Things to do in Paris
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Les Frigos
Its name translates as ‘The Refrigerators’, which is what this 1920s industrial building plastered from head to foot in graffiti used to be – a storage depot for refrigerated railway wagons. Inside some 200 artists use what is now an established artists’ squat (artists pay rent to the city, which now owns the place) as gallery and studio space.
Les Frigos’ many galleries have no fixed opening hours: hedge your bets and hope you bump into someone willing to show you around, or look out for one of the fabulous open days and other events Les Frigos hosts (click ‘Agenda’ on its website).
reviewed
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Hôtel Drouot
Selling everything from antiques and jewellery to rare books and art, Paris’ most established auction house has been in business for more than a century. Viewings are from 11am to 6pm the day before and from 11am to noon the morning of the auction.
If you plan on stopping by, make sure you pick up a copy of the weekly catalog Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot, available at the auction house and selected newsstands on Friday.
reviewed
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Puzzle Michèle Wilson
Puzzleurs and puzzleuses will love the selection of hand-cut wooden jigsaw puzzles available in this shop. Ranging in size (and degree of difficulty) from 80 to 5000 pieces, the puzzles depict for the most part major works of art; everyone from Millet and Bosch to the impressionists is represented.
The ones of medieval stained glass and 18th-century fans are particularly fine. There are two other outlets in Paris.
reviewed
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El Paladar
While the name of this place suggests the restaurants run from private homes in today’s cash-strapped Havana (and the US greenback is on their calling card), the food and sheer exuberance recalls the Cuba of the 1950s, when everything was plentiful. It’s a convivial, graffiti-covered place with super caipirinhas (€6) – cocktails made from a sugarcane-based alcohol, lime juice and sugarcane syrup – and such authentic dishes as pescado guisado (fried fish), pollo piopio (chicken cooked with citrus) and yuca con mojo (manioc with onions and garlic).
reviewed
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Didier Ludot
In the rag trade since 1975, collector Didier Ludot sells the city’s finest couture creations of yesteryear in his exclusive twinset of boutiques, hosts exhibitions, and has published a book portraying the evolution of the little black dress, brilliantly brought to life in his boutique that sells just that, La Petite Robe Noire.
reviewed
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Ô Chateau
Ô Chateau is a young fun-charged company run by bilingual sommelier Olivier Magny that offers the full range of tastings and experiences in a 17th-century vaulted stone cellar near the Louvre: wine-tasting over dinner (€130) or a cheese lunch (€75), with chocolate (€65), grands crus master classes (€95) and so on. It also organises day trips to Champagne to taste you know what (€150), Champagne-fuelled river cruises (€45) and, by night, Champagne bus parties (€60) with music which include, hmm, learning how to open a bottle of champers with a sword in front of the Eiffel Tower.
reviewed
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Parc du Champ de Mars
Running southeast from the Eiffel Tower, the grassy Champ de Mars was originally used as a parade ground for the cadets of the 18th-century École Militaire, the vast, French-classical building at the southeastern end of the park, which counts none other than Napoleon Bonaparte among its graduates. The wonderful steel-and-etched glass Wall for Peace memorial (2000) facing the academy and the statue of Maréchal Joffre (1870–1931) are by Clara Halter.
Today it’s the ideal spot for a summer picnic. Pick up some bread, cheese and wine on nearby rue Cler (about a 20-minute walk) and you’re all set to enjoy one of the most memorable meals in Paris. Also here are puppet…
reviewed
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Palais du Luxembourg
The Palais du Luxembourg, at the northern end of the Jardin du Luxembourg, was built in the 1620s for Marie de Médici, Henri IV’s consort, to assuage her longing for the Pitti Palace in Florence. The Palais, since 1958, has been home to the Sénat (French Senate). It’s occasionally visitable by guided tour.
reviewed
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Casa Bini
At this highly recommended Italian restaurant, homemade pasta is cooked to al dente perfection and children are treated like gods. Dishes span squid and creamed courgette soup, tagliolini studded with white summer truffles or a classic veal saltimbocca (veal escalope flavoured with ham, thyme and sage).
