Sunday, December 21, 2003

By Joan Scobey, Travel Arts Syndicate

PARIS -- A Ferris wheel rises next to the Louvre, its red, yellow and blue cabins slowly rotating over the formal gardens of the Tuileries during the summer Fete des Tuileries and a month around Christmas and New Year's. That's when midway-style rides and snack food stalls move in among the sculptures of Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore and Aristide Maillol and the raised terraces, pools, formal flower beds and pathways designed by the famous landscape architect of Versailles, Andre Le Notre.

	If you go ... RECOMMENDED HOTELS Hotel Meurice, 228 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France; Phone: 1-800-223-6800 (Leading Hotels of the World); www.meuricehotel.com. Historic, grand hotel opposite the Tuileries with 160 rooms and suites, gilded Louis XV-XVI furnishings, and impeccable service and charm. Doubles from about $552 (470 euros). Castille Paris Sofitel Demeure Hotels, 33-37 rue Cambon, 75001 Paris, France;1-800-763-4835; www.sofitel.com. French and Venetian decor and 86 rooms and 21 suites around a charming center patio. Rates vary widely, with doubles from about $429 (365 euros), much less via Internet. Hotel des Tuileries, 10 rue St- Hyacinthe, 75001 Paris, France; www.hotel-des-tuileries.com. Old-time charm in a 26-room hotel off the rue St-Honore; doubles from $200 (170 euros). RECOMMENDED RESTAURANTS Le Grand Vefour, 17 rue de Beaujolais. One of Paris' most celebrated and civilized restaurants set in the Palais Royal gardens. Three Michelin stars for such specialties as foie gras ravioli and pigeon; set menus $88 (75 euros) at lunch, and from over $200 at dinner. Le Meurice, 228 rue de Rivoli; has just brought a rising-star chef, Yannick Alleno, to its Michelin-star restaurant, whose crystal chandeliers and frescoes face the Tuileries. Set menus generally start at $112 (95 euros). Il Cortile, 37 rue Cambon. A Michelin-star restaurant with patio in Italian villa-style overseen by Alain Ducasse where the Italian-French specialties include squid's ink cannelloni with lobster and crabmeat, mushroom risotto and green apple sorbet with chocolate curls and macadamia nuts. Four-course set menu, $100 (85 euros). Cafe Marly, 93 rue de Rivoli. Another trendy Costes brothers cafe, this one in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre with light dining outside in an arcade opposite the Cour Napoleon pyramid and Continental cuisine in three high ceiling rooms inside. A la carte meals, about $36-$67 (31-57 euros). L'Ardoise, 28 Rue du Mont-Thabor. A small, casual restaurant where specialities such as veal chops, crayfish risotto, panna cotta and chocolate pot de creme may turn up on a three-course menu for $35 (30 euros). Le Souffle, 36 rue du Mont-Thabor. Americans love the three-course, all-souffle menu for $37 (32 euros) at this down-home winebar-restaurant where day laborers and fashionistas mix over Auvergne food, such as liver pate, confit of duck, tripe and sausages, all about $15 (13 euros). Light lunch places, often hard to find in Paris, are centered around the Place du Marche St-Honore. Also there is picnic fare at Max Poilane for sandwiches and breads, a new Fauchon for prepared take-out delicacies and an open market Wednesday afternoons and Saturday and Sunday mornings. SHOPPING: In the Palais Royal: Boite a Musique, 9 rue de Beaujolais. Delage, 159 Galerie de Valois. Didier Ludot, 24 Galerie de Montpensier. Le Prince Jardinier, 37 rue de Valois. Everything for the well-outfitted gardener. Along the rue St-Honore: Astier de Villatte, 173 rue St-Honore. Colette, 213 rue St-Honore. John Galliano, 384-386 rue St-Honore. Goyard, 233 rue St-Honore. Jean-Paul Hevin, 231 rue St-Honore. The Place Vendome area: Atelier du Bracelet Parisien, 7 rue St- Hyacinthe. Galignani, 224 rue de Rivoli; the first English bookshop on the Continent, established 1802. Maria Luisa, 2, rue Cambon; and three others around the corner at 19 bis, 38 and 40 rue du Mont-Thabor for upcoming designers and accessories. minaPoe, 19 rue Duphot, for crocheted bags and handmade Murano glass rings. Rodolphe Menudier, 14 rue de Castiglione Obsessive shoppers will enjoy Shopping Plus, Irene Adamian's tours around the area's best addresses, often focused on "Art de Vivre" themes of fashion, home decoration, antiques or gourmet cooking. ireneadamian@minitel.net; www.paris-gourmet.com. For one or two people, a half-day tour is $295 (250 euros); a full day, including lunch, is $470 (400 euros). TRAVEL TIPS: Among the daily two-hour walking tours in English offered by Paris Walks is one around the Palais Royal and Arcades. www.paris-walks.com. Adults, about $11.50, children 5 and up, half price. Michelin's Green Guide for Paris is useful for touring and background information, its Paris Red Guide, for restaurants. Time Out Paris has listings of shops, bars and nightlife, updated annually. DK Travel Guide, Paris, illuminates sightseeing with its exploded diagrams. FOR MORE INFORMATION: French Government Tourist Office, "France-on-Call" public information service. 1-410-286-8310; www.francetourism.com. -- Joan Scobey

This juxtaposition of art and commerce might be incongruous in less skillful hands, but the French have a flair for walking you through the city's past with a knowing wink.

