Bijoux Blues
Costume jewlery shop open 2pm - 7pm, Tuesday through Saturday
Village St Paul
Many centuries ago, a small hamlet sat on this spot when the area was still mostly marshland (marais means “swamp”). While the neighborhood has transformed many times since, a small reminder of this village lives on, hidden behind an ordinary row of buildings on rue St-Paul. Pass through the entryway and you’ll come into a kind of large interior courtyard that dates from the 14th century, when it was part of the gardens of Charles V’s royal residence. At one point the houses and buildings built over and around the gardens were slated for demolition; a neighborhood committee saved them, and in the 1970s the village was restored and turned into a sort of antiques center, with stores and art galleries (see www.levillagesaintpaul.com and “Shopping”). The village hosts seasonal déballages, or outdoor arts and antiques fairs. Today the commercial emphasis has shifted from antiquities to design.Exit the village on rue des Jardins St-Paul. On one side of this street is a playground that runs along a huge stone wall, the:
Rampart of Philippe Auguste
Before you is the best-preserved stretch of the city walls built by Philippe Auguste. Before leaving town on a crusade in 1190, Philippe decided the time had come to beef up security. The result was a mighty rampart that defined what was then the city limits. The wall in front of you once ran in a semicircle from the Seine, up to around rue Etienne Marcel, and curved over to protect the Louvre and back down to the Seine (a similar semicircle was built 20 years later on the Left Bank). Aside from this stretch, only small fragments can be found here and there on both banks so you’ll have to imagine the rest; you’ll also have to imagine the towers and the six massive portals that once were the only land access into the city.Turn left down rue des Jardins St-Paul and right on rue de l’Avé Maria. Just where it branches off to the right on rue du Figuier is:
Hotel (Mansion) de Sens
Built between 1475 and 1519, this splendid fortress/mansion is a rare example of medieval urban architecture. When Paris came under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Sens back in the 15th century, he promptly built himself a suitably fabulous home in the city. Later, Henri IV briefly used it to house his strong-minded wife, Queen Margot, whose many love affairs were causing him no end of headaches. The bishops stopped coming to the Hôtel de Sens altogether in 1622, preferring to rent it out. After the Revolution it served as a laundry operation, a jam factory, and a glass warehouse. By the time the city bought it in 1911, it was in a pitiful state; the building’s restoration—which started in 1929—wouldn’t be completed until 1961. The Hôtel now houses the Bibliothèque Forney, a library dedicated to the decorative arts. Take a minute to admire the turrets and towers in the courtyard (visible from the street).Follow the side of the building down rue du Figuier and turn left onto the path that leads around to the back of the Hôtel, where there are pretty French gardens. The path leads to rue des Nonnains d’Hyères, where you’ll turn right, then walk left on rue de Jouy to where it intersects with:
Rue François Miron
Walk left down rue François Miron to the corner of rue Cloche Perce. You will notice two multistoried half-timbered houses: the Maison à l’Enseigne du Faucheur (no. 11) and the Maison à l’Enseigne du Mouton (no. 13). Pre-Haussmann, houses like these were once all over the city; now they are extremely rare. These two date from the 14th century, though after 1607 the crisscrossed wood facades of all such houses were covered with a layer of plaster in accordance with a law that aimed to reduce the risk of fire. When these houses were restored in the 1960s, the plaster was removed and the wood was once again revealed.Double back and continue down rue François Miron until it ends at the St-Paul Métro station. Cross the rue de Rivoli and continue left up rue Pavée to:
The Pletzl
You are now entering the city’s oldest Jewish quarter, once called the Pletzl (“little place” in Yiddish), where there has been a Jewish presence since the 13th century. This community swelled and shrank over the centuries, in line with various edicts and expulsions, but the largest influx was in the 1880s, when tens of thousands of Eastern European Jews, fleeing poverty and persecution back home, settled in France. The Pletzl was hit hard during the infamous roundups of 1942, when police came and emptied apartment buildings and even schools of their Jewish occupants and sent them off to Nazi concentration camps. Though the neighborhood is slowly being eaten up by the area’s advancing gentrification, and chic shops pop up next to kosher butchers, a small and fairly traditional community still lives here. At no. 10 is the unusual Synagogue de la rue Pavée, designed by Hector Guimard, the Art Nouveau master who created the famous Métro entrances. This is the only existing religious edifice by Guimard, whose wife was Jewish (they fled to the U.S. during World War II). In 1940, on Yom Kippur, the Germans dynamited the synagogue; it was eventually restored and is now a national monument (open for religious services only).Continue up rue Pavée to where it crosses:
Rue des Rosiers
Rumor has it that this street got its name from the rose bushes that once lined its edges, back in the days when it ran along the exterior of the city walls. Up until recently, it was the main artery of the Jewish quarter; today, all that’s left are a few kosher restaurants and a bookstore or two. Great falafel can still be found here (L’As du Fallafel); if you happen to be in the area around lunchtime, you might get handed a free sample from one of the competing restaurants.Turn left on rue des Rosiers and continue to the end, where you’ll turn right on rue Vieille du Temple. You are now in the thick of the trendier (and gay) part of the neighborhood, which is filled with fun restaurants and boutiques. Take the first left at rue des Blancs Manteaux and follow this pretty street all the way to where it ends at:
L'as du Falafel
Open 11am to 7:30pm except Saturday
