Letters from Paris: Canal Saint Martin in the 10th
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Thirza Vallois has returned to one of the genuine and picturesque
spots of old-time Paris, the Canal Saint Martin, for an unexpected
and hilarious evening at the Hôtel du Nord. To our relief, the
Canal hasn’t been brought to the attention of your average tourist
yet,which is a good enough reason to enjoy it before it’s too late. For
the time being it remains truly Parisian, in the best sense of the
word. Furthermore, the Hôtel du Nord stands at 102 quai des Jemmapes,
its most romantic and picturesque section.
For further
information about the Canal Saint Martin and about the Hôtel du Nord,
turn to Thirza Vallois’s recent publication, Romantic Paris, and
especially to Around and About Paris, Volume II, where you will get the
full story of both. It’s in the chapter on the 10th arrondissement.
This
past week has enabled me to find out that Americans are not
quite yet a rare species on the Paris scene. I was invited by
International Living to give a couple of presentations to their Travel
Writers’ Workshop, and was delighted to hear American accents all
over the place. So yes, some Americans are still coming over, or are
coming back again, whichever way you want to look at it, in trickles
that I hope will soon increase to an overflow, as it did in recent
years. So much so that I once got an angry letter from a reader who
complained to me that the restaurant I recommended had too many
Americans! You never win. Right now, this is not the kind of complaint
she would make.
The seminar was a delightful event
socially speaking, and of a very high standard intellectually. The
snippets of presentations I caught before my own, delivered by Rose
Burke, were very impressive, as were the people I had a chance to talk
to face to face. If you are into travel writing, and also want to have
an excuse to come to Paris next season, you should consider this
gathering. I also managed to steal one evening from my work and join
the group for their night out in Paris. I must say that all the
places of entertainment chosen by Adrian Leeds, the Director of the
International Living Paris Office, were excellent. All were
atmospheric and off the more oft treaden tourist track. Even if
tourists get there, they don’t feel touristy. That night took me to the
Hôtel du Nord, on the Canal St. Martin, where I have been many times
and at all times of year and day, but not since the publication of my
book, Romantic Paris. At the time, I included it in my Romantic Nights
chapter, and chose to highlight its Saturday Night shows, dedicated to
French songs from the 1930s.
This time round I was amazed
to discover something completely different that I had no clue
about. See! Even when you know Paris as well as I do, you keep
discovering new events, places and venues, provided your eyes and
ears are wide open and you go on sniffing around. That’s what makes
Paris so exciting. This time round, it wasn’t only something new
– it was surreal. After a basic and very decent
French dinner, at a very reasonable price, in the vast and
half empty restaurant (as it was Sunday night, I wasn’t really
surprised), a huge crowd swooped over the premises all of a sudden and
within seconds filled every vacant seat. It happened so fast that I
didn’t have the time to see them coming, a really pleasant crowd on the
youngish side (late twenties/thirties I would say, at an average), all
of whom were English speaking but didn’t look like tourists. Who
on earth were they, I wondered. And what on earth were they doing at
the emblematic Hôtel du Nord, which embodies old, quintessentially
working-class Paris?
It was so weird to hear all this
English rather than the inimitable voice of the legendary Arletty,
which clings to the Hôtel du Nord as a ghost will to a Scottish
castle. “Atmosphère, atmosphère…” It’s always in my ears,
as she throws it sarcastically with her Parisian lilt to the no less
legendary Louis Jouvet. It’s for the sake of this atmosphere that
James Arch, the present proprietor of the Hôtel du Nord, saved the
place from demolition in 1995. Who would have dreamt that it would be
invaded by “Anglo Saxons”, of all people?
I got up and
went to the counter where James was serving them drinks and got my
answers pretty fast. First of all, these people live and work in
Paris, which is why they don’t look like tourists. I can’t put my
finger on it but although most of us dress alike nowadays, tourists
usually look like tourists. And certainly so when they come in
clusters. These people looked local, which was nice (no offence meant,
but it does help preserve the authentic atmposphere of a place). There
may have been the odd French person among them, but his English must
have been pretty good to be able to follow up all the innuendos of
the show. I then found out that on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays the
Hôtel du Nord is taken over by the British Karel Beers who owns
the next door gallery at 104 quai des Jemmapes. He uses the
pocket-handkerchief-size stage to produce top-notch British or American
stand-up comedians. They in turn are more than happy to oblige
and use this floor like a dress rehearsal and meanwhile take in a bit
of Paris.
entertaining evening for a long time, and it was particularly
refreshing at present, when so many people feel morose because
of the state of the world.
And the state of the world
was the topic of the evening, handled and mishandled by Greg Proops,
whose commentaries flowed spontaneously into one another like a
Proustian sentence, at a staggering speed. Greg dug
into everything and everyone, Nebraska, San Francisco, New York, Paris,
the latest Magritte exhibition, the Eurostar, English
louts…intellectuals. No one was spared, not even animal lovers, not
even innocent Canadians. Once we were all put in our place according to
our respective homeland and walk of life, he moved on to current
politics and, I must say that although I don’t necessarily share Greg’s
views about the Iraqi war, he was so good that I never got annoyed and
was in stitches, like everyone else, throughout the evening. If you are
planning a visit to Paris and want something more original than the
usual tourist haunts, I cannot recommend more enthusiastically a
stand-up comedy at the Hôtel du Nord. This is in addition to all
the other types of entertainment on offer on different nights.
It
was very late when we left – Greg went on and gave us plenty of
encores. When we came out the Canal was at its best. The tree-lined
quais were deserted and silent, lit up by graceful lampposts, which
cast their light unto the still water. Before leaving I had to walk to
the turning bridge for another glance at the succession of arched iron
footbridges that span the Canal. They looked so exquisite in the dead
of night.
A la prochaine,
Thirza Vallois
Around and About Paris by Thirza
Vallois is published by Iliad Books, UK.
Romantic Paris by Thirza Vallois is co-published by Interlink (US) and Arris Books (UK).
To contact Thirza Vallois and/or order her books, please visit her website: www.thirzavallois.com or www.wfi.fr/vallois
L’Hotel du Nord
102 Quai de Jemmapes
75010 Paris.
Telephone +33-1-53-19-9888.
www.anythingmatters.com
International Living Ultimate Travel Writers Workshop
International Living
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