The ParisSharing Blog

Was it her shoe?

...to be joined by hundreds more.

From feet to the street, from street art to art, this is the story behind the bunches of  talking shoes that currently hang from a cedar of Lebanon in the Jardin des Plantes.

The origins of the hanging shoe phenomenon remain the subject of speculation. Like any social and cultural movement, no one can be exactly sure where it begins and why.

The first hanging Parisian shoe was reported in the Butte aux Cailles neighborhood in the 13th arrondissement. It was a single high-heeled shoe having belonged to a parisienne, perhaps the woman rendered in several works of street art in the same neighborhood. The reasons for which her shoe now hangs gracefully above the street are shrouded in mystery.  Soon after this first shoe, others began to congregate on wires nearby. This second bunch included some men’s sporty models.

What had remained street art took  an officially artistic turn when Malachi Farrell conjured up the bunches of used shoes that now hang in a Paris public park. The work is called “Strange Fruits” and is on display in the Jardin des Plantes as part of Paris’ international contempary art fair (FIAC – Foire Internationale d’Art Contomporain).

The shoes carry on a conversation in the form of a hilarious parody of the Beatle’s song “She Loves You” by Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove. Although the YouTube video clip doesn’t have the best sound, you can hear the audio clearly here.

The “shoe story” is only one of many unique bits of Paris that you can discover thanks to ParisSharing. Through our home sharing approach, we want you to experience Paris in your own, individual way.  Off the beaten path, closer to local culture. Look for your place to stay on ParisSharing today. Come and maybe leave a pair of shoes behind?

A home in Paris enjoyed by guests from Sydney

Almost a sixth of ParisSharing guests come from down under. Considering the distance and the expense involved in such a trip, that’s more than we would expect. Our ParisSharing hosts enjoy Australian guests, who always prove to be open, enthusiastic, and respectful of people’s homes.  Their trip to Paris is often a big  and sometimes once-in-a-lifetime event. We are always delighted to make it special for them. Some write back to thank us, and sometimes (even better) write about us in the paper!

This month features an article in the Sydney Morning Herald from one of our guest Australian families who spend a week in the lesser-known Butte-aux-Cailles neighborhood last spring. It describes the experience of having a historically unique Parisian home entirely to one’s family,  a comfortable and convenient base for discovering local life in addition to all the must-see monuments. The only inconvenience: kids like homes with other kid’s toys and sometimes prefer to stick around and play rather than sight-see!

Read the full article here.

About the same time, we had another ParisSharing member from Sydney offer her apartment for a home swap. As you probably know, ParisSharing offers rentals, home exchanges, and B&B. You can have a look at her offer here. Maybe you’d like to go and enjoy the sunshine and the swimming pool?

Paris for Syndey, anyone?

To arrange a swap, all you have to do is register your own home on the ParisSharing website and then submit a request directly to the owner the home you want to swap with. Unlike most home swapping websites, ParisSharing does not charge you a subscription unless you actually succeed in finding an exchange partner. Lastly, we offer self-catering rentals and B&B as alternative approaches to home sharing. This is because home exchange, even though the most economic option for all parties, is not always easy to arrange since it requires finding just the right match in terms of destination, lifestyle, and timing.

Fall brings a new season of exhibitions to Paris museums.  Here is a list of the top five exhibits to see while visiting The City:

Grand Palais -  Of Toys and Men (September 14, 2011 – January 23, 2012)

Of Toys and Men is the history of toys in the western world and highlights the importance of toys in children’s education from birth.  The exhibit is possibly the largest toy exhibit ever featuring thousands of toys from Antiquity to modern day.

Centre Pompidou – Edvard Munch (September 21, 2011 – January 9, 2012)

The Centre Pompidou presents Edvard Munch, l’oeil moderne [Edvard Munch, the modern eye], a collection of eighty paintings, thirty drawings, fifty photographs and a film all shown for the first time in France.

Musee Maillol – Pompei (September 21, 2011 – February 12, 2012)

In 79AD, the city of Pompei was completely buried under lava and ash from the catastrophic eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.  However, the extremely well preserved ruins of Pompei rose from the ashes when they were discovered in the 1700’s.  The exhibit guides visitors through a typical Pompeian home, featuring over 200 artifacts including wall murals, vases and jewelry.

Musee du Louvre – La Cité Interdite – Forbidden City (September 26, 2011 – January 9, 2012)

The Louvre exhibit features 130 artifacts from China’s Forbidden City on loan from the ancient imperial palace museum.  Artifacts range from jade carvings, lacquerware, seals, porcelain and bronzes to personal items previously owned by Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors.

Les Arts Decoratifs – Goudemalion – Jean Paul Goude Retrospective (November 11, 2011 – March 18, 2012)

Les Arts Décoratifs welcomes this grand retrospective of Jean-Paul Goude, the French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, director and art director. For over 40 years, Goude has been one of the advertising world’s leading “image makers”, who is best-known for his campaigns for such brands as Perrier, Citroën, Galeries Lafayette and Chanel.

