Life in le Marais

Our Le Marais apartment is in la Rue du Marche des Blancs Manteaux, which (for the non Frensh speakers) means the street of the market of the white coats. This area is steeped in Parisian history, which we won't go into here, and we have found it to be a most interesting neighbourhood to live in. Le Marais means "the swamp" which no doubt describes this area before it was developed.

Architecturally, our apartment is in a fairly typical and pretty unexceptional building in the district (photo). We enter a security code which unlocks the door to a lobby. A key then gives us access to a lift and the stairs. We are two flights of stairs up. Incredibly, the lift (which is large enough for one person and a small bag) lets you out halfway up a flight of stairs. Our apartment is directly over a shop, and overlooks a community hall which has just hosted a "Marche Noel". We can see straight into a nice room in which various activity classes are run, yoga, pilates and tango lessons for example. It's great entertainment, which is helpful, because the only English on TV is BBC and CNN news (photo).

The streets of our immediate neighbourhood are narrow, cobbled, and filled with jewish delis, felafel takeaways, tabacs, cafes and restaurants. It'd be hard to go hungry. Within 100m walk, there are two general stores that we have found and are patronising, and a great "chocolat" shop, nearly but not quite as good as Max Brenners in Paddo. The area was extremely busy on Sunday, and the police shut off the streets to traffic to improve the amenity for the myriads of pedestrians. We think the popularity on Sunday is at least partly because of the jewish influence year, which much of the rest of Paris effectively closing down on Sunday, but not here. (Saturday is quiet here though.)



Le Marais is home to the Musee Carnavalet, a free entry museum specialising in the history of Paris. What it really seems to be is two old mansions whose various rooms and sections are decorated with art from and in the style of different periods of Parisian history. The Place des Vosges is in the Marais, which is one of the most beautiful examples of classical bourgeois residential architecture (as distinct from religious or royal constructions). No doubt there's good reason that this Place is in the Rue des Francs Bourgeois.

Le Marais contains the George Pompidou Centre, and is very close to Notre Dame cathedral, and the very popular shopping area of Chatelet / Les Halles, many of the streets of which have been made pedestrian malls. In incorporates the Place de la Bastille, which is where one of Paris's premier markets takes place on Sundays. We filled our refigerator up with fresh produce from this market, severely straining our French language skills, but everyone tries to be very helpful. The BHV department store is in the Marais: how crowded its toilets are on Level 5 is testimony to the deplorable shortage of public loos in this city.

Our neighbourhood is also adjacent to the Ile St Louis and Ile de la Cite (islands in the River Seine) which are where Mike has found it best to have his morning run, in a temperature of about 2C. There are plenty of other runners about to say "bonjour" to, and it's important to watch for traffic, dog droppings and the perils of cobbled surfaces. On the way back, he brings home a delicious fresh (and warm) baguette which is 1E10 at our nearby boulangerie.