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This superb Belle Epoque building with painted frescoes in the heart of Les Lilas, a little village North-East of Paris (métro Mairie des Lilas), is also an art house cinema. Parisians in the know flock to Les Lilas to see films, in style.
www.theatredugardechasse.fr/
181 bis, rue de Paris, Les Lilas 93260
+33(0)1 43 60 41 89
Encompassing the best of contemporary Parisian culture, this great music venue was the staging ground for my initiation into Paris nightlife. Nestled between the Seine and the urban sprawl of north east Paris this venue caters to a young, arty crowd. In the day the Point Ephemere acts as a gallery showcasing installation art and photography. However, my girlfriend and I stumbled upon this place at night at which point the venue kicks into a higher gear letting rip with some of the best dance and electro music in Paris. We got down to a live set from Freestylers and witnessed a blistering gig with a frenzied crowd that was less propelled by booze and more energized by the atmosphere and people around them. For lovers of big beats, an electric atmosphere and friendly crowds the Point Ephemere is a must and should be your first stop on a night out in Paris.
200 Quai de Valmy, 75010 Paris, France
+33(0)1 40 34 02 48
www.pointephemere.org/
Google map: bit.ly/m1kxxo
Ever wondered where Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg got their dancing shoes from? The supplier of ballet companies throughout the world, Repetto is an artisan chausseur worth the detour. One piece of advice: wait for the sales!
www.repetto.fr/boutique/
51, rue du Four, 75006 Paris
+33(0)1 45 44 98 65
Google map: bit.ly/jSYCHH
Open from 7am to midnight, the 30 metre long swimming pool rue Pontoise is built like an art-déco ship with individual cabin for every swimmer. From 8pm onwards, the pool is lit from within while music blares out ...
www.clubquartierlatin.com/
19, rue de Pontoise, 75005, Paris (5th)
+33(0)155427788
Google map: bit.ly/jTOGkS
A little bijou of a museum. Sheltered in a magnificent 18th century hôtel particulier in the Marais, right near the Pompidou Centre, Le Musée de la Chasse boasts wonderful stuffed animals such as a white polar bear standing on its feet ...
www.chassenature.org/site_musee/musee-home.html
62 Rue des Archives, 75003 Paris (4th)
+33(0)153019240
Google map: bit.ly/lW16ow
There's a real buzz about city blog vingtparis.com. A team of excellent and knowledgeable writers highlight and review a superb leftfield, less mainstream, unpredictable selection of music, art, literature, theatre and dance events. And the occasional picnic too! Each event I've found through vingtparis.com has had the same buzz and gave me that great but rare feeling when you're in Paris: 'This is the right place to be. This is where I should be right now.'
vingtparismagazine.com
Google map: bit.ly/dlZYwq
The Louvre is well worth every cent of the admission price, but it is best to go in with some idea of what you'd most like to see. I'm an art history enthusiast with the stamina of a hiker, but spending a full day in the Louvre seems unfeasible to me: I'm willing to bet the sheer magnitude of the Louvre's collections will wear anyone's appreciation out in about three hours. Hence, grab a map, try to make sense of it and proceed towards the section that interests you the most. Leave while you're still amazed instead of overwhelmed and bored - and come back for more either in the next afternoon or on your next trip.
As for practicalities, the side entrance in the Richelieu wing is far less crowded than the main one under the pyramid. The Paris museum pass is very handy for skipping the ticket lines. It is also worth noting that not all of the many toilets marked on the map will be in working order, so if you come across one that is, best make use of it.
Musée du Louvre, 75058 Paris Cedex 01
+33(0)1 40 20 50 50
www.louvre.fr
Google map: bit.ly/kJdWPC
Amélie was filmed mostly in Montmartre in Paris. Two métro stations feature: Barbès-Rochechouart and Abbesses, as does the Gare du Nord train station. There is a scene in the gardens which lead up to Sacré Coeur - there are great views there - and the bar where Amélie worked is on the right of a street which leads down from Rue Lepic towards Pigalle, where the sex shop is situated. The grocer's shop is recognisable and is also on Rue Lepic, but is now a gift shop. Amélie was skimming stones on the Canal St Martin, very near the Gare du Nord. The whole lot would make an enjoyable two-hour walk.
Montmartre, Abbesses, Gare du Nord, Canal St Martin, Barbes-Rochechouart
The first Sunday of the month is free, as everybody knows. Therefore, to avoid the crowds, the best time to go is on the day before - everyone's waiting for the free entry the next day!
We went on the Saturday and had the place to ourselves, apart from the usual crowd that is always gathered around the Mona Lisa. We went again on the Sunday and it was hideously busy. We didn't have to queue though: a nice security guard spotted our pushchair and let us jump the queue! It's a surprisingly child-friendly place, and of course the advantage of the free Sunday is that you can take the kids (they are always free on any day) and you haven't wasted the cost of your ticket if their behaviour is such that you have to leave after five minutes.
