Centre Georges Pompidou (Georges Pompidou Centre), often called Beaubourg was built in 1971-1977 near Les Halles (the Halles Market) and the Marais. It contains a library, the Musee National d’Art Moderne (National Modern Art Museum), a center for music and acoustic research, and an industrial design center. You either love the building or you hate it because of its very distinct (ugly) architecture with pipes on the outside. Even if you can’t stand this building you may enjoy the art museum with its collection of painters including Kandinsky, Matisse, Miro, and Picasso.
One can only imagine how hard it is to run the city of Paris. Maybe that’s why its Hotel de Ville (City Hall) has been in the same Fourth Arrondissement location since the mid-Fourteenth Century. The present French Renaissance structure was rebuilt in the 1870s, undoubtedly inspired by castles in the Loire Valley. Its site was a well-known gathering place, in particular for public executions. The local specialty was burning heretics at the stake.
In the early Sixteenth Century King Francis I decided rebuild Paris’s city hall. Paris was then the largest city in Europe and the entire Christian world. Building the Renaissance city hall worthy of Paris took about a century. During the French Revolution the city hall lived up to its site’s history; a representative of the ancien regime (pre-Revolutionary government) was killed there the day that the Bastille was stormed. Several years later on this same site the revolutionary leader Maximilien Francois Marie Odenthalius Isidore de Robespierre usually called Robespierre was shot in the jaw and his followers were arrested.
Paris’s City Hall played a role in the revolution of 1870 and the Paris Commune of the following year; first it became the revolutionary government headquarters and subsequently was burnt to the ground when surrounded by enemy troops. The rebuilt building has a split personality: its exterior is a copy of the Sixteenth Century Renaissance building but the interior reflects the luxury of the day, the 1880s. Charles de Gaulle spoke from City Hall on that great day of August 25, 1944 when Paris was liberated.
Etienne Marcel, the most important pre-mayor of the city was lynched in 1358 by a crowd that felt that he wanted too much power. And the current mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, the first elected left-wing major of Paris in well over one hundred years was stabbed during a party open to the public. After recovering he converted his private apartments to a nursery for the children of municipal workers. Tell me, do you know of any other City Hall with such a history?
The short Rue des Rosiers in the Marais is somewhat a center of Paris’s Jewish community, the largest in Europe. Jews have been living here for six hundred years when they were expelled from Paris; at that time the Marais was outside the city limits. As often when a street becomes very popular it changes its character and Jewish butcher shops and delicatessens are giving way to upscale fashion houses. Be sure to visit the rue des Francs-Bourgeois and its many fashion stores, one of the rare Paris streets that is open on Sunday.
In the middle of the Twelfth Century, so the story goes, Maurice de Sully, the Archbishop of Paris, unhappy with the present cathedral had it demolished and sketched in the dirt its replacement, Notre Dame de Paris, one of the most beautiful churches in the world. Construction took almost two centuries, and frankly was worth it. This French Gothic church is located on the Ile de la Cite and is the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. During the French Revolution, many of its treasures were either destroyed or plundered. The church interior was transformed into a warehouse for the storage of forage and food. The statues of biblical kings of Judea (thought to be kings of France) were beheaded. Many of these heads were found during a 1977 excavation and are now display in the Musee de Cluny located in the fifth arrondissement. Notre Dame’s organ was been computerized, requiring three local-area networks. If you like touring churches, this district is home to several other historic ones, but if you ask me none of them are in the same league as Notre Dame de Paris.
Of course you don’t want to be in Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. In my article I Love French Wine and Food – An Alsace Pinot Noir I reviewed such a wine and suggested a sample menu: Start with Flammekueche (Tart stuffed with Bacon, Onions, Cream Cheese, and heavy Cream). For your second course savor Coq-au-Riesling (Cock cooked in Riesling wine). And as dessert indulge yourself with Quetschelkueche (Plum Tart). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will be happy to suggest appropriate wines to accompany each course.
Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but between you and me, he prefers fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and good company. He knows what dieting is, and is glad that for the time being he can eat and drink what he wants, in moderation. He loves teaching computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel, wine, and food website www.travelitalytravel.com and his global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com.
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