Paris, Day 1

Paris, more than any other city in the world, makes me feel ambivalent. I've had the most splendid and the most horrid times there- I took my first black-and-white photo in Paris and ate my first mille-feuille and duck confit in Paris. I backpacked for the first time to Paris and climbed all 668 steps of the Eiffel Tower in a giggling group of pre-collegiate girls. I've made real friends in Paris and fought with and left loves of my life in Paris.


I don't know that there is another place that equals it, in both beauty or artifice and perhaps for the same reason, I've never kept a real journal of what happens in Paris, just squirreled away receipts, cards, memories. These are just some some suggestions for what to do and see, so please take them with a pinch of salt! The photos are taken from trips to France and some by my very talented friend Amy Long, who's unfortunately pursuing a further degree in the US, rather than professional photography- I think you can see what an amazing eye she has and her ability to bring the city to life.


First, the basics, where to stay in Paris. This is really up to you. The city of Paris is divided in 20 arrondisements, or what used to be municipal districts. They are arranged in a circular pattern around the right bank of the Seine (aka the river that runs through it). My favourite places are 7,8,9, 1 and 2 but of course, the closer you are to the center, the more expensive the accomodation. For me, I think there are budget acccomodations available in the center and would rather stay there then further away in more spacious accomodations just because travelling in the metro over long distances is no fun and wastes precious time. (For example- one of my favourite Australian budget-boutique hotel chains, Eight Hotels, just sent me their Arr 2. site in Paris. 99 euros or 200SGD for a brand-new, fully equipped apartment for 4pp. http://www.eighthotels.com/Content_Common/pg-ParisAp.seo )


Also, when I am in Paris, I don't actually train much. I walk. I walk for hours. It is the only way (and not even) to keep the calories off and really, Paris was built, with it's wide pavements and gorgeous tree-lined boulevards, for walking. So rather than buy a stored-value card, I tend to buy a book of single-use tickets, again, up to you and available at every metro station in case you change your mind.


What is most indispensable, is a map and by this I don't mean the crappy hotel one-pager but a proper Le Petit Parisienne that lays out every borough, street and area in two languages. This is like the A-Z London booklet and without it, you won't be able to find a particular shop, even if you are in the right area because Paris, much like an ungridded New York, is a very complex network of sidestreets and alleys. Imagine a big knot in your hair- that is what most Paris arrondisements look like.


One thing that I think is also very true about Paris, is that like most big cities, if you try to squeeze too much into what you will do and see, you will become very impatient, crabby and somewhat frustrated. So many people hear about the romance of Paris and never really understand why, I think to really imbue what the city has to offer, you have to contemplate Paris. You have to make time to sit in the sidewalk cafes, to appreciate the ebb and flow of noise and quiet and to really people-watch and Paris-watch.


DAY 1
On the first day there, take advantage of your jet lag to get up early for a farmers market. My favourite one (and there are many other excellent ones in the city) is the one along Avenue de President Wilson, open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, (between the metro station Iena and Trocadero). The most brilliant stores here are the bread shop (buy a loaf of sourdough or a wheel of french bread), the olive oil shop (their Tonda olive oil is the most sweet and flowery aromatic salad oil), the cheese lady (try the compte and goat's cheese especially) and the heaps of fresh vegetables, like french chanterelles and white asparagus. The reason this market is particularly good is that you are near to Embassy Row, so the quality of the stalls here is regulated.


As you walk down the avenue full of rotisserie chicken and crepe, there are two directions to walk. By now the shops would have opened, so you can walk up Avenue Marceau toward the Arc de Triomphe or you can walk diagonally up Avenue George V and you would be behind the Champs Elysees, the main retail drag. (As you walk down Ave de President Wilson, you will pass I think the Musee de Petit Palais, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower-I have bothered to look at a map but you of course, should not be so cavalier).


