I notice I haven't told you much yet about our new home. I think it's because I'm still sorting out how I feel about the change. We've moved from the Marais to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Right Bank to the Left, the hip neighborhood to the bobo quartier. That last one isn't really true. Bobo stands for bourgeois Bohemien; it refers to rich folks who still like to think of themselves as hip. Nowadays the Marais is full of them, but they tend to be a bit younger than the bobos of the St-Germain area, who, if truth be told, don't really have any more claim to the title. Over here it's rich folks, period. And the tourists of course.
When we as tourists first started coming to Paris we stayed in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. We loved it; after the first visit it felt like 'our' neighborhood, familiar and comforting. They were used to tourists over here, without being obvious about it: no cheesy souvenir shops like on the rue de Rivoli. Most service people spoke decent, not to say impeccable, English, the shops were appealing, the restaurants generally good, and there were lots of other English speakers. It was easy Paris.
Last year we stayed near rue de Bretagne in the late-to-gentrify northern Marais and liked the area a lot, so when the opportunity to split our long stay between the two quartiers came up we jumped at it.
Now that the background is out of the way, you may be asking how we're liking it over here. Or you may have gone away long since; it's pretty boring, isn't it?
The apartments are quite different as well. They both look like movie sets; we've been very lucky finding lovely places. The Marais apartment had beams, low ceilings everywhere except for the enormous chandeliered kitchen, and a fireplace. Someone said it was where Audrey Hepburn would have lived in the movie. The new one is Cary Grant's digs. It has a double-height salon with silk draperies and oriental rugs, a grand piano, a spiral stair to the bedroom upstairs, and a really tiny kitchen. I had planned to make Thanksgiving dinner here but just accepted an invitation from a friend. No way was that going to work.
2 comments:
Shelli -
What a wonderful choice - Audrey Hepburn or Cary Grant digs! Hmmmmm...seems to me that you can't miss either way.
Can you tell I'm missing Paris? Thanks for the fix.
I am just so impressed with your posts, Shelli. I just finished the one about the Eiffel Tower and come to this one, and it is such a joy to read what you write about the city! I love the ways in which you characterize the Right versus Left Banks in this piece. So true!! Then you have my part of town, what I think of as Outpost Paris, lol. Anyway, it is so true the way each neighborhood has its own personality within this great city. You captured it so well here.
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