A Tout Paris

The things that dreams are made of... a trip to Paris! The city is back in business, with its inimitable café culture, historical architecture, shopping promenades and grand hotels

Text: Karen Anand

Travelling in COVID times can be challenging with the increase in protocols. I recently spent a glorious hassle-free 11 days in Paris and found it was the perfect place for a vacation, in spite of COVID. France recognises Covishield, so fully vaccinated travellers from India can enter without stress. President Macron has also insisted on the passe sanitaire or health pass, which you now need to be able to eat in restaurants, enter museums and so on.  This is easily available online if you are fully vaccinated. In indoor public places and hotels, people follow safety norms of masks, sanitising and social distancing. However, on the street, Paris is back in business; women walking their dogs, protests (the French love their 'manifs' about some infringement of their liberté, but they are well controlled and don’t interfere with the general public) and their inimitable café culture – a chance to take time off in the day to imbibe, share, gossip and watch. It's all back to normal.
One positive fallout of COVID for the intrepid traveller is breakfast in bed. Luxury hotels are now actively encouraging in-room dining (at no extra cost) where breakfast is served all day long to avoid crowding downstairs. For someone like me who is not a breakfast person mainly because of the restrictive timing not the offering, and who for years never made the 10.30 am deadline, this was heaven. It also meant I could turn the morning ritual into brunch and order enough and beyond the croissant and jam (think Eggs Benedict, smoked salmon, fruit, juice, a mind- boggling variety of bread and cheese) to, in fact, make this my dejeuner or lunch! I was fortunate enough to have the pick of a few of Paris' top hotels as my 'addresses', (part of a prize I had won in 2019 from the French Ambassador Travel Awards). Nowhere did I enjoy more than the uber luxurious Le Bristol hotel where service is beyond exemplary. Again, as a positive influence of COVID, Le Bristol has now opened their secret central garden planted with orange trees and roses for lunch and afternoon tea. Their new baker and pâtisserie chef, Pascal Hainigue creates the lightest éclairs and macarons, and his artisanal bread is to die for. I spend most of my two days at the Bristol, at the hotel itself, with an occasional walk down the famous and very fashionable Faubourg Saint Honore. It is one of the most exclusive addresses in Paris and the preferred address of an international elite. It certainly is one of the most glamorous understated hotels I have ever stayed in. I honestly don’t have much reason to leave. There are two marvellous restaurants (both open), an enchanting swimming pool on the terrace which resembles a boat and looks over the roofs of the city. My 120 metre- plus suite is something to talk about. Big enough for a family of four or more, it has been completely renovated post-COVID with Parma silk cushions, a Louis XV desk and a Loro Piana cashmere throw on the bed. The colours are a muted off white and pale blue... very soothing. The furniture is Louis XVI style with the kind of chairs you never want to pull yourself out of. Goose down sofas and heavy double-hung curtains, bathrooms in white Carrara marble with generously sized Hermès toiletries… you get the picture. There’s turndown service in the evenings which tidies up and replenishes the delicious, perfectly ripe fruit (Le Bristol has a dedicated fruit master) and macarons, and closes the many curtains for you.
Food at Le Bristol… well apart from the refreshing artichoke salad in the garden for lunch (over a glass of Rosé champagne of course), the indulgent afternoon tea and the in-room breakfast… I dined in 114 Faubourg, their stylish brasserie which has a Michelin star. Much awarded chef Eric Frechon’s signature Duck Pâté en Croûte with pickled vegetables was outrageous in flavour, the Oeufs King Crab was masterful in presentation and the Duck Filet was a perfect tender duck breast cooked in fig leaves. It’s the kind of place you can equally have a good old-fashioned Steak Tartare made with hand-cut beef. The wine list offers nearly 150 labels of both well and lesser-known wines of France. Le Bristol spoilt me but on Day 3 I left to discover a Paris with which I was more familiar.
I lived in Paris in the late '70s and early '80s, and I still think of myself as a flâneur… a person who wanders the city. The famous French writer, Balzac, described flânerie as "the gastronomy of the eye" and German philosopher, Walter Benjamin, described the flâneur as the essential figure of the modern urban spectator, an amateur detective and investigator of the city.  