reviewed
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Paris City Tour and Eiffel Tower Half-day Trip
3 hours (Departs Paris, France)
by Viator
Get acquainted with Paris on a comprehensive tour of the city. The tour combines a city tour of Paris (1.5 hours) by double-decker coach with an independent…Not LP reviewed
from USD$65.70 Advertisement
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Perraudin
Perraudin is a traditional French restaurant with embroidered handkerchief lampshades. If that doesn’t put you off, launch yourself into this blast to the past with classics such as bœuf bourguignon (beef marinated and cooked in red wine with mushrooms, onions, carrots and bacon), gigot d’agneau (leg of lamb), confit de canard or flamiche (leek pie from northern France). Prices are reasonable (the plat du jour at lunchtime costs €12) and the place has atmosphere, even if it is a tad on the shabby side.
reviewed
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Market
Alsatian chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s swish fusion restaurant focuses on fresh market produce delivered with his signature eclectic combinations and Asian leanings. For flavours that are going somewhere unexpected, sample sea bream in a sweet-and-sour broth, duck filet with cocoa beans and fig chutney, or black truffle and fontina cheese pizza. Like his restaurants in Manhattan and Shanghai (among others), Market stands out in the crowd, though it’s rare JG is actually in the kitchen. Lunch attracts a predominantly business crowd; dinner is a much sexier proposition.
reviewed
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Harnn & Thann
This relaxing ‘natural home spa’ in a secret courtyard is a heady one for the senses. Masseuses soothe muscles with traditional Thai massage techniques and an aromatic mix of herbs and essential oils. Particularly inventive are its Wednesday Les Petit Duos (€50) – a 30-minute massage for one worn-out mum or dad plus kid (aged six to 12 years) – and its after-work bien-être (well-being; €250) deal for couples, which includes a foot bath, massage en duo and dinner at a neighbouring Thai restaurant. A 20-minute lounge in the peacock-blue hammam costs €20.
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Alcazar
Also known as ‘La Mezzanine’, this hip bar inside Alcazar has got Conran’s name all over it. Narcissistic but alluring, it’s a modern white-and-glass mezzanine overlooking the restaurant (brunch €34, lunch/dinner menu €20 to €34/40) with fancy cocktails, nouvelle cuisine dinners and a fashionable supper-club clientele. Wednesday to Saturday, DJs ‘pass records’ in the corner – this place is famous for its excellent trip-hop/house/lounge music compilations. Next door is Conran’s club Le Wagg. Flyers for all three are posted at www.blogalcazar.fr.
reviewed
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Le Loup Blanc
Some inventive and inexpensive dishes are on offer at ‘The White Wolf’: meat and fish marinated with herbs and spices (eg cardamom, star anise, marjoram) and then grilled. For accompaniments, you can choose from up to four vegetables and grains, according to your appetite and the season: red lentils, quinoa (a South American grain), creamed corn with peppers (a must) or carrots with cumin. We like the chicken with rosemary and savoury pork with tangerine and Macassar fillets of duck. It’s a popular place for brunch on Sunday (€19.50)
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Le Zéro De Conduite
In the house where Richard Wagner lived briefly in the 1840s, Le Zéro De Conduite goes all out to rekindle your infancy, serving cocktails in biberons (baby bottles) and throwing concours de grimaces (face-pulling competitions), with cards, dice and board games. Advance table reservations are strongly recommended.
reviewed
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Galeries du Panthéon Bouddhique du Japon et de la Chine
The Guimet Museum of Asiatic Arts is France’s foremost repository for Asian art and has sculptures, paintings, objets d’art and religious articles from Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Tibet, Cambodia, China, Japan and Korea. Part of the collection, comprising Buddhist paintings and sculptures brought to Paris in 1876 by collector Émile Guimet, is housed in the Galeries du Panthéon Bouddhique du Japon et de la Chine in the sumptuous Hôtel Heidelbach a short distance to the north. Don’t miss the wonderful Japanese garden here.