Fall is one of the best times of the year to visit Paris, and it’s an excellent time to take advantage of some of ParisSharing’s wonderful apartments at special fall prices.

Baguette "de tradition". Photo credit: Roboppy on Flickr

Over a year a go we wrote about the secrets to finding the best bakeries in Paris. Timeless wisdom, of course.

Still, since life is too short for bad baguettes, and since the price of the baguette has increased by 0,05€ all across the city, we’d like to contrive a more foolproof system for only getting only the best. The quality of bread produced by the some 1200 bakeries in Paris is far from being constant. The good news is that there are about 200 that we can consider as excellent, and these are scattered across the city.

So, wouldn’t it be great if you could always know, in whatever neighborhood you happen to be, where is the nearest mouth-watering bakery? You can’t really follow the masses, because if you could, bad bakeries would go out of business.

You could trust the experts, of course, and go buy a book on the subject (yes, these exist). We’re suggesting another approach….to ask YOU. That’s right, to enable ParisSharing fans and members to tell us the name and address of their favorite Parisian bakery (or just one of them). We will then publish this information on our website,  quartier by quartier.

Would you like to participate? All you have to do is become a fan of ParisSharing on Facebook, then add your favorite boulangerie here. When all is said and done, we’ll get you to vote on the very best one.

To get the ball rolling, here below is  list of some of our favorites. Disclaimer: the bakeries have been selected only on the basis of the quality of their baguette called “Tradition”.  Hint: if you want the best baguette, don’t ask for a baguette, ask for a “baguette de tradition” or simply “une tradition”.

4th: Au Petit Versailles du Marais, 1 rue Tiron

4th: Boulanger Patissier, 29 rue Saint-Antoine (the baguette is called “Le Parisien”)

4th: Au Levain du Marais, 28 boulevard Beaumarché (décor is better than the bread)

9th: Le Petrin Médiéval, 35 rue Henry Monnier (Medieval-style bread)

9th: Mme et M DHEILLY, 10 rue des Martyrs

11th: La tradition du pain, corner of rue Saint-Sabin and rue Daval

11th: Boulangerie (recently opened): corner of Boulevard Voltaire and Jean-Pierre Timbaud

11th: Boulangerie (across the street from the Extra Old Café on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine near Place de la Nation

12th: Le Pain au naturel, Place d’Aligre

14th: le Moulin de la Vierge, rue Vercingétorix

16th : Le Grillon d’Autueil, 65 rue d’Autueil

18th arrondissement: Le Grenier Abesses, 38 rue des Abesses

The rest is up to you!

Read our advice on other simple pleasures, such as the best sandwhiches.

The founder of ParisSharing debunks three myths about the so-called “outer” arrondissements of Paris, that most tourists never visit.

The Great Gate to Paris ? Depends where you come from.

I once had an American couple stop me in the street and ask directions to the Marché Aligre, which is one of Paris’ largest, most cosmopolitan, and least expensive street markets. They pulled out their Paris map and asked me to point. I rapidly glanced at the map, confident about where my finger would land without even a second thought. Think again! I was astonished to discover that we were off the map, as was the Marché Aligre!
Where were we exactly? On the corner of rue Charonne and rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a bustling shopping street that heads east from the Place de la Bastille.
And what kind of map would not include this district of Paris? A map edited by Frommer’s, one of the most widely sold guide books. In fact, not only does the map show nothing east of Bastille, it also shows nothing west of Trocadéro, nothing north of the Parc Monceau, and nothing south of the Jardin de Luxembourg. In practical terms, this means that two of the city’s most important train stations (Gare de Lyon and Gare d’Austerlitz) do not even appear. As for Montmartre, the most visited “village” in the world, there is a special inset.

Returning to the story of my bewildered visitors, I told them that the market they were looking for was just down the road to the right, and encouraged them to continue their explorations off the map.

Editors publish for their audience, and it is true that the majority of first-time visitors to Paris focus on the center of the city. The unfortunate retroactive side-effect of disseminating a truncated map of Paris is to lead a great number of visitors to believe that whatever is off the map is either too far away or of little interest. This is especially the case when searching for accommodations. We’ve had bucket loads of people telling us they only want to stay in the 1-9 arrondissements. Why only up to nine? Ask Frommer, or any other of the top Google information sources. Imagine a map of New York City showing only 10 blocks around Central Park. You can forget about the Statue of Liberty, Wall St. Chelsea, China Town, West Village, SoHo, etc. Incidentally, there is also a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Paris that you can admire from the famous Pont Mirabeau (except that both of these are off the map!)

Parisians, who know the distances and transportation system well, have a very different vision of Paris. Some of the city’s most sought-after neighborhoods are not even represented on the Frommer’s map, such as Autueil, Passy, Ternes, Batignolles and Villiers on the West side; Oberkampf, Charonne, Gambetta, Buttes Chaumont, Butte aux Cailles, Bercy on the East side. Not to mention all of the upscale neighborhoods that edge the city’s outer parks: Bois de Boulogne, Domaine de St. Cloud, Bois de Vincennes, Parc de Montsouris. If you happen to live in Neuilly, St. Cloud, Sèvres, Levallois, Vincennes, St. Mandé, or Saint-Maurice, you may be off the map, but you definitely have the right address!