Personally, I would rather drive around the Arc de Triomphe than walk to it (it is, after all, just an Arch) but the advantage of wandering deeper into Embassy Row (the whole area that borders Avenue Foch is where all the state buildings are), is that you get to see beautifully preserved examples of Haussmann architecture. Georges Haussmann was the chief civil engineer and urban planner of Paris and fought to protect many of the block marble stone buildings that are now used for state purpose. Even now, certain districts in Paris require you to use a very specific kind and colour of stone to renovate, which explains the imposing uniformity of their boulevard-lined terraces and the difficulty of urban renewal in Europe!


However, if you are more into shopping then sidewalk history, then cross over to the front of Champs Elysee and get your retail kicks out. You can shop from the top of the street, at Nespresso (buy a nifty coffee machine for 140 euros, a steal compared to their $600 machinese in Singapore) and traverse all the way down to the bottom of the street with Sephora and Adidas. This is the "high-street shopping". If you are bored of these brands, stop at Laduree, the famous macaron-house, for a couple of bites.


When you end Champs-Elysee, again, you have two choices. If you are not weighed down by purchases, you can continue sight-seeing, walking down the Concorde metro station into the Jardin de Tulleries and toward the Louvre. If you really want to kill yourself, you can keep walking past the Louvre toward Les Halles, then down slightly to the Isle of Cite and wind up near Notre Dame before crossing the Seine to the Left bank art galleries but woah nelly, will your feet hurt!


If you are similarly empty-handed and you want to do more damage, cross back over the Avenue George V and turn into Avenue Montaigne. At the crossroads of these two great streets, you will find the grand Four Seasons Hotel George V, where you can gaze up at the carnellian flower covered balconies and pretend that you are Audrey Hepburn or Sarah Jessica Parker. No, seriously.

You can walk into my favourite shop in all of Paris, Montaigne Market. As the first multi-marque in the city of lights, the store engineers a confluence of current and classic styles from the fashion capitals of the world into a 4,000 square foot space. The buyer, Liliane Jossua selects collections that move in an integrated mix of designers and price tiers but trust me, that doesn't stop you from wanting to buy the whole shop! The airy, well-lit store layout is designed to be, like the undulating colors and textures of the clothes, minimalist but not austere.

After walking out, you can carry on down the happy street of Chanel (you must, it's Paris), Miu Miu, the most chic branch of Max Mara in the world, then loop back to Hermes and Louis Vuitton if you like that sort of thing. There are two great places to eat around this area, for lunch, you could go to Jabugo & Co, a great unique little sidestreet shop for spanish hams. I'm not saying this place isn't a bit ridiculous but this is Paris, what else are you here for otherwise? These hams have the Bellota-Bellota label, meaning that the pigs have been allowed to feast on acorns, they also carry the elusive Jambon Iberico Pate Negra, which is really hard to find and yes, you can taste the difference.


The other place is my favourite upmarket restaurant, Taillevant. One of my good friends used to be a food critic during her university days in Paris and when I asked for her list, I asked specifically for her to compile her top hole-in-the-wall bistros and eateries. As a result, I don't actually eat particularly expensively in Paris but there have been one or two exceptions! I would definitely advise that you try this gastronomic institution (and at all costs, avoid eating anywhere that has the name Robuchon on it). You can make a reservation for lunch, which at 70 euros (including wine) is a really good treat or you could splurge and go for dinner. Opened since 1946, Taillevant is a place for an understated, modern, perfect food experience, complemented by their rare and friendly service.


For the first day, I would not perhaps push myself too hard, the farmer's market, retail areas around Champs-Elysees and then the Jardin Tulleries and the Louvre in the heat of the afternoon (the Louvre does have free musuem days and is also free for the hour preceeding closing but I try to use the afternoons to see musuems in summer). In the late afternoon, I would have a cup of coffee at Le Cafe Marly along Rue de Rivoli (next to the Louvre) and walk across the footbridge to the Isle of Cite (you can visit the Saint Chapelle, a small closeted chapel of amazing and soaring stained glass panes, if you feel like it) then go for a lovely dinner and burn some of dinner off afterward by walking to the Eiffel Tower at night for the lightshow and midnight crepes by the river.