reviewed
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Passage Brady
This old-style covered arcade has long been the place to go to for inexpensive Indian meals. While the Gare du Nord has since become a better destination for curry fiends, Passage Brady is a reliable standby that’s closer to central Paris. Among the many choices, the pick of the crop are Palais des Rajpout ([tel] 01 42 46 23 75; 64-66 passage Brady), Passage de Pondicherry ([tel] 01 53 34 63 10; 84 passage Brady) and Pooja ([tel] 01 48 24 00 83; 91 passage Brady). Prix-fixe lunches are usually around €7 to €8.
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Le Grand Méricourt
Young chef Gregory Merten Antonelli offers his version of ‘la cuisine créative’ (basically traditional French that is light on oils and fat and heavy on seasonal produce) in a very English, almost fussy (floral wallpaper, wooden floors, starched tablecloths and napkins) place just a stone’s throw from trendy rue Oberkampf. Try the sanglier en pâté à la liqueur d’orange (boar pâté flavoured with orange liqueur) and the joue de bœuf fondante au muscat (beef cheek with sweet wine).
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L'Épi d'Or
The ‘Golden Sword’ has been an institution since the belle époque, when it would open at 10pm to serve the ‘forts des halles’, the brutes who stacked the ‘devils’, huge bags of potatoes and cabbage, all night at the old Marché des Halles. Today it’s an oh-so-Parisian bistro with 1940s décor and well-prepared, classic dishes – gigot d’agneau (leg of lamb; €18) cooked for seven hours, magret de canard (sliced duck breast; €22) – to a surprisingly well-heeled crowd. The menus are available at lunch and till 9pm only.
reviewed
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Aux Vins des Pyrénées
Tucked in a former wine warehouse, this is a lovely place to enjoy an unpretentious French meal with much fine wine. The fish, meat and game dishes are all good, but the foie gras and pavé de rumsteak (thick rump steak) are both worth a special mention – as is the wine list that features both celebrated and little-known estate wines.
Local bobos (bohemian bourgeois) love the old-world charm.
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Bibliothèque Forney
On the left, at 1 rue du Figuier is Hôtel de Sens, the oldest private mansion in the Marais. Begun around 1475, it was built as the Paris digs for the powerful archbishops of Sens, under whose authority Paris fell at the time. When Paris was made an archbishopric, the Hôtel de Sens was rented out to coach drivers, fruit sellers, a hatter, a glassblower and even a jam-maker. It was heavily restored in mock Gothic style in 1911; today it houses the Bibliothèque Forney. Temporary exhibitions here will allow you to explore at least part of the building.
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Moissonier
It’s Lyon, not Paris, that French gourmets venerate as the French food capital (they have a point). Indeed, take one bite of a big fat andouillette (pig-intestine sausage), tablier de sapeur (breaded, fried stomach), traditional quenelles (fish-flavoured dumplings) or boudin noir aux pommes (black pudding with apples) and you’ll realise why. A perfect reflection of one of France’s most unforgettable regional cuisines, Moissonier is worth the wait. Look for the elegant oyster-grey façade opposite the Universités Paris VI & VII.
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Frog & British Library
A hybrid English pub-French brasserie,this spacious drinking venue around the corner from the Bibliothèque Nationale is propped up by expats and French students who flock here between library visits for food (apple pie and custard, potato wedges, weekend brunches) with a pint.
The pick of the drinks list is its half-dozen beers brewed on the premises with inspired names like ‘Dark de Triomphe’, ‘Inseine’ and ‘Parislytic’.
reviewed
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Giverny and Monet's Garden Small Group Day Trip from Paris
5 hours (Departs Paris, France)
by Viator
Visit the beautiful home and garden that inspired the master of Impressionism, Claude Monet, on a small group afternoon tour from Paris. The half-day,…Not LP reviewed
from USD$140.78