The New Hot Quarters: the 4th and 16th

12 April 2006 by John Talbott    364  
The New Hot Quarters: the 4th and 16th
The fourth arrondissement is another area familiar to both residents and travelers.  Incorporating both a huge rectangle on the right bank and most of the two islands in the Seine, it’s a great place to walk and gawk.   Its best known monument is probably the Notre Dame cathedral, whose square in front is kilometer zero from which all distances in France are measured and where one can see the 7th century Hotel Dieu, once a hospital, but now in process of conversion to mixed usage as well as one of the few buildings (the Police headquarters) whose skin is still pockmarked from ordinance fired in the last days of WWII’s Battle of Paris. Second in popularity must be the Place des Vosges which contains glorious buildings of mixed usage – residential, commercial, museums and restos.  Another square very well known is that of the Hotel de Ville, housing the central city government and the do-it-yourselfers’ heaven – the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville or BHV (bay-ash-vey).    Its museums are varied and rich; two of the best sites for temporary photography exhibitions in the world are located in the 4th – the Hotel Sully, now an outpost of the Jeu de Paume, and the Maison Europeene de la Photographie; the museum of Victor Hugo, housing a mix of his writing and painting; the Pompidou Center, home to the Modern Art Museum and countless spaces for temporary art, architecture and sculpture exhibitions; and the Pavillon of the Arsenal, home to Paris’s architectural plans, dioramas and photos.  In addition, while not concentrated on any one street, as in New York, there is a scattering of fine art galleries all over the 4th and the 3rd as well.     As for walking, come from the Rue de Rivoli through the Hotel Sully courtyard, meander to and through the Place des Vosges itself and then the stroll past the Carnavalet Museum to the Beaubourg (Pompidou); or walk around the Ile St Louis and Ile de la Cite and the banks of Seine.    As to restaurants; Americans love l’Ambrosie and on eGullet.org, it is considered one of the best places in Paris, although eye-poppingly expensive (it’s where President Chirac takes everyone from Bill Clinton to Gerard Schröder.) And while I admire the resuscitation of Benoit by Alain Ducasse, its price-quality ratio is equally disadvantageous.  I much prefer one of the two places recently opened by Antoine Westerman – Mon Viel Ami, or the not terribly new but eye-catchingly decored Dome du Marais.    The grand 16th – one of the biggest, priciest and glorious arrondissements – also has a rich diversity of cultural institutions.  What it lacks for me is the commercial flavor that intermingles in so much of the rest of the city – it’s almost as if a supermarché would mar its residential/museumy tone.    The two monuments one most associates with Paris are best viewed from the 16th – the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower; the former from around the Etoile, the latter from across the river on the steps of was the Chaillot hill. This imposing site was a natural for erecting buildings for the World Fairs in 1867 and 1878 and what we now know as the Trocadero Palace assumed the same spot for the World Exhibition in 1937.  In the closing days and after WWII, it became the symbol of the American presence in Paris, morphing into what I remember with awe as a teenager, the flag-enveloped SHAPE HQ – the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.      There are plenty of art opportunities in the 16th with permanent collections and temporary exhibitions at the Modern Art, Guimet, Balzac, Marmottan and Dapper Museums as well as those housed in the Trocadero (Museum of Man and Marine).  The new space in the Palais de Tokyo tends to show temporary contemporary art, the Palais Galliera’s Musée de la Mode et du Costume hosts fashion, gems and fabric shows and the headquarters for Yves St Laurent sometimes pulls off a stunner like its show of Bob Wilson’s “Fables of Fontaine” designs and costumes.  I’ll pull a guesstimate out of my hat and say that the museum most beloved by Americans is the Marmottan (housing Monet’s Impressionism itself) and that totally unknown is the Museum of French monuments (housing sculpture and statues from bygone buildings).    Walking: Where else but the Bois?  Formal gardens, untrod fields; roses and wild flowers; kiddie rides and horse-riding, it’s all there.  Less bucolic?  A tour a friend and I did of Hector Guimard’s building facades took a long time one afternoon and was terrific.    As for restaurants, those in the Bois de Boulogne – the Grande Cascade, Pre Catalan and Pavillion des Princes are stunning and good; for a sunny spring day one cannot go wrong.  But for those participating interested in the new hot quarters competition, one must go into the heart of the 16th where places like the La Table Lauriston, Aux Marches du Palais, Tokyo Eat and La Pergolese have recently either opened or welcomed new chefs.  The first two, the La Table Lauriston and Aux Marches du Palais get my unhestitating approval, the former for its sophisticated well-priced food and the latter for its gutsy bistro stuff in the midst of poshland.  But Tokyo Eat is special – go only when the sun is shining, it’s hot and you can sit under the umbrellas on the flat of the Palais of Tokyo, reveling in the view.  As for La Pergolese, Gregory Coutanceau has come and gone in but three short months and we’ll have to wait and see.    As for those restos in the 4th and 16th I’ll go back to, here’s my list :   Mon Vieil Ami 69 St Louis en l’Ile, 4th (Metro : Pont Marie) T : 01.40.46.01.35 Closed Monday and Tuesday lunch Menu 38 €.   Le Dome du Marais 53 bis rue des Francs-Bourgeois, 4th (Metro : St Paul, Bastille) T : 01.48.04.88.44 Closed 3 weeks in August A la carte about 45 €.   La Table Lauriston 129 rue Lauriston, 16th, (Metro: Trocadero, Iena) T: 01.47.27.00.07 Closed Saturday noon,…
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By John Talbott