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POSTED: 01 OCTOBER 2011 Destination: Paris While ANN RICKARD isn’t nearly as regular a visitor to Paris as she’d love to be, she has been to the French capital often enough to have a preferred quarter, a favourite hotel and a much loved bistro. Give me a comfortable but unpretentious hotel in the Latin Quarter and I’m in Parisian paradise. The Hotel Demeure couldn’t be more French, with its cosy reception area and lounge/bar glowing with red wallpaper, drapes and furniture. The hotel lift might be a tad daunting at first. It’s more like a cupboard, but this, too, is so Parisian you learn to go with it and enjoy it. Even the hotel key, a big solid brass thing with a jaunty red tassel, shrieks out Paris. For about 80 euros (about $110) for a small but more-than-adequate, comfy room with good-sized bathroom, it doesn’t come much cheaper in Paris. And this place is right in the heart of everything. Minutes by nearby metro to the Louvre, Notre Dame and the Pantheon, it is also on the doorstep to the exciting Rue Mouffetard, perhaps the oldest and most lively neighbourhood in Paris. Mouffetard’s open-air market dazzles with titillating produce and French delicacies and pastries that look like jewels. The cafes and bistros are so many and varied you could spend a month exploring and never get through half of them. Breakfast is included in Demeure’s room price — continental and plenty of it — and when you bite into the best bread and croissants in the world, you’ll be well set up for a day of sauntering. Staff speak several languages including fluent English, of course, and they’re good at pointing out the nearby highlights. Overwhelmed by dining choices in Rue Mouffetard, I head to Cave La Bourgogne, a small brasserie just a couple of minutes walk away from La Demeure on the Square St Medard. It’s nothing particularly special — hundreds of similar bistros line the streets all over Paris — but its cheerful, orange awning, wooden decks and round outside tables overlook a flower-festooned fountain. Inside it’s all dark-timbered warmth, where chefs make warm goat-cheese salads, creamy potato gratins and croques — ham-and-melted-cheese sandwiches rich with béchamel sauce and served with a salad lightly dressed with vinaigrette. I don’t know how they do it, but French bakers and chefs have a special talent for making outstanding bread and tangy vinaigrettes that are unbeatable anywhere else in the world. With a pichet (carafe) of house wine and a croque in front of you, you can fill up at Cave La Bourgogne for just a few euros. You could be sitting next to a young crowd sipping wine, or une dame d’un certain age feeding her lap dog morsels from her plate, but isn’t that Paris? |
IF YOU GO For bookings at Hotel La Demeure contact your local travel agent or Tempo Holidays on 1300 558 987 or at www.tempoholidays.com. |
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