The Slightly More Secret Side of Paris
Dali mural outside Centre Pompidou (Photo credit: Margit Detweiler) There is nothing better than walking around Paris, wherever your feet take you, stopping at cafés, either with your better half, in love, or by yourself, in love with the city. You’ve likely got a list of things you daydream about seeing or returning to. If you don’t, the guidebooks will send you to the Louvre for the Mona Lisa and the Raft of the Medusa, up la Tour Eiffel and down into the Catacombs, all wonderful and all places you should visit first. But here’s a slightly more secret list — the hidden Paris that you might have overlooked on your first visit. Visit Atelier Brancusi Constantin Brancusi’s studio, remounted in a purpose-built building designed by Renzo Piano, and hidden to the side of the plaza at the Centre Pompidou. Have lunch or tea at Ladurée in St. Germain de Prés This is the best location of a wonderful chain of patisseries. Ask to sit upstairs in the deep blue salon. Order a sandwich or salad …