08/10/2024
Lifestyle
Published in Unique Estates Life Magazine Spring 2024.
If we choose, we can spend our time in Paris as if in another era – the City of Love abounds with shops, cafes, and bookstores that have preserved their history for centuries.
On May 5, 1862, Empress Eugénie inaugurated Café de la Paix – a café and restaurant at the corner of Boulevard des Capucines and Place de l'Opéra. For nearly three centuries, its Napoleon III-style interior has hosted some of the greatest intellectuals of its time – Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, as well as Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, and Arthur Conan Doyle. In 2021, interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon delicately refreshed the place, bringing in more light and highlighting the rich décor of dark wood, cream leather, green velvet, gold elements, and the iconic carpets of Madeleine Castaing. It's a perfect spot for lunch, Sunday brunch, or just a drink.
Chocolatier, waffle master, and pastry inventor – being all of this in the 18th century was quite avant-garde. Nicolas Stohrer, the personal pastry chef to Maria Leszczyńska, wife of King Louis XV, did just that. In 1730, he founded the oldest pastry shop in Paris. By 2024, it is a historical monument, but still offers exquisite pastries like baba au rhum, bouchée à la Reine, various tarts, brioche, and, of course, croissants.
Starting as a small family store in the 7th arrondissement in 1838, today Le Bon Marché is the oldest department store in Paris. Created by Aristide Boucicaut and his wife Marguerite, it was notable for introducing innovations like fixed prices, sales, and the option to return items. Its architecture was designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel.
In 1745, the Antoine couple started an innovative business – each had a small stand on both sides of the Pont Neuf, selling umbrellas to Parisians out for a leisurely stroll on the bridge. The idea was successful, and 15 years later, they already had a shop near the Palais Royal. At the dawn of the 20th century, it moved to its current address on Avenue de l'Opéra, where it continues to sell handmade umbrellas, as well as canes, hats, fans, scarves, and other accessories.
A favorite spot of Paul Bocuse and Julia Child – this alone is reason enough to visit this store if you're interested in cooking. It’s a true treasure trove for any chef or hobby cook. Founded in the late 19th century, it still offers all kinds of cookware, knives, graters, and kitchen scissors of the highest quality, everything needed for pastry chefs, and even unique (and distinctly French) cooking tools like the duck press, which the late Anthony Bourdain visited E. Dehillerin to see.
Bookstores are among the places where you can best feel the spirit of a city. In Jousseaume, time seems to have stopped, taking you back to 1826 when this legendary bookstore was founded. Over 40,000 titles fill its shelves and display cases, and alongside new and second-hand books, you can find antique editions, some older than the bookstore itself.
On Rue Saint-Honoré, you can find a leather goods store where the Romanovs, members of the Rockefeller family, and Coco Chanel herself ordered bags, suitcases, and travel trunks. Founded by François Goyard with the idea of offering the best leather goods for weeks-long train or ship journeys, Goyard likely never imagined his name would become so renowned in 2024, when Goyard bags are experiencing a renaissance worldwide.
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