Reading with Kings in Paris

In 1537, King François 1er issued the Ordonnance de Montpellier, by which one copy of each published book had to be deposited in the king’s library.

Today, the French National Library (Bibliothèque Nationale de France – BnF) consists of seven sites, and receives 70,000 books, 250,000 magazines and thousands of specialized documents every year.

The oldest site of the BnF is the Richelieu site. It was home to the king’s library since 1721. Located in the heart of the 2nd arrondissement, the former palace of Cardinal Mazarin (not to be confused with Mazarin’s library La Mazarine) was built in the 17th century and subsequently enlarged up until the 20th century.

The new BnF museum on the Richelieu site showcases exceptional objects from the BnF collections, among them the throne of King Dagobert (King of the Franks in the 7th century), Charlemagne’s chessboard or the largest gold piece ever found.

The Richelieu site of the Bnf is open to the public. The salle Ovale reading room has free access, for the museum you need to purchase a ticket. Guided tours are available. For access to the research libraries (of which Richelieu is only one site), you need to sign up advance.

The Salle Ovale is a reading room with over 20,000 volumes for reference, among which 9,000 comic books and mangas.

The Labrouste reading room was created for the Imperial Library. Today it hosts the library of the national institute for art history.

The location of the BnF-Richelieu on a map of Paris
Share this:

Market Day in Paris

Have you ever been to a French market? I don’t remember my first experience which dates back to a school exchange in 9th grade, but I do remember first venturing by myself to what I think is the biggest market in Lille, the city in northern France where I began my studies. It was a little disorienting at first, all those marketers advertising their wares in loud voices, sometimes trying to shout one over the other. This is a staple of every French market I’ve visited so far.

And the sheer quantity of food on offer! There are fruit I’ve never seen before but fortunately a little sign will give me the name. There are many kinds of fish (all much fresher than those on offer in a certain Gaulish village), including shellfish, and don’t get me started on the cheeses!

A huge advantage of a market over a supermarket is that when you want to buy fresh fruit such as, say a melon de Charente, the market seller will ask you when you plan to eat it (Tonight? During the next few days?) and find you one with the matching degree of maturity. Another highlight of markets for me are the local farmers selling their yogurts and other fresh milk products that you would have a hard time finding on supermarket shelves. Finally, and that’s my husband’s go-to place, the chicken-roaster. Go to the Sunday market, buy your groceries, and get home with a chicken fresh from the spit (or half a chicken, or chicken legs) for Sunday lunch.

But let’s go back and look at Paris markets. According to the City of Paris website, the first market was located  on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Lutetia in the 5th century.

Though not in Paris, this is an old French market hall

Fast forward to 1860, when there were already 51 markets. One of them is the oldest existing covered market, dating back to 1615 under King Louis XIII, the Marché des Enfants Rouges. It is located in the 3rd arrondissement and open every day except Mondays from 8h30 till 20h30, (closing later on Thursdays but earlier on Sundays).

Place d’Aligre market in the 12th arrondissement

As of today, Paris has a total of 95 markets, with around 9,000 marketers. This number includes food markets, flea markets, and specialized markets. The City of Paris website gives these details: 72 open-air food markets (including 3 organic markets), 10 covered markets, plus the specialized markets such as flower market, bird market, clothes market, flea markets and 2 creative markets where artist show their original art.

Generally, the food markets are open from 7am to 2.30pm on weekdays and from 7am to 3pm on weekends. Due to customer demand, five markets were created that are open in the afternoon once or twice a week.

For outdoor markets, the market team of the City of Paris sets up the “skeleton” of the market stalls. Indoor markets have it easier, everything is already in place.

If you travel across France, you will find old market halls that are basically wooden roofs open on the sides, or open-air markets in small villages or mid-sized towns. Every town in France has a market, just check their website or ask at the tourist office about market day. And don’t be afraid if you don’t speak French, you can always point at the items and hold up a few fingers.

Enjoy!

Share this:

Paris Christmas lights

If you have ever been to Paris around Christmas, chances are you’ll have seen the Christmas lights on the Champs Élysées.

Electric street lights came into existence in Paris at the end of 19th century, but only in the most frequented areas. It was only after the World Fair of 1881 that the “electricity fairy” began to be perceived as a universal service. In 1883, the department store Le Printemps is the first to be lighted entirely by electric lights. The other Grands Magasins (department stores) follow, with impressive light displays year after year: the BHV Marais, the Galeries Lafayette, the Samaritaine, and the Bon Marché.

