The 4th arrondissement is located on the Right Bank of the Seine River. It is one of the smallest in Paris with slightly over 0.6 square miles (1.6 square kilometers). While its population is only about thirty thousand the district provides over than forty thousand jobs. The Ile de la Cite (Cite Island) was already inhabited in the First Century B.C. by the Parisii Gallic tribe that gave their name to the city. Our first stop is world-renown, tasty, not very high in calories, and is fairly inexpensive. It's on the magnificent Ile St-Louis one of the two Parisian islands in the Seine.
Berthillon makes great ice cream and has since 1954. It believes in natural ingredients and flavorings and uses no preservatives or any of that junk. It is usually closed during the last two weeks of August.
Centre Georges Pompidou (Georges Pompidou Centre), often called Beaubourg was built in 1971-1977 near Les Halles (the Halles Market) and the Marais. It contains a library, the Musee National d'Art Moderne (National Modern Art Museum), a center for music and acoustic research, and an industrial design center. You either love this building or you hate it because of its very distinct (hideous) architecture with pipes on the outside. Even if you can't stand this building you may enjoy the art museum with its collection of painters including Kandinsky, Matisse, Miro, and Picasso.
One can only imagine how hard it is to run the city of Paris. Maybe that's why its Hotel de Ville (City Hall) has been in the same Fourth Arrondissement location since the mid-Fourteenth Century. The present French Renaissance structure was rebuilt in the 1870s, undoubtedly inspired by castles in the Loire Valley. Its site was a popular gathering place, in particular for public executions. The local specialty was burning heretics at the stake.
Early in the Sixteenth Century King Francis I decided to rebuild Paris's city hall. Paris was then the largest city in Europe and the entire Christian world. Building the Renaissance city hall worthy of Paris took about a century. During the French Revolution the city hall lived up to its site's history; a representative of the ancien regime (pre-Revolutionary government) was killed there the day that the Bastille was stormed. Several years later on this same site the revolutionary leader Maximilien Francois Marie Odenthalius Isidore de Robespierre usually called Robespierre was shot in the jaw and his followers were arrested.
Paris's City Hall played a role in the revolution of 1870 and the Paris Commune of the following year; first it became the revolutionary government headquarters and subsequently was burnt to the ground when surrounded by enemy troops. The rebuilt building has a split personality: its exterior is a copy of the Sixteenth Century Renaissance building but the interior reflects the luxury of the day, the 1880s. Charles de Gaulle spoke from City Hall on that historic day, August 25, 1944 when Paris was liberated.
Etienne Marcel, the most important pre-mayor of the city was lynched in 1358 by a crowd that felt that he wanted too much power. And the current mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, the first elected left-wing major of Paris in well over one hundred years was stabbed during a party open to the public. After recovering he converted his private apartments to a nursery for the children of municipal workers. Tell me, do you know of any other City Hall with such a history?
The short Rue des Rosiers in the Marais is somewhat a center of Paris's Jewish community, the largest in Europe. Jews have been living here for six hundred years when they were expelled from Paris; at that time the Marais was outside the city limits. As often when a street becomes very popular it changes its character and Jewish butcher shops and delicatessens are giving way to upscale fashion houses. Be sure to visit the rue des Francs-Bourgeois and its many fashion stores, one of the rare Paris streets that is open on Sunday.
In the middle of the Twelfth Century, so the story goes, Maurice de Sully, the Archbishop of Paris, unhappy with the present cathedral had it demolished and sketched in the dirt its replacement, Notre Dame de Paris, one of the most beautiful churches in the world. Construction took almost two centuries, and frankly was worth it. This French Gothic church is located on the Ile de la Cite and is the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. During the French Revolution, many of its treasures were either plundered or destroyed. The church interior was transformed into a warehouse for the storage of forage and food. The statues of biblical kings of Judea (assumed to be kings of France) were beheaded. Many of these heads were found during a 1977 excavation and are now display in the Musee de Cluny located in the fifth arrondissement. Notre Dame's organ was been computerized, requiring three local-area networks. If you like touring churches, this district is home to several other historic ones, but if you ask me none of them are in the same league as Notre Dame de Paris.
Of course you don't want visit Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. In my article I Love French Wine and Food - An Alsace Pinot Noir I reviewed such a wine and suggested a sample menu: Start with Flammekueche (Tart stuffed with Bacon, Onions, Cream Cheese, and heavy Cream). For your second course savor Coq-au-Riesling (Cock cooked in Riesling wine). And as dessert indulge yourself with Quetschelkueche (Plum Tart). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will be happy to suggest appropriate wines to accompany each course.
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Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but between you and me, he prefers fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and good company. He knows what dieting is, and is glad that for the time being he can eat and drink what he wants, in moderation. He loves teaching computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel, wine, and food website
www.travelitalytravel.com and his global wine website
www.theworldwidewine.com.
