Letter From Paris
Paris Kiosque - December 2006 - Volume 13, Number 12
Copyright © 2006 Harriet Welty-Rochefort - Used with permission.
For the millionth time in all the years I've lived
in Paris, I sit on a December morning watching reams of
rain pour from a relentlessly gray sky and conjure up
memories of the blue skies and crisp white snows of my
Iowa childhood.
Get over it, I tell myself. If you want snow, there are plenty
of places to go !
However, I'm firmly ensconced in Paris so
have accepted the rain the same way I accept traffic jams
and the noise of construction sites. Paris is one busy city
these days !
The once rundown working class east of Paris has become
the haven of the bobos (a French contraction of bourgeois
bohemians) who enjoy the scene - Turkish
sandwich joints, Egyptian hookah tearooms,
with-it designer boutiques -
from the protected perch of their expensive lofts.
The La Défense building district in the west of
Paris is in the midst of a revival with plans for the
construction of new skyscrapers to sit alongside the
controversial but now mainly tired looking ones that were
built in the 1960s.
A sparkling new tramway will soon snake through the
center of Paris and if Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe gets
what he wants, pedestrians and cyclists will use their legs
to pedal and walk in a pollution-free,
car-free historic center.
In short, Paris is abuzz.
And if you're crazy enough to take your car,
you'll see that it's also ... a mess.
Go East, Young Man !!
As I strolled down the rue de Bagnolet in one of
Paris's lowest rent districts, I registered the
changes that have taken place since we moved to this
slightly seedy area five years ago.
Initially we moved from west to east because it was one
of the only areas in Paris we could afford to buy in. A
similar 100 square foot apartment with 300 square meters
of yard in Paris complete with rose bushes and a fig tree
(!) would have been astronomical almost anywhere else in
Paris.
It was only later that we discovered some of its charms of
this working class district whose major claim to fame is
the Père Lachaise cemetery. Charms such as : no
Gaps or Zaras, secret cobblestoned passages,
« real » people » of all races and
religions, great market streets. And a definite plus in my
opinion : when I tell people I'm American,
they open their eyes very wide. I may be the first one
they've ever seen for real !
We were among the first to make the discovery, but we
weren't the last : real estate prices have
doubled, with gentrification trailing in its wake. Even the
American firm Kaufmann and Broad has hit the
neighborhood, either tearing down dumps and putting in
their place classy buildings with all the mod coms or
retaining facades and re-building behind
them.
On the rue de Bagnolet workers in hard hats scurry to
transform a huge abandoned garage into a spanking brand
new « mediatheque » (a rather pompous
French word for library with CDs and DVDs on loan) and
hotel complex. Philippe Starck, the architect for the hotel
and one of France's foremost designers, says
he fell in love with the animated outpost of the 20th
where « real » people still live (but for how
long ?).
For the moment, it's real as real can be. On
the rue de Bagnolet, you'll find the oldest
church in Paris with its adjacent cemetery, one of the only
two church-cemetery groupings in the city of
Paris, a Club Med gym, two well-stocked
bookstores that have an even better selection than some
I've seen in the Latin Quarter, doner kabab
joints, the usual Chinese takeouts, a plethora of funky
cafés and dress shops, and a host of
« bazars » that sell everything but the kitchen
sink.
No, the 20th is not the Marais with its architectural cachet
but even so, it's another part of the east of
Paris that is changing and « gentrifying » as
designers and architects and home builders have caught
on to the fact that they are still in largely unexplored
territory and had better scramble before it DOES get
chic ! That could explain the opening of a
« Kube » hotel in which clients can sip
freezing drinks in an igloo atmosphere - right smack in a
très less-than-chic
neighborhood in the 19th arrondissement. Or a luxury
hotel being planned for the former meat packing
neighborhood of La Villette near the Canal de
l'Ourcq.
And the beat goes on.
