Sarah Gold

We'll Always Have Paris, Thanks to Gregor Dallas
March 28, 2008

When I lived in Paris during my senior year of college, I had wbat I thought of as “my” places, which so far as I knew, my friends didn’t frequent. I never walked to the Centre Pompidou without passing through the church of St. Eustache, never went to the Louvre without crossing over to St. Germain l’Auxerrois. The main street of the Marais, the old Jewish quarter, was nearly dead, but I loved the poppy-seed pastries at the kosher bakery and the nearby Musée Carnavalet (the New-York Historical Society of Paris), which I also recall as virtually empty of visitors.

What a difference 30 years makes. When I went back to Paris last November for the first time in ages, it seemed all my “secret” places had been discovered. The Sunday evening organ concert at St. Eustache was well attended. The Musée Carnavalet was packed with tourists and gaggles of schoolchildren. The rue des Rosiers in the Marais (see photo) is now humming with kosher restaurants, Judaica stores and (of all things in the birthplace of haute cuising) a falafel stand, as well as spillover crowds  from the chic boutiques lining the side streets (see photo above).

But Paris does still have its secrets, some of which are revealed by Gregor Dallas in Métrp Stop Paris. (Due out in May, it’s one of two wonderful books coming from Walker this spring; look out for PW’s forthcoming review of Michael Meyer’s The Last Days of Old Beijing.)

I thought I knew all of Paris’s museums, but Dallas reveals that just a hop, skip and jump away from my chambre de bonne  in Montparnasse was the Musée Bourdelle, the studio of sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, a onetime assistant to Rodin whose frescoes decorate the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.

Bourdelle’s story is one of 12 Dallas presents, centered on 12 Métro stops, some well known, some obscure . This is not your usual tour of Paris—you won’t go tothe Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe. You won’tsee the Mona Lisa or Monet’s water lilies.

Instead, you’ll visit the part of the city formerly known as Hell, You’ll learn that rue Saint Antoine, near Métro stop St. Paul, is where Henri II died through his own folly, plunging his country into civil war. You’ll visit a place that no longer exists—the old cast-iron and glass markets of Les Halles. (Considering this together with disappearing Old Beijing, I think I’ll write a book called “1m000 Places to See Before They Die”—all suggestions welcome.)

If the dollar ever recovers and I can afford to visit Paris again, I’ll be sure to take Métro Stop Paris with me. It’s an elegant guide to the city and its history.

By the way, I did discover one new place on my November trip: Tea and Tattered Pages/Thé & Trafic de Pages. If you’re in or near  the 6th arrondissement and in need of a second-hand book and a friendly place to have a cup of tea, drop by the store (24 rue Mayet, Métro Stop Montparnasse), buy a book and chat with the lovely owner, Hilda Cabanel-Evans.
(Both photos courtesy of my cousin, Beth Skobel.)

Posted by Sarah Gold on March 28, 2008 | Comments (2)