Le Marais
Opera
Today I explored the Marais, another expensive arrondisement with lots of shopping and museums. The feel of the Marais is different from the Saint Germain, mainly because it is a little older. It has tons of museums, that I’ll explore some day – it’s hard to justify spending my time at museums when there’s so much of the city I haven’t seen.
Place de la Bastille
I began by taking the metro to the Place de la Bastille. Naively I thought the Bastille still existed (umm, no). In its place there’s a tall gold pillar, the Colonne de Juillet, a monument to the revolution of 1830 with the names of dead revolutionaries inscribed upon it. On the Place de la Bastille is the Opera Bastille, a building that the French regard as unlovely. It does, however, have a Mahler concert going on according to the banner, and I do love Mahler.
I went down the rue Saint Antoine in search of the Hotel Sully, which I found, though apparently it was actually a hotel and not the museum I was looking for. After a rather unpleasant conversation with the manager, I never found the proper place, which was irritating – apparently it has a bookstore with all kinds of Parisian history books in both English and French. I would like to know more about the history of Paris. Oh well, next time.
The Place des Vosges was my next stop, and quite impressive – certain to be on the list of personal tourist suggestions to my friends. It is a square surrounded on all four sides by a palace built in the early 1600s.
From there I went walking along the rue Francs-Bourgeois, a narrow, medieval-style street lined with expensive shops underneath very old buildings. I got a little tired of taking pictures of old buildings because there are quite a few, but here’s two.
It was quite crowded, because it was Sunday, and the only places open on Sunday are in the Marais. This is because historically the Marais is the Jewish quarter; today, it hosts a Holocaust memorial museum and a museum of Jewish history in Paris. The Jewish population of Paris dropped from 300,000 to 180,000 during World War II, but there has been lots of immigration since (from Africa, amongst other places), and the population is now in above 700,000, the largest in Europe.
Arnie had suggested I get some fallafel and there’s no better place than the rue des Rosiers. For 5 euros, I had a delicious meal, which I ate slowly as I wandered up the rue du Temple.
One stop I had planned to make was the Enfants Rouges, but I was too late. A block away is a place I might rent next, at 10 rue Picardie. I visit tomorrow but I wanted to get a feel for the neighborhood. The neighborhood is fine, but not as nice as my current place. I think I need to talk to my agent and see if we can come to some accommodation. I think my place is too small right now but maybe it’s not. Or maybe he can help me find some place else.
What didn’t help was walking up from rue Picardie to whatever road that was on my way to Republique. A little smelly, some vacant buildings, a lot of graffiti (including, shockingly, on the statue of the Republic itself). There was also some kind of gathering happening – a protest, a concert, a biker gang convention (there were a lot of bikers), who knows. It certainly felt very French.
I wandered away and hopped the metro home, then went around my nearly deserted neighborhood, hoping to be able to do laundry. I was in luck, for a little market, the laundromat, and a boulangerie were all open. I was able to get the cats some more food so they didn’t keep me up all night, get myself some good bread for dinner, and do my laundry (where I’m currently writing this note).
I have some work to do tonight and then a busy day tomorrow – work, see this apartment, go to French class, back to work. I need to skip ultimate because of the apartment appointment unfortunately. If I get up early enough, I’ll run instead.