"How is Paris?" Recommendations, and Paris as *the focal point* of the entire world.
I moved to France in January of 2023. Before doing so, whenever I told my plans to anyone, they would usually ask some form of: “What arrondissement are you moving to?” I would politely correct them and answer that I wasn’t moving to Paris, but instead to the southwest—to a very romantic, large city called Toulouse. It is nicknamed “La Ville Rose” (the pink city) because of the vernacular architecture’s often-rosy hue thanks to the movement of the sun. Toulouse is a city of warmth built around the water, with a slightly medieval twinge to it. After my move, and still today, one year later, people ask me: “How is Paris?!” I light-heartedly tell them, “It’s great! But I don’t live there!” I’m on the opposite side of the almost-Texas-sized country.
Even so, I still find Paris to be the most enchanting city in the world. I will fervently fight anyone on this point. Yes, I realistically know the city’s pitfalls, but the rest of it —the *absolument !* feeling—overrides anything low. What’s my draw toward Paris? The history, the food, the buildings, the gardens, the feeling in the air, the clichéd romanticism, the language, the fashion, the museums, the hustle, the slowness, the patina, the characters, La Seine, the possibilities, the stories, the, the, the…
Everything!
It’s the center of it all.
And though I don’t live there, I’ve been slowly absorbing information about Paris for my (almost) 34 years. My childhood interest in fashion, my studies in art history and museums, my work in the field of architecture and design, my four years of self-taught French learning, my relationship with a real French person—all of these things have been informing me of a specific point on the globe. The first time I visited, in late 2021, I kept turning toward familiar landmarks and doing this thing where I was introducing myself to them. Like: “Oh hello, Sacré-Cœur, hi! It’s so cool to finally see you!” (Minutes later, I was crying inside of it while totally overwhelmed by the scale and beauty and how lucky I felt to be there.)
People often ask me for recommendations for themselves or their loved ones for an upcoming trip, so here’s my attempt to share places I’ve experienced and loved, plus some that I have been graciously recommended. So many of these places were introduced to me by Jb because he spent 8 years living and exploring every corner of the city. It’s thanks to him that I can share the goodness of so many of these spots.
On y va !
Georges Perec’s An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris
Wait! Before I get into my list of recs, I wanted to point your attention to Georges Perec, who spent 1974 existing quietly in Saint-Sulpice Square in Paris. He sat or he stood. He perked up his ears. He witnessed. He scribbled notes. He carved out stories. He recorded some bits of history—both trivial and meaningful. From these observations, he published Tentative d’épuisement d’un lieu parisian (An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris) in 1975. Perec picked up and transmitted what most people miss during life in a metropolitan place, painting a mundane but clear picture of Parisian life. Maybe it will inspire you to visit and to slooooooow the heck down in order to appreciate all of the specks of personality and flavor that the city effuses?
, a built-environment writer who I greatly admire, introduced me to Georges Perec, exhausting places, and Perec’s hefty volume of Lieux. Reading Colin’s thoughts on Perec sent me down a research spiral and surely lengthened my to-visit list in this sparkly city in Northern France.
You can read Perec’s Lieux passages from 1969 through 1975 online, including some memorable ones:
#19: “It is significant that I am late. This place does not belong to the past. It was, when my project was formed, the one that connected me to the closest, most burning past. It would have been the (fallacious) pretext to go back “there” at least once a year, to have the excuse to think about it at least twice a year.
It is not that there is no memory related to this place, on the contrary, but I do not know how to say them, how to treat them. They continue to belong to the present; they illuminate my future (in a way)…While this book seems to me to be more and more turned towards the past, towards what I was, towards everything that formed me.”
#77: “I have never slept on rue de la Gaîté. I don't know anyone who lives there.”
#82: “A bench.
Another bench.
On one, a young man in the position of Rodin's thinker.
On the other, an old man: cap, S-pipe, motionless, knees crossed.
On the terrace: three men, each at a table, alone. One reads Le Monde.
A cat walks on the roof of the 7.
A ray of sunshine on the building of the 1st and 3rd.”
#101: “How do I remember Place Jussieu when, for more than six months, I have been there more than twice a day? So, I don't look at her anymore, or even if I look at her, I don't see anything.”
#103: “In April ‘74, when I should have written this memory, Esther was not dead.
From now on, the only memories I would like to evoke would be those of her agony and death: her triangular mouth desperately trying to suck in a little more air.”
#115: “I have to note this true or false memory found: in the morning I went to my parents’ bed; my mother got up but my father who had been to Les Halles at night was still drowsy. My favorite game was to dive entirely under the sheets and go touch my father's feet, each time with big bursts of laughter.”
My Recommendations:
This will be a list that I will edit and expand upon as time continues! If you have places you adore in Paris, I’d love to read about them in the comments. In the meantime, I’ll be busy exploring this city over and over again whenever I have the luck to sneak up north.
HISTORIC SITES
Villa Savoye - A home designed by Le Corbusier. It’s about an hour outside of Paris, but you can take a train/bus there.
Maison de Verre - This one is closed to the public, but if you’re in the architecture community, you may have a shot.
MUSIC
Caveau de la Huchette - I tried my hardest to not be on my phone at all during the entire enchanting experience, but I had to sneak this video of one of the most movie-like memories of my life thus far.
GALLERIES/MUSEUMS
Le Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris - If you can get a crêpe at a street cart beforehand and eat it in the courtyard this modern art museum shares with the Palais de Tokyo, you’ll feel like a million bucks. And you’ll have an outstanding view of the Eiffel Tower up close.
Le Centre Pompidou, including l’Atelier Brancusi - If you take the escalators outside all the way to the top, it’s the best free, public view of the Eiffel Tower. Sorry, hi again, La Tour Eiffel.
Le Musée de l'Orangerie - The most notable collection item are Monet’s Water Lillies.
Le Musée du Louvre - But don’t go in the normal way. There’s a secret entrance. Don’t take my word for it because, truthfully, I haven’t been inside the Louvre yet.
Le Musée d’Orsay - I haven’t visited this one yet either, but it’s a grand museum in an old train station.
Paul A. McDonough, Paris, 1970.
FOOD!!!!
Bouillon Julien - An internal explosion of heavenly Art Nouveau.
Bistro Mon Rêve - They scoop a large ladle of mousse au chocolate from a tremendously big bowl onto your plate.
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