Page 148 - Off The Tourist Trail - 1000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives (Part 2 of 2)

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CITIES

Colorful flower stalls at the President Wilson market

Street Markets

The city’s richly colored street markets offer an
unrivaled taste of France. Melons picked in Provence,
geese fattened in the Périgord, ruby-red cherries,
milky cheeses, flour-dappled breads, and earthy
wild mushrooms are hauled to the city, snapped
up, and polished off while still at their peak. Roving
TOP Colorful shopfront with the St-Gervais–St-Protais Church in the background ABOVE Plush interior of the Hôtel Carnavalet marchés volants (street markets) set up twice a week
at cockcrow and disappear by lunchtime, leaving in
Marais Mansions their wake happy customers and satisfied pigeons.
de Retz bears no signs of its patrician-era interiors, The Saxe-Breteuil market, in the shadow of the
which have been replaced by a series of art exhibition Eiffel Tower, attracts a discerning crowd who think
It’s hard to believe that the Marais (which means spaces designed to echo the building’s 19th-century nothing of lining up for 25 minutes to secure the
marsh) started life as a soggy bog. In 1139 the spell as a furniture workshop and sculptor’s studio. most emerald lettuces and the creamiest cheese for
Knights Templar built a fortified free town – a Sunday lunch. Move onto the 16th arrondissement,
haven for tax dodgers – on the drained land here, Practical Information where you’ll find the President Wilson market; the
but nothing of that remains nowadays. Instead, Hôtel Carnavalet 23 Rue de Sévigné; tel. +33 1 44 59 58 58; www.paris.fr/ casually slung Hermès scarves and bags worn by
elegance and wealth loom large. When, in the musees/musee_carnavalet/ the glamorous shoppers here for a food run are
14th century, trendsetter Charles VII moved his court Hôtel Guénégaud 60 Rue des Archives; tel. +33 53 01 92 40; bona fide. Under the gaze of a rampaging statue of
into the Hôtel des Tournelles, which sat on what is www.paris.org/Musees/AN/ George Washington, locals buy sweet carrots and
now Place des Vosges, a host of titled disciples and Hôtel de Retz 9 Rue Charlot; tel. +33 1 48 04 37 99; www.passagederetz.com Cabernet-colored beetroots from the delightful
their magnificent mansions followed. Henri IV is Hôtel de Soubise 60 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois; tel. +33 40 27 60 00; Monsieur Thiébault, whose family has been selling
responsible for the gloriously symmetrical Place www.paris.org/Musees/AN/ vegetables since 1873. Head to the small, pavement-
des Vosges, the city’s first planned square. Hôtel de Sully 62 Rue St-Antoine; tel. +33 1 44 61 20 00 style Port de Vanves on weekends for 1950s jewellery
Just off Place des Vosges is the perfectly restored and vintage glassware. Francophile bookworms
17th-century Hôtel de Sully, home to France’s should browse the weekend book market held under
photographic archives and a dainty French garden. the metal rafters of a former horse slaughterhouse,
The ardent 17th-century letter-writer Madame de now transformed into the pretty Parc Georges
Sévigné lived in the nearby Hôtel Carnavalet, so it’s Brassens, for rare and second-hand tomes.
fitting that this Renaissance gem has been reborn
as a museum devoted to the history of Paris. The
Practical Information
Hôtel de Soubise, with its superlative Rococo
Marché Président-Wilson Ave du Président-Wilson, Chaillot; Métro: Iéna;
interiors and paintings by Boucher and Van Loo,
opening times: Wednesday and Saturday morning
houses the national archives, including letters from
Marché Saxe-Breteuil Ave de Saxe, Invalides & Eiffel Tower; Métro: Ségur;
Joan of Arc, while Hôtel Guénégaud, a superb opening times: Thursday and Saturday morning
mansion built by French architect François Mansart Parc George Brassens Rue de Morillons, Montparnasse; Métro: Convention;
in around 1650, displays stuffed animals and opening times: 9am-6pm Saturday and Sunday
weapons in its Museum of Hunting and Nature. Port de Vanves Ave Georges-Lafenestre & Ave Marc-Sangnier; Métro: Porte
In contrast to the other Marais mansions, the Hôtel ABOVE A grand room in the Hôtel de Soubise de Vanves; opening times: 8am–7pm Saturday and Sunday

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