The Tallest Building in Paris and the Opera in Versailles
It's less astonishing to see spectacular
prestige projects in the west of the City simply because
the west of Paris has always been upscale. A future
skyscraper named « Phare » (Lighthouse) by
California architect Thom Mayne will grace the horizon of
La Defense in 2012, rivalling in size with the Tour Eiffel
(the latter is 324 meters high counting its antennas, the
new building will be 300 meters high). It will be taller than
the Montparnasse Tower - and, located where it is, less of
an eyesore. I personally would like to see the ugly and
out of place Montparnasse Tower razed or displaced Ð to
La Defense.
Called « a work of sparkling originality », the
Lighthouse combines aesthetics with ecology (the peak of
the tower holds a wind farm to generate electric power).
It's also a precursor, one in a series of new
towers being planned for this French version of Manhattan,
started in the 1950s as a way of expanding office space
without encroaching upon the historical center of Paris.
I thought of all this mixing of the old and new as my
husband and I watched and listened to Baroque music in
the Opera House in the Château de Versailles
- a mere two seats away from the
King's loge. Invited to a private party, we had
the best seats in the house, from which we could look up
to the painted ceiling and the myriad chandeliers casting a
warm light on the stage below, and behind us at the
graceful elegant 18th century trompe l'oeil
decor.
Funny, though - the luxurious Opera really is trompe
l'oeil because it was built in a frenzy for the
celebrations surrouding Louis the 16th and
Marie-Antoinette's marriage. So
although you think you are looking at marble,
it's actually wood painted to make it look
like marble. (I know - I touched it.) With wooden seats and
velvet curtains and wooden walls, the place is a fire
brigade's worst nightmare !
Mysterious doors lead to secret rooms, one of which we
were invited into. It's the room Louis XVI and
Marie-Antoinette adjourned to when they
wanted a rest from the opera (or when Louis XVI got bored
with it, which apparently he did). In our times, heads of
state use this room for their private pauses. When you go
behind the scenes in the Château de Versailles, you
suddenly grasp how a King and Queen could be so cut
off from their people that they end up getting their own
heads cut off.
For one evening we were plunged into the world of the
Court. Undisturbed by groups of tourists, we wandered
around the castle as if it were ours. When we left to get
our car in the Cour d'Honneur, we turned
around to give the castle a last look. Lights twinkled
through a shroud of fog and I couldn't help
but reflect that the French, architecturally speaking, were
at their best in the 18th century.
The « Lighthouse » in La Défense
somehow doesn't quite compare...
The No Car Ayatollahs
Did I say the center of Paris is a mess ? It is - but you
only know it when you dare to drive a car or take a taxi.
You may be rolling along with no problem at all and all of
a sudden - wham ! - you find yourself stuck in the
biggest traffic jam of the world. Why ? Because the
Socialist Mayor of Paris and his team decided to launch
road repairs on all of Paris's streets so that
the city would be beautified in time for the 2008
elections.
This pleases the ayatollahs who think that NO ONE should
drive in the city. I have friends like this who patiently try
to convince me that no one, but no one should drive a car
in Paris.
The fact that these people are in their forties, have no
children or only one, and live in the heart of the city where
they can get everywhere conveniently on foot or by metro
or bus helps. That people who live further out, have aged
parents or very young children, or special requirements
might have a vital need for their car makes no dent in their
infuriating certitude that : they are right !!
How, I asked them, would we transport my
92-year-old
mother-in-law if we had no
car ? They wave their hands, dismissing this
« problem ». Call a cab ! (Fine, except that
there's a shortage of them in Paris).
For the moment, I have capitulated. Since it takes so long
to get anywhere in la voiture, I now leave it in the garage
and take the metro or the bus.
But when it comes time to vote, it won't be
for the ayatollahs !
Marie-Antoinette said : « Let them eat
cake ! » I say, « Let them drive their
cars ! »
No cars, no smokers
As much as I regret the fact that it will soon be almost
impossible to drive in Paris, I rejoice in the fact that as of
January 2008 all bars and restaurants will finally become
non-smoking. On this subject,
I'm almost as much an ayatollah as my friends.
