The cheaper side of Paris
9 February 10
This past weekend, I was lucky enough to be taken around Paris by those who live and work (and eat, most importantly) there. Not being too flush with cash at the moment, I went easy on the Champs Elysee host of edible attractions and the allure of haute couture, and instead allowed myself to be guided by the knowing natives and expats I encountered.
The Marais:
One of the hippest places in Paris, this area is filled with cobblestoned streets and colourful cafes. Look out for some vintage (read: secondhand) bargains in this area. Keep a look out for stores with 'frip' in their name, 'frip' from 'friperie' which means secondhand clothes shop. These mostly tiny stores offer veritable feasts of wonderful bargains. Prepare to root around for something fabulous. At €5 for a skirt, €10 for a dress and €15 for a man's tweed jacket, you'll be smugly informing people at home that you 'picked this little number up in Paris.'
Rue des Rosiers, the Jewish Quarter:
This street is home to numerous kosher bakeries and eateries. For the historian in you, flowers are hung from plaques on the walls along this winding street, commemorating former residents killed at the hands of the Nazis, and remembering some heroes of the resistance movement. A bustling atmosphere gives a real sense of the vibrancy of Parisian life.
Shakespeare and Company:
The Shakespeare and Company store's original site was on rue de l'Odeon, near Palais de Luxembourg and the Latin Quarter of Paris. Owned originally by Sylvia Beach, it was often visited by artists of the "Lost Generation", such as Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. Beach was also the first publisher of Joyce's Ulysees. The store was closed in December 1941, due to the occupation of France by the Axis powers during World War II. Allegedly, the store was ordered shut because Beach denied a German officer the last copy of Joyce's Finnegans Wake. The store at rue de l'Odéon never re-opened, but a new owner began the tradition anew in 1951 at the new site - 37 rue de la Bûcherie, near Place St. Michel and steps from the Seine river. Worth a look for any literary fans.
Père Lachaise:
A little more off the beaten track than the likes of Notre Dame, this massive graveyard is similarly free to enter. More like a gallery than a cemetery, you can visit the resting places of Jim Morrison, Gertrude Stein, Chopin, Max Ernst, Molière, and Marcel Proust, to name but a few. Most famously, Oscar Wilde is buried here, his tombstone covered in the lipstick kisses of his many vistors. Ironically, and I am sure much to the amusement of Wilde himself, at the foot of the stone there is a completely unheeded plaque which tells people that 'defacing' the tombstone is illegal.
The Bastille Market:
On any given Sunday, this market will provide you with clothes, jewellery, live lobsters and crabs, breads, pastries, cheeses, fruits, and a lot of people watching. This market is home to a mix of fine ladies in real fur with manicured little dogs, tourists, students, and street performers who can balance goldfish on their heads while juggling. Bring something plastic on which to sit and watch the world go by after purchasing your homegrown French luncheon.
Enjoy the Paris of the French and return home with more than lint lining your wallet.