The Galeries Lafayette in 2007

As for the Champs Élysées, the “Illuminations de Noël” or Christmas lights, start at the end of November and last till the beginning of January. Each year, a celebrity is invited to switch on the lights on the first night. In order to save energy, not only are all lights LED, but as of 2022, the duration has been shortened by one week and finishes on January 2nd, 2023. The lights are switched off two hours earlier than usual, at 23h45.

1 – Champs Élysées 2 – Grands Magasins (Printemps & Galeries Lafayette)
Share this:

Bones beneath the Stones

When you find yourself with an avalanche of human bones in your basement, you know it’s time for change.

Which is what the city of Paris did when exactly that happened to neighbors of the Cimetière des Innocents in 1774. Looking for a place to store the bones from the overflowing inner-city cemetery, they came up with the idea to put them in the decommissioned stone quarries underneath the city.

After arrangements had been made, bones from the various cemeteries of Paris, Les Innocents included, were carted to a chute in the avenue René Coty (near Place Denfert-Rochereau) to be stored underground. The name Catacombes was borrowed from Ancient Rome, even though there were no graves and funerary monuments. At first, the bones were stacked along the tunnels over hundreds of meters. It was only after the first VIP visits at the beginning of the 19th century that the bones were somewhat organized. More cemeteries had to be closed as the city grew, and their bones were added to the ones already in residence.

Signs were added to indicate the cemetery of origin, and the gravediggers arranged skulls and bones in patterns that can still be seen today.

In 1809, the Catacombes became a museum that today is part of the Musée Carnavalet and gives visitors access to a small fraction of the tunnel network of Paris’ ancient stone quarries.

In one of the first sections of the visit, sculptures made by a quarryman in the late 18th century can be seen. They represent sites from Port-Mahon on the Spanish island of Minorca where he was said to have been a POW.

There used to be a long line of visitors starting out from the old entrance and winding back around the square behind the eastern lodge of the barriére d’Enfer (entry point of the General Farmers’ Tax Wall), but recently, it was closed in favor of a new entrance, and the ticket sale has shifted online, so now visitors can book their spot in advance and don’t need to queue any longer.

signage in the métro station Denfert-Rocherreau
N° 2: Catacombes entrance, n° 5: Catacombes exit
Location of the Catacombes entrances on a map of Paris
Share this:

European Heritage Days – French edition

The European Heritage Days, based on an initiative of the then French Minister for Culture, Jack Lang, in 1984, now exist in 50 countries across Europe. In France, the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine, take place on the third weekend of September. This means sites that are usually closed to the public will be open, other sites will be free of charge, many will offer special activities and/or guided tours. Some will require reservations, but many will just let you drop in, from well-known institutions in big cities to ancient buildings in small villages. Often there will be activities for younger visitors.

At some point, when you got in line at 5am at the Elysée Palace, you might be lucky and shake hands with the president, or do the same with the prime minister after queuing at the Hôtel Matignon. I once stood in line at the Senate, the Palais du Luxembourg and indeed met the president of the Senate, the upper house of Parliament. He is the third person of the state in order of importance, after the president and the prime minister, and before the president of the national assembly.

Gérard Larcher, President of the French Senate

I am not sure though if you still queue for these institutions nowadays or sign up online, as I did to visit the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, more recently.

When you choose your visits, don’t overlook small events. You never know a hidden gem until you find it. For example, on year in the Latin Quarter, a college offered the visit of ongoing preventive archaeology digs – it turned out there were Gallo-Roman ruins on a site marked for construction, and archaeologists were trying to unearth and save as much as they could. This is something that will never be seen again!

Here are glimpses of some other interesting places I’ve visited during Heritage Days in and around Paris over the years:

King George VI’s bathtub at the French Foreign Ministry
Share this:

Paris-plages

Paris-plages (Paris Beach, or more accurately, Paris Beaches) operates every summer within the period of mid-July to the end of August. Its exact duration has evolved since its inception in 2002. A 3.5km-long stretch of the expressway (now pedestrianized year round) along the river on the right bank accommodates the sorts of installations and activities you would find by the sea – palm trees, deckchairs, hammocks, strand bars, sports activities etc.

From 2002 to 2016, actual sand was provided, allowing kids to build sandcastles (the “building tools” were also provided) and city-dwellers to feel the sand under their feet. The sand delivery partnership was cancelled by the City of Paris after 2016, citing political reasons.