Paris' First Arrondissement is a perfect setting for this kind of playfulness. The Louvre, the Palais Royal, the Palais de Justice (seat of the French judicial system), the Conciergerie, where thousands of prisoners, including Marie Antoinette, were kept during the French Revolution, the incomparable stained glass windows of the 13th-century Sainte-Chapelle -- these are among the major landmarks of this heart-of-Paris section. It's a serious, history-rich district, which makes discovering its lighthearted side all the more engaging.

For instance, in front of the Louvre, the Place du Palais Royal interrupts an amazing mile-long vista along the Rue de Rivoli of harmonious arcades and the elegant 19th-century buildings above them. Here the piece de resistance is a metro station.

To celebrate the centenary of the Paris subway system in 2000, the artist Jean-Michel Othoniel strung hundreds of colorful Murano glass balls around an aluminum cupola over the Palais Royal station entrance. Called "Le Kiosque des Noctambules" (Kiosk of the Night Walkers), the colored balls and embedded glass disks gleam in the sun and glint in the moonlight.

Another clue that Paris has perfected the art of art in public places is at hand in the Palais Royal itself. Originally built for Cardinal Richelieu in the mid-17th century, it became the royal residence after his death and today, after many architectural transformations, houses government offices and the Comedie-Francaise, the state theater.

It is also the setting for a controversial piece of art by Daniel Buren called "Les Deux Plateaux": 280 black-and-white striped columns of uneven height laid out in rows across the courtyard over occasional grates that reveal a stream below. Whimsically echoing the tall, slender columns of the historic building around it, the striped stumps are favorite perches for students with books and drawings pads.

In the late 18th century one of the royal residents, strapped for cash, commissioned classical buildings around the then-empty garden in back of the Palais, with apartments above arched arcades and commercial spaces within them.

The cafes, shops and restaurants quickly became the center of a spirited Parisian social life that included gamblers, courtesans and revolutionaries plotting to march on the Bastille. The rowdy excitement lasted until New Year's Eve, 1836, when the gaming houses were closed and Parisian night life began moving elsewhere.

By this time the central fountain and flower beds of the Palais Royal garden were laid out and later became a tranquil retreat. Today mischievous, colorful sculptures by the artist Niki de Saint-Phalle take center stage, among them "Three Totems," in which fanciful animal mosaics comprise two totems flanking a bear climbing a tall, golden one. In the fountain itself, three amply endowed female figures in strapless bathing suits, slyly called "The Three Graces," frolic in plain view of the 18th-century arcaded apartment buildings where writers Colette and Jean Cocteau once lived.

The three arcades bordering the Palais Royal gardens have barely changed in over two centuries. Le Cafe Corrazza, which dates from 1787, is the oldest of the garden's several cafes, and has been spiffed up since it was a hangout for revolutionaries. The arcade shops range from the music boxes of the tiny Boite a Musique to everything for the haute gardener at Le Prince Jardinier.

Buy custom-made shoes (think crocodile or shark) at Delage, where Catherine Deneuve and Jeanne Moreau shop, or retro designer clothes at the boutiques of Didier Ludot, one of which is named for, and dedicated to, the Little Black Dress.

These arcades may be the world's most delightful outdoor shopping malls, where you can wander all day whatever the weather.

For shoppers, the First's mix of trendy and traditional is nowhere more fun than along the rue St-Honore. Catch it at the gaudy Murano glass metro entrance in front of the Comedie-Francaise, and turn right toward the Place Vendome for a joyful stroll.

You'll find adorable baby shoes in bright colors among accessories, pillows and china at Astier de Villatte and gadgets and gifts for men at IL Pour l'Homme. Virtually next door, the style-setting, edgy world of Colette, a mini-department store, sells whatever is next. If the loud, rhythmic music and minimalist decor don't alert you, the funky "Be a Bag" totes printed with your picture will. Downstairs the Water Bar (65 varieties from around the world) is a cool place for a light lunch, as is the tea shop at nearby master chocolatier, Jean-Paul Hevin, the place to pick up a souvenir chocolate Eiffel Tower.

You'll get a taste of Old World shopping in the elegant signature suitcases and handbags of Goyard, luggage maker since 1853, and a blast of the new in the windows at John Galliano, where provocative silverized mannequins wear bras and panties printed, newspaper style, with "Galliano Gazette, Gibraltar, 11.28.60," the designer's place and date of birth.

One block further, across the Rue Royale, the rue St-Honore becomes the Faubourg St-Honore and the Eighth Arrondissement, home of major fashion names. Keep the distinction in mind, because many of the intimate boutiques and artisans are on the Rue, not the Faubourg.

And many of them are in the vicinity of the Place Vendome. At Atelier du Bracelet Parisien, the Perrin family makes custom watch bands from dozens of exotic skins, from sting ray to kangaroo, in a boutique that's part of "Signe Paris," a group of artisans selected by a committee. Also on their roster in the First Arrondissement is Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier, for custom-blended scents, Massaro for custom shoes and boots and the Hotel Meurice, the only hotel in the group, selected for its "gastronomy and art of living," which, in fact, has its own shopping itinerary for guests.

No matter how serious shopping gets, you'll know the First hasn't lost its playful edge when you pass the orange and pink footprints on the sidewalk in front of 14 rue de Castiglione marking the high-fashion shoes of Rodolphe Menudier.

The list of lively boutiques, cheeky shop windows and lighthearted street art of Paris' First Arrondissement could go on, but that would spoil one essential ingredient -- the joy of the serendipitous discoveries you make on your own.

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