DJ Paulette - Secret Paris

Manchester born but Paris dwelling DJ Paulette shares her favourite Parisian hotspots with us.

La Maison De L’Aubrac
37 Rue Marbeuf, 75008 Paris

I was advised to go here by a promoter in Montpellier after I had complained about the lack of decent late night eating spots in Paris. He told me I was wrong, and that I should head to the Champs Elysées. It’s been a real joy to find somewhere that is unpretentious, open 24/7, with a great wine list, a wonderful reasonably priced menu, highest quality meats, foie gras ‘to die for’, the freshest ingredients, and where the waiting staff are helpful and attitude free. I have become quite the regular here!

New Morning
7 & 9 Rue des Petites Ecuries, 75010 Paris
www.newmorning.com/fr/

It might be just a concrete cavern that used to hold printing presses, but if you love hearing and dancing to live jazz, blues, funk, be-bop, Latin and African music, Paris's New Morning club (or ‘The New’ to its regulars) is the standard-bearer. You can smell the love, sweat and well worked shoe leather as soon as you walk through the doors. During its 20 years of operation, artists including Richie Havens, Archie Shepp, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Vega’s ‘Elements of Life’ band, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nina Simone and Stan Getz have all blessed this house.

LE66
66 Champs Elysées, 75008 Paris
www.le66.fr/

LE66 is not technically a secret due to its location, but it is new, vibrant, and sees the Champs Elysées move away from its High Street versus Haute Couture dichotomy by targeting younger fashionistas with this enormous concept store. It blends a lot of Colette (cutting edge Parisian shop), shades of East London art galleries and quirky cult attitude. Here you get four levels of all kinds of clothes and accessories – some ‘you saw it here first’ exclusives (for men and women), books, CDs, DVDs, and of course tasty vintage and cool casual stuff. Every month on the first floor of the store, 66 new items are selected by a celebrity and are shown in a special exhibition.

Café Marly
Cour Napoléon, 93, Rue de Rivoli, 1st Arrondisement

Tucked away in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre (which means it’s beautifully located under the left hand side arches facing the Louvre Pyramid), Café Marly is my favourite happy hour / any hour spot for watching the world go by, for absorbing the real Parisian atmosphere and eating the best pureed potatoes and rose sorbet ever!

Bois De Boulogne
16th Arrondissement

Despite its unsavoury night time reputation (it’s a rather hazardous red light area) the Bois De Boulogne is one of my favourite weekend chill out zones. This remnant of the ancient oak forest of Rouvray is 2.5 times larger than Central Park in New York, and 3.3 times larger than Hyde Park in London, so it’s wonderland for weekend walkers. There are 35km of footpaths, 8km of cycle paths and 29km of riding tracks. When the upper and lower lakes, connected by a waterfall, were created, the excavated earth was used to create the Butte Montmartre (historic hill in Paris). Between 1855 and 1858, the Hippodrome de Longchamp (racing course and now outdoor events venue) was built on the plain of the same name. And if you want to look at beautiful flowers in a sexy location, the Château de Bagatelle, the Jardin D’Acclimation and menagerie (animal park) are well worth an afternoon visit – look out for the people-friendly peacocks!

Shakespeare & Co
37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Paris

Not far away from Notre Dame on the Left Bank of the Seine, this quirky building is a bookstore- cum-lending library in every sense of the word and has to be seen and fully savoured. The motto of this shop, "Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise" is painted above the doorway with a stack of books that reaches from the floor to the ceiling. The shop was visited by authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ginsberg, Henry Miller and William Burroughs whilst the apartment upstairs is reputed to have hosted more than 50,000 aspiring writers or ‘tumbleweeds’ who earned their keep by working in the shop a couple of hours per day. There are so many places to hide away with any book you have selected from the thousands scattered around, and just lose yourself for an afternoon (or hide from your boyfriend because he was late, as I did!) and each book you purchase is stamped with the logo that reads "Shakespeare & Co. Kilometer Zero Paris."

Published: 11/02/2008

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