The very first edition of Paris-plage in 2002, seen by night

The origins of the beach operation go back to 1996, when the town of Saint Quentin in the north of France, opened a beach in front of city hall. But it was only when Paris picked up the idea in 2002 that cities and towns big and small all over France and across the world copied it. Even my small town in the suburbs has its beach, including hammocks, swimming pool, and a giant water slide.

Paris added additional sites, such as the beach volleyball fields outside city hall, and the Bassin de la Villette in the 19th arrondissement, hence the change from Paris-plage to Paris-plages (plural).

Some years, the Louvre museum offers activities, a small library is set up along with a board games library, pools (since swimming in the Seine is scheduled only for the Paris Olympics in 2024), sports activities such as Tai Chi, yoga, boxing, beach volleyball, dancing and much more. There are water misters installed to help people stay cool, and of course the essential deck chairs and sunshades!

Share this:

Open Your Eyes

I want to encourage you to open your eyes and look around you when you visit Paris. There are two kinds of tourists I see: those who are herded around in groups by tour guides and ferried from one stop to the next in coaches, and those who explore the town by themselves.
This is for you, those who don’t follow a tour guide. Who walk until your feet hurt instead of taking the metro so you don’t miss out on anything.

METADATA-START

Look at that red brick building! It says on the façade “Bains douches municipaux”. These are public baths and showers, provided by the City of Paris, with individual cabins. You have to bring your own soap and towel, though.

Look down! Isn’t that a magnificent hopscotch mosaic?

Have you seen this building? It’s the narrowest house of Paris. Can you imagine what the rooms inside must look like? I wonder how much space is allocated to the staircase.

When the Grand Mosque of Paris meets Haussmann buildings, the contrast looks like this.

The Mosque is located in the 5th arrondissement. It was building about one hundred years ago in the Spanish-Moorish revisal style, and it’s minaret is 33m tall.

Sometimes it’s just another Haussmann façade. Remember Baron Haussmann and his transformation of Paris, liking to the kind-of-uniformized façade style? If you look closely, you’ll see the little differences even between two neighboring Haussmann buildings.

Sometimes, you just turn into a street, and there’s this totally not Haussmann building with huge stained-glass windows, but definitely not a religious building, and when you read the inscription above the windows, it says “Compagnie Parisienne de distribution d’électricité” – Paris Electricity Distribution Company.

You never know what you’ll find next.

(Or maybe yes, sometime you do.)

Welcome to Paris!

Share this:

A Palace for Stock-Trading

Prior to the 19th century, stock trading took place in different spots of Paris. Napoleon Ier instigated the construction of a building to provide a stable location for stock trading activities.
Paris being Paris, the construction works running from 1808 to 1826 yielded not just any building but a palace – the Palais Brongniart.

The Bourse de Paris was integrated into Euronext in the year 2000, and today the Palais Brongniart has become a convention center, offering 4 000m² of exhibition surface and accommodating 200 000 visitors per year.

The Palais Brongniart on a map of Paris
Share this:

100 Posts on Letters from Paris!

This is my 100th blog post!

To celebrate, I’ll go back to the beginning and share some fun facts of the Eiffel Tower.

  • The Tower takes its name from its architect, Gustave Eiffel.
  • Construction of the Tower took 2 years.
  • It was built for the World Fair of 1889, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.
  • Originally 312m high, the Eiffel Tower was the highest building in the word l for 40 years.
  • The highest viewing platform, the upper level of the third floor, is at 279,11m, the highest observation platform in the European Union and the second-highest in Europe:
  • The antennas at the top of the tower are used for the transmission of radio and digital tv signals.

For the fireworks of the national holiday Bastille Day on July 14, the Eiffel tower is incorporated into the show.

Share this:

Cluny La Sorbonne

The name of this métro station on line 10 indicates two important sites it serves – the Sorbonne University and the Hôtel de Cluny which houses the Musée national du Moyen Âge, the Museum of the Middle Ages (and also Roman thermal baths).

The station was opened in 1930, initially named only Cluny. At the beginning of WWII, in September 1939, it was closed and due to its proximity to the next station on either side, was not reopened for many years, becoming a “phantom station”. (There are still a few of those in Paris today.)

Cluny was finally reopened in December 1988 to create a correspondence with the RER B and C at the nearby station Saint Michel-Notre Dame (also served by line 4). For this occasion, the station undergoes a full renovation and is renamed Cluny-La Sorbonne.

When you enter the platform, you will immediate notice the mosaics on the ceiling, called The Birds, by French painter Jean Bazaine, as well as a number of mosaic signatures of famous Sorbonne students, among them Racine, Molière, and Victor Hugo.

Share this: