Moving House (12 April)

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Our Paris Adventure: Day Three (11 April)

We took advantage of our southerly location again today by starting our explorations in an area just southeast of Montparnasse: tiny, serene Butte-aux-Cailles, whose warren of small streets and villagey buildings makes sense, considering it was a separate, fenced-off, working-class village until its incorporation into the city of Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, Butte-aux-Cailles manages to retain its outsider roots while becoming predictably popular with artists and other creative types who can't afford more central Parisian rents. It's apparently a good place to come at night, and during our mid-morning visit, all was quiet except for a handful of old-timey locals out doing their errands.

This wall was filled with graffiti delights, although I was disappointed with the apparent whitewashing on the right-hand side.

Maybe we would have felt differently if we had visited in the evening when hipsters apparently fill the cafés and restaurants, but our morning walk made us feel like we had gone back in time, and out of Paris!

Reminders of the old, industrial days of Butte-aux-Cailles can be seen in signs like this one for an old manufacturer of shoes and galoshes:

The local swimming pool, housed in this striking building, is meant to be one of the nicest in Paris. As a bonus, it's heated by a natural hot spring!

While I can't say that Butte-aux-Cailles is the furthest south we've been in Paris (the Porte de Vanves flea market, my favourite Paris flea market so far, and MAC/VAL, Musée d'art contemporain du val-de-marne, technically outside Paris, are both further south), on this trip we would explore the city further east and west than we had in the past, beginning with today's venturing east. We took the metro from Butte-aux-Cailles to the eastern Paris neighbourhood of Belleville. While I really didn't know much about Belleville before we visited it (two facts about the neighbourhood, that it was the birthplace of Édith Piaf and that it has the second-highest hill in Paris, after Montmartre, summed up the bulk of my knowledge), we were pleased with what we found. While definitely on the run-down side in places, Belleville (along with its eastern neighbour, Ménilmontant, which we would also visit today) feels like a bit of "real" Paris life--less prettified and more urban, but still lively, even trendy in spots, with plenty of street art, an unrivalled view of the Eiffel Tower, and, if our lunch was any indication, interesting destinations for food-lovers on a budget. Like Butte-aux-Cailles, Belleville was only incorporated into the city of Paris in 1860, and still retains some of its villagey spirit. We started walking up Rue de Belleville from the metro station, passing a lot of Chinese bakeries with tempting windows full of red-bean buns. Somehow I managed to resist (perhaps because we already had a nearby lunch destination in mind), and we continued up the hill, passing two large-scale murals. The first is crowned with a montage of text,

while the second puts words at the centre of its message ("Beware of words"). The figures that appear to be installing the billboard help make this piece of street art very special:

We turned down this rather typical sidestreet in search of lunch

at Le Baratin, a tiny Belleville bistrot/ wine bar.

We were very lucky we arrived when we did, because when I answered in the negative when we were asked if we had reserved, we were told we could have a table if we promised to finish before the table was needed for a 1:30 P.M. reservation. Since that would give us just over an hour for lunch, we readily agreed. During our meal, this seemingly simple, not-exactly-centrally-located, homey place completely filled with people who had made reservations. In fact, we only saw one other couple come in without reservations, almost right behind us, and they were given the table next to us, also with the request to finish by 1:30 P.M. The smiles on their faces upon hearing their good luck showed me what our faces must have looked like!

The busy atmosphere during this Friday lunch hour hinted that the food to come was going to be something special and, surprise, surprise, it turns out the locals are right! Today's lunch was one of the best meals we've had in Paris, and we'll definitely be back, armed with a reservation next time. Run by a self-taught chef, the restaurant is said to be a favourite of several Michelin-starred chefs, as well as star pastry chef Pierre Hermé, and rumour has it that it's not the quality of the food that has stopped Le Baratin from acquiring some stars of its own--it's the restaurant's refusal to work within the Michelin system itself. Normally we wouldn't be able to afford a place with these types of credentials, but Le Baratin has an amazing-value lunch menu (in French, a menu is a set, multi-course meal, unlike the English menu, which in French is called a carte), priced at €15 for three courses. For the difficulty of choosing from the stellar options for each course, the high quality of ingredients, and the jovial neighbourhood atmosphere, we would be lucky to have this meal in the more central neighbourhoods of the Latin Quarter or the Marais for double or triple the price. Really. Anyway, enough with the words. Here's what we ooohed and aaahed over this lunch hour. To start, Bob had boullion barbue et legumes (flatfish and vegetable soup), which was the freshest tasting soup I've ever sipped, brought to the table at close to room temperature, which was jarring at first, but really brought out the depth of the individual flavours. Unfortunately, it didn't photograph well, so you'll have to imagine that one. I had salade de cabillaud (cod salad), which came with a light, citrusy dressing that perfectly offset both the fish and the lettuce.

