Great Café

What is Paris without a meal at a neighborhood café?  At the corner of our street, rue Elzévir at rue des Francs Bourgeois, is an excellent archetypal local café, Chez Camille.  Nothing fancy like Café de Flore or trendy like Café Beaubourg, just good French food with a solid wait staff.  If you are wandering around this part of Le Marais and are looking for lunch or a casual dinner, don’t hesitate to stop here because you will not be disappointed.  They have all the classics with outdoor sidewalk seating in the sun (facing south & west) and plenty of indoor space.  Camille is a perfect choice for your fix of salade de chevre chaud, steak-frites or confit de canard.  Afterwards, you can visit the Cognacq-Jay museum with its free admission a few doors down, or the Museé Carnavalet a couple of few blocks away.  Prices are normal, central Paris prices.

Great Italian Food

What, Italian food?  Isn’t this France?  Twelve years ago we had moved to Le Marais from the 6th arrondissement, and lived on rue du Plâtre, near rue des Archives.  Good friends in the neighborhood stumbled across a brand new Italian restaurant called “Gli Angeli”, and it quickly because a frequent gathering place for all of us.  It is run by three Italian bothers who speak broken French and even more broken English.  We were living in Paris full-time then, so Italian food was nice respite.  Every trip since we try to return to this corner restaurant where the same owners and the same authentic Italian food continues to be served, although perhaps with less enthusiasm than the early years. An important criteria in our restaurant choice in general is having some non-meat options for my wife, who is a long-time vegetarian.  For me (not a vegetarian), I enjoy starting my meal at Gli Angeli with the carpaccio then having whatever is the special pasta of the day.  For an aperitif, we love the Kirs made with Prosecco.  If you are visiting Paris in the warmer months, the sidewalk seating is pleasant because it’s on a fairly quiet street.  Plus you are very close to the Place des Vosges if you want to burn off a few calories walking after dinner.

Great Authentic French Food

Wandering up and down the same streets in your neighborhood year after year,  you can become blind to places that are non-descript from the outside.  On rue Vieille de Temple just north of rue des Francs Bourgeois, the faded red-checkered curtains in the windows of Robert  & Louise looked dingy and sad, and made us not look beyond them.  One day when we were looking for a weathered, wood table to photograph my wife’s new fragrance, we finally looked past the red-checks and discovered a warm, marvelous place.  This place has been here for decades, with an authentic pre-gentrification ambience.  With a fireplace, comfortable seating and a friendly staff we decided to enjoy a lunch here while I discretely photographed her perfume bottle (see http://ineke.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=36 for the result).   The menu is solid, French comfort-food (eg. boeuf bourguignon), with just a mushroom omelette as a vegetarian option.  If you are looking for an authentic local place with reasonable prices, this is an ideal choice.

Great Light Meal

Some days you aren’t hungry enough for a full meal but you are hunting for something more than a falafel or crepe.  For years, we’ve rarely and hesitantly eaten at L’Apparement , a restaurant that looks like an apartment and is conveniently located near our apartment, because despite its charms it was hideously smoky, and that smoke stuck to our clothes for days.  Now with the no smoking rules this place has become a real treasure for a light dinner.  The décor is artsy-young, as is the clientele.  There is a potpourri of couches, arm chairs and small tables which adds to its comfortable, relaxed feeling.  When you sit down you are given a piece of paper with various choices to make your own plate.  You place a checkmark next to all the items you’d like and are served a custom, light dinner.  Because of the main non-meat items on the menu, L’Apparement is a great choice for vegetarians.  Located across the street from the Museé Picasso, it is convenient after a long day walking around or for a late evening drink and dessert if you’ve eaten something in your apartment and want to go out somewhere but prefer some place that isn’t a bar.  Prices are very reasonable and can “scale to fit” your appetite and wallet.

Great Place for a Date

Le Réconfort is another restaurant that has been around since we first lived in Le Marais, always a good sign.  A few blocks north of the Museé Picasso, it is situated on rue Poitou among an eclectic set of angled streets newly gentrified with art galleries and trendy boutiques.  The interior has a nice quiet elegance and there is even an upstairs area for small groups.  The menus are glued to the first few pages of old books, a charming touch.  We always enjoy starting our dinner with a Kir Violette, which we haven’t seen anywhere else.  A beautiful violet color, it has a rare and different taste from those made with crème de cassis or crème de mur.  The menu typically has a few choices for vegetarians among the innovative French dishes.  This is the priciest amongst all the restaurants mentioned though still reasonable and correct for the ambiance.

Time to go … let the professor know if you are interested in the next five “great” restaurants!

