PARIS
A Different Kind of Romance
The spirit of the writers, painters, and composers who shaped 19th-century culture lives on in the City of Light.
by Chantal Martineau/photography by Guy Bouchet
If you’re like me, your first trip to Paris was all about seeing the iconic sights: the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, the Louvre, Notre Dame. On your second visit, you explored the boutiques and cafes discovered haphazardly on your first trip. But by the time you returned to Paris yet again, you intended to cultivate a relationship with the city — to really get to know it.
For my fifth trip to the city, I was after a more intimate experience than I’d had before. I wanted to find its heart.
Paris and romance are synonymous. Its promenades, bridges and gardens beg couples to fall in love before them. Its sidewalk cafes are perfect settings for intimate moments. Its parks seem specially designed for courtship.
But in the 19th century, Paris became a magnet for Romantics of a different nature: artists from a variety of disciplines, who, driven by a desire for self-expression, rejected the constraints of Neoclassicism and Realism to explore the transcendent, the personal, the emotional, the sublime, and the supernatural. Its virtuosos -- Chopin, Hugo, Berlioz, Delacroix -- wished to move away from the aristocratic ideals that defined the period and tao into their emotions instead. Just as the spirit of modern-day New York can be traced back to the counter-culture of the 1960s and ‘70s and the Andy Warhols and Bob Dylans of that time, so too is the soul of Paris the product of an artistic revolution sparked by discontent with the status quo.
As it turns out, the figurative heart of Paris can be found in the vicinity of its geographical one. The area formerly known as Nouvelle Athènes (New Athens) -- an appellation inspired by the “grecomania” of the early 1820s, as well as the influx of artists, writers, musicians, and philosophers who relocated to the area -- sits at the bottom of the hill that leads up to the Sacré-Coeur. For a taste of the era, take a stroll through the 9th arrondissement, less than a mile south of Montmartre.
Few people now refer tot his area as Nouvelle Athènes, but the haunts of its luminaries remain. Step into the Square d’Orléans, a private apartment building set in an English-style square on rue Taitbout. Composer Frederic Chopin rented apartment no. 9 on one side of the square, while his lover, feminist author George Sand (whose real name was Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin), rented no. 5 on the other. Legend has it that Sand would flash a candle at her window when she wants Chopin to call on her.
A few blocks northeast on rue Notre Dame de Lorette, you’ll find Place Saint-Georges, one of the city’s prettiest squares. Bordered by picturesque houses, it features a statue of the Romantic-era caricaturist Paul Gavarni at the center. Respectable gentlemen often leased apartments in this area of their mistresses, and one of Gavarni’s most famous series of sketches, Les Lorettes, consists of visual vignettes from the lives of these kept women. Not far from here, one a quiet, tree-shaded alley just off the aforementioned rue Notre Dame de Lorette, is the Musée de la vie Romantique. This quaint little museum of period relics includes a room dedicated to entirely to George Sand and displays jewelry and furniture she owned as well as portraits of the writer and her family. After exploring the permanent collection and featured exhibition in the adjacent carriage house, enjoy a coffee in the museum’s Romantic (and romantic) gardens, where roses and lilacs are in full bloom (during spring and summer). From May through September, cakes and pastries are provided by Les Cakes des Bertrand, a nearby tea salon-cum-boutique that exports its less perishable goodies around the world.
Just south of the Seine, amid the university buildings near Saint-Germain-des-Prés metro station, the Musée National Eugène Delacroix affords art and history buffs a glimpse into life as a not-so-struggling artist during the Romantic period. Housed in a section of the painter’s former apartment and studio, the museum features small paintings and drawings, lithographs, letters, furniture, and miscellaneous keepsakes. The bedroom where Delacroix died, the studio with a courtyard view, the living room, and the library are open to the public. To find a trinket that might actually date from the Romantic era, head to nearby rue du Bac, lined with some of the city’s most treasure-filled antique shops. Be prepared to haggle with the veteran shop owners should you find a piece that you can’t live without.
The Romantic period was a time of self-indulgence, so it’s no surprise that the term “gastronomy” emerged during this era. Restaurants began springing up in Paris in the mid to late 18th century (the first opened in 1765 and served soups and broths), many around the Palais-Royal gardens. Among them was Le Grand Véfour, where Napolean and Victor Hugo dined and which is still in business. Ledoyen, a Michelin three-star restaurant that dates to the late 1700s, is located in what was then considered the Parisian countryside but is now the 8th arrondissement. Set in the noble gardens of the Champs-Elysées, Ledoyen serves up traditional French fare in a stately Art Nouveau mansion. Chef Christian Le Squer uses impeccable ingredients, and he’s known for showing them to patrons before preparing their meals -- don’t be shocked if he sweeps out of the kitchen to reveal the freshly plucked chickens her will transform into volaille de Bresse truffée.
If self-indulgence was the theme of the era, then overindulgence seems to have been the aim of a meal. To eat like a true Romantic, you might enjoy several dishes per course, including a couple dozen raw oysters to whet the appetite. Indeed, it wasn’t uncommon for people to enjoy up to 12 dozen oysters in one sitting; during 1846, six million dozen oysters were consumed in Paris. That was the year that saw the opening of Au Rocher de Cancale, a restaurant on rue Montorgeuil whose named is derived from the damed oyster port in Brittany. It was a favorite of writers such as Stendahl and Balzac, and the first floor is adorned with frescoes by Gavarni. Annother landmark form the period is Goumard, on rue Duphot. The seafood dishes are amazing (other meats aren’t mentioned on the printed entree list, but waiters recite a limited lineup of meats), and the Art Nouveau restrooms designed by Louis Majorelle are classified as historic monuments.
The beverage of choice for washing down all the shellfish was champagne. Romantics knew that nothing does with oysters quite like bubbly. The Sofitel Trocadéro Le Dokhan’s champagne bar is not, as it bills itself, the only champagne bar in town, but it is certainly one of the most enjoyable places to sip a flute of bubbly. The belle époque decor is warm yet glamorous, and the champagne list extensive.
A mile-and-a-half drive south of the Trocadéro is La Maison de Balzac, where the novelist lived and worked between 1840 and 1847. The five-room apartment is filled with manuscripts, first editions, and relics that belonged to the writer. There’s no better way to experience the luminaries of the era than by visiting the place where so many of them currently reside: Père Lachaise Cemetery. It’s the final resting place for Chopin, Bizet, Delacroix, Rossini, Géricault, and others. The graveyard is stunning, and like Paris itself, even if you’ve been there, it’s unlikely you’ve seen it all. For a custom tour of the cemetery -- or the city, for that matter -- enlist the help of Paris Walks; the tour guides are renowned for bringing history and culture to life.
In fact, for those making a repeat visit, a personal tour of the city might just be the key to being seduced by Paris all over again.
