Rue des Martyrs and the Ballet

Tuesday November 29 was cold but sunny - only a high of 5C.  We had a late start and decided that we would spent the day exploring Rue des Martyrs which winds through the old working class 9th and 18th arrondissements.  We took the Metro to a stop near the street and walked over.

Putting up a poster for Printemps in the Metro

Beautiful building and light as we got out of the Metro

Alain has read and I am half way through Elaine Sciolino's book entitled: The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs.  Sciolino is a contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief for the New York Times.  It is a wonderful book which details the history of the street and her interactions with the many shopkeepers.  Elaine Sciolino and her husband have lived in Paris since 2002.  In 2010, they moved to 18 Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, just minutes from Rue des Martyrs.  She will be doing a reading from her book at Shakespeare & Company in about a week.  We will just miss it.

Rues des Martyrs is a very old street and comprises of two parts- one in the 9th and the other in the 18th (Montmartre).  The name was first used in 1750 and disappeared during the French Revolution.  In 1868, the street as we know it today was created.  The street is only 1/2 mile long, but has nearly 200 small shops.  Many are food and wine related.

The book in French - hot off the press

Elaine Sciolino's apartment building at 18 Rue Notre Dame de Lorette  

View of buildings on a side street off Notre Dame de Lorette

We stopped for a coffee at La Campagnie du Café across from Sciolino's building.  The café roasts its own coffee and is a relatively new addition to the neighbourhood.  They have a small food menu with everything made on site.  We had a bowl of delicious vegetable soup with a potato base.  They knew Elaine Sciolino as she has had coffee there.

La Compagnie du Café

We then headed back for our walk up Rue des Martyrs (with a few detours on the side streets).

One of many beautiful flower stores 

 Unfortunately, there are some food stores on Rue des Martyrs that are not open on Tuesdays.

Mr et Mme Levin- Artisan Boulanger,  Patissier,  Chocolatier

We took one detour to see the elementary school François Truffaut attended, on Rue Hippolyte-Lebas.

The school

There was a memorial plaque for the children deported in 1942 to the death camps.  Over 300 children from the 9th arrondissement died in the camps.

Picture of students in 1935

Across the street from the school was a brand new clothing store, called the Big Bluff.  A lovely Japanese woman sold Alain a cool sweatshirt.

Then back to Rue des Martyrs.

View up the street

We stopped in the beautiful store at 9 Rue des Martyrs with the old Épicerie Fine sign.  It is now a Maison Brémond 1830 store where we buy hand cream and olive oils.  The woman working there was lovely and we bought small containers of lemon olive oil and black olive oil.  She gave us a wrapped glazed chestnut as a treat.  She also let us take a picture of the small courtyard behind her store.  She had a signed copy of Sciolino's book.

Beautiful old store- now Maison Brémond selling olive oils, and other treats

Inside of store- decorated for the holidays 

Alain in Maison Brémond 1830

Courtyard behind the Maison Brémond 1830

Another chocolatier with Christmas windows

In her book, Sciolino talks about how a Monoprix was going to take over a decades old pastry shop that was going out of business and make it into a beauty emporium, adding a manicure service to try and give it artisanal status.  The then mayor of the neighbourhood broke the deal and persuaded Sebastien Gaudard, one of the best pastry chefs in Paris to move in.  There is a 2006 law which gives planning protection to over 60 streets in Paris, including the bottom part of Rue des Martyrs.  Ground floor artisanal shops selling food or crafts can only be replaced by other artisanal shops.

Sebastien Gaudard's pastry shop

Older cheese shop with award-winning saucisson

Another bakery

Sciolino talks about how some of the new shops are good additions.  She says the ham at Pata Negra is superb.  Apparently, the food purveyors are always happy when a new artisanal food shop moves in.

Lesca- L'Artisan du Regard-- glasses store

More buildings on the Street

Perfectly displayed pastry in a window

Delmontel Bakery- closed on Tuesdays but housed in a beautiful Art Nouveau  Building

Sciolino points out a few places of interest on some of the side streets running off Rue des Martyrs.

We walked down Rue de Navarin where Truffaut had lived and where he set his debut film The 400 Blows (1959), one of my favourites.

Walking down Rue de Navarin

Beautiful building on Rue de Navarin

Lovely facade

In 2014 a plaque was put up at 33 Rue de Navarin, commemorating the building where Truffaut spend his childhood and the neighbourhood where he filmed "The 400 Blows."

Plaque and building door

Then we returned to Rue des Martyrs.

Another beautiful building on the Street 

A modern shop on the Street 

We peered through the gates to Cité Malesherbes, a charming private street.

Entrance to the gated Cité Malesherbes

We walked by Ecole Edgar Quimet, which at one time had been a girl's only school and is now 

co-ed.  This was another school from which children were deported to the death camps in 1942.

Ecole Edgar Quimet

Great poster

Greek Sauna

l'Objet qui Parle - old antique store

Hands outside of antique store

Church on Rue Abbesses

We walked back down to Rue Lafayette and stopped in Galeries Lafayette, the large department store as we had some time before we had to get across the road to Palais Garnier for the Ballet at 7:30 p.m.  The ceilings in the department store are amazing and the Christmas decorations quite spectacular.

Galeries Lafayette - amazing ceiling and tree

There was a security line up for the Ballet, but it moved pretty fast.  It was opening night for Ballet de L'Opéra's production of three ballets by Czech choreographer Jiri Kylián (born 1947).  Kylián has been associated with the Nederlands Dans Theatre and it was his choreography that put that dance company on the international map.

Entrance at the Opera Garnier building

Poster for the Ballet

Inside the Opera house

The company performed three ballets choreographed by Kylián - Bella Figura (1995), Tar and Feathers (2006) with pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama improvising around a Mozart composition, and Symphonie de Psaumes (1978) with music by Stravinsky.  The company is spectacular and all three pieces were very intricate and complex.  I could only take pictures before and after the performances, when the lights went on.

Warming up on the stage before the ballet started

Bella Figura explored gender identity and for part of the ballet the male and female performers danced topless in long red skirts.

Bows for Bella Figura

Bella Figura dancers taking their bows

In Tar and Feathers, there is a special black and white floor that dancers not only dance on but slide across. The black floor is like a "sea of tar."   There is live improvised music performed on a piano on 10-foot high stilts in a corner of the stage.  The dance is partly improvised as well, and there are sound samplings of a dog growling to a taped Mozart piano concerto.

A few of the dancers taking their bows for Tar and Feathers

Tomoko Mukaiyama, the pianist taking her bows

In the last ballet, Symphony of Psalms, the dancers are framed by 40 red-toned oriental carpets, which transform the stage into a kind of sacred space.  It is a large ensemble piece.  The Stravinsky work was commissioned in 1930  by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Bows from Symphony of Psalms

After the ballet, we hopped on the Metro and headed back to the apartment for a very late chicken dinner.