One year to go !
The debate is heating up, of course. Will the independent,
rebellious, stubborn and perverse French smoker really
comply with non-smoking rules ?
It's hard to imagine. However, when you
observe that all TGVs are non-smoking, and
most offices are, and that those changes came about
without major problems, there's hope.
It takes time for public opinion to change but polls
already show that a whopping 70 to 80 percent of the
French approve of banning smoke in enclosed public
places.
Meanwhile, in a November 26 article in the Chicago
Tribune, my colleague and friend journalist/author David
Downie, listed a few places you can go to right now in
Paris to eat a meal without getting smoked out. They
include the upscale Alain Senderens restaurant on the
Place de la Madeleine and the very reasonably priced
Le Temps au Temps in the 11th arrondissement whose
chef-owner Sylvain Endra told Downie that
the tiny restaurant simply wasn't big enough
for both him and smoke. Sounds logical to me...
May more chefs follow in their paths ! And vive January
2008 !
Sego and Sarko
Now that both Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy have
officially declared their candidatures for the French
Presidential elections in April 2007, things are heating up.
On the right, we've got « Sarko »
who, as Minister of the Interior and former Mayor of
Neuilly, has extensive experience in government.
Unfortunately, he has had a wife problem (she left him
briefly) and a « tongue » problem (after
destruction in one a Paris suburb, he told its inhabitants
he'd take a power hose to clean out the
« racaille » - the French word
for scum).
Apparently he's learned his lesson. Cecilia -
the wife - has returned and is keeping a low profile. He
doesn't apologize for using the word
« scum » but hasn't used it
again. On a three hour television special, he calmly and
clearly outlined his program to get France working again.
The (revolutionary) idea was : work's a good
thing ! Hey !
On the left, we've got « Sego »
whose main claim to fame so far is that she's
a woman and pretty. A graduate of ENA, the famous Ecole
Nationale d'Adminstration that churns out
French Presidents and high government officials, Segolene
has, in spite of her apparently democratic wish to
« hear from the people », a typical ENA
fault : she can't conceive of being wrong !
So it was that without any experience in international
affairs, her first visit after declaring her candidacy was to
Lebanon where she actually listened without reacting to a
shocking anti-Israel speech from a
Hezbollah Party member who also criticized the U.S.
Segolene told him she agreed with him entirely on the U.S.
and its policy in Iraq - something she's
entitled to, of course, but for diplomacy, she gets a big
red « F ».
The diplomatic faux pas had Sarko is of course laughing
in his beer - and since he's learned to close
his own mouth, he's letting the female
members of his Party do the criticizing. Meanwhile, both
the Palestinians and the Israelis seemed enchanted with
Segolene's visit so she must have done
something right.
One thing is sure : the next four months will be anything
but dull. Given enough rope, Sego may hang herself. As
for Sarko, he'd best keep some scotch tape
on his mouth.
When I started writing this column, it was raining. The
sun's out now, brilliantly. As I said, everything
changes in Paris, the buildings, politics, even the weather
- several times a day !
Harriet Welty Rochefort is the author of
French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French and French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris.
French Toast was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "wise and devastatingly
funny". For world-famous chef Alain Ducasse, her second book French Fried
"in a lively and hilarious style ... gives an inside look at the world of
French cuisine and wine." Both books are published by St. Martin's Press.
Coming to Paris? Harriet gives
tailormade wine and cheese tastings to individuals as well as to university
groups. For more information, visit her webpages:
www.hwelty.com and
www.understandfrance.com .
If you've had some funny, startling, satisfying, or dismaying
food experiences in France you'd like to share,
you may contact Harriet directly at
harriet.welty@hwelty.com.
Editor's Note:
Dear Readers, while our writers are always
delighted to hear and to receive comments, both about their columns in the The Paris Kiosque,
as well as your experiences in Paris,
they are unable to answer requests for travel information.
Thank you for your understanding.