Addendum
I myself research to keep up-to-date on Paris. For cheap Paris accomodations and bistros, I would recommend searching the New York Times (www.nyt.com)'s Travel section for Paris, they wrote about 5 outstanding articles on chic hotels below 99 euros and affordable Parisien bistros. For blogs, search Aun Koh's www.chubbyhubby.net for his two beautifully written posts on Paris eating and for the most up-to-date ideas, my dear Paris friend and host writes on her daily meals and cakes at umami.typepad.com


On Day 2, I would get up early in the morning (still jet lagged) and go for a run. My better half is a lot more concientious at this than I and he frequently tells us (most annoyingly, over the course of the day) that the early morning is the time when Paris is the most beautiful. It's true, there is a beautiful stillness and romantic glory about seeing all these sites sans hordes of tourists. He has run all the way to the Sacre Cour and proclaimed it magnificent in the rising sun but for me, I can only manage a very much shorter, later and more central run, along the river, at the Jardin Tulleries and Plaza de la Concorde and down the wide tree-lined boulevards toward the Eiffel Tower.

I have some motivation- part of this run is to wind up halfway at Sothys, a wonderful French skincare store. You run north of the circle at metro Franklin D. Roosevelt and north of Rue de St Honore (few street east of the restaurant Taillevant). The French, like the Chinese or Koreans, are fanatical about skincare and this brand is known for clarifying and organically fragranced products that belie the rather plain white and gold packaging. The advantage is that they are a third the price they retail for in Singapore, so quite worth it. I find their make-up products beautiful as well, they make these crushed-fine eyeliner pencils that are smokey yet accurate.

(The other famous brand of skincare product, By Terry, is at Ave Victor Hugo or behind the Louvre at 36 Galerie Véro-Dodat. The founder, Terry de Gunzberg, was Yves Saint Laurent's former director of makeup and shot to fame as the originator of luminescent matt liquid foundation. Dotted around Paris are small stores that sell her own brand of ready-to-wear makeup that's a favorite of French actresses and socialites. Upstairs, specialists create what de Gunzburg calls haute couleur, exclusive made-to-measure makeup tailored for each client. At their astronomical prices though, you might as well change your face rather than the make-up.)

A second stop is for breakfast at Dalloyau, which is just around the corner. Dalloyau is like a one-stop DFS gourmet food store. They select the 100 best food product suppliers from around France and cater to all the top households and parties in Paris. I'm not encouraging you to have a meal there, it's frightfully overpriced but I always indulge in a single chocolate eclair, which, at (I've blocked it from my memory, I think it was) 5 Euros is the most ridiculous eclair you will ever eat, both in terms of price and the sheer, pure richness of the thick chocolate. It is the best eclair I've tasted in my life and everytime I have one, I want to cry from temporal happiness. I think it's the endorphins.

Of course, then every other chocolate eclair you have in your life is unsatisfactory but who cares, all the better to eat less with. If this kind of breakfast does not sit well with you, then you can keep running toward Ave Victor Hugo and go to Boulangerie Bechu, which is famous for their french classics like pain au chocolate, coco-banane and croissant. Unlike other half-baked boulangeries in Paris, the croissants here are always hot!


Run back to home, sated. On Day 2, I would start at the Opera House and then walk and shop through Primptemps and Galleries Lafeyette. In truth, while these two department stores are iconic shopping institutions, you don't have to visit, except it's a bit like Harrods, people go in just to see their dome and have tea at the enchantingly large and varied food hall. Two stores that I like to visit in this area and which I think do have their pulse firmly on Paris street fashion is Repetto and Gerard Darel.

The Repetto store in Rue de la Paix has been there since 1959 and Rose Repetto started creating ballet shoes for her famouse ballet dancer and choreographer son a decade before that. In 1956, Brigitte Bardot asked Rose to make her red fashion slippers for the film, And God Created Women. Since then, the name Repetto has become synonomous with ballet shoes and ballet flats that are comfortable and mould to your feet.


