Tasting the past in Paris

By JANE PAECH

It's early on a windswept morning and the vibrant market street, rue Montorgeuil, is jump-starting into gear. Ruddy-faced merchants hurl hearty greetings and hose down the cobbles.

The poissonnier, squelching about in his rubber boots, slaps shiny fish on to icy beds. Further up, white-hooded men sling sides of lamb over their shoulders and stride into la boucherie where pheasants and rabbits are being hung on hooks. Locals queue for baguettes, walk their dogs and throw back their morning petit noir.

Caught between the glamour of the Tuileries and Opera quartiers to the west and the avant-garde Pompidou Centre to the east, this ancient street has a fascinating history. Gutsy and raw with a down-to-earth scruffy charm, rue Montorgeuil was originally home to the city's oyster market. Today, it remains the final crumb of old Les Halles, Paris' vast, wholesale produce-market that fed the French capital and defined the neighbourhood for eight centuries.

Les Halles was a way of life for many, an exhilarating, rough-and-tumble existence centred around food, community and hard work. But by the 1960s, the market was causing chaos and congestion in the surrounding city streets. Murky dealings prospered in its shadows. The escalating rat population beneath the sprawling pavilions was no longer acceptable and Charles de Gaulle ordered its controversial demolition.

In 1979, Forum des Halles, a bland, underground shopping centre topped with gardens, claimed the landmark site, changing its face forever. And yet, if you listen carefully, you can still hear the echoes of centuries in the streets that once flourished on Les Halles' grimy rim. Steeped in its own juices, this authentic quartier of Paris that Emile Zola referred to as "le Ventre de Paris" (the Belly of Paris) continues to play an important role in feeding the city.

A peppering of age-old restaurants and specialty shops survived the big clean-up, along with a crop of professional kitchenware stores. This residential neighbourhood, attracting a new breed of young professionals, offers the keen cook a chance to get lost among the heavy cauldrons and gigantic soup ladles in search of a souvenir with quintessential French flavour. For the gourmand, it offers a feast for the senses and a unique taste of Paris, past and present.

Start your tour at St-Eustache, an impressive Gothic and Renaissance church and the district's solar plexus. The church of the merchants, it has watched over Halles since 1637. Inside, a clay sculpture created by Raymond Mason in 1969 portrays a procession of grieving merchants laden with fruit and vegetables leaving their beloved Halles.

From here, explore the arteries that radiate out into the quartier. Take a closer look on rue Montorgeuil, a street that comes alive on weekends. Behind the 21st-century bustle and chain-smoking coffee-drinkers, you'll find fragments of an intriguing past. Gaze up at the golden snails perched above the once very fashionable l'Escargot Montorgeuil restaurant at number 38 and poke your nose into Stohrer at number 51, the oldest patisserie in Paris. Today, the shop specialises in babas (sponge cake liberally doused with rum syrup) and les puits d'amour (wells of pastry filled with custard cream), just as it did when it opened in 1730.

References to the street's fishy past also remain. Au Rocher de Cancale at number 59 still boasts its original wood and plaster facade adorned with fruit, fish and oysters. The restaurant is named after the seaside village of Cancale in Brittany, famous for its briny oysters. At ground level, one corner is cut away to unearth a sculpture of oysters clinging to a rock-bed. It was also here that France's famous gastronome and restaurant critic, Grimod de la Reyniere, tasted, pontificated over and rated dishes dashed to him by waiters from the best establishments in Paris.

When you've explored the street, sit back with a drink at one of the sunny cafe terraces that tumble onto the cobbles and watch the passing scene. Alternatively, head for the tiny, enchanting Le Cochon a l'Oreille (The Pig with an Ear) on rue Montmartre, filled with locals and the ghosts of old Halles.

The shabby base of rue Montmartre is studded with surprising jewels for the keen cook. Mora, a professional cookware store founded in 1814, stocks a vast range of baker's equipment. Directly opposite, Comptoir de la Gastronomie is crammed with truffles, caviar, and foie gras from the Perigord, while La Bovida supplies everything from orange pressee machines through to pretty cardboard cake and chocolate boxes.

Further up, A. Simon stocks an enormous variety of china, glassware and cutlery. Pick up a plate from a famous restaurant, a set of snail pincers or an authentic French cafe breadbasket. The adjacent patisserie store is stacked high with French tart tins, madeleine moulds and blowtorches to caramelise your creme brulee.

As the sights and smells make you hungry, head west along rue Etienne Marcel. Hidden on the sleepy Place des Petits-Peres is Chez Georges, a friendly neighbourhood bistro that guarantees a dose of "old France". Simple classics are served in a setting of faded grandeur. Indulge, perhaps, in a leafy salade frisee tossed with bacon and topped with a poached egg, sole simmered in Pouilly wine and a generous slab of tarte tatin, served with lashings of creme fraiche. Afterwards, drop into Au Panetier, a charming little belle epoque bakery on the square, to peek at the wood-oven bread, luscious strawberry tartlets and painted parrots that grace the walls.

For something lighter, A Priori The is steps away. This popular tearoom is located in the most exquisite of Paris' 19th-century passages, Galerie Vivienne, restored to its original splendour with shafts of light streaming through the glass roof. Opt for a sunny table in the mosaic-tiled passage (the only ones that count) and watch the world go by. There's a selection of fresh market salads, tall savoury tarts, homemade desserts and crumbles.

Walk off lunch by making your way through the gardens of the Palais Royal, filled with flowers and splashing fountains, to rue Coquilliere. Then tackle the cream of the crop of professional cookware stores, E. Dehillerin, selling to chefs since 1820. Heavy-duty copper saucepans, le Creuset cookware, enormous dusty pots and fish kettles cram the basement. All are reasonably priced and can be shipped worldwide. Upstairs it's all crepe and omelette pans and French kitchen knives.

Another Les Halles institution on rue Coquilliere is brasserie Au Pied de Cochon. Onion soup is their specialty along with lavish seafood platters and, for the intrepid gourmet, Tentation de St Antoine: pig's tail, ear, muzzle and trotters thinly veiled in a creamy bearnaise sauce.

Diagonally across from E. Dehillerin, is Verrerie des Halles. This wooden-floored warehouse furnishes local cafes, bars and restaurants with glassware, cutlery and crockery. To complete your visit, drop in at Duthilleul et Minart for an authentic French toque (chef's hat), a tour de cou (cook's neck-scarf) or a crisp waiter's apron, all designed in the 19th century.

After your visit you'll be well equipped to create your very own petit morceau of France - infused with the spirit of Les Halles.

Getting there:

Flight Centre is offering return air fares from Auckland to Paris from $2314 a person. The offer includes three nights' accommodation with breakfast and a city sightseeing hop-on-hop-off tour. Airport taxes are not included. Ph 0800 354 448 for more details.


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