womantraveler

Tea Time, So Civilized in Paris

Paris, the "city of light" has many awakenings -- and taking time for tea is one of them.  Espresso is a slam-dunk (see next post) but tea is perhaps an acquired taste -- and an acquired pace. And Paris has a true tea culture. It can be lively as a cafe or a subtle reflective haven. I experienced both.

On a miserable spring morning, after standing in line fruitlessly for an art museum exhibit in the cold drizzle (the lines can be interminable whatever the weather), I gave up on Marie Antoinette at the Grand Palais for a Marie Antoinette restorative China tea at Laduree, the renowned tearoom at 16 rue Royale (8th), a merciful few blocks away in the Right Bank's Place Madeleine. Understandably, it was jammed, but accepting the first table in the less crowded upstairs was a smart move. I settled in to a banquette. Laduree, with several locations, is a mixture of a cafe (for tea) and a cake shop. During the emergence of cafes in Paris in the late 19th century, Laduree (founded in 1862) welcomed women, unlike the traditional cafes. Today it is also patissier, chocolatier, confiseur, restaurant and, iconically, salon de the.

Ironies of ironies, my eye lands on the Marie Antoinette -- a delicious China tea mixed with essential oils of subtle citrus fruit, flavors of rose and jasmine flowers, scattered with small pieces of dried fruits and honey. She -- and I -- at that moment in time never had it so good! Laduree is terrific people-watching. My banquette seat along the wall gave a view inside and out -- tourists and locals -- families and solos. Sitting in Second Empire decor, I experienced the modern world. And helped along by a raspberry macaroon.

The next day I was over on the Left Bank in the 6th and settled into one of the Mariage Freres tearooms, at 13 rue des Grands-Augustins. You have to know where you're going on the winding back streets of St. Germain des Pres to land here, nearby the famous restos of Jacques Cagna and Les Bouquinistes. I sat alone in the late afternoon with a myriad of choices, settling in simply with a full pot of "Afternoon Tea" for $12 (my own completely unhurried pot at a white-table clothed table where I could write and think for an hour). The shop downstairs has hundreds of teas from around the world.

"Un parfum d'aventure et de poesie s'evade a l'infini de chaque tasse de the," said founder Henri Mariage back in 1854. D'accord!

Paris: Best of Le Shopping 2008

This is a budget-challenging year in Paris, but, dears, there are lots of fashion bargains. Chic-chic Paris is much more affordable than its buzz. Everyone notices these distinctive finds, and it's always such fun to say, "Oh, I got this in Paris..." 

• Jackets: I'm hooked on Eva Tralala boiled wool jackets. The price point is amazing (several styles under $100). They're warm but not bulky, versatile and easy to pack. Each trip I make a beeline to Nina Jacob, 23 rue des Francs-Bourgeois in the 4th (Marais), to check out the latest collection.
• Pashminas: I am constantly complimented on the pashminas I have bought in or near a Metro station, in a stall along the street and, most recently, from a sidewalk vendor right outside Printemps, one of the city's signature department stores. I took advantage of a "three-for" special and paid about $10 each for three colorful patterned pashminas (in rayon and wool) that always draw attention. They're eye-catching and distinctive and dress up any outfit, especially the basic black that is my default travel wardrobe. Inside Printemps, I bought a new Longchamp bag, the folding pocketbook in multiple sizes and colors.
• Jewelry: Go for the strands. Long, short, multiple chains around the neck -- pearls, semi-precious stones and metallic loops are big. You'll find terrific deals all over town, you just have to get out and browse. My recent finds occurred in the Marais and along the Rue Saint Louis en l'ile on the exclusive Ile St-Louis, where you should pop into these three shops -- Natacha Bijoux (#54), Yamina Sarl (#52) and Sarl Thelma (#75). On a previous visit, I chronicled the jewelry and accessories shops on "Le Mouffe" (Rue Mouffetard) and nearby Left Bank environs. 
• Scarves: In Paris, you always need them -- for warmth at the neck or an extra layer over a coat in winter and as a casual or dressy accessory year-round. Parisians wear them with a je ne sais quoi effortless style, but they are always intentional -- wrapped around the neck a couple of times, knotted or with the ends quickly looped through one time to keep them from flying off. Back in the US, I unfold them for wraps on a summer night and neckwear to keep out the damp when it's cooler. Some also double as pashminas (see above). Here's a store with hundreds of options in various fabrics, colors and patterns -- Diwali at 52, rue Saint Louis en l'ile, with four other locations -- 47/49, rue Mouffetard; 7, rue de la Huchette (5th); 40, rue Saint Andre des Arts (6th), and 5, rue Norvins (18th).
• Village St. Paul: Several shops clustered in the Marais are also favorite destinations, starting with gifts and accessories at the very friendly Patch World, 7 rue Saint Paul, bordering the historic and artsy Village St. Paul. At Patch World I picked up a couple of high-tech acrylic necklaces and a low-tech tin vase cover. Across the street at Miravidi (16, rue St Paul) is a stunning jewelry selection in acrylic, plexiglas, mother-of-pearl and Swarovski crystal. The enclosed St. Paul "village" is also an eclectic destination for antiques and artisans.

