Shakespeare & Co.
You've always boasted about your language skills. You were in Erasmus for a semester in Paris. Now you're back with friends and it's time to show your face; they expect you to be their official translator and guide and you don't know where to start.
We save you with some places and tricks to make you look like an expert in the city and your French go unnoticed.
A JAPANESE MEAL ON SAINTE ANNE STREET
In it there are numerous canteens of popular japanese cuisine that offer pasta-based udon or ramen; rice-based katsudon or oyakudon and other delicacies such as kushiage skewers. Your favorite dishes and others to know gathered in a single street and prepared by Japanese.
For those who like to cook, there are also supermarkets with products from the Rising Sun that offer all the necessary ingredients to make your recipes at home.
And to change a bit from the Parisian boulangerie, ** Aki **, is a bakery where you can try delicious mixtures of the two cultures, the great French classics with Japanese aromas such as mille-feuille with matcha tea, or marbré with azuki or various types of bread such as melon or rose-flavoured brioches.
Here you will only speak Japanese
** AN AFTERNOON READING AT SHAKESPEARE & CO. **
An English bookstore in the Latin Quarter of Paris built in a 17th century building that was a former monastery. BOOM. Here you can spend the afternoon looking at books by authors such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Virginia Wolf or James Joyce, writing like a 19th century poet in one of its warm corners or listening to music that some spontaneous person plays on his piano surrounded by stacked volumes.
A bohemian place that invites writers, artists, intellectuals … to wander among its towers of books, benches and lounge chairs where you can lie down for a while and get carried away by reading.
This livrairie organizes literature festivals with participants such as Paul Auster, Will Self, Marjane Satrapi, Jung Chang and Alistair Horne. And likewise, it has its own literary award, a novella answer open to writers from all over the world. In addition, every week you can go to readings, book presentations... and recently they have opened a adjoining cafe to extend the moment of literary pleasure.
Open since 1951, this bookstore located on the left bank of Paris, opposite Notre Dame, retains an enormous charm. It was an institution for the life of literate expatriates like Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller or James Baldwin . And it is currently a meeting place for anglophones or lovers of the language of Shakespeare , writers, readers or curious.
Shakespeare & Co.
**A COFFEE AT THE INSTITUT SUEDOIS **
As if you were in Stockholm, suggest a stop at the Swedish Institute Café, a Nordic-style space, decorated with light colors, sobriety and silence. A coffee with milk or a tea to warm you up accompanied by a scented cinnamon brioche, Kanelbullar and a little homemade elderberry honey: the perfect plan.
In summer you can enjoy your quiet cobblestone patio after a Sunday walk in Le Marais , a place where you can breathe the Scandinavian calm.
During the year organize various events , such as open-air cinema, exhibitions or special celebrations during the Fête de la Musique .
When saying goodbye, casually say “tack” (thank you in Swedish), to continue with the distracting technique.
Cinéma dans le Jardin... and reading, and sunbathing and...
A WALK THROUGH LITTLE INDIA
In Paris there are neighborhoods steeped in the culture of different countries like the Indian, located in the quartier of La Chapelle and Gare du Nord.
In its streets you will find the necessary boutiques for exotic shopping; barbers, places where you can buy music and Bollywood movies, grocery stores or fashion boutiques where you can have a tailor-made sari, or find golden bracelets and all kinds of accessories.
Visit the Ganesh Temple , better during one of its daily ceremonies to immerse yourself in the ancient Indian rituals. In September you can follow the procession in his honor, a colorful parade accompanied by dancers, flutists, drummers and floats that run through the streets of northern Paris.
Taste Indian delicacies near the Château d'Eau metro , in the restaurants of the unusual Passage Brady , a street covered by glass windows where you can try a thali, a circular tray with compartments in which different portions of regional cuisine are served. You will taste some dhal, rice, chapati, papad, chatni…
With a bonjour and a spring-like movement of the head to the sides, it will be enough to integrate you into their dining rooms like a true local.
To add a bit of show off, go with your friends to the nearby Strasbourg Saint Denis , a fashionable neighborhood of Turkish origin perfect for having a few drinks.
Little India
**A PARISIAN ROUTE AT THE CERVANTES INSTITUTE IN PARIS **
This well-known cultural center is located in a beautiful building a stone's throw from the Champs-Elysées. It organizes the Cervantes Routes, guided tours specialized in themes to discover Paris in another way. There are very varied ones, for all tastes, such as the route of Julio Cortázar, Balenciaga, Dalí or Luís Buñuel.
Your salvation! Visit Paris with a guide in your language and rest your mind for a few hours.
Foreigners will be able to sign up for their Spanish classes of all levels and who miss the Spanish culture , they will be able to attend conferences, stories, concerts, dance shows and all kinds of activities.
Detail of the facade of the Octavio Paz Library
A MASSAGE IN MANDARIN AT PORTE DE CHOISY
Away from the Parisian clichés and surrounded by a Chinese neighborhood, you can choose to get a manicure or a massage in one of the beauty centers in the 13th district of Paris.
You will communicate in the universal language and the duster will not be seen. After a reflexology treatment or a modeling session with essential oils, you'll come out refreshed, ready to continue the long Parisian walks.
You can treat yourself to cool by proposing a therapeutic massage tui na , which derives from traditional Chinese medicine, formerly called Anamo.
An oriental massage as if you were in China
AN EXHIBITION AT THE MAISON DE L'AMÉRIQUE LATINE
The House of Latin America, founded in 1946, has the mission of strengthening cultural and artistic exchanges between France and the twenty Republics of Latin America . It occupies two magnificent hôtels particuliers: the Hôtel de Varengeville from 1704 and the Hôtel Amelot de Gournay from 1712 (that is, a beautiful mansion and an old bourgeois house of Saint-Germain-des-Prés surrounded by excellent greenery). As if that were not enough, its restaurant stands out for its refined and original cuisine.
It is a place of reflection , where ancestral artistic expression is mixed with contemporary currents. In it you can attend conferences, exhibitions and cultural events related to this part of America.
The House of Latin America
** A PICNIC AT THE CITÉ UNIVERSITAIRE INTERNATIONALE **
A campus made up of 40 houses belonging to different countries of the world with an architecture reminiscent of its origin, such as the house in Japan, the one in Cambodia, the house in India, the Swiss house by the architect Le Corbusier or the house in Spain.
They stay in them 12,000 students, researchers and artists with the aim of promoting cultural exchanges. They achieve this by accommodating around 20 different nationalities in each of the pavilions and only 25% of French residents ; an international and cultural mix that makes it a place to live a unique experience.
Between all the houses they propose more than a thousand events a year of music, theater or colloquiums and a great party in the month of May with barbecues, dances, concerts, workshops...
They also share sports facilities and 34 hectares of garden. If it's picnic time, get yourself a kit to impress them . And if out of extreme necessity you need to talk to someone, he blurts out in English like “people are international, here it is customary to speak in other languages”.
The International University City
**A BILINGUAL KINDERGARTEN, LITTLE FROGS **
For the children of Erasmus who have ended up staying several years in the French capital, long-stay travelers and expatriates who come to Paris for a long time with children. They can enroll them in a bilingual French-English nursery so that they learn languages from their earliest childhood, without realizing it, while playing in anglais à la française.
This way they will really learn both languages and won't need this SOS guide in Paris to impress their friends.
Voila!
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