Chez Camille
24 Rue des Francs Bourgeois
75003 Paris, France
01 42 72 20 50
20-30 euros per person + drinks

Gli Angeli
5 Rue Saint-Gilles
75003 Paris, France
01 42 71 05 80
40-50 euros per person + drinks

Robert et Louise
64 Rue Vieille du Temple
75003 Paris, France
01 42 78 55 89
20-40 euros per person + drinks

L'Apparemment Cafe
18, rue des Coutures Saint-Gervais
75003 Paris
01 48 87 12 22
15 euros per person + drinks

Le Reconfort
37 Rue du Poitou
75003 Paris, France
01 42 76 06 36
40-45 euros per person + drinks

Hidden Charms & Secrets of the Marais

There are so many little eclectic corners of the Marais, it is hard to keep this short.  As with all neighborhoods in Paris, there are sub-neighborhoods that can easily capture one’s heart during a brief holiday in Paris.  This installment will start by stepping out of our apartment and taking a brief walk around.  You can follow this via Google Maps or if you have a map or “plan de Paris”.  Lets start at our favorite little wine store, Cave Elzévir, located on the ground floor of our building at 16 rue Elzévir.  Alex is the local caviste and has a well-edited selection of wines and a beautiful basement (cave) where he holds wine tasting sessions.  Currently only in French (make sure to suggest he should have one in English!), he attracts people every night.  Stepping out of his store and making a left you’ll soon pass by the Museum Cognacq-Jay.  This museum houses a collection of 18th century art and furniture, and is free to enter.  It should be on everyone’s list if you are visiting or staying in Le Marais.  As you walk to the end of the street, you’ll pass a variety of stores and nice local café called Chez Camille.

Make a left on rue des Francs Bourgeois and you’ll come across a number of fashionable boutiques.  Le Marais, particularly the rue des France Bourgeois, is one of the few areas in Paris that are open for shopping on Sundays.  If you are a shopper, make sure to return.  As you walk along the street, you’ll first come upon the gardens at the Museé Carnavalet on your left.  Walk in and enjoy its beauty.  Occasionally, there are events in the garden and one year there was even an exhibition of classical French dancing in 18th century costumes that we couldn’t resist watching for hours and hours.  After the garden, continue on and visit the Museé Carnavalet itself.  The museum’s theme is the history of Paris from ancient times to present day that is free to visitors.  Also, they usually have a paid special exhibit aligned with Paris’s history.  A recent special exhibition I really enjoyed was on Benjamin Franklin and his ties to France.

After you exit the museum, make a left on rue Sevigné and then another left on rue Parc Royale.  As you make this last left, there is a wonderful little park where you can rest, read a book or bring your children to play.  It is a very “neighborhood” park that looks great in all seasons.  Almost beside it on rue Payenne is another little park (Square Cain) that is even quieter (no children), and perhaps more suited to book reading.

Continuing along, you’ll pass by the Museé Picasso on your right and come across one of the most enjoyable streets in Le Marais, rue Vieille de Temple.   I strongly recommend walking all the way north until you cross rue de Bretagne, and venture along all the little adjacent streets.  The range of charming, secret places are too numerous to mention and worth a good leisurely day of walking, stopping at cafes, and shopping, depending on your preferences.  Equally to your left on rue Vieille de Temple, you start venturing into the heart of le Marais.  It is very vibrant and animated along with being a complement to the quieter part to your right.  Towards the end of the street, you’ll come across numerous popular cafes (eg. L’Etoile Manquante, Fer de Cheval, Café des Philosophes), a wine bar called La Belle Hortense, and a wide range of independent boutiques.

Make a u-turn and head back towards the parks you just saw.  As you cross rue Elzevir, stop at the Royal Café (say bonjour to Alain) and enjoy an afternoon tea and dessert in the winter or a cool drink in the summer as I describe two other places to visit.

The basement of the BHV:  it sounds ironic to suggest that the basement of a department store is worth visiting but you will truly be amazed by selection of hardware (or perhaps you would like a Parisian street sign with your address or house numbers).  Located at the corner of rue de Rivoli and rue des Archives (near the Hotel de Ville), the basement has everything one could ever imagine in French hardware.  If you can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere.  They even have a little café in the basement to take a break while you are looking for that special door handle.

A hidden treasure with both visual and olfactive appeal is the rose garden at rue Villehardouin, located just off rue Saint-Gilles.  I stumbled across this rose garden totally by serendipity as I was trying to find a short cut to an interesting new concept store called Merci on Boulevard Beaumarchais.  You can escape from all the noise and “train-train” of Parisienne life in this very quiet, completely rose-filled garden.  I highly recommend bringing a bagette, cheese and a bottle of wine and having an afternoon pique-nique surrounded by the heavenly scent of roses.

Well I think I hit my word limit.  If there is interest, please let the “professor” know and I’ll do another installment.

About Bill

After living four years in Paris and meeting his wife Ineke there, Bill enjoys returning back to Paris 1-2 times per year, staying in their apartment and exploring parts of Le Marais and Paris as a welcome escape from being a director at a software company.   Further, his wife’s recent perfume – Field Notes from Paris – was inspired by her studies at ISIPCA in Versailles.  Visit www.elzevir.net and www.ineke.com.

Editor's note:  the photos in this blog were also taken by Bill