  

Paris Bistros: The Real Thing

How does one choose where to eat in Paris anyway? Quick answer -- a combination of research and serendipity.  Here's a place to go -- Au Bon St-Pourcain. I myself, moi-meme, prefer simple home-style cooking without all the drama. That's harder and harder to find, not because it doesn't exist, but with all the ratings and rankings and (shooting myself in the foot here) self-defined experts that we've all become tend to overlook "le vrai gout."

Upon the recommendation of my driver, who was a budding filmmaker partly educated in LA), I had visited the stunning exhibition of the little-known French foundational Fauvist Maurice de Vlaminck at the Musee du Luxembourg. This exhibition, which closes mid-July is a must-see.

Afterwards, I was meandering toward the St-Sulpice church, of Da Vinci Code fame, when I crossed paths with Au Bon St-Pourcain on a narrow street.

This resto was on my list, and Paris insiders already know about this 26-seat corner bistro (10 bis, rue Servandondi). Imagine my surprise to be the only guest at 1:30 pm. (It's the euro-dollar imbalance, the owner told me with great chagrin. Such establishments are truly hurting this year, even after 20+ years in the business.) But also to my surprise today's "plat du jour" special at 20 euros is blanquette de veau (blanquette of veal), the type of meal that chefs don't throw together at the last minute. It is best stewed for several hours, in expectation of the guests who will arrive. That's the type of care that owner and former Deux Magots waiter Francois (and his daughter Fabienne, who was managing the cozy room) put into the cooking and reception.

This is an "old friends" place. I felt like an old friend -- and was treated that way.

April in Paris: Hooked on Fish

My friends got married 25 years ago and spent their honeymoon in Paris. I didn't know them then. So when the subject of the 25th anniversary came up  this year, la voila!...Let's celebrate in Paris! New friends from California, we were coincidentally going to be in Paris anyway. So knowing about "Fish" --  Fish la Boissonnerie on the Rue de Seine in the 6th -- made me very popular. Everyone wants to say we have a neighborhood favorite that we keep returning to in Paris. For me, Fish is the resto for all occasions.

No need to put on your fancy pants. Fish, though not created by locals, is the most local of Paris restos. The owners -- from the US and New Zealand -- lived out the dreams we all have to reinvent ourselves in Paris. The building on the stylishly bohemian Left Bank is old and quaint. Good solid antique stones and half-timbered construction. Sort of a "cave" look, but authentic. An intimate bar (and a no pressure environment place for solo women). A small and cozy dining area. Solid wood tables, benches and chairs, no white table cloths. Welcoming and friendly in a generously multilingual way. English, French, Spanish, locals, tourists, whoever -- we're all treated the same. No pretense, no drama. Upon choosing Fish, we all immediately belong.

I happened upon Fish three years ago, so upon returning twice this year, I tried Fish again each time. It's a Patricia Wells favorite, and as an respected expert on Parisian cuisine, she counts for a lot. And clearly I'm hooked. Why -- because of the thousands of blinding choices in Paris, I know what I'm getting. It's excellent, and it's easy. Delicious, careful preparation, inventive yet simple, affordable and comfortable. Carefully chosen and featured wines, with an extensive selection, from around the world. The Fish-related wine shop, La Derniere Gout, is five minutes away. We hung out for three-plus hours and had no clue of the time. Back home in California, 10 minutes apart, we keep wondering for our next get-together, when can we rendezvous at Fish?

Email for reservations at laboissonnerie@wandaoo.fr. You'll hear right back.

Paris Pearls: Lovely Show to Close Soon

“Pearls: a Natural History,” an exhibit at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, is a truly precious excursion. After a long stay, unfortunately it closes on March 10 (and is closed Tuesdays). Our Womantraveler correspondent lucked out on a beautiful winter day in the Jardin des Plantes, where the museum’s Grande Galerie de l’Evolution is hosting the show.

“Perles” is science, art and fashion. As they here,  this view of pearls is "superb."

