Launching My Substack!

by Catherine Down

Hello friends!

In March, I celebrated my ten year Franceiversary which is hard to believe because, in my head, I'm still fresh off the boat. A decade of eating and writing in Paris goes past way faster than you'd ever imagine.

I've long had a newsletter sign-up on my website but I rarely, if ever, sent anything out. I'm now migrating this list over to Substack where I'll be publishing a free monthly newsletter, alongside exclusive content for subscribers only. 

Paid subscribers will have access to: 

  • more frequent and in-depth content

  • a discussion forum where you can ask me your most pressing Paris questions, or field them to the group 

  • maps/itineraries 

  •  subscriber-only events 

I'm grateful to everyone who takes the time to read and support my work, and for all the wonderful people who keep coming back to Paris to hang out with me year after year. You make life so very delicious. 

xoxo,

Catherine

What's New in Paris for 2023

by Catherine Down in ,

Add these spots to your Paris hitlist.


I’ve lived in Paris for the past 10 years, and while people say Paris is always a good idea, it’s a particularly good idea in 2023. Ahead of next year's summer Olympics, the city is full of activity with all sorts of new openings from alluring hotels, restaurants worth trekking across the city for, and long awaited museum renovations. So while the classics are classic for a reason and obviously worth checking out, I recommend you add these newer spots to your hitlist, too.

A long-awaited museum reno

5th arrondissement

The Cluny Museum reopened in May 2022 after an ambitious seven-year renovation. It's got new elevators (so great for wheelchair travelers), chair lifts, and a new chronolgical route that's way easier to follow. I find it slightly more peaceful than larger museums like the Louvre or Orsay because of it's small scale and quiet location, but it packs a lot in—1,500 years of medieval art, including the stunning “Lady with the Unicorn” tapestries on the first floor.

While the art is obviously the main draw, don’t forget to look at the museum’s changing architecture as you stroll (from the ruins of Roman baths, to the 15th-century Cluney abbey mansion, to the contemporary visitor’s center).

Tip: The renovation work is still ongoing in the museum's gardens but there’s a little café, in its airy interior courtyard where you can rest and have a snack inspired by Medieval recipes alongside a glass of wine or even hypocras.


A lunch deal that’s hard to beat

20th arrondissement

The unassuming neighborhood neo-bistro Paloma turns out one of the best lunch options in town for sheer quality to price ratio. For 16 euros, you’ll get three courses of inventive, seasonal French dishes—my recent visit started with a radicchio salad, followed with a simple pot-au-feu. There’s only a single, curated lunch menu each day with no swaps, so make sure to check the day’s offerings on Instagram before heading over. Reservations are only available for the evening, so show up early (I’d say just after noon) to ensure you get a table for lunch.


A hot spot for coffee

18th arrondissement

The streets just south of Montmartre’s Sacre-Coeur can often feel clogged with tourists, souvenir shops, and chain restaurants, but just a short walk away from the base of the funicular is a new coffee shop that's a real sanctuary. The tucked-away Clove Coffee Shop is a spare, calming space, where you’ll find locals catching up with friends over pastries and take away drinks available for travelers on the move. While the coffee here is top notch, don’t sleep on the perfectly balanced hot chocolate, made with a variety of chocolates from Nicolas Berger, the former cacao bean roaster for Alain Ducasse.

Tip: In addition to being a barista, Ella McElroy is a ceramics artist who handmakes many of Clove’s mugs and sells them at the store. Make sure to check them out—they make great one-of-a-kind souvenirs to bring home.


An elegant hideaway

3rd arrondissement

If you're looking for a new boutique stay in the city, check into Maison Proust. The 23-room hotel feels super intimate and is the perfect jumping off point for exploring the Haut Marais district known for its cool boutiques, art galleries and museums, and gay nightlife. Bonus: There's a luxe hammam in the basement that's rare for a hotel this size. Each guest is given one hour of total privacy during their stay to swim, steam, and lounge which they can choose during check-in.

Tip: Don’t miss the hotel’s cocktail bar, designed to evoke a Belle Époque literary salon. It’s got a rare book library with more that 1,200 period-specific titles that you can check out while drinking a Proustian madeleine flavored cocktail. Bonus: it’s open to non-guests, too.

