Travel & Food
Paris in New York
With its Francophone enclaves, arrondissement-style nabes and standout French jazz and food, the city offers a captivating Parisian experience
blakegernstetter@aol.com
If you pine to hear French, see classical art and architecture and bite into a fresh baguette, but can’t make it to Paris just now, consider an alternative: Paris in New York.
With over 100,000 native speakers of French, New York is home to an entire Parisian world. And Manhattan, divided into neighborhoods much as Paris is made up of 20 distinct arrondissements, makes it easy to pretend.
Start by picking up a copy of the venerable French daily Le Monde at Universal News, New York’s biggest international news vendor, then peruse it over madeleines and baked sweet tarts at the Once Upon a Tart, nearby in Soho. Owner Jerome Audureau, who is from Avignon, has been baking at the café since he opened it 10 years ago. There’s intimate indoor and outdoor seating, ideal for morning conversation and solitude. The sweets pair perfectly with a cup of café au lait or decadent hot chocolate.
The métropolitain, famous for its iconic signs by artist Hector Guimard, is the most popular way to get around in Paris. In New York, too, underground is the way to go. Avoid the impulse to take a cab, and walk over to Greenwich Village’s Astor Place subway station, which opened in 1904 and has historic landmark status as one of the city’s original stations. Take the 6 train uptown to 59th Street.
There, you’ll find New York’s answer to the Champs d’Elysees. Fifth and Madison avenues between 50th to 59th streets host the powerhouses of fashion: Escada, Ferragamo, Versace, Fendi, Gucci and Bulgari. The luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman is stocked with fine and frivolous fashion, and the glittering jewelry displays and designer shoe department will leave shoppers salivating. A pair of champagne-colored Christian Louboutin peep-toe heels is alluring up until the moment you see the equally opulent price tag. Nearby, at the Henri Bendel boutique, the scent of Chanel No. 5 permeates the air like a heavenly cloud above every cosmetic, accessory and garment indulgence a woman could dream up.
Clutching packages, or not, walk west across town -- a stroll along the southern perimeter of Central Park, along 59th Street, is a pleasant route -- for lunch at the modest French eatery La Bonne Soupe, a New York institution that offers delicious homemade quiches and soups. The décor is minimalist yet welcoming, with artist Carlos Spaventa’s photographs of France adorning the walls. Owner Jean-Paul Picot named the restaurant after a French comedic play from the 1950s. Besides “the good soup,” the restaurant’s name means the good life. The mostly French-speaking staff is hospitable, and prices are reasonable. For $15.75, you’re served a fresh baguette, a dark, leafy salad, a deep crock of piping hot soup, dessert and a glass of house wine. The onion soup is a must-have, but the minestrone is equally flavorful and filling.
The Museum of Modern Art, a great place to appreciate French art, is a few blocks away. The sleek new museum is designed in stark white and metal, a clean canvas to display the paintings of Gauguin, Cezanne, Monet and Matisse. (On the east side, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has its own excellent French collection, of Seurat, Renoir, Degas, and Rousseau).
The Alliance Francaise, the French organization devoted to spreading French culture around the world, is particularly active in New York, and a rich resource for all things French in the city. There’s a lending library of French literature, plus steady offerings of French films, theater, music and dance.
New York bursts with French restaurants, from the formal and stratospheric to the relaxed and reasonable. Jules Bistro in the East Village, with its lively, Parisian atmosphere, falls into the latter group. The walls are adorned with old French signs, posters and photographs, the escargot in garlic are excellent and, once the nightly live jazz begins, you’re transported to another time and place: old Paris, that is.
Sidebar:
Paris in New York
Alliance Francaise
22 East 60th between Park & Madison avenues
(212) 355-6100
http://www.fiaf.org/
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd between Fifth & Sixth avenues
(212) 708-9400
http://moma.org/
Universal News
10 New York locations, including 484 Broadway between Grand & Broome streets
(212) 965-9042
http://www.universalnewsusa.com/publisher/docs/stores.html
Bergdorf Goodman
754 Fifth Avenue between 57th & 58th streets
(800) 558-1855
http://www.bergdorfgoodman.com/
Once Upon a Tart
135 Sullivan between Prince & Houston streets
(212) 387-8869
http://www.onceuponatart.com/
La Bonne Soupe
48 West 55th Street between Fifth & Sixth avenues
(212) 586-7650
http://www.labonnesoupe.com/
Jules Bistro
65 St. Mark’s Place between First & Second avenues
(212) 477-5560
Friends relax at Once Upon a Tart, a French café in New York.
Tantalizing Tarts.
Photos by Blake Gernstetter