In a darkened chamber, suggesting the depths of the sea, a video intro illustrates a pearl’s formation. Pearl properties are similar to calcium. Grit sucked into a shell begins a mineralization process that results in a pearl. Intimately presented, the rich history of pearls leaves the ocean depths for the heights of creativity – more than 1000 articles, including 300 pieces of jewelry, works of art from designers such as Cartier, ancient beaded ceremonial gowns, rare jewels loaned by designers such as Mikimoto. It also describes modern-day therapies using mother-of-pearl, whose building blocks, manipulated through nanotechnology, are used to form and strengthen bone and as biocrystal molecules that are active ingredients in anti-aging cosmetics.

Pearls, by the way, are tres a la mode in Paris these days, not only in the sophisticated chokers a la Chanel but also the in the pervasive necklaces of stones and metal dangling in a single strand or wrapped several times at the neck.

Details: Admission 8 euros, 5th Arrondissement in the Jardin des Plantes

Metro: Gare d’Austerlitz, Jussieu or Censier-Daubenton

Carla Watching

I was hoping to see the new French first lady, super model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, at the Lacroix exhibit, but she’s probably been there-done that. After all, her new home in Elysees Palace is just down the street from the shops of Chanel, St. Laurent, Chloe, Dior and the rest. I notice a twitter of photographers outside the palace’s gates. Will Carla emerge, or is this a normal paparazzi stakeout? The next day I’m asked by some French women about the US presidential race, and I use the occasion to probe for Carla gossip. After all, now married to President Nicolas Sarkozy, she previously dated Mick Jagger, Donald Trump, Eric Clapton and other headliners. With a son from another relationship and more to her romantic history, she has also dreamily declared in the French press that Sarko was “love at first sight.” The way the people on the street see it, this well-publicized romance is too messy for a French president and particularly one who is losing popularity with just about every presidential comment or activity. "Mon Dieu!" sniffed two store owners in Paris' Marais district – the entire incident is so embarrassing for their country. (“A little more discretion, please! After all, he is the president of La France!”) Carla, 40, and Sarko, 53, have strutted their lovebird stuff all over the place, but will it last? There are mixed messages here. SHE says she believes in polyandry and, as an Italian, not in divorce. HE is now hitched for the third time – just four months after ending his marriage to Cecelia. Impulsive and reckless are now frequent descriptors by the French people. Stay tuned.

Christian Lacroix' French Style

A stunning exhibition punctuating the history of French fashion at the Louvre’s Les Arts Decoratifs-Musee de la Mode et du Textile is a must-see before it closes April 20, 2008. The 20^th anniversary of Christian Lacroix’s fashion house prompted the designer’s interpretive view of French fashion from the museum collection along with recent examples of his elegant haute-couture clothing – 500 dresses and gowns in all. Rather than an objective overview, Lacroix said that he chose the outfits that most inspired him – some of which have never been shown before. In this exhibit, he has curated his own story of French fashion. (No photos allowed so I snapped these haute couture shots along the Rue du Faubourg-Saint Honore.)

Lacroix studied the history of art before joining the fashion house of Jean Patou and two years later forming his own in 1987. In the 30 thematic arrangements, beginning with “White” and ending with “Black,” Lacroix traces women’s fashion from the 1870s by themes, not decades. We learn of his grandmother’s insistence on white after Easter (opening scene) and his mother’s delight in red (or at least a touch of it). There’s a display case full of dresses hanging in reds/oranges/golds, another in a series of lime green/browns/aubergine. Yet a different grouping draws on the gypsy influences from his youth in Arles. These are spontaneous colors that mixed patterns -- polka dots, prints and diagonals. We see florals, plaids and pleats, Hispanic, stripes, patchwork (“le patch), see-through tulle and macramé.

In a display of polka dots over the ages, Lacroix noted that his mentor Patou and polka dots, “go together like an ideogram.” In another selection from the Duchess of Windsor’s favorite designer Mainbocher, he illustrates the very modern and sleek retro look from the ‘40s.

Sitting for a few minutes, I am nearly as enthralled by the crowd viewing the exhibit as the show. Most eye-catching in their elan were young women in their boots – Ugg and tall leather varieties setting off very short shirts and tights on this damp cold winter day.

Leaving the exhibit, I ramble through two rooms of fantastic jewelry from ancient times to modern. In the museum shop I come across Chic in Paris by Susan Tabak and wish I could afford to hire her as a personal shopper for $1500 a day to take me on a thoroughly stylish shopping adventure. Yet, runway-inspired, I happily imagine myself in one of those fabulous Lacroix gowns as I window shop amidst the haute couture of Rue du Faubourg-Saint Honore.

If nothing else, make a quick stop at the Colette boutique’s very trendy water bar in the basement of the fashion boutique at 213 rue Saint-Honore for a bottle of mineral water from somewhere around the world. In three stories you’ll find a hum of activity -- clothes, books, magazines, CD, perfumes and more. It’s another “haute” moment in Paris.

