Because there is life beyond Montmartre, Le Marais and the Latin Quarter
Paris is not over, there is no way. Never. For this reason, I cannot imagine a year without returning to the Charles de Gaulle, dragging the trolley to the RER and those wonderful 50 minutes to the light and the Saxon capitals of Notre Dame.
Paris is Irène Jacob, Rouge, by Kieslowski; Bresson's Pickpocket; **Un coeur en hiver, by Claude Sautet (one of the films of my life) ** ; Emmanuelle Béart, La règle du jeu and Les 400 coups; The River, by Jean Renoir. Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard.
Louise Bourgeois, Jean-Claude Ellena, Le Chateaubriand, and the Grand Café Tortoni in Le Marais. La Grande Epicerie, Tacos de Candelaria and La Cave des Papilles.
Sacha Guitry wrote that “Being a Parisian is not being born in Paris, but being reborn there” . And... who has not returned to Paris seeking shelter and rebirth? Hey who?
'Lunch on the Grass' by Manet
The city of light is also the city of confidences and so many secrets to discover: one of them is the 7ème arrondissement, the 7th District.
It is located on the left bank of the Seine (it is on the Rive gauche where the bourgeois-bohème was born) and if something defines it, apart from the Eiffel Tower and des Invalides, is its discreet and authentic character.
Parisians a little absent, decoration shops, cafes without tables at the door and two museums that are well worth a mass. All the masses in the world are valid: D’Orsay _(62, rue de Lille) _ and Rodin (21, boulevard des Invalides) .
“Every encounter with a work of art means an encounter with ourselves” . The phrase is from Auguste Renoir and becomes flesh and canvas in the museum of the Impressionists, the overwhelming Musée d'Orsay , a constant and feverish Stendhal syndrome after each room because of Degas, Renoir, Rodin, Camille Claudel or Medardo Rosso.
In a way, Paris is impressionism. The colors of Luncheon on the grass, by Manet; the pointillism of Paul Signac and the dancers of Degas.
One of them was Cleo de Merode , dancer at the Paris Opera and also the muse of Paul Klee, Toulouse Lautrec or Falguière (as well as a lover of the King of Belgium).
Many remember her as the first it girl of the 20th century, and yet her story is still shrouded in mystery and subtlety. precisely for that she was known as the white daffodil (Le Narcisse Blanc).
Cleo de Merode
** Le Narcisse Blanc ** is also a hotel on the boulevard de La Tour-Maubourg that revolves around the figure of Cleo de Merode.
Designed by Laurent & Laurence, full of white daffodils and with the natural cuisine of Canadian Zachary Gaviller, a discreet and silent restaurant where neighbors of the neighborhood dine and the Benedict eggs are from farms in Normandy. Three good.
I like the discreet hotels: hotels whose cocktail bars are not simple transit areas for residents, hotels where life goes by and that are the perfect refuge from domestic life.
Marcel Proust wrote that he did not go to the hotel to write, but that he liked them because “They leave me alone and I feel at home” , and exactly that we look for in almost any trip: discretion, peace and warmth.
The perfect refuge from domestic life
Another stop and eat option in the 7ème arrondissement is Le Cinq Codet _(5, rue Louis Codet) _, a modernist hotel designed by Jean-Philippe Nuel.
Their huge windows from which you can see the dome of the Les Invalides cathedral, its aesthetics so much like that of a Wong Kar-wai film, its nights with live jazz and the Manhattans in front of so many books dedicated to Duchamp, Paul Cézanne, René Magritte or Paul Signac.
And this district is synonymous with culture and hedonism well understood: Eric Chauvin's florist _(22, rue Jean Nicot) _, the first 'Grand magasin parisien' Le Bon Marche either The Asociation Carré Rive Gauche _(16, rue des Saints Pères) _, which offers a tour of art galleries and antique dealers owned by passionate connoisseurs who will not hesitate to tell you the story of each piece.
And eat and drink. I can't (better, I don't want to) understand this city without its cuisines.
The 7ème is the home of **Alain Passard and his Arpège ** _(84, rue de Varenne) _, undisputed star of the Netflix era, protagonist of the second season of Chef's Table and the fabulous comic by Christophe Blain.
Potato tagliatella and anchovy cream
Three Michelin stars , Knight of the Order of the French Legion of Honor, best restaurant in Paris according to 50 Best and staunch defender of vegetable kitchen, of so many fruits and vegetables that its six farmers bring daily from the organic gardens that the restaurant has in the Sarthe region.
One of the most overrated restaurants in France (of the world!), but that's another story..
David Tutain _(29, rue Surcouf) _, the chef of “nature, seasons and emotions”, is located in Les Invalides, next to the imposing church of Saint Louis and the tomb of Napoleon. Today it is one of the most vibrant creative kitchens in Paris.
"Life is short and yet we get bored," wrote Jules Renard. But that is impossible in Paris. That is why you have to return, always and every time, to its light and its beauty.
David Toutain, the chef of "nature, seasons and emotions"