With such excellent first courses, our expectations were building for the main dishes. Bob chose joue de boeuf à la vigneronne (beef cheek in wine), which simply oozed with textured, rich flavour; let's just say that Bob was pleased to have so much sauce to sop up afterwards!

I probably would have gone with the beef if we hadn't had steak the night before, but since we had, I ordered fricassee de volaille aux aubergines (chicken with eggplant in gravy) and was equally happy to use the chewy baguette pieces to get every last bit of delicious sauce off my plate.

With a choice of "fromage ou dessert" for our last course, I almost went for the cheese (Camembert), but decided that I needed something sweet after the previous two courses. Bob, of course, always goes for sweet over savoury, so he also chose dessert. Bob's last course was a first-rate crème caramel, flecked with real vanilla,

and mine was fromage blanc au miel (white cheese with honey), a simple favourite of mine, of which today's was the best version I've had.

Le Baratin is the kind of place where the food may look straightforward and plain in photos, but everything just tastes so intense, so fresh, so full of flavour that I can't recommend it highly enough. We finished our meal with five minutes to go in our allotted hour, and gave our enthusiastic thanks to our servers before heading back out onto the street, talking about the wonderful meal we had just finished. Near the end of the street, this otherwise boring building features two oddly striking figures:

At the very end of the street is an entrance to the Parc de Belleville,

which features unbeatable panoramic views of Paris, including Montparnasse Tower (on the left) and the Eiffel Tower, with the Pompidou Centre in the middle.

We had a lot of overcast, hazy days on this trip, and we were very lucky that the clearest skies we had during our visit happened to occur when we were in Belleville--otherwise these views might just have ended up as little more than layers of grey. After we left the park, we wandered up and down many nearby streets, taking in the amazing variety of street art that seemed to be everywhere we looked.

I loved this image of a boy standing on his toes to ring the bell,

and you'll have to look very closely to see the faded images in this piece:

The art riches continued in neighbouring Ménilmontant:

We both loved this cartoon pairing of the view of the goings-on in an apartment building with the absurd presence of a spouting whale in a typically Parisian park, but it wasn't until I uploaded the photos to the computer that I noticed that we had missed the most amazing piece of art in this scene--what appears to be an entire panel of cartoon cells on the white building to the left!

In a sea of apartment buildings, this rare detached house stood out,

and the pipes at the top of this next building were art-installation worthy.

After we walked through a narrow lane with a dreamy name ("Passage of Sighs"), I stopped to take a photo of the sign. As often happens when I stop to take a picture, someone stepped right into my photo, but in this case, I think the picture was improved as a result!

As we walked down this rather typical Ménilmontant street

(here's a view looking back as we walked),

residents stood outside their doors with cups of coffee in hand, talking with their neighbours across the street. Ménilmontant used to be part of Belleville, and La Bellevilloise was founded in 1877 as the first cooperative in Paris aimed at bringing cultural and political education to the masses. In the first half of the 20th century, La Bellevilloise was vital to cultural and economic life in eastern Paris, even introducing concepts of free trade in the form of allowing producers and consumers of goods to deal face-to-face. It's now a cultural venue, hosting art, film, music, and an on-site restaurant.

Numerous atmospheric cul-de-sacs and small lanes repeatedly beckoned at us with their charms. Who were we to resist?

The ground floor of this apartment building was completely covered with these familiar figures (which we've seen in many Paris neighbourhoods during our various visits), and like the boy we saw earlier today, one of the figures appeared to be buzzing to be let into the building:

By now our feet were more than ready for a rest, so we enjoyed sitting on the metro while we headed back to central Paris. When we reemerged onto the street, we were in familiar territory in the Marais

and headed toward gorgeous Place des Vosges, from where I looked back and took this photo of one of the entrances:

The oldest square in Paris, Place des Vosges was completed in 1612 as a residential square with almost forty private homes overlooking the central area. Gardens were added in 1680, with the now-iconic fountains added much later in the 19th century.

On sunny days like today, the place gets pretty crowded with people enjoying the gardens as well as the numerous restaurants and cafés that line much of the ground-floor space. Our next destination was in this corner of the square,

where Victor Hugo's home is now a (free) museum.

The views onto the square are lovely

and even if, like us, you're not especially interested in Hugo, the house still makes for a nice visit.