Info: Les Arts Decoratifs-Musée de la Mode et du Textile are part of the Louvre and located at 107 Rue de Rivoli. Metro: Tuileries.

Paris Celebrates Simone de Beauvoir

In all my visits to Paris, I’d never ordered an espresso at Les Deux Magots, the iconic Left Bank hangout of ex-pat writers in the heyday of Hemingway and Sartre. So upon hearing of the Simone de Beauvoir commemoration there this year, marking her 100^th birthday, I was immediately motivated. Philosopher and feminist de Beauvoir, the author of The Second Sex who died in 1986, for me was always a brave womantraveler. Since I was on a vacation to concentrate on some writing, what better atmosphere than one that inspired so many novelists and intellectuals. 

Something had been nagging at me since  I picked up a small book before my vacation, A Writer's Paris (A Guided Journey for the Creative Soul) by Eric Maisel. It was one of those impromptu finds that changed my thinking about what this trip could bring. That perspective was perhaps best signified by a Proustian quote from Maisel: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”  Certainly as de Beauvoir and Sartre and their pals returned daily to the familiar Deux Magots, at 6 place Saint-German des Pres, they were sparked with new ideas, new ways of seeing. That’s where de Beauvoir and Sartre, partners in the Existentialist movement, had many of their conversations that shaped intellectual history in the mid-20^th century.

For a completely unhurried 90 minutes, I lingered inside the café with a salad, some water and eventually my coffee, taking in my surroundings with a prime banquette seat. Three well-dressed elderly Parisians to one side were there before I arrived and there when I left, each nurturing one cup of coffee and bountiful conversation. Across from me, a young woman was reading, or at least pretending to, as she carefully observed everyone else. A group of Japanese women sat down to the left, animated by a selection of sweets. Around the wall lined photos of de Beauvoir and her comrades when they were the center of Parisian intellectual society.

In a French café, you can carve out your own space while being part of something grander. Paris, says Maisel, “improves your writing because it teaches you something profound about intimacy.” 

Thoumieux Tombé

Paris’ Thoumieux restaurant is a busy old-style brasserie that’s on every list – including those of several local friends and Michelin’s Green Guide. Well, forget it.  A classic is no longer a classic when the waiters are rude, the food is mediocre and the service blasé. In Paris, where the food is expected to be wonderful, classics set a high standard because they stand up over time. Thoumieux, on the other hand, seems to have fallen.

We went there in part because its location at 79 Rue St. Dominique in the 7^th Arrondissement offers a stunning close-up view of the Eiffel Tower. Dating to the 17^th century, the street is stylishly quaint, with homes of famous dead ancients and offices of modern-day government ministers. By day, people are hustling to market or shopping in the high-end specialty boutiques, while at night, the Eiffel Tower shimmers for 10 minutes at the top of the hour. That’s a breathtaking moment!

But get inside the brasserie and the picture slowly changes. Crusty old waiters sniffed at my French. (Oops! We thought that making a small effort in French was supposed to be a polite thing to do.) Then they blamed me for ordering the wrong appetizer, and, though changing it as requested, they clucked to themselves not quite out of earshot that I had mis-ordered (though I hadn’t). Next came poorly prepared (and overpriced) food. Soggy leeks and a vinaigrette-drenched endive salad were poor substitutes for appetizers. Gosh, I can’t even remember the rest of the meal, it was so unremarkable. Facing a bill around $200, I immediately recalled the tasty and ample salade nicoise I’d eaten for lunch for $20 at a nameless neighborhood bistro in another district.

Hearing my story, the impeccable maitre d’ at my hotel explained that mediocre brasseries, along with rude and careless service, are common in Paris. Even French tourists from out of the town receive similar treatment as we did. He recounted a story about how the previous week he’d taken out of town friends to a brasserie where the waiters actually argued with his guests for several minutes about what type of water they had ordered. Typically what some others find off-putting about the French temperament has never fazed me, to be honest. But I couldn’t let the now-faded Thoumieux live on its outdated reputation.

Paris Sizzles on the West Coast

We love Paris when she sizzles -- especially nine time zones away in San Francisco. And as Bastille Day 2006 approaches, those of us who find ourselves in Fog City for the annual celebration are delighted that the organization Paris Through Expatriate Eyes is headquartered here. For this year's Bastille Day, we look forward to "Le Jazz Hot" from the Quartet of the Hot Club San Francisco (not to miss, from a fan), popular fiction writers Diane Johnson and Cara Black and Changing Times, the latest cinematic romantic reprise of The Last Metro starring Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve.