Le Garde Robe
41 rue de l’Arbre-Sec
75001

Le Grand Filles et Fils
1, rue de la Banque
Passage Vivienne
75002

Bodeguita du 4eme
58 rue Quincampoix
75004

Les Pages du Vin
44 rue Boulangers
75005

5e Cru
7 rue du Cardinal Lemoine
75005

El Galpon
12 rue Paul Bert
75011

Caves Saint Vincent
39 rue Laugier
75017

Cave du Miroir
91 rue des Martyrs
75018

The park is actually not that hard to get to no matter what part of town you’re coming from and I have to say, I was silly to have not gone before.  It’s really lovely and they let you sit on the grass .  Spring picnic, here I come…..

I had not been to Lausanne in a while and enjoyed wandering the streets of the old town center.  It’s a very well-preserved city and has one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in the country.  The cathedral was built between 1150 and 1275.  I climbed the 232 steps to the bell tower where there are spectacular views of the city and mountains.  For over 600 years, every day, between the hours of 10pm and 2 am, a watchman, called a “guet” has called out to the citizens from the belfry.

I also visit the adjacent History Museum which has a marvelous small-scale model of the city that is based on a map from 1638. Surprisingly the city hasn’t changed all that much!

…and yes, I ate fondue and drank some very good Swiss wines (too bad we don’t find them here in France so much).

This is a perfect time to take a day trip up to the house of Impressionist artist Claude Monet at Giverny. Monet planned the garden himself so that he could paint it. “If it had not been for flowers,” he once wrote, “I would not have become a painter.”

In July, the gardens are exploding with brilliant roses, zinnias, dahlias, verbena, sunflowers, and hollyhocks, and the famous pink and white water lilies are beginning to bloom. You can take pictures from the arched Japanese footbridge Monet painted over and over. But you might have to wait your turn; lots of people are attracted to Giverny.

Don’t let the gardens distract you from going into Monet’s pink house with dark green shutters. He was fascinated by Japanese prints, and you can see the originals he purchased still hanging on the walls. My favorite room is the kitchen: the walls are yellow, the cabinets are yellow, even the table and chairs have been painted yellow. Too much? No, it just reminds me of morning sunshine. It’ll make you want to go home and rethink your kitchen.

You can catch a morning train to Vernon, the town where Giverny is located, from the Gare St. Lazare. While you’re there, look up at the iron and glass roof that covers the tracks, and you may already be reminded of Monet; he painted this station eleven times.

Train schedules vary by day, but on weekdays there’s usually an early morning train around 8:20am, and a mid-morning train around 10:20am. I suggest taking the first train on a weekday so you can enjoy the gardens before too many other people show up. The trip takes about 45 minutes, and there are late afternoon returns. Round trip second class train tickets run less than €13, and admittance to the house and gardens is €6.

Giverny is about three miles from the Vernon train station. Taxis show up for every train, and there are also shuttle buses (€4). If it’s a particularly nice day and you’re in the need of exercise, there’s a paved foot and bike path all the way. It’s easy to find, and there are also detailed directions at www.giverny.org/gardens. You can rent bikes from several cafés right at the station or from bike shops in Vernon. Good news: the path is flat.

If you’re at the Jacquemart-André, it’s a short stroll over to one of the most beautiful parks of Paris, Parc Monceau. In the August heat, I like to find a shady bench and just watch the parade of people drifting by – nannies pushing prams, runners, sun worshippers, nearby office workers eating lunch.

Unlike some of the better-known parks of Paris, Parc Monceau is small, only three or four blocks long; you can walk across it in a few minutes. On the way, you’ll see the whimsical elements the park is known for: a mysterious brick pyramid, a Dutch windmill, a hill covered with an entrancing rock garden that looks like a place the Seven Dwarves would live, a Chinese pagoda. Its most distinctive image is a pond bordered by a colonnade of Corinthian pillars reminiscent of a Roman landscape.

The park’s pathways meander through magnificent trees; in August the huge magnolias are in bloom. You’ll encounter archways, broken columns, statuary and little waterfalls. There’s a children’s playground where you can hear children laughing and calling to each other. Monceau is a very green park, and one of the few in Paris where you’ll see lots of people sitting or lying on the grass.

The park was originally conceived by Phillippe d’Orléans, Duke of Chartres, in 1769. He loved all things English, so it was created to resemble an English garden, rather than the formal French style that was in vogue then. The city of Paris bought the park in 1860. They sold off half the land for housing; those handsome Haussmann-era buildings still ring the park’s edges. Echoing the park’s origins as a private retreat of the wealthy, even today you enter through elaborate gilded gates.

Bring your book and a treat from a nearby patisserie or a bit of chocolate and you can spend a relaxing hour in one of the most serene spaces in Paris. The park is located on Boulevard de Courcelles in the 8th; Metro Monceau.

An American friend who has lived in Paris for many years was at a dinner party recently. “I had the most fabulous lunch today at the Jacquemart André,” she mentioned to the Frenchman sitting next to her.

“No, you are mistaken,” he replied. “You weren’t at the Jacquemart André; only French people go there.”
In truth, it’s not only the French who visit this beautiful house museum, but it does often get overlooked by visitors to Paris. It was built by two art collectors, Edouard André and his wife Nélie Jacquemart in 1869, at the time when Baron Haussmann was razing Medieval Paris and replacing it with broad boulevards and graceful new buildings. There’s a picture gallery with paintings by French Rococo artists Boucher, Fragonard and Chardin, and an extensive collection of Italian sculpture and paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The house itself is architecturally interesting as an example of haute bourgeois taste, with a magnificent double staircase curving into the marble entrance hall. It’s located in the upscale 8th arrondissement.

But what I love best about the Jacquemart André is lunch. The café is set in what was once the dining room of the mansion, with a frou-frou ceiling by Tiepolo and tapestries from Brussels. The menu is centered around luscious salads, often topped with a poached egg in the French fashion. Lunch begins at 11:45am, and you usually have to be there early to get a table. There’s afternoon tea at 3pm, and a prix-fixe Sunday brunch at 11am.

The museum is open every day from 10am – 6pm; adult entrance fee is €10. (You can eat in the café without paying to visit the museum but they don’t take reservations). 158, boulevard Haussmann. Métro: Miromesnil

When I first started coming to Paris, I found the whole idea of the arrondissements confusing. Finally my friend Donna pointed out that these 20 areas of Paris are arranged like a snail, beginning with the lst on the Seine. Numbers 1 – 8 contain most of the museums and tourist attractions. As you go further out (but still within the Périphérique, the circular highway around Paris), you’ll find more residential neighborhoods.

The more often I come to Paris, the more I find myself exploring different arrondisements. I’ve also discovered that the buses are a terrific way to get around the city. To use the buses effectively, I suggest you buy a daily pass or Navigo pass if your trip coincides with the weekly schedule. Check here on the French Transportation Site. With a pass, you can hop on and off of buses quickly.

Most Parisians use guidebooks arranged by arrondissement, all easily purchased at the newsstand kiosks around the city. It’s also a good idea to pick up a Metro and bus map available at the cashier’s window at most Metro stops. The website referenced above will plan the best way for you to get from point to point; even though it’s in French, it’s fairly intuitive to use.

All the bus stops in the city have diagrams of where the buses go, so you can figure out how to get to the area you’re headed for. Nicely, they also tell you how many minutes till the next bus. On my last trip to Paris, I was having knee problems, so the buses were a great convenience (no walking up and down stairs in the Metro), and you get to see the city as you ride.

You can tell which arrondissement an address is in by looking at its postal code. The last one or two digits tell you the arrondissement (for instance, 75001 is the lst, and 75016 is the 16th). Street names are posted on the buildings at each intersection, at about what we’d call the second story level, and they usually also indicate the arrondissement.

Here’s what you can expect to find in each arrondissement:

lst: the Louvre, Palais Royale, the Tuileries gardens and Les Halles. This is the prime tourist area of Paris.

2nd: North of the first, this is mostly a business area. The Bourse, the Paris stock market, is found here.

3rd and 4th: the Marais, where you’ll find lots of small shops and restaurants, plus the Shoah Memorial and Village Saint-Paul for antiques. The Ile St. Louis, a quiet enclave on an island in the Seine, is here, as is the Ile de la Cité with Notre Dame.

5th: the Latin Quarter, on the Left Bank of the Seine, known for the Sorbonne and student hangouts. Rue Mouffetard is a well-known food shopping street. The Jardin des Plantes and Institut du Monde Arabe are also in the 5th.

6th: Saint-Germain on the Left Bank, where you find lots of shopping and dining, including some of the most famous cafés like Les Deux Magots. The magnificent St. Sulpice church is here, and the beautiful Jardins du Luxembourg.

7th: An upscale residential area on the Left Bank which also features the Eiffel Tower, the Musée D’Orsay, the Invalides and the Rodin museum.

8th: A beautiful area which also has the Arc de Triomphe, the Madeleine, much of the Champs Elysées and the small but exquisite Parc Monceau…and some of the city’s most exclusive shopping.

9th: In the lower ninth are the Opéra, and the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps department stores. At its northern edge you get into the seedier Pigalle section of Montmartre, although there are also lots of little shops and restaurants to enjoy.

10th: Canal St. Martin runs through the 10th. Once the location of tanneries and dye shops, it’s now an artsy area with small shops and restaurants.

11th and 12th: The Bastille opera house is here, surrounded by many small shops and places to eat. The 12th borders the huge Bois de Vincennes.

13th – 15th: These Left Bank arrondisements are less visited by tourists (except for Montparnasse in the 14th). The 13th contains Paris’ vibrant Chinatown.

