City of Light: A culture lover's guide to Paris
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Paris was named the City of Light at the beginning of the 19th century due to it being the first European city to use gas to power its street lighting.
It is an apt moniker for the illuminated views across the city at nighttime, especially from the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre.
One of my favourite cities to explore, I have been here on numerous occasions, though it has been 11 years since my last visit.
Truth be told, I had intended holding off until the re-opening of the majestic Notre Dame Cathedral.
It may still be shrouded in scaffolding but when an opportunity for a short autumnal break in the City of Light arose, I found it hard to resist the promise of a whole new itinerary of cultural highs.
I like to experience different parts of Paris each time I visit. For this short trip I stayed in the Latin Quarter very close to the Pantheon and heart of the University district with its numerous bookshops, churches, and reasonably-priced coffee shops and restaurants.
Given that it was only a four-day trip, some research and planning in advance and on-the-hoof was required, and still it only scratched the surface of the city’s abundant riches.
As Paris is strongly associated with the literary world and I have a particular interest in literature, I was guided by some well-known publications with Parisian links: Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933); James Baldwin’s fiction classic Giovanni’s Room (1956), Ernest Hemingway’s memoir A Moveable Feast (1964); and more recently John Baxter’s 2011 memoir/guidebook The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris.
I succeeded in visiting some of the notable places mentioned in these books. For others I will have to make a return visit for a more extended period of time, sooner rather than later.
On arrival in Paris, I spent the first afternoon in the hidden gem, The Museum of Romantic Life at the Butte Montmartre, exploring an interesting exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the prolific writer and women’s rights campaigner George Sand (aka Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin). This visit was timely as the museum is now closed for renovations until spring 2025.
Having already visited Père-Lachaise Cemetery some years back, I spent another morning away from the bustle of the Montparnasse streets and roamed the tree-lined avenues of Montparnasse Cemetery, opened in 1824, scouring the graves of famous writers, artists, actors, and politicians.
You need to give yourself plenty of time to locate the graves and also to get side-tracked by some of the more idiosyncratic tombs on view, as I did.
A portable cemetery map is available to borrow at the cemetery gate lodge, and using this I found the graves of such luminaries as Baudelaire, Sartre, and de Beauvoir (buried together in the one grave), Duras, Ionesco, Man Ray, Cesar, Soutine, Gainsbourg, Seberg, Sontag, and of course Samuel Beckett. The tombstone of Beckett and his wife Suzanne, like his work, is spare yet moving.
Paris is a city of independent bookshops with a broad selection across the city, including numerous English-translated bookshops.
One of the most famous is the Shakespeare and Co bookshop on the Left Bank near Notre Dame. The bookshop is now an internationally renowned commercial enterprise both physically and online.
Although it is not the original Shakespeare and Co founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919, which was a mecca for some of the great expat writers of the time including Joyce, Stein, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, and Eliot, it is still an important landmark, especially for bibliophiles like me.
I made two visits to the bookshop joining the long queue of visitors each time to get lost within its labyrinth of shelves offering new and secondhand books.
The second visit was for an in-house book reading by the Turkish writer Ayşegül Savaş upstairs in its historic, treasure-trove of a library.
Another noteworthy independent bookshop, The San Francisco Book Company on Rue Monsieur le Prince, was recommended by the author John Baxter, another expat writer living in Paris.
I spent a delightful afternoon with him learning about those enchantments that Paris has to offer to the occasional visitor as well as the permanent resident.
Quoting Hemingway, I also got to ‘feast’ on some of the city’s historical monuments and art museums.
Paris is a city of parks that makes walking pleasurable, albeit tiring given its vastness, and hence the need for regular pitstops at its wonderful cafés and brasseries to slow down and refuel.
One of my morning ramblings was in the beautifully laid out Luxembourg Gardens with its four centuries of history and numerous monuments, including 20 statues of French queens and other great women.
Notable amongst these is the statue of Marie Stuart, otherwise known as Mary Queen of Scots, who was the queen consort of France from 1559 to 1560.
I ALSO spent half a day in the Musée D’Orsay, somewhere I always return to, especially to view the impressive collection of Impressionist paintings on the fiifh floor.
Formerly the Orsay train station, it was renovated in the second half of the 20th century and reopened as a museum in 1986.
However, a lot more time is needed to truly appreciate the wealth of art in this wonderful museum and contend with the volume of tourists visiting it daily.
As Notre Dame Cathedral is still out of bounds, an alternative option on the Ile-de-la-Cité is the hidden gem of High Gothic architecture, the Sainte-Chapelle, which is part of the heavily-policed Palace of Justice.
Built between 1242 and 1248 by Louis IX to house the relics of the Passion of Christ, it is essential viewing for anyone, like me, with a keen interest in stained glass.
Its Upper Chapel displays 15 wonderous windows with 1,113 scenes depicting the story of mankind. ( I recommend booking in advance as the queues are extensive and the Chapelle is quite small inside compared to other cathedrals.)
Sightseeing makes for hungry work and Paris is no slouch when it comes to culinary attractions. Depending on your budget, you can eat relatively cheaply or blow the bank here, and this can depend on the location as much as the type of establishment.
Some of the pleasurable eateries I visited were researched in advance, such as the exquisite traditional restaurant Robert et Louise in the Marais district, where the food, ambience and value for money were extremely good.
A particular treat was a leisurely lunch in the famous La Coupole in Montparnasse, a restaurant established in 1927 and renowned for its history, art deco interior, famous visitors, and excellent menu.
It truly felt like sitting in a museum piece surrounded by the ghosts of Hemingway, Miller, Picasso, Chagall, Piaf, Sartre, and Beauvoir.
There are numerous similarly historic bars and brasseries in the Montparnasse area including Café du Dôme, Le Sélect, La Rotonde, and Closerie des Lilas, all frequented by such luminaires over the years.
I think I might just have found the next location to spend more time in when I next return to the City of Light. And I won’t wait 11 years this time, either.
The Centre Culturel Irlandais offers short-term accommodation to both Irish residents and visitors with an interest in Irish culture.
The Centre is easily accessible by public transport and connects directly with Orly and Roissy (Charles de Gaulle) airports as well as the Gare du Nord.
Rooms are subject to availability and there is a minimum stay of two nights.
En suite singles from €111 per night en suite doubles from €165.
- Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5, rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris; centreculturelirlandais.com
- Aer Lingus flies from Shannon to Paris Charles de Gaulle twice a week, and from Dublin to Paris daily; aerlingus.com
- Ryanair flies to Paris Beauvais from Cork twice weekly and from Dublin daily; ryanair.com