Canal St. Martin - Not a No-Go Zone

At a dinner party the other night at the Maison des polytechniciens several of our French friends were talking about the supposed "no-go zones" in Paris.  In case you haven't heard about it, after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, the American TV network Fox News, broadcast repeatedly the completely false information that Paris has zones that are so completely Muslim, and ipso facto so dangerous, that non-Muslims, not even the French police, dare enter them. Their "expert"  - with a map of Paris behind him - even described some of the zones as places that were more like Iraq or Afghanistan than Paris. After being subjected to several days of ridicule by the French satirical program Le Petit Journal and half the internet, Fox News issued a complete apology to all the people of France. Their information was wrong and they were sorry for the errors.  But, as our French friends said, damage has been done, witnessed by the fact that even after Fox's apology, the internet is still full of forums with people asking if it is safe to go to Paris. The mayor of Paris has announced that she is considering suing Fox News on behalf of the City of Paris. (Click here to see the segment on Le Petit Journal with subtitles in English.)

Several of the "dangerous" areas on Fox's Paris maps are not far from our apartment. So, in the interests of journalistic honesty and to give Travel Oyster readers a first-hand view, I decided to risk life and limb and spend the day in one of the Fox News NO-GO ZONES!

I chose the Canal St. Martin area in the 10th arrondissement, just a short walk from my apartment. It's a traditional working-class neighborhood that has become more upscale in recent years.  City Walks Paris, which perhaps Fox News would have done well to read, describes it as: "lined with hip cafés and chic shops...the picturesque and trendy Canal St. Martin area is full of bohemian delights."

My walk began at the Place de la République, the starting point for the recent solidarity walk following the terrorist attacks. The huge square, with eleven converging streets, covers almost eight and a half acres (3.4 ha.) A gathering place since the mid-1300s, the present square was recently renovated to make it more pedestrian and bike friendly.  At one end there is a glass-enclosed cafe and restaurant that's a good place to relax and take in the sights. I decided to go instead to the award-winning boulangerie Du Pain et des Idées - a most definite go zone.  This year, Le Point magazine named the bakery's Galette des Rois the best in Paris. Not a big fan of the traditional holiday galette, I had my favorite, Le chausson à la pomme fraiche.

From the bakery, I walked to the Canal St. Martin, a tranquil oasis in the middle of a bustling neighborhood. The canal was built at the behest of Napoleon Bonaparte in the 1820s, to supply Paris with fresh water. In the 20th century, canal boats plied its waters bringing food and building materials to the center of Paris.  I sat on a bench midway along the four and a half kilometers of canal that remain above ground. On Sundays the adjoining streets are closed to traffic, but as I happily ate my chausson, cars and bikes whizzed by. Trees and bushes along the waterway helped block out their sound and I sat for a while admiring the beautiful arched pedestrian bridges that traverse the canal. I walked down the canal, on the lookout for signs of danger, but saw only parents pushing baby carriages, young guys on skateboards, and older men playing boules. One of men did ask me for a cigarette, but when I told him I didn't smoke, he thanked me and went back to his game.  

My next stop was the Hôpital Saint-Louis. The hospital is just outside the official Fox no-go zone, but the short detour into a go zone is well worth it. It was built by order of King Henri IV in the early 1600s to isolate victims of the plague from the rest of the population. Classified a historic monument, the hospital's double walls enclose one of the most beautiful and least-known squares in Paris.  Designed by the king's architect Claude Chastillon in 1607, it is a forerunner to the Place des Vosges, which Chastillon designed in 1612. A much larger modern hospital now welcomes patients, but the square is open to all. After a walk around the practically deserted square, I wandered through several streets on my way back to the canal.  I windowed shopped and even stepped into a few stores, including Antoine et Lili with its three brightly painted storefronts.  

After all this walking, it was time for lunch.  I considered a Cambodian restaurant and a small couscous joint, but in the end I went for the traditional and had lunch at the Hôtel du Nord.  Famed as the setting for a well-known French novel and an even more famous film, it was built around the same time as the canal. It was originally a workingmen's hotel, but by the 1970s it had run-down and was scheduled for demolition. In the good French tradition, citizens rallied to save it and by 1989, its facade was declared a national heritage. The restaurant has a wonderful old bistro atmosphere and a very good 13,50 euro lunch menu. I had a puff pastry stuffed with tomato and mozzarella, followed by grilled fish with eggplant caviar. I lingered a bit over coffee and then set out again still in search of what made this neighborhood "no-go."

I wandered north and there the streets got a bit dirtier and more crowded.  The stores were a bit less chic, but even more interesting with eclectic boutiques and bazaars filled with products from all over the world, appealing to the people of the diverse cultures who live there.  What the neighborhood didn't seem was threatening or dangerous or no-go.  