Instagram-worthy pastries without the wait

7th arrondissement

If you can’t get into the perennially popular Septime, and you don’t want to wait in line for ages at the equally in-demand Clamato, keep things simple and head to the new Tapisserie Motte Picquet patisserie in the 7th arrondissement. Try the truly excellent maple syrup tart dolloped with cream that made Clamato famous (in large format, too!); the buttery ham and cheese croissants; or the egg salad sandwiches with smoked mayonnaise and trout egg.

Tip: Yes, Tapisserie is a sit-down spot, but they offer some of their baked goods to-go, so grab a few savory croissants and a quiche for a picnic on the Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, which is just 10 minutes away.

A commodities exchange turned modern art museum

1st arrondissement

In mid-2021, Paris’s former commodities exchange reopened after a massive reno—today, it’s a modern art museum housing the private collection of billionaire Francois Pinault. It’s worth visiting simply for the incredible space designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, but inside there are over 10,000 works from more than 400 artists. This is art like you may never have seen (or heard, or felt) before: super-sensory and immersive with video, sound, objects, living plants, paintings and more.

Tip: If you’re tired of being on your feet all day, beeline straight for the basement-level auditorium, which features bean bag chairs for lying down and taking in the video art. FYI: the museum offers free, late-night access on the first Saturday of every month from 5 to 9 p.m.

A crowd-pleasing breakfast joint

11th arrondissement

You can find croissants and jam-laden tartines for breakfast just about anywhere in Paris, but savory, protein-packed breakfast options feel few and far between. The latest outpost from Gramme bucks that trend. I’d say it’s one of the most unique breakfast spots in the city, so you should prioritize an a.m. visit, especially for the potato flatbreads with homemade goat cheese and persimmon salsa, and Grammola (their own granola with rhubarb jelly, petit suisse which is a fresh yogurt-like cheese, and geranium water). There are standout options for lunch and dinner too, but the breakfast is truly next-level.

Check out the original article on TripAdvisor.

A Road Trip Along the Route des Grands Crus

by Catherine Down in

Last year, I was lucky enough to get to write a series of articles about an absolutely picturesque road trip along the Route des Grands Crus in Burgundy. To follow along on that particular journey through Meursault, Aloxe-Corton, Gevrey-Chambertin, and Nuits-Saints-Georges, you can check it out here or read up on it over on Chateau de Pommard’s blog.

Santé!

Notre Dame fire reveals global love for Paris in troubled times

by Catherine Down

I shared some thoughts with CNN Travel about why the world loves Paris so much and why you should be traveling here right now.

See below or check out the original article by Channon Hodges on CNN.

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“When fire consumed Paris's Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame, the world watched in horror, with many expressing their love and support for a city that seems frequently beset by heartache.

There seems to be something about Paris that exerts a hold over the global imagination, even for those who have only ever daydreamed about walking next to the Seine, lunching on the Left Bank or watching the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower.

And though it has endured terrible events in the past few years, the city itself seems resilient to such tragedies, rising time and again to claim its position as the world's capital of romance.

The city has obvious allure as a travel destination thanks to landmarks like Notre Dame, world-class art museums such as the Louvre and a legendary dining scene, but there seems to be something else that ignites international affection.

"You would be hard-pressed to find anyone worldwide who hasn't seen a film, read a book, listened to a song in which Paris featured heavily -- let alone seen Parisian fashion and or eaten French cuisine," says Alizée Moreau, who was raised in Paris.

"Unless they are part of a remote community, they will have not only seen images of Paris, but also 'experienced' its culture, even if they haven't visited in person. It is part of our common heritage and our shared imagination."

That popularity has persisted despite the city's recent troubles. Over the past few months its been besieged by rioting "yellow shirt" anti-government protesters. And in 2015 it was shaken by two deadly terror attacks.

Resilience and love

While tourism may have fluctuated in the wake of these events, it has remained relatively consistent. A recent study on the world's most visited cities ranked the city number six on the global list, with nearly 16.9 million arrivals in 2018.

Among the city's global fan base, tragedy seems to strengthen affection.

In the aftermath of the November 2015 attacks on Paris's Bataclan concert hall, Facebook implemented its temporary profile picture application for the first time on a major scale, allowing users worldwide to filter images with the red, white and blue of the French flag in solidarity.

"So 2015 was a very hard year for the whole industry in Paris and France," says Stéphanie Boutet-Fajol, CEO of French tour company Sacre-Bleu Paris.

"However, tourists and especially Americans are resilient and the love for Paris is so strong that they finally came back. Hotels were the most impacted but it ended with something good because people perfected their service."

American food journalist Catherine Down, who has lived in Paris for six years, also felt the impact.

