The Markets of Paris

During the past few days I have visited the majority of the tourist sites in Paris (the Louvre, Disneyland, Eiffel Tower, Pantheon, Arc du Triomphe, Notre Dame and a boat cruise on the river Seine). Whilst each day has been highly enjoyable, I felt I was missing seeing the Paris I wanted to see. The Paris with the cobblestone streets, lined with fromageries and fresh produce with Parisians buying their daily baguettes.

The tourist sites are somewhat quarantined from the Parisians; there are no local shops in vicinity (in fact I had not even seen a supermarket, fromagerie or butcher since I arrived) and the eating choices are highly geared for the tourists.

Today I decided that I was going to take a step away from mainstream tourist Paris - to the market. Now to be fair, I didn't venture that far as tourists often visit here, but it was a welcome change of pace and scenery.

The view down Rue Mouffetard

I started my day at Rue Mouffetard, a cobblestone street lined with providores of fresh produce. Inspired by a logo on a shopping bag my cousin had last night “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food”, I decided to purchase a sampling of goods from the shops and create my own picnic to eat in Paris.

A tiny selection of the goods on offer

I visited the fromagerie and bought three small cheeses (two goats and one sheep), the charcutier for some jamon, the bakery for a ciabatta, the seafood shop for gambas alla ajillo (prawns with garlic and roasted tomato) and the fresh market for raspberries.

The interior of AndrOuet Fromagerie

The weather was windy and threatening to rain so I abandoned my initial plan of picnicking by the Seine and instead took up residence in a local park in the heart of Paris.

The view from my picnic location

A sampling of my lunch items

For the remainder of the day, I walked around the Chatelet part of Paris, window shopping and taking in the sights; a lovely day in Paris.

Paris, France

I have finally made it to the City of Love and it has certainly lived up to expectations (but not necessarily reputation, but more on that later). After over week of layering up due to the cold weather, Paris turned on a beautiful sunny day with the temperature reaching 27 degrees celcius. Needless to say, a change in wardrobe is in order tomorrow.

I started the day at the Eiffel Tower. I had not prebooked any tickets and I can now see why that is so highly recommended. The line to ride the elevator was estimated at taking 2-3 hours to clear so I opted to climb the stairs (15 minute wait). In total there are about 700 stairs and I am sure my calves will remind me tomorrow of each one.

I also elected to take the elevator from the 2nd floor to the very top and it was certainly worth the extra cost. At that height, you are treated with an entirely different perspective on Paris that you can't see from the 2nd floor.

The entire trip from arrival at the site to returning to earth was just under two hours and I decided to walk to the Arc de Triomphe whilst looking for a spot for lunch along the way. I ended up a little off the tourist track and dined at Cafe Valentin (where I seemed to be the only non-french patron). I was able to utilise some of my basic French and I ordered a Tartare Classique with frites maison and salad. The portion was huge and I was only able to eat 1/2 the beef, all of the salad and about 1/4 of the fries.

The beef was very well flavoured and fresh, the fries were tasty but soft and the salad was a little under-dressed but still enjoyable.

After lunch (and still enroute) to the Arc de Triomphe, I found a very nice looking Patisserie and was able to use my favourite french phrase: "je voudrais une eclair au chocola s'il vous plait" . The eclair was lovely but no better than those available back home which was a little disappointing.

Upon arriving at the Arc de Triomphe and doing to usual dance of trying to take a photo of myself and/or trying to find someone to take a photo for me (who doesn't look like they will steal my camera), I met another tourist, Keith who was travelling solo. After taking photos of eachother we started to talk and decided to tour the Arc de Triomphe together.

The views from the Arc are spectacular. It sits in the centre of the Champs Elysees and the views down each avenue were very picturesque. Although the viewing platform is significantly lower than that of the Eiffel Tower, the alternate prespective on Paris is well worth the admission fee. I was a little disappointed, however, at the lack of information available at the site to explain the significance of the site (if you do not know your history, you will be flying solo here).

After our tour, Keith and I decided to keep sightseeing together but we first both had some admin to attend to: buying our onward train tickets so we headed to Gare du Lyon to book our respective onward journeys. After a brief panic thinking I had lost my train ticket, it resurfaced and all was well.

We then walked to the Pantheon, sightseeing and talking along the way. We initally weren't sure about whether we should tour the inside but were both very pleased that we had as the building and artworks are stunning and the crypt below is where many notable french historical figures have been interred (e.g. Marie Curie).

After the Pantheon, it was time for Keith and I to go our separate ways. It was really nice spending the day with someone and sharing a common interest. It certainly makes the day more enjoyable and I look forward to hearing of his travels (he is visiting many of the key places on my itineray prior to when I arrive).

Keith & I

Today was a reminder that I really should have paid more attention in French class at school rather than discussing the XFiles with Kate in the back corner (the last time I studied French was 1996).

I managed to pull together some sentences but it is incredibly broken and quite poor. Due to my poor language skills, I couldn't help but feel a little rude. I have arrived in a foreign country, and am staying with my french speaking relatives (who are all now speaking english for my benefit) and can barely scrape together enough french to buy some sunblock (p.s. I got really burnt today). As a result, everyone else has to speak english to bridge the gap. Given the number of countries I plan to visit this trip, I know that even if my french was up to scratch, I'd be having the same feeling next week in Spain. However, I couldn't help but feel somewhat discurteous because I couldn't communicate effectively.

Which brings me to my point above about Paris not meeting its reputation. I did not see a single instance of the famous Parisian rudeness - quite the contrary. Everyone I spoke to (including many on the street when I would ask for directions) were polite, friendly and happily suggested assisting me in English when I struggled to find the right French word.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and I am certain that I could fall in love with Paris.

Shoreditch, London

I met my cousin, Phil, at Islington before heading off to explore the markets at Shoreditch for the morning before taking the Eurostar to Paris.

We first walked through the flower markets and it was amazing to see the variety of flowers (and low prices) compared to Australia.

We continued walking through the area sampling the various street food/market items on offer including almond crossaints, tropical fruit juices, coffee and my favourite, a salt beef bagel.

According to my sources, there are two establishments specialising in salt beef bagels on Brick Lane, located approximately two doors down from each other. My cousin recommended that we visit Brick Lane Bakery and we shared a bagel with salt beef, mustard and pickles. It was great - full of flavour, tender beef and tasted like New York.

My half of the bagel

I then headed to Paris where I was met by my cousins, Alexis and Edith. I spent the evening settling into Paris (including trying to put together a family tree) and was welcomed with a home-cooked French dinner followed by the greatest cheese board I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.