Tegan and Sarah take on Paris

I tend to take my time when travelling. For me, four days in one city is a whirlwind stop – I much prefer staying in each place for a week or more. The main reason for this, apart from hating the constant movement and pack/unpack of life on the road, is because for me, the best part of travelling is getting to know new places, as much as is possible without living there.

While a day in Paris might be enough time to tick off the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, it will only take you to the tourist hubs, and there is so much that will be missed. When you only have a day or so, sitting in a cafe and watching the world go by, or spending a morning catching the metro to the suburbs to explore a local food market, seems out of the question, a waste of precious time.

And yet this is what I love to do. I’m not big on ‘sight seeing’ at the best of times (no photos of the Eiffel Tower here, sorry) and, as I’ve already mentioned, this week in Paris came at a time when I didn’t want to have any set schedule, when I just needed to wind down and recharge my batteries.

And, surprisingly, I have managed to do this while also seeing more of this wonderful city than I had ever imagined. We arrived with no plans, and few ideas other than going back to some of Tegan’s favourite haunts (she has spent a month here all up) and exploring the different neighbourhoods.

On Tegan’s must do list was frequent visits to her favourite bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, right on the Seine near Notre Dame. This English language bookshop was founded in 1951 and named after the original bookshop of this name, established by Sylvia Beach. Until its closure in 1940s during the German occupation, it served as a meeting place for writers such as James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway; today, it operates as both a bookshop and reading library, and also hosts reading and writing events. Apparently, if you have ever published a book, you can also stay there for as long as you need, the only requirements being that you work two hours a day and read one book a day. Sounds pretty ideal to me.

And so, almost every day, we have caught our metro line to Cite’ and spent hours browsing the books and curling up to read in the upstairs library, taking breaks to wander the river and explore the adjacent Latin Quarter.

Our daily stop off – the Shakespeare and Company bookshop.

Curling up with a book in the upstairs reading room.

Our daily pattern has tended to follow the lines of waking up early, having breakfast in our sunny apartment, and deciding on one or two places or neighbourhoods we want to explore that morning.

I had read about a building called Les Frigos, a city owned warehouse turned (now formalised) artists squat in the 13th arrondissement. While Tegan set off for another afternoon at Shakespeare and Co., I caught the two metro lines to this area and set off to find it.

And there it was, a huge grey graffiti covered building surrounded by shiny new glass apartment buildings and offices. I wandered around its outskirts for a while, until I met a photographer who showed me the way in.

Such a contrast amidst all the shiny new apartments and office blocks.

The building seemed abandoned, apart from the intermittent sound of voices or machinery behind locked doors. I had hopes of bumping into a friendly artist who would offer me a tour of the studios (as I had heard was always a possibility) but had no luck, so I simply spent a quiet hour or so wandering the maze of corridors and checking out the graffiti art.

Wandering the graffiti maze of corridors, studios and staircases in Les Frigos.

One of the things that has struck me about Paris is the number of buskers – and not just any old buskers, these are actually good. Accordion players playing gypsy tunes on the metro, young African men jamming with guitars and djembes and getting the crowd dancing down by the Seine, and seven piece Balkan style bands bringing life to dingy metro stations. Riding a metro one evening with this music playing, I felt I was in a movie, and the music the soundtrack to my time in Paris.

One of the many buskers around Paris.

Then there have been the markets. From local flea markets selling old books, leather bags, crockery and all manner of junk, to fresh produce markets, and, this morning, the massive Marche aux Puces. This is actually a collection of about five individual markets, with streets and alleys full of shops and stands. While it does have its fair share of cheap clothes and junk, it is known for its amazing antique furniture and decorations, and we spent a full morning wandering through stalls of chandeliers, bizarre home decor, phenomenally expensive furniture, and vintage couture.

I have never seen so many chandeliers in one market…

The rest of our days have been filled with parks, naps, sunsets at Sacre Couer, wine and cocktails, more exploring, and yes, a bit of ‘sightseeing’. You may even get that photo of the Eiffel Tower soon enough.