Place des Pyramides, 75001 Paris, France
+33 1 40 20 50 50
www.louvre.fr
Google map: bit.ly/mBzmkn
Forget the big stuffy international hotels and book yourself into the Christian Lacroix designed Petit Moulin in the Mariais. It is a charming little hotel in a 17th century building that used to be a boulangerie and still has the old signage. There is wireless internet in all the rooms, and you are right in the heart of a very trendy district full of design shops and art galleries – getting into town isn’t difficult and the extra minutes spent traveling are well worth it for staying in such an original place, with none of the hollow impersonality of larger hotels.
'Nuit Blanche' is an annual event in Paris, whereby (so rumour would have it) everything stays open all night for revelry and awe. Imagine touring the Louvre at 2am, followed by a quiet 4am brunch in a streetside cafe watching the crowds walk past, and the carnival-like atmosphere.
It would be great - if it were true!
Last year's was a shambles. The authorities didn't (wouldn't) release guides until the night itself (and then didn't explain how to get them) and most Parisians had no idea what was open, or where.
We joined the crowds milling outside the Louvre (closed), tried the Musee d'Orsay (closed) and settled for a Bateau Mouche - which turned out to provide the long awaited guidebook once you'd bought your ticket.
The boat trip itself was pleasant, during which we could read the guide - to discover few places indeed were open at all, and the promised 'all night opening' of the Metro only applied to certain lines in certain directions.
The only bar we could find open and not crammed with similarly baffled tourists was Australian (not very Parisian). When we finally gave up, we joined the thousands of others equally trying to desperately get a taxi home in the sub-zero temperatures, and ended up huddled in a Metro entrance (closed) for warmth until the hordes had thinned enough for us to try and get back.
It can't be blamed on our being tourists - as we have French friends who live in Paris and who we'd joined to spend the 'event' with!
Hopefully this year's will be better, but I'd definitely check every detail out in advance, just in case!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuit_Blanche
www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=6806
goparis.about.com/od/events/p/Nuit_Blanche.htm
In the Marais district get away from the non-ending 18th-century embellishment and discover some of the finest 20th-century Scandanavian design and furniture. A modernist oasis.
Escape the culture vultures at the Louvre or Musee d'Orsay - head out to the 16th district for the Musee Marmottan.
There, in a peaceful mansion, you'll find the largest Monet collection anywhere. See the entire range of his work, culminating in the Giverny Nympheas, displayed in a wonderful circular gallery.
Admire works of many other Impressionists, including one of the few women, Berthe Morisot, Manet's sister-in-law. Easy to get to (four buses, metro), opposite a delightful park, near good, cheap restaurants - a day out of Paris, in Paris!
If you are under 26, you can visit the Louvre for free on Friday evenings. In an expensive city, this is more than just helpful euro-pinching.
You can arrive as the setting sun catches the top of the glass pyramid (making for the perfect ‘I heart Paris’ portrait) then dash to all the best bits while everyone is making their way out.
As you stand tête-à-tête with the Mona Lisa, you might finally realise what all the fuss is about.
I love this place, they always have some crazy exhibition going on, the shop is full of silly postcards and amazing art books. And the café is definitely worth a visit, go to the terrace outside for fantastic views over the Seine and the Tour d’Eiffel. They also organise special events with DJs and live bands.
Slightly off the beaten track, the Grand Mosque at the 5th Arr. has a large, sunken garden, fountains and a 33-metre high minaret.
The internal courtyards, lined with Andalusian mosaics, are offset by dark eucalyptus and cedar trim. The mosque's adjoining cafe and restaurant, serves excellent north African cuisine such as couscous, tajine and sweet mint tea to all.
I hate wearing glasses but my eyes have a Norman Tebbit-like intolerance of foreign bodies, including contact lenses. But on visiting this museum I felt proud to be a speccie.
Glasses going back 800 years, including some (eg Elton John's) that are positively architectural. You tell me that a museum of contact lenses would look this good!
Musée des lunettes et lorgnettes, Pierre Marly.
You'll feel like you're swimming in Monet's waterlilies if you go late on Friday night - it's open to 9pm - when the crowds have vanished and you have the Orangerie almost to yourself.
The Espace Dali at 11 Rue Poulbot, Montmartre, is hard to find but a suitably surreal experience. I love to spend hours at a time there, looking at paintings, sculpture and live shows.
11 Rue Poulbot, Montmartre
Deep deep into the Bois De Boulogne, so deep in fact that when you ask a taxi driver to take you there, he does not know what you are talking about, is a secret garden.
A garden exclusively inhabited by flowers and plants depicted from the heights of British literature. For here is the Jardin de Shakespeare. A fenced-off and beautiful garden, in which you will find only plants mentioned in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Shouldn't this garden be in somewhere in Regent's Park? Well no, because it's in Paris and more.
During the summer month on the natural stage at the end of the garden, companies come to perform repertories from The Complete Works in French and in English with French subtitles. Maybe we should do the same for Alexandre Dumas in Regent's Park?!
Is this your business?Search Been there
