Montorgueil market street near Les Halles

[babka]

I spent a surreal saturday evening stumbling through Les Halles--I'd gone over there to poke through Dehillerin and, after 30 minutes of wonderful browsing and feeling very, very poor, I went back out the door and started walking around. I wound up on a lovely little pedestrian street--white bricks which were glistening in the rain, white christmas lights strung over head, and block after block of food--produce shops, meat shops, breads and pastries, Italian, olive oil, wine--mixed in with a few clothing stores and a couple of small bistrots. It was everything I'd imagined a French market street to look like--and was just realistic enough to believe had been largely surpassed in, say, the last 40 years. I was cold and soaked and tired enough to just enjoy the beauty of it without thinking to ask anybody for the name of the neighborhood--or even to read the street sign. Does anybody have any idea where I was???

[LOS]

Sounds like Montorgueil (spelling?). The market runs North-South along Montorgueil. If you started in Les Halles, you would have been walking north away from the river. Sound right?

[John Whiting]

That must be it, and the spelling is right. But don't revisit on a Monday -- the fairies will have flown away.

[Bux]

I concur. Dehillerin is on rue Coquillière which runs almost perpendicular to Montotgueil, but doesn't quite intersect it. You'd have to walk around St. Eustache, or use one of the little streets running on a diagonal to both, to get from one to the other.

[Larry]

This is one of my favourite streets in the entire world!!!! Everything that you need is at your fingertips. We stayed in a flat on Montorgueil while in Paris and every morning would go down to Paul's for bread and fruit from the market, and then come back in the evening and get fresh chickens to roast and delicious pastas and olive oils, and then of course more bread!!!!!!!

[babka]

That must be it!! Not least because I have a little box of buchettes from Paul's sitting in my fridge at the moment--my chosen souvenir of France (was only in paris for 50 hours, including a bit of sleep.) Many, many thanks.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Montorguiel was and is still a charming and even useful street. But we are dismayed that each visit brings a new hip boutique and the resulting demise of a sometimes half-hundred year old food-oriented business. Last year I walked the lower portion over and over trying to find the old "peas, beans and grains out of sacks" seller where I'd stop by each trip to buy Tarbais beans. Verdict? Gone. Sad.

I'll add another plug for a very accommodating wine store on that block: Tchin-Tchin at No. 9. On our first visit, looking for a very esoteric wine and year, the merchant got so involved in our search that he called several possible caves for us, and actually found it and had it held for us. When we insisted on making an "obligatory purchase", he practically refused to sell to us, asking us only to return another time.

[admajoremgloriam]

Near the rue Montorgueil is a small passage called “Passage du Grand Cerf”. I would highly advise to anyone who is in that neighbourhood to check it out: it is very nice in itself but made all the more interesting by many young designers’ shops. Also, and until the 15th of January, there is, at the very end of the passage on the left if you are coming from the Montorgueil area, an exhibition by a place called Haute Definition (www.haute-definition.com). The exhibition is about plates, and to some extent porcelain ware in general. There are a few plates created by many designers, and for each designer there is a cardbooard on which the chef who uses these plates writes about his relationship to the plates, the importance of presentation in his cuisine, etc. Featured chefs are Gagnaire, Adria, Bras, Barbot and many more. You can see the exhibition from the passage, regardless of whether the hosting shop is actually open or not. It is in French, so I do not know how much interest it would bear for a some one who cannot speak French, but I found it fascinating.

Edited December 20, 2003 by admajoremgloriam (log)

[Louisa Chu]

admajoremgloriam, thanks so much for the tip - I'm going to check it out today. For those who aren't familiar with the passages in Paris, they're 18th and 19th century, ironwork and glass covered passageways - perfect for cold and rainy days - of which we'll have a couple this weekend.