July 17, 2023 • 22 mins
When the Comte de Saint-Germain said he’d like to share his thoughts about the 14th with our listeners, we jumped at the chance. Because, t’s true, when Marie and I did a quick overview of this arrondissement, we didn't have much to say!
Monsieur le Compte lives by metro Alésia and I think you will be very interested in what he says about the area. I know that I learnt a lot! The question is, though, where would he live if the Apartment Fairy Godmother gave him his choice of anywhere in Paris? Listen to find out!
Discover more about the Comte de Saint-Germain on his website https://walk.paris/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/walk.paris/
Here is a link to listen to his audio tours: https://voicemap.me/publisher/comte-de-saint-germain.
For cultural events in the 14th (in French only), follow https://www.instagram.com/polisemi_75014/
Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/parisundergroundradio
Find Us Online
Website: https:/parisundergroundradio.com/parisestateofmind
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parisundergroundradio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parisundergroundradio/
Credits
Music Credits
Music: Jazz In Paris - Media Right Productions https://youtu.be/mNLJMTRvyj8
About Us
Welcome to Paris Estate of Mind! Join hosts Gail Boisclair and Marie Pistinier as we talk about the good, the bad, the ins, the outs of property rentals and purchases in and around Paris. We'll have topics for renters, owners, and visitors, share questions we are regularly asked, and more.
Have a question for the podcast? Send us an email at hello@parisundergroundradio.com.
Monsieur le Compte lives by metro Alésia and I think you will be very interested in what he says about the area. I know that I learnt a lot! The question is, though, where would he live if the Apartment Fairy Godmother gave him his choice of anywhere in Paris? Listen to find out!
Discover more about the Comte de Saint-Germain on his website https://walk.paris/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/walk.paris/
Here is a link to listen to his audio tours: https://voicemap.me/publisher/comte-de-saint-germain.
For cultural events in the 14th (in French only), follow https://www.instagram.com/polisemi_75014/
Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/parisundergroundradio
Find Us Online
Website: https:/parisundergroundradio.com/parisestateofmind
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parisundergroundradio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parisundergroundradio/
Credits
- Host: Gail Boisclair. @PerfectlyParis; Website: PerfectlyParis, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
- Host: Marie Pistinier. Lokim on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and Paris Be A Part Of It on Facebook, and Instagram.
- Producer: Jennifer Geraghty. @jennyphoria; Website: http