As the day wound down, I made by way home and arrived there safe and sound. After surviving my first expedition, I'm looking forward to exploring some of the other no-go zones in Paris. If the expert from Fox News wants to come along, I'd be happy to hold his hand and show him the sights.

To take a photo tour of my No-Go Zone walk, click here.

A bientôt,

Geraldine

   

Photos by Geraldine Calisti Kaylor

Etruscans, Tuscans and Americans

                                                                                Pitigliano 

As our early-morning flight back to the United States banked over the Monte Pisano, I caught sight of Pisa's Cathedral with its Leaning Tower - a fitting goodbye from a town we have come to love. Our last week in Pisa for this year spanned two holidays - April 25, which celebrates the liberation of Italy from the Fascists at the end of World War II and May Day, the international labor day. 

The week began with an evening in Buti at the Trattoria Paccì, one of our favorite restaurants that specializes in Tuscan and Pisan dishes. Dinner was at 7:30 p.m. - very early by Italian standards - but we had tickets for a play at Buti's beautiful Teatro Francesco di Bartolo. Although it is a small town, Buti was very prosperous in 1842 when the theater was built by 12 local wealthy families. It's typical of Italian theaters of that time with an elegant entrance and a horseshoe-shaped interior surrounded by two rows of individual boxes. Regional theaters abound in Tuscany and Buti's company is particularly well-known.  

The next day, we left Pisa with three friends for a walking tour of the Vie Cave, the ancient Etruscan roads found primarily in the area surrounding the towns of Pitigliano, Sovana and Sorano in the Maremma area of southern Tuscany. 

The Etruscans, from whom Tuscany takes its name were a rich and powerful pre-Roman civilization. Based on the varying features of the Vie Cave, it is estimated that 40 generations of Etruscans worked on the roads, many of which are lined with burial niches. The roads were connectors for the three towns, but some historians think the Vie Cave also were sacred routes within a religious area.

Dug deep into the local rock, known as tufo, the Vie Cave wind for miles through the hilly Tuscan countryside. The oldest road connecting Sovana and Sorano dates to 700-500 B.C. The towns themselves, set on high tufo promontories, are breathtakingly beautiful. All three towns have been inhabited for thousands of years and each is rich in history and culture.

Inside the Vie Cave, it's cool and shady. High above your head, you can see the roots of trees and the clear blue of the sky. At one point, we walked out of a Via Cava and into fields thick with wild orchids and delicate, fuschia-colored cyclamens.

Our trip began in Pitigliano, where we left our car. After a visit to the town, which is a warren of narrow, winding streets atop several subterranean layers, we set out in the beautiful sunshine for Sovana.  By car, it's only about seven miles from Pitigliano to Sovana, but we took a circuitous 16-mile route that passed through several, narrow Vie Cave. For the next three days, we walked in the footsteps of the Etruscans and almost everywhere we looked, we saw caves, burial niches, walkways and ancient rural habitations dug into the rock. 

One day's walk took us across vast vineyards and olive groves. It was hot going and we came to our own, albeit unsubstantiated, conclusion that the Etruscans built the Vie Cave as a way to get out of the blazing, hot Tuscan sun.

We stayed in Sovana and in Sorano, where our hotel was in the old castle of the town. At night, we sampled local specialities, including wild boar, rabbit and grilled meats. And we feasted, morning and night, on the region's most famous speciality - ricotta cheese - fresh ricotta cheese for breakfast, ricotta cheese cakes, ricotta cheese yoghurt and on the last day, a wonderful ricotta cheese and fig gelato. When you walk 15 or more miles a day up and down steep hills, you can indulge yourself.

We got back to Pisa just in time to attend what we have begun to unofficially call the Annual Pisan Italian/American Barbecue. It's held in a friend's garden, hidden behind a tall stone wall right in the center of Pisa.  Guests make a dish to pass. JR and Gaetano grill hamburgers, lamb and pork over a wood fire. Everyone contributes advice.

We expected to spend our last full day in Pisa - a cloudy, rainy May Day - doing errands and packing. Instead we got an invitation to have lunch with some new friends at their beautiful Cosimo Maria Masini winery near San Miniato. (Click here to visit their great web page.) Naturally farming vineyards and olive groves on an estate that dates back to the 1600s, Cosimo Maria Masini produces great Tuscan wines and high-quality olive oil. We lingered a long time over lunch, eating, talking and, of course, enjoying a selection of the vineyard's fine wines. At the end of the afternoon, the sun came out and we walked out into the beautiful Tuscan countryside.

It was a perfect end to this year's Italian adventure.

For more photos, click here.

A presto, 

Geraldine