Back in Paris Day and Night

Tip to travelers: Paris weather is schizophrenic — one minute it’s raining cats and dogs and the next minute the sun is shining and the ground is dry.  Don’t leave home without your umbrella or your sunglasses…ever!

Back in a Paris Bathroom

The House Hunters International film crew was back in Paris shooting yet another episode — the same crew that filmed the episode just three weeks ago. This time the story is about a young couple — a British woman, her Argentinian husband and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter who have moved to Paris for his job and are looking at apartments to rent. They need two bedrooms, easy access to his office outside Paris and a place to park their car with a budget under $2,000 a month.

We visited one apartment in a 16th-century building in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, another in a “pierre de taille” building in the Buttes aux Cailles district of the 13th and a third one in a contemporary building in a southern suburb of Paris, Chatillon at the end of Métro line 13. The crew is quite flexible —  sometimes they have to get into the strangest of places to get just the right shot — this time cozying up in a bathtub to film the couple peering in to see the bathroom.

All were within their budget. In Paris, $2,000 (about €1,500) buys you about 50 square meters, if you use 30€ per square meter as the average with some districts higher/lower than others, naturally. For example, according to “De Particulier à Particulier,” the average in the 6th district is €37.51 per square meter per month compared to the 13th with €28.29 and in Chatillon, €20.75. So, as you see, their money stretches way further as they move out of central Paris. When the show airs, it will be your job to guess which one they choose and I can assure you, it will be tough for you as a viewer to guess and tough for them to decide!

The shows are getting more popular all the time and Paris is one of their top destinations…duh! This episode makes the seventh we’ve filmed and there are two more in the future plans this summer. A new one never seen before is airing next week — “Sizing up the Parisian Suburbs” — Episode HHINT-3803H, airing May 29, 2012 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT and 1:30 a.m. ET/PT. Since we can’t see the show here in Paris, I’d appreciate it if any of you who are willing or able to record it will so that I can see it for myself! Many thanks in advance!

For more information about all the shows, visit House Hunters International. 

La Nuit, Ha Laylah…

And the youngest son asked, “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

Saturday night many of the museums opened just for the sake of opening their doors free to the public so that anyone and everyone can get a shot of culture. (It always surprises me how some people never take advantage of Paris’ more than 150 museums of art and culture!) It was the eighth Nuit Européene des Musées with 179 events having taken place in Paris alone.

We chose to visit The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan (The Hôtel d’Avaux 1644-1650) on rue du Temple. The building itself is stunning — built in the mid 17th-century for Claude de Mesmes, Count of Avaux, and designed by the architect Pierre le Muet. In the late 1700s, it became the seat of the Seventh Municipality, then of the Seventh Arrondissement (until 1823). It was subsequently divided up into commercial premises of all kinds with living quarters on the third floor, inhabited by Jewish immigrants from Poland, Romania and the Ukraine.

In 1942, during the main roundups of the Jews in Paris, several inhabitants of the building were arrested and deported. Thirteen of them died in Nazi concentration camps. The City of Paris acquired it in 1962 and classified it as a historic monument. On the initiative of the then Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, in 1986 the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan was made available to become a museum of Jewish civilization, and in October 1998, the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme was born.

The museum is like a live walking tour of the history of Judaism. In both French and English, one can stroll room to room, admire the art and artifacts and read panels that describe the history and culture of the religion, particularly its history in France and Europe. That in itself is rich with highs and lows, of which the museum hides nothing, but it does a good job of explaining the Dreyfus Affair and does not dwell too heavily on the Holocaust.

My favorite room houses a collection of “chanukiot” — candelabras used on Chanukah. One of them from 19th-century Poland, with a heavy brass design and two main candle holders so as to have the dual purpose of also using it to light the sabbath candles, is almost identical to one I acquired in the flea market in Tel Aviv in 1980.

One thing for sure — it was great to have the whole evening to casually peruse the collection, and if you’re planning a visit, you’ll need and want the time! For more information, visit the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme.

A la prochaine…

Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris

“Adrian with Dale Novick Gaber at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme”

Respond to Adrian

P.S. Don’t miss “An Evening of Jazz and Poetry” with Joe Makholm (piano), Peter Giron (bass), Cecilia Woloch and friends (poems), celebrating love and desire and the night. Poet Cecilia Woloch will be joined by students from her University of Southern California program, “The Poet in Paris,” sharing original poems interwoven with the jazz stylings of Parisian musicians Joe Makholm and Peter Giron…at the Swan Bar, Friday, May 25th, 2012, 9:30 p.m. to midnight, 165 boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris, Métro: Raspail (lines 4 and 6), Vavin (line 4). 10€ the door, 5€ for students.

P.P.S. Reminder: PIN — the “Property Investment Network” is meeting this coming Thursday evening, May 24th. I’ll be speaking, providing a brief property market update, and so will a host of other professionals on property investment topics. Attend FREE your first time just because you’re a reader of Parler Paris! Book your seat now — register using the promotional code “Adrian.” For complete information, visit Conferences and Workshops or PIN Paris