Paris is divided into arrondissements or quarters in a snail like design from 1 to 20. Much can be deciphered instantly from which arrondissement you live in and where you shop or eat. It’s like a secret code for residents. The 8th – where the Bristol is situated – is the height of chic with many listed buildings including the Élysée Palace and super glam fashion with all the top designer brands. Two of my favourite areas are the Marais (4th) and Saint Germain (6th), where I once lived. The Marais is a mix of current chic and old-world charm with some lovely old restaurants (Le Bouledogue on the Rue Rambuteau is one of my favourites). I often stay at Maison 1400, one of the city’s oldest houses owned, and immaculately restored and refurbished, by American interior designer, Tom Scheerer and bon vivant Mike Baldridge. It is a structure of thick stone walls, original fireplaces, wood-beamed ceilings and well- worn terracotta tiled floors interspersed with oak and limestone right in the heart of the Marais near the museums and wild nightlife. The Marais itself is one of the most dazzling quarters in Paris, originally a swamp and then marsh several hundred years ago when the Seine overflowed. It is arty with a lively buzz much like the Latin Quarter used to be in the '60s. People who live in the Marais are now called BoBo (Bohemian Bourgeois). The 1st and the 2nd arrondissements border onto it. A must- visit there is the old Rue Montorgueil with its many cafés and the new Bourse de Commerce museum. Full of charm, another great place to wander nearby is the market at St. Paul which has, on a Saturday and twice during the week, a huge selection of French cheese, pâtisserie, bakery, meats and so on.
On the left bank, I visit Allard, an old bistro in the Latin Quarter for lunch. Taken over in 2013 by chef extraordinaire Alain Ducasse, I am happy to say that Allard is still a tiny place with two small rooms with about six tables in each, quite closely packed in with a kitchen in between. Like many restaurants and museums in Paris, it is closed on Monday and Tuesday. The restaurant looks like a turn-of-the-century home with flock wallpaper, wooden chairs and red banquette seating, and still serves creamy butter from Isigny, from a mountain brought to the table, which I slathered shamelessly on sourdough bread. People come here for the escargots (snails in their shells) stuffed with tons of herby butter, the garlicky frogs legs, the delicious paté en croûte and the Canard de Challans aux Olives. This is a whole duck from the village of Challans which is famous for breeding a certain kind of duck since the 16th century. The duck is a cross between wild and farmed, so you get both flavour and texture. They say the duck is for two people but it could feed a family of four easily. We ordered it all and waddled out of there like two peasants from the countryside.
In search of the same quality of food in a touristy but still glam setting,  snails with an unforgiving amount of parsley garlic butter, Sole Meunière and a glass of champagne,  profiteroles with vanilla ice-cream and hot chocolate sauce? Where else but Fouquet’s? Fouquets (pronounced Fouketts not Foukay) is bang in the middle of Champs -Élysées. Louis XV created the Champs-Élysées to allow Madame de Pompadour to reach the Palace in Versailles. Number 99 was home to the only business of the time, Le Critérion Café, where coachmen would stop. In 1899, Louis Fouquet bought Le Critérion and transformed it into a luxury bar, calling it Criterion-Fouquet’s Bar. Le Fouquet's became a favourite with filmstars in the 1930s. They were followed in the 1950s by New Wave directors François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol, and in the mid '70s, Fouquet's started hosting the after party and dinner of the French equivalent of the Oscars, the  César Awards.
As an Indian, I usually start missing spice around the 10th day of leaving India. This is sometimes satisfied by some random Thai eatery or an M&S ready-to- eat takeaway. Paris has for some reason never had the variety and expanse of Indian restaurants that London has to offer in spite of being just over the channel. On this trip I was taken for lunch to Kirane’s owned by the lovely Kiran Grover Gupta and her husband. Along with her perfect skin, perfect dog and pretty perfect French, Kiran has been ruling the roost over the top five Indian restaurants in Paris for a few decades. She has been in Paris for over 45 years, coming to the city as a young bride, and helped her new family build an enviable Indian restaurant empire. She has now sold all the restaurants, citing fatigue and the fact that her son has no interest in the business, and presides over Kirane’s on the fashionable Avenue Ternes near the Champs-Élysées. You’ll find a huge menu of mainly North Indian favourites. Her Dum Poux Mutton Yakhni and deliciously fluffy cheese naans are to die for. The décor could do with an uplift but if it’s proper desi fare you’re looking for, you’ll find it here. A great option for vegetarians in what is sometimes a very meat centric city.
A bit of shopping to complete the trip? A little French secret on the left bank… a small boutique in the smart 7th arrondissement near Saint Germain called Begum. Named after their grandmother who they called “Begum” affectionately, cousins, Sarah Bouchez and Heloise Wirth, seem to be inundated with stylish ladies from the neighbourhood and international travellers seeking their handmade shoes. Beautifully designed and ultra comfortable, this is the cherry on my very chic Paris cake.
If its gastronomy and fashion you’re looking for, even in COVID times, then Paris still has it all.