Nigel Tisdall's report on Paris
Posted On
30.06.07
As Humphrey Bogart famously put it in Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris.” The French capital seems so familiar and accessible, we sometimes forget just how wonderful it really is.
So why go again? Well, Paris delivers. Here you know you can eat well, see stimulating things and shop yourself to heaven. Getting there is quick and inexpensive, and let’s face it - the City of Light inspires romance. Maybe it’s all those divine pâtisseries, but the minute we arrive it seems natural to hold hands and kiss on bridges.
Another reason is the goodie bag of fresh sights in store. A footbridge honouring Simone de Beauvoir now spans the Seine, the streets around the Canal St-Martin have gentrified, while the new £160 million Musée du Quai Branly pulsates with fabulous ethnic art treasures. Topping all this is the re-designed Musée de l’Orangerie in the Tuileries, which houses Claude Monet’s emotional work Les Nymphéas - eight paintings of water lilies nearly 20ft long.
Of course, Impressionism and Paris go together like steak and frites. For the first, head for the Musée d’Orsay. For the latter, there’s still plenty of classic brasseries around. Restaurants like La Coupole and Le Boeuf sur le Toit are pure Paris, and the city’s ideal for a special celebration, particularly if you book into a pampering palace hotel like the Meurice or Crillon. There’s also new contemporary-style hotels such as Kube, which has an ice-bar and DJ, and the theatrical Hôtel du Petit Moulin in the Marais, designed by Christian Lacroix.
Thanks to the Metro, it’s easy to whizz around, although it pays to walk. That’s how you make those little discoveries - the quirky shop specialising in hand-made umbrellas, the market piled high with ambrosial apricots. It’s all part of why Paris is an eternal success, a city where treats seem normal. Fancy a little foie gras with some feather-light brioche? A contemplative morning with Rodin? New party shoes from the rue St-Honoré? Paris really is like bills and washing-up - always there. Now which do you prefer?
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