"This was the great Bohemia from the Restoration to Haussmannization," Miller told me over coffee on the Place Gustave-Toudouze. "It was built from about 1815 to 1840, and in the 1820s and 1830s this was the most modern part of Paris, where all the new money was." Real-estate speculators built apartment buildings and set up their mistresses here, and when the market was glutted, they happily rented to artists who needed space but couldn't afford to pay much.
For an engaging tribute to this era, drop by the Musée de la Vie Romantique, a cheerful house with green shutters that you can reach by walking down the Cité Chaptal, a tree-lined path that still looks something like the country road it was 150 years ago. And yet the string of porn stores on the busy Boulevard de Clichy are just two blocks from this quiet enclave.
Lafayette Gourmet, the food hall at Galeries Lafayette (hidden on the second floor of the men's building), I discovered, is every bit as excellent as the Grande Épicerie, in the Bon Marche. In addition to what you'd expect—the aisles of olive oil, preserves, and nougat—parts of the store are organized like a perfume department, with different vendors presiding over their own stands: Kaiser, Bellota Bellota, a foie gras counter 35 feet long.
Another surprise came in the form of Chartier, a 112-year-old working-class restaurant where the food is unremarkable but the visual experience well worth it: My $17 pot-au-feu, for example, was served by a waitress with the same nose and swirl of red hair as Carmen Gaudin, the Toulouse-Lautrec muse.
To get to the restaurant's soaring Belle Epoque dining room, you first have to pass through a shabby courtyard. That's typical of the 9th, where even places that open onto the street keep a low profile. As a friend put it: "It's a very strange part of town that doesn't seem like Paris. I had no idea it was here." With any luck, this quiet, quirky part of the city will continue to inspire such surprise for years to come.
9th Arrondissement Address Book
Alice à Paris 64 R. Condorcet (01-48-78-17-31). Elegant children’s clothes.
Après Réflexions 25 R. Henry-Monnier (06-23-39-25-19). Great midcentury furniture.
Arnaud Delmontel 39 R. des Martyrs (01-48-78-29-33). Some say they make the best baguettes in Paris.
Caramella 47 R. des Martyrs (01-44-53-09-56). Don’t miss the salted-caramel ice cream.
Casa Olympe 48 R. St.-Georges (01-42-85-26-01)
Chartier 7 R. du Faubourg-Montmartre (01-47-70-86-29)
Context (contexttravel.com/paris). Featuring walking tours led by Peter Miller.
Dell’orto 45 R. St.-Georges (01-40-78-40-30). A sophisticated Italian restaurant.
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