Ah…Paris in the Springtime. Sounds like one of those “romantic” songs or movies from the 1950’s! But the weather forecast was gloomy - unusually cold for the time of year with daily periods of rain, even thunderstorms. But weather forecasts, particularly for northwestern Europe are about as accurate as opinion polls (we all know about the predicted outcome of this week’s Australian general election!!) and what a glorious few days it turned out to be! The weather was wonderfully kind to us - cloudless blue skies and moderate temperatures. The hotel we’d chosen is in the 1st arrondissement - in the centre of Paris immediately behind the Louvre. But in a side street, adjacent to the magnificent Palais Royale (now home to the Ministry of Culture) whose vast courtyard is now taken up by a beautifully landscaped garden (and a Michelin-starred restaurant).

Despite being so close to the Louvre, the area seemed totally devoid of tourists who just don’t venture into the back streets. Luckily for us, they don’t know what they’re missing!

We’re not particularly good at just wandering the streets with no goal in mind so I searched around for guides who could lead us around districts of Paris that we hadn’t visited in years and in particular could guide us away from the usual tourist trails. I found Leontine to show us the Marais district and Marie who would lead us through the narrow streets and byways of Montmartre ending at Sacre Coeur.

We meet Leontine in the square outside the very grand Hotel De Ville, Paris’ imposing city hall.

Leontine it turns out is the mother of the lady who runs a company called Jewish Tours Paris, one Flora Goldenberg. Leontine, born in Holland, lived for many years in Marais but now lives in Jerusalem commuting between there and Paris giving tours in both places! We’d booked at the last moment, so Leontine stood in for Flora before returning to Israel the following day. And how fortunate we were. Marais if you hadn’t gathered, is the old Jewish district of Paris and we’d struck it lucky with the best possible guide because Leontine not only knows the district and its rich but troubled history, but also many of the few Jewish families who still live Marais. So we’re treated to coffee and pastries in one of the two Kosher bakeries remaining (and meet the owner), meet a Monsieur Goldenberg, a survivor of a terrorist attack on his family restaurant in the early ’80’s (when the attack started, he ran upstairs to grab a gun and ended up shooting - fortunately in the leg - a plain clothes policeman who had arrived on the scene!) and visit Paris’s oldest synagogue, completely hidden behind two sets of security doors on the second floor of one of Marais’ old buildings (not surprisingly, Leontine’s family is trusted with the security codes).

The following day, we meet Marie outside the Moulin Rouge on the edge of Montmartre. 

My first visit to Paris was with my father when I was just 15 and one of the places he took me to was the Moulin Rouge. As Marie pointed out, back then (it was 1965….!!) the Moulin Rouge was still a somewhat “edgy” (her word!) traditional Parisian cabaret, not a whole lot different from when Toulouse Lautrec spent his days there painting the scene and drinking himself silly. Montmartre back then was still somewhat Bohemian and the nearby Pigalle still very “red”. Today as Marie tells us, the area has been mostly cleaned up, the show at the Moulin Rouge is “mainstream” and Montmartre has been gentrified and is now among the trendiest and most expensive neighbourhoods of Paris. We spend a few hours with Marie wondering through the streets and alleyways and if you know where to go (and she does), the area still has the feel of a village about it with some very interesting little shops (the food shops are particularly impressive) and restaurants. We climb the hill and approach Sacre Coeur from the back passing on the way Paris’s only operating vineyard and a small park where a large group of local high school kids are enjoying a morning out in the sunshine and posing for goofy photos. Other than in a couple of spots, we come across no groups to tourists along the route Marie has brought us up here. Then we reach the front of Sacre Coeur….. 

On the evening between the two guided walks, we metro to Place Bastille (not a Gillet Jaune to be seen) and and take our seats at the Paris Opera for a performance of Carmen. A very contemporary production and every bit as good as you’d expect. The first scene of the production did feature a well built young man carrying a rifle running round and round the set wearing just his underpants. It was meant to be a military encampment and there were plenty of (dressed) chorus soldiers so the scene did somewhat make sense. However, the first scene after the intermission featured just one young man, who came on stage, removedallhis clothes (gasp from the audience) and pranced around the stage for several minutes occasionally slapping his belly. The significance of that little episode in the context of the story of Carmen totally escaped us…..

If any opera buffs can throw a light on that, we’d love to hear from you…..