In Depth with Fabrice Bloch

Fabrice's suggestions:

Up Close: LITTLE-KNOWN PARIS

If I had to give this a name, I'd call it "From Belleville to Bastille." You see, this is my neighborhood ... We'd start in a very Parisian café for a coffee, and enjoy a spectacular and unexpected view of Paris in the morning light from the heights of Belleville, a lively neighborhood on the city's eastern flank. We might buy some wonderful fresh food in the vast, open-air market of Belleville: this is one of the truly "popular" market places in Paris: very crowded and inexpensive, traditional products from France countryside but also lots of exotic food! Another option would be the market of Place des Fêtes, which is a bit more traditional.

Then we might visit the Jourdain area and choose a wine at Ma Cave, where the owner will help us choose a bottle, depending of the food we purchased at the market, and the meal we're going to have. Because that's what I'll do ... I'll cook lunch for you at my home.

After lunch, I suggest we walk across the Parc des Buttes Chaumont to the Canal Saint Martin, where we'll take a boat trip downstream to the Bastille. We can then walk through the Arsenal Port where you will be amazed to think you are still in the middle of the town and not somewhere by the sea! A few blocks away is a new place, La Maison Rouge (a foundation for contemporary art) that we could visit. Then we'd end our day with dinner in one of the fine restaurants around the Bastille (for instance, Bofinger, a marvelous, Belle Époque style brasserie).

In Depth: ARTIST'S PARIS

We'd start with breakfast at the gallerie Vivienne, and then walk through all the Passages of the 19th century as the Surrealist André Breton recommended. Then we would visit the Musée de la Vie Romantique and feel the writer Georges Sand's atmosphere. We'd have a light lunch in the garden of the museum and then go a little outside Paris to visit Alexandre Dumas's house: the Chateau de Monte Cristo that he had built after the success of his book Les Trois Mousquetaires. Back to Paris, we would finish the day with a nice meal at Le Procope (in the picturesque Gallerie du Commerce) where Diderot, Voltaire, Rousseau and even Benjamin Franklin used to go.

In Depth: PARIS COUTURE

As a journalist, my sister Aurélia has access to private and press fashion sales by all the famous designers, and she would be glad to take guests with her when she has the opportunity. She knows all the fashions boutiques of the world-famous rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, just down from my mother's apartment (which is a sort of 3 floors penthouse). We could have a coffee there after some shopping ... on the terrace with view on the Eiffel Tower. What do you think? Unless we were in the mood for a little snack at la Cantine du Faubourg near Colette (the famous conceptual fashion store). Let me know if this interests you, and I'll see what Aurélia can set up!