16th: An upscale residential area which also contains the Musée Marmottan, the Palais de Tokyo and the Baccarat Museum. It borders the Bois de Boulogne.

17th: A mostly residential area of diverse neighborhoods, this arrondissement also contains the Palais de Congres, a big convention center.

18th: Montmartre, the section of Paris that feels most like a village. Unlike most of the city, it has steep hills. Great views from the church of Sacre Coeur.

19th and 2oth: These neighborhoods have long contained public housing and gritty shopping, but they’re being re-discovered by the art scene in Paris. Here you’ll find the La Villette, Parc des Buttes Chaumont and Belleville (another Chinatown).

You can find kitchen shops all over Paris, but some of the largest and most well-known are located not far from each other near Les Halles in the first arrondisement. It’s not surprising that you’ll find the cookware shops here; for centuries, Les Halles was the site of the wholesale markets that fed Paris. The markets date from medieval times, when merchants brought their wares into the city to sell here. The distinctive iron and glass buildings of Les Halles were constructed in the mid-19th century, and the area became known as “the belly of Paris.”

By the early 1970s, Les Halles was seen as a dirty and noisy blot on the Paris landscape. In a fit of modernization, the city moved the wholesale market to the suburb of Rungis and replaced the food markets with an indoor mall that’s never really worked well. While the chefs of the city now go out beyond the Périphérique for their pre-dawn purchasing, they can still buy their equipment in the Les Halles area. The most convenient Metro to reach all these shops is Chatelet-Les Halles.

E. Dehillerin
For many years, if you wanted to buy copper pots or anything special for cooking, you headed right to E. Dehillerin. Since 1820, this family-owned store has supplied professional chefs and avid home cooks with knives, pastry molds, pots and tableware and obscure utensils you didn’t even know existed. Julia Child bought her copper pots here; they now reside in the Smithsonian Institution.

I’m not sure when the store was last remodeled – if ever – but the aisles are narrow, the shelves are stacked high, and the wooden floors are worn. Sales reps in green work coats stand near the entrance, but don’t expect them to rush to help you. They’re much more likely to be filling a commercial order. Instead, most of us prowl through the poorly-lit crowded spaces until we throw up our hands and ask for help in finding that special item we’ve been searching for. It’s a bit like stepping back in time at least a few decades. But make no mistake, Dehillerin probably has what you need – as long as it’s not electric.

Mora
Just a few blocks away, several other stores cluster near each other on rue Montmartre. Mora has been in existence even longer than Dehillerin – since 1814. But they’ve updated through the years, and moved from their original location, so the shop is contemporary in design, even if the aisles are still so narrow you have to negotiate with other shoppers to move through.

Here you’ll find, in addition to the professional-level pots, pans and molds, a specialty in pastry equipment for the working chef. They’ve got lots more, including mandoline slicers, cutlery, cocktail mixers, bread and ice cream makers and glassware. On a recent visit, we found their stock to be broad but not deep; they’ve got everything, but not necessarily every version you might like.

La Bovida
This is the Paris outlet of a chain of professional chef’s stores throughout France. It’s a relative newcomer among these kitchen outlets; it was founded in 1921. You walk into a high bright atrium; a ring of shining aluminum pots hangs above your head.

The store extends over three levels, with an enormous inventory of serving dishes for catering. It’s a much larger store than Mora. La Bovida is well-known for carrying a line of spices by the kilo, in addition to everything for the table.

A. Simon (no website)
Simon has two separate stores next to each other, each with its own entrance. One store is large and well-lit and features supplies for professional hotels and restaurants, as well as table linens and china patterns for the table. The other shop is pastry-chef heaven – a narrow space crammed with everything a pastry cook might ever think of needing. Like the other cooking stores, this one has been an institution in Paris for over a century, since 1884.

G. Detou
Right around the corner from the cookware shops is G. Detou. The name, pronounced in French, sounds like “J’ai de tout,” or “I have everything.” The store doesn’t sell equipment; it’s the source for any obscure ingredients you might need to cook with. They’re stocked with all kinds of chocolates, both chocolate bars for eating and big sacks for cooking. Nuts, artisanal honeys, many varieties of mustard, preserved fruits and spices line the shelves.

Dehillerin
18 – 20, rue Coquilliere
Open Monday from 9am to 12:30pm and from 2 – 6pm, Tuesday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm. Closed Sunday.

Mora
13, rue Montmartre
Open Monday – Friday from 9am – 6:15pm, Saturday 10am – 1pm and 1:45 – 6:30pm. Closed Sunday.

A. Simon
48 and 52, rue Montmartre
Open Monday from 1:30 – 6:30pm, Tuesday – Friday from 9 – 6:30pm, Saturday from 9:30am – 6:30pm. Closed Sunday.

La Bovida
36, rue Montmartre
Open Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 6:30pm, Saturday 10am – 6pm, closed Sunday.

G. Detou
58, rue Tiquetonne
Open Monday – Saturday, 8:30am – 6:30pm. Closed Sunday.