Real estate prices have increased substantially throughout the city, with only a brief dip during the worst of the 2009 crisis. Previously proletariat neighborhoods are being gentrified, particularly on the East side.
The point is this: you can be a Frommer’s kind of tourist and stick to the old map, or you can venture off and maybe discover the next big thing. When choosing a vacation accommodation, this is a way to save. An apartment with a lovely view over the Buttes-Chaumont will not be priced the same as one that overlooks the Tuilleries. You will have an easier time finding family accommodations in districts with a lower real estate price per sq. meter. Makes sense, doesn’t it? So why are people so reticent? Probably as a result of several myths.

Myth #1 : Off the map = not safe
There are a few pockets in the city where I would not personally choose to walk around at night. The majority of these are located north of the Gare du Nord and east of Montmartre. But I would still prefer these to downtown Cleveland. Security is difficult to measure; it has a lot to do with our perception. What is perceptible is that the streets of Paris, wherever you may be, are rarely abandoned. There is also an active police presence. At the train stations and key monuments, you are even treated to security patrols carrying machine guns! Wow, don’t you feel safe!

Myth #2 : Off the map = too far from tourist attractions
The most visited tourist attractions are not located in the same area of Paris. The Eiffel Tower is on the opposite side of town from the Père Lachaise cemetery and the Parc de la Vilette, and these are all on the opposite side of town from Montmartre or the Mouffetard quartier. So, which will you choose? How about staying right in the center so as to reduce your average transportation time? Guess what, you’re not the only one to have thought of that! So, that clever choice will result in paying a premium. How much of a premium? The first premium is the price of the accommodation. Expect at least +25%. The second premium (less well-known), is the price of everything else. You can easily pay three times more for fresh foods in a grocery store in the 8th than you would pay at a street market in a less upscale area of the city. Likewise, a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower will easily cost you +50% what you would pay for the same quality off the beaten path.
So, before you decide to follow the masses, you might consider how much time you will actually lose in transportation were to to stay “off the map”. You can then compare the “cost” of this time to the cash consequences of your choice.
Did you realize that wherever you stay in Paris, you can get to just about any tourist attraction within 30 minutes on public transportation? For example, if you were to stay near the Place de la Nation (which is totally off the Frommer’s map), you can get to the Louvre in 18 min and the Eiffel Tower in 30 min. Do you really plan on going to the Eiffel Tower more than once? What is more likely is that you will spend the majority of your time in the center of the city, and you can easily get there from many “off the map” locations within 15 minutes on public transportation. For example, you can get from Belleville to the Town Hall in 10 min on the metro (or on a bike, for that matter).

Also consider this: thousands of tourists pay to ride a special double-decker bus to visit various sites in Paris. They probably don’t count this as “transportation time”. You can also hop on a public bus using your transportation pass (the same you use for the metro) and consider your transportation time as sightseeing.

Myth #3 : The best of Paris is on the map
In terms of monuments, that’s true. In terms of shopping and eating out, that’s not necessarily true. You’ll find comparatively great value and amazing discoveries off the map, whether you’re looking for legendary French food products, fashion, or decorative objects. Your chances of being pleasantly surprised are significantly higher off the map. Sure, you can eat a Big Mac on the Champs-Elysées for approximately 7.50€, but that will NEVER be an experience to write home about. Unless, that is, you are an extremely talented writer. Still, if you ventured off the map, say to the backside of Montmartre, you could have paid four more euros to be served a sumptuous lunch out on the terrace, prepared by a chef with as much talent as you have for writing.

In conclusion, if you are a savvy traveler and your map of Paris doesn’t show all of Paris, get a new guide book! You can pick up a free map of Paris at any metro station, and you can learn a bit about different Paris neighborhoods on dedicated pages of the ParisSharing website or through online resources such as Guide2Paris. You may also enjoy having a look at our slideshow of places in Paris that have been left off the aforementioned tourist map.

In 1660, Louis XIV made his royal entry into Paris with his newly wed Marie Theresa passing through what is today known as Place de la Nation. Two columns were later erected with kings Philippe II et Louis IX set on top of them. The deceased kings would likely be disturbed at having been evinced from the tourist map. But that is not reason enough to pay them a visit. Take time rather to walk up the rue des Pyrénées, a very long, tree-lined street that begins east of Place de la Nation and winds its way up to the Buttes Chaumont. As much as any street in Paris, this one will give you a taste of real Parisian life with its host of bakers, butchers, wine shops, and specialty stores.

About the author:

Founder of ParisSharing, Carsten is an American having lived in France since 1994, with over twelve years in Paris and the Paris area. In the course of his work, either in shorts or in a suite, he has walked or biked through every Paris neighborhood, and has definitively lost his ability to get lost. He has also visited nearly a  hundred Paris homes, and tested as many Paris restaurants.