We’ve arrived in Paris, settled into an apartment, and rested up. Now we’re ready to go check out our new neighborhood — Montorgueil. It’s pronounced, “Mohnt – or – gull-oy” without the “ll.” What I mean is, for that last syllable, pronounce the start of the syllable as if you’re saying “gull”, as in “seagull.” But pronounce the last part of that syllable as if you’re saying “oy” as in “Oy Vay.” — “Mohnt-or-guoy.” It’s a hard one, that’s for sure. Go ahead and work on that for awhile. Meanwhile, we’ll get out and about and see what this part of town is all about.
Montorgueil is a fantastic neighborhood. Most of Rue Montorgueil is closed off to cars, so it’s pedestrian-friendly. Shops and vendors of all kinds line the street. There are bakeries, fruit stands, cheese places, fish markets, delicatessens, butcher shops, and lots of restaurants and cafés.
The cafés have those tiny little tables outside lining the street, and around this time of day, (5:00 PM or so), they get jam-packed full of people having liquid refreshments, talking, and people-watching.
The other great thing about Montorgueil is that it’s practically devoid of tourists, (like us). They just don’t come here. You might think tourists don’t come here because there aren’t any big attractions like the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame in this area, but I don’t think that’s the reason.
I think it’s because they see the word, “Montorgueil,” and think to themselves, “Yikes! Montor-what? How would I even tell a cab driver where I wanted to go if I wanted to go there?” I think that word just scares everyone away.
We were still pretty tired from the trip. We hadn’t done much exploring when we decided to park ourselves at a table at one of those cafés close by. I ordered “une bierre pression” (a draft beer), for moi and “un verre de vin rouge” for my beautiful and demure Better Half. Ahhh… now to relax for awhile!
A place called “Les Halles.” used to be the main attraction in this part of town. (It means “the halls” just like you would think, and it’s pronounced “lay-ahl.” — Piece of cake, eh? Especially after “Montorgueil”).
Les Halles served as the central produce and meat market – like a giant farmers’ market – for the city of Paris. Produce and all kinds of food products were carted into the city, where it was sold and distributed. The marketplace had been there for a long time when, in the 1850’s, big, new glass and iron buildings were built to house it. That’s when it came to be known as “Les Halles.”
The bustling Montorgueil neighborhood we’re in now grew up around Les Halles. In 1971, they moved the marketplace from central Paris to its outskirts, but this great neighborhood remains.
Cocktail Hour on Rue Montorgueil
It looks like around this time of the day, which is late afternoon, the level of activity is starting to increase. People are walking home from work or school, shopping, walking the dog… Parisians are known for their love of dogs, and dog walkers here at this time of day are out in force. Take note, for example, of the two English bulldogs in the lower right-hand corner of the scene shown here.
There are lots of dog walkers and lots of kid walkers, too. Many people were acquainted. They were saying their “hello’s” and chit-chatting. Everything is casual and laid back. Definitely not the tourist scene.
On the left of the photo you can see one of several vegetable stands just on this little stretch. A couple of them were right across the street from each other. I wonder how that works out?
A big, open-air fish market is down the block a ways, where a couple of guys are yelling out the best fish deals at the moment. A cheese shop is just down from the fish market, where you can get samples of whatever cheese strikes your fancy.
At home, we’re lucky if there’s a special cheese section at the supermarket. But here, they have whole stores full of nothing but cheese. Lots of ‘em. And the cheese doesn’t look like our cheese, which is usually difficult to actually see through the packaging, anyway. Cheese in the shops here is displayed in big hunks or chunks or gigantic wheels with wedges cut out so you can see inside.
Dinner Time
With all this food around, it’s no wonder we were getting hungry, and it’s finally late enough – 8:00 PM – for restaurants to start serving dinner. There’s a place right on our block that looked good, so we decided to go there. It was only steps away from where we were, and then just steps from there to our building.
After being seated, we ordered some vino and settled in for our first dinner in Paris. We were looking forward to it, even though this one might be shorter than usual. Our lack of sleep from the trip was quickly catching up with us. We were trying to stay awake as long as we could, so we could adapt to Paris time. Hopefully, we’d feel pretty good in the morning.
The restaurant specialized in food from the Burgundy region — “Bourgogne” in French — so my wife ordered beef bourguignon. For me, tagliatelle carbonara was calling out to me from the menu. We’d lost a lot of sleep, but I guess we hadn’t lost our appetites.
The restaurant turned out to be very nice, indeed. The servers were professional, (of course), but very friendly. The seats were so comfy, either of us could have fallen asleep right there. We might have actually fallen asleep, too, if it weren’t for the frequent eruptions of giggles coming from the table next to us.
To be continued…
For more detailed information about Montorgueil and Les Halles, click here.
Photo Credit for the restaurant photo: Mbzt/ / Wikimedia Commons/File:P1100929 Paris II rue Bachaumont vieux restaurant rwk.JPG, Modified
