Walking Tour of the Marais

This afternoon Karina and I set off to do one of the walking tours in her new guide book. This one outlined the history of the Marais (which I'm too exhausted to outline right now) and took us through some interesting parts of the neighbourhood.

We decided to do the walk backwards so we could start with lunch at a falafel place in the neighbourhood. Being Easter Monday, or more likely Passover, being that the Marais has a large Jewish community, the falafel place was closed. We made do with two delicious pastrami sandwiches made on special Passover bread (no leavener or no flour? We couldn't figure it out), and a piece of orange and cinnamon cheesecake.

The walk got off to a bit of a bad start. It was hard enough following the directions backwards, but unfortunately most of the buildings that they mentioned were private residences, so the public isn't able to see the apparently beautiful courtyards inside, or they were museums that were closed today. We did see an interesting tower from the 1500's attached to a more modern building, and some great carvings and bas reliefs on the outsides of buildings. The highlight, however, was one building that used to be a hotel.

We were reading the historical plaque outside when a women exited the building. We scooted over to peek into the courtyard as she left, and she saw us, and asked us if we'd like to see it. So she took us inside to see her amazing courtyard. The building was red brick with a lighter coloured stone accent, and she pointed out that it was done in the same style as the pavillions around Place des Vosges. There was an interesting bust above one of the doorways, and old cobblestones throughout. She told us that she had moved into the neighbourhood in 1947, and had seen all the changes that had happened. I guess things like small buisnesses and factories used to be in the area, and were gradually replaced with stores and cafes. In 1967 a law was passed to start revitalizing the Marais, which until then had become quite decrepid (sp?) in the last couple of hundred years. It was so bad that Mr. Haussman couldn't be bothered to put boulevards through the neighbourhood when he was developing the rest of Paris in the 1800s. Anyway, the woman also told us that people live here, which we are surprised to hear, because the windows we saw on the ground floor were super swanky, and done up kind of like a hotel lobby. I think there were also some businesses in there too though. She then asked us if we'd like to see the staircase, and leads us across the courtyard and into one of the doors. Inside there is a magnificent stone staircase with a wrough iron railing, and on the second floor ceiling there is a mural of a sky with clouds. I'm not sure if she said it was original, or if it had been added in the last 50 years, but it was stunning nonetheless. After we stepped back onto the busy street we realized how quiet it had been in there. You couldn't hear any of the noise once you stepped through the gate. It was like another world.

We continued the tour with a walk around Place des Vosges, which was designed to be symmetrical. There are four fountains in four corners, with perfectly placed topiaries and paths. The pavillion buildings that surround the park were also built to specific dimensions, so that they would be pleasing to the eye.

The tour ended at St Paul St Louis a Catholic church built between 1627-1641. This church featured shell shaped stoups donated by Victor Hugo, and some amazing carvings and elaborate architechture.

We decided to walk home, and stumbled across another Canadian bar just in time for happy hour. We also decided that we needed another snack by the time we got to the gelato place, so we had some of that too.

Karina with her sandwich outside the Jewish bakery


Karina and Erik in Square Georges-Cain


Interesting sphinx sculpture outside the Picasso museum (which we didn't visit, not enough time, unfortunately)


An interesting street


A pretty courtyard (but not the one we were invited into)


Fountain at Place des Vosges. Check out the symmetry with the topiaries, and the consistency in size of the buildings behind.


Erik and I at the Hotel de Sully