As if to prove that this desk was really Hugo's,

a framed image of Hugo standing at the desk hangs on a nearby wall.

After we left the museum, we walked a bit in the Marais, and I must say that after our quiet strolls in Butte-aux-Cailles, Belleville, and Ménilmontant, the crowds of the Marais seemed quite intense! In any case, we happened right past another free Paris museum and couldn't remember if we'd been there before, so we went in for a look. As soon as we stepped inside, we realised that this was our second visit to Musée Jacquemart-André, a mansion filled with the art collection of its 19th-century owners.

When we left the museum, it was around 5:30 P.M. and after some more walking around the Marais,

we got on another metro and headed south across the Seine to one of our favourite streets for strolling, Rue Mouffetard.

The remains of a Roman road, now a market street with a touristy bit (the north end) and a more authentic section (the south end), the entire length of Rue Mouffetard is filled with culinary temptations, charming buildings, and great people-watching. Although we've always started at the north end and worked our way south, this time we got off the metro close to the south end and walked in (what was to us) reverse. I actually preferred it this way, since we started further away from tourist central and gradually eased our way back toward the edges of the Latin Quarter. This building is almost at the northernmost point of the street, and as if the food options on the ground floor aren't intoxicating enough, the building itself is an impressive sight:

Further up the street, this tiny decoration alludes to some sort of refreshing drink that was once available here (some say water, some say wine):

We stopped in at this rather old-school market café/ tabac (they sell tobacco, but you can't smoke it inside since the smoking ban!) for a coffee break, and its tempting, inexpensive menu and comfortable interior means that it's on the list for a lunchtime visit on our next trip.

The tasty dessert under this dome taunted us while we were having our coffee,

but somehow we resisted adding a sweet accompaniment to our break.

Our coffee-break timing was perfect because it absolutely poured while we were in the café, but by the time we left, the rain was down to a light drizzle that soon stopped. We continued up the street,

stopping to admire the thoughtful large-scale artwork and poem that we remembered from our last stroll along Rue Mouffetard:

I was unable to find an online translation, but I think the poem is too lovely to leave untranslated, so here is my incredibly awkward and questionable translation. Please keep in mind my earlier lament about repeatedly vowing to improve my French and then coming home and not doing so. I'm especially unsure of the last line--help, anyone?
*
Passer-by,
look at this large tree
and through him
it can be enough.

Because even torn, tarnished,
the tree of the streets,
is all nature,
all sky,
the bird lands there,
the wind is lively there, the sun
speaks the same hope in spite of
death.

Philosopher,
you're lucky to have the tree
in your street,
your thoughts will be less taxing,
your eyes clearer,
your hands more wanting
of less night.
*
As Rue Mouffetard ended, we continued walking north toward the church of St Etienne du Mont, close to where we had dinner last night. (In fact, a night view of the church is the second-last photo of yesterday's post.) As we approached the church down this narrow street, a beam of sunshine spotlit Bob, making him the only brightness amongst the cobbles:

Although we've walked past the church many times, this was our first time peeking inside

at the beautiful interior.

The abbey depicted on the right side of this stained glass no longer remains, but its tower still stands next to St Etienne du Mont (depicted in the middle pane of glass):

The church is known for its shrine to St Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris:

We passed the nearby Panthéon, which was originally a church dedicated to St Geneviève, but is now known as the resting place of France's national heroes (entry is by parliamentary action). We visited the beautiful interior and surprisingly moving crypt on an earlier trip, but still haven't made it out to the outdoor viewing gallery that provides panoramic views of the Latin Quarter and the rest of Paris--maybe next time?

We laughed when we spotted this dog's odd choice of location for lounging, although he looked pretty comfortable, and didn't move from his treasured spot as we passed.

As we wound our way back up to the river, we passed through Square Viviani, which contains some ruins

as well as what is said to be the oldest tree in Paris--nice to see it on the same day that we saw the poem on Rue Mouffetard. The tree is definitely showing its age, and concrete pillars help prevent it from collapsing in the square.

The square itself is a very relaxing place, with a wonderful view of Notre Dame:

We managed to snag the only remaining free bench in the square and sat there for quite a while, mulling over our day. We probably saw more of Paris that was new to us in one day today than we have since the days of our first trip in 2005. The spectacular view in front of us kept us on the bench even longer, and we eventually returned to our feet (even though all our walking had us both half-wanting to cuddle up with the gutter-puppy for a snooze) to do some more walking, have a light dinner, and very slowly meander back to our hotel for the night.