"I used to work in tourism. I used to give food tours. After the terrorist attacks, the company I was working for lost €15,000 [$16,928.00] overnight," she says.

Down said after the 2015 terror attacks she'd had articles canceled because editors told her "people aren't traveling to Paris."

But Down also acknowledges that the city will always be a popular destination -- and assures visitors they should still visit.

"Even though the perception of someone watching the news from far away is that this is an unsafe place to be, or there's all this chaos, for the most part it's still life as usual," she tells CNN Travel.

The Notre Dame fire is unlikely to deter visitors in the same way as other tragic events; indeed, as the city starts to rebuild, it could well attract more.

"I think that this latest tragedy will possibly attract more as people realize the fragility of these historic places," says Heidi Evans, a tour guide who runs the Women of Paris walking tours -- which spotlight women's role in Parisian history.

"If the crowds around Notre Dame today are anything to go by then seems like everyone wants a chance to see the wounded Lady," she adds.

However, the fire is still likely to have an affect on morale -- both good and bad.

As the fire burned on Monday, for many, it felt like a physical affront, says Down.

"Part of the role of a cathedral is to feel the presence of the sublime. People humanize it almost -- it's literally 'Notre Dame,' 'Our Lady,'" she says.

The cathedral is one of the City of Light's most famous symbols, attracting an estimated 13 million visitors a year.

Predating the Eiffel Tower by 500 years, it's seen upheaval and destruction during the French Revolution and survived the German occupation of the city during World War II. It was immortalized in literature in Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame."

"Watching Notre Dame burn was a huge shock," says Moreau. "It had never occurred to me that this wonderful, medieval piece of my childhood -- the center of Paris, the garden behind it where my grandma used to take me on my tricycle, the blossoming trees next to it, the pale golden stone, the view from the top of the tower -- could one day be gone.

"They have been there for centuries and I thought they would always be there. It feels like a broken thread, a great collective loss."

McSweeney's: Think Pieces Attempting To Define “Big Dick Energy” Or Joan Didion's Iconic Essay “On Self-Respect”?

by Catherine Down

Originally published on McSweeney’s

1. “It’s a self-assurance that radiates from deep within and can be felt for miles. It’s an energy that immediately shifts the dynamic of a room. It is not actively seeking out debauchery or pleasure, but having it gravitate toward you.”

2. “People with [it] exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character, a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to other, more instantly negotiable virtues.”

3. “The complete security of not needing other people’s benchmarks — wealth, intelligence, beauty, or [it] — to know one’s own worth. Any suspicion of tryhard vibes kills [it], as does the kind of cockiness that speaks of insecurity.”

4. “People with [it] have the courage of their mistakes. They know the price of things. If they choose to commit adultery, they do not then go running, in an access of bad conscience, to receive absolution from the wronged parties; nor do they complain unduly of the unfairness, the undeserved embarrassment, of being named correspondent.”

5. “A discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth.”

6. “Adam Driver has it, as did Carrie Fisher. It fuels Themyscira and her Amazons. Imperator Furiosa and Mad Max both have it. Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wield it, as does Angela Merkel. So do Tilda Swinton, Cher, and Cate Blanchett. Johnny Cash had it, same with Prince and David Bowie. LeBron James, Serena Williams, and Katie Ledecky have it, too. If you look hard enough, it’s everywhere around you. So is its absence.”

7. “Although the careless, suicidal Julian English in Appointment in Samarra and the careless, incurably dishonest Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby seem equally improbable candidates for [it], Jordan Baker had it, Julian English did not.”

8. “The dismal fact is that [it] has nothing to do with the approval of others — who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation — which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something that people with courage can do without.”

9. “Not everyone with [it] is well-dressed, but having [it] seems to be a prerequisite to being one of the best-dressed people in the world.”

10. “[It] cannot be planned nor can it be forced. It is a natural thing bestowed upon the chosen ones.”

11. “A quiet confidence and ease with oneself… It’s not cockiness, it’s not a power trip — it’s the opposite: a healthy, satisfied, low-key way you feel yourself.”

12. “They may not play at all, but when they do play, they know the odds.”

13. “To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves — there lies the great, the singular power of [it]. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.”

14. “It doesn’t assert or draw attention to itself, it simply: is.”

- - -

Think Pieces Attempting to Define “Big Dick Energy”: 1, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14 
Joan Didion’s “On Self-Respect”: 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13

To see the original piece, click here.