The store here is a dreamy little shrine to dancers and every young girl who grew up wanting to be graceful, the window displays are lavish and romantic and inside the store, shelves of brand new and vintage ballet shoes occupy two back walls, while the more fashion-forward merchandise is displayed in the front of the shop. If you need a fitting for dance shoes, you have to make an appointment but for children's ballet shoes and their iconic black patent ballet flats, you can walk in anytime.


The other store is Gerard Darel, which can be found in many locations around the city. While he does make clothing and accesories, it is his buttery soft, slung bags, particularly the 24hr bag (there is a 36hr bag in case yourself toting around more necessities) which is probably the most visible woman-bag in Paris. His brand has gained credence within the French fashion scene (Charlotte Gainsburg is their spokesperson) and across the Atlantic on the likes of Angelina Jolie and Reese Witherspoon (presumably via the influence of french Desperate Daughter-in-law, Eva Longoria). These bags are tres chic, modern, practical yet slightly messy and available in patent, calf leather or exotic.

After shopping, walk or take the subway toward lunch and a spot of musuem lazing at the Musee D'orsay, which is along Quai Voltaire. You basically have to walk south-west and cross the river. There are two ways to do it, you can train it, or if you choose to walk, go south to Rue St Honore and walk along the main retail drag there
toward the river. I'm sure by now you would have tired of high street labels, so you may not want to walk down St Honore (I prefer Left Bank retail, which is coming up tomorrow!) but if you do, there are two interesting shops. One is JP Hevin, a rich chocolate shop similar to Pierre Herme and the other is ABP, Atelier de Bracelet Paris, where, if you don't want to indulge in a bag, you can choose from a dazzling array of exotic skins and smooth calf leathers for a new watch strap. This shop is one of the oldest and most accomplished leather watch strap tanners in the world.


One reason to take a train is that I would suggest travelling a bit further toward Montparnesse or St Germain (slightly south of where the Musee D'orsay is located) for a late lunch. The area around the musuems are always slightly touristy and tends to have rip-off restaurants that aren't altogether worth spending your Euros on. There are four places in this particular area that I really like and you can feel free to save one of them for lunch tomorrow, when you'll be back in the Left Bank.

The first is Au Pied de Fouet, which is seriously the smallest little hole in the wall you will ever find. It has all of 18 or 20 seats but at lunch, it's just a happy, elbow greasing crowd in there. Try their lovely duck confit, a steal at 9 Euros and their salads and starters which are priced at 3 Euros. Eating out in Paris doesn't get much cheaper, nor more interesting than this!

If you want duck confit but you don't want to eat in a hole, try Le Petit Lutetia at Rue de Sevres. This is a very standard french bistro wich some excellent food and reasonable set menus where you can choose any starter, main and dessert from the day's menu. A lunch here would be closer to 20 Euros but for that you have a wonderful ambience, friendly service and again, great duck confit and also creme brulee.

The third place that you can go to is the cheerful, sunlit Relais de l'Entrecote on 20bis rue Saint Benoit. This is a beef and frites restaurant and that is all they serve but they do it so well, stacks of slices of beef with endless and overflowing mounds of fries. The beef comes with a green curry sauce on the side, which is both different and reminscent of Chinese food, for those of you who may be missing your curry and gravy just a little bit. They do have another branch of this same chain on the Right Bank, near the embassy district and even in this area, they have one resturant at St Germain and another further south at Montparnesse.


One benefit of going to Montparnesse is my favourite creperie in all of Paris. Everyone has one and they all have their little street turf wars. I guess one way to think about it is, any crepe store that is close to a tourist attraction like the Notre Dame or Eiffel Tower is bound not to be good. Crepe carts in farmers markets are also not very good (clearly catering to the tourist crowd because locals don't go to market for crepets) but better than tourist-site ones. This one in Montparness is both very old and authentic. It's called Creperie Le Josselin and the crepes are made with love by an old hag and her gorgeous blue-eyed son. Need I say more?


While away the late afternoon in the small but beautiful musuem, a fat squat
musuem housed in the old D'orsay train station, with its intricate stucco rosetted ceiling and floors and floors of impressionist art, framed by giant crescant grilled bay windows. For dinner, you can again, try one of those restaurants mentioned (except Au Pied de Fouet, which I feel is more of a lunch place) or if you are adventurous, make an advanced booking at Los A Moelle, where for 38 Euros, you get a 6 course feast, cooked by Chef Thierry Faucher, the one-time student brilliante of the top chefs in Paris.


This yellow little brick shophouse is unpretentious in a little remote part of the 16th (think, long train ride) and they do two seatings, the later one at 9.30pm where dinner may end close to midnight. My memory of this place was that it was fantastic, we were served a full bodied fish soup, a caramelized foie gras, monkfish with girolle mushrooms, beef cheek with fresh summer peas, fresh cheese and a chcocolate mousse, a richly sated meal.

Honest and excellent for the price. This place makes a frequent appearence on the NYT lists as the best affordable Paris bistro. After dinner, head to the Bastille club area to get a taste of Parisienne nightlife. Personally, I like to just walk along the Seine, which always makes me realize how beautiful Paris is as a city. At night, the flashing lights from the Eiffel Tower help to illuminate the giant statues that line the Pont Neuf bridge, Le Invalides, the magnificent rectangular marbled tomb where Napolean is buried, the Musee de Lorangue (where Monet's best works are kept, go see if you have time) against the shadowy townhouses of St Germain and the tall spirals of Notre Dame. It's a contemplative, historical skyline that always gives me the shivers.


If you're looking for a different kind of dance though, make a pilgrammage to Barrio Latino at 46 rue du Faubourg in the Bastille. This is a five storied nightclub, which touts itself as a salsa-boudoir. The floor is parquet but the decor is sort of Che Guevera crossed with a Beauty and the Beast-type sweeping, iron wrought staircase. In other words, straight out of a bad Justin Timberlake MTV video. The music is Afro-Cuban All Stars, Shakira and everything in between, it's so awful but it's also quite a lark, especially if you're as drunk as the French.

If that is definitely not your thing, then head to the Hotel Costes for a drink and some music at this still ultra-trendy boutique hotel.

Bonne Journee!

Jabugo Iberico & Co.
11, Rue Clément Marot
75008 Paris, France
+33 9 62 00 25 02

Taillevant
15 Rue Lamennais, 8th
Phone: 01 44 95 15 01
Make reservations at least 2 weeks beforehand.

Montaigne Market
57, Avenue Montaigne
Paris 75008
France
Telephone +33 (0)1 42 56 02 82

Boulangerie Bechu
118 Ave. Victor Hugo
33-1/47-27-97-79; closed Mondays

Dalloyau
101, Rue Fbg St Honoré, Paris
+33 1 42 99 90 00

Sothys
9, Avenue Myron Herrick
75008 Paris, France
+33 1 53 04 07 23

By Terry
10, Avenue Victor Hugo
75016 Paris, France
+33 1 55 73 00 73

Printemps
64, Bld Haussman, 9th,
Phone: 01 42 82 57 87

Galeries Lafayette
40 Bld Haussman, 8th,
Phone: 01 42 82 34 56

Repetto
22, Rue de la Paix, Paris
Phone: +33 1 44 71 83 12

Gerard Darel
22 Rue Royale, 75008 Paris, France‎
Phone: 01 42 96 11 70‎

Atelier du Bracelet Parisien
28, place du marché Saint Honoré - 75001 Paris
Tél : 33 (0) 1 42 86 13 70

Le Petit Lutetia
107 rue de Sevres
Phone: 01 45 48 33 53

Au Pied de Fouet
45 rue de Babylone
Phone: 01 47 05 12 27

Les Relais de l'Entrecote
101, Boulevard du. Montparnasse
Phone: +33 1 46 33 82 82
20, Rue Saint-Benoît
Phone +33 1 45 49 16 00

Creperie Le Josselin
67 rue du Montparnasse

Los a Moelle
18 Ave de la Republique, 92130
Call in advance

Hotel Coastes
239 Rue St. Honore, Paris, 1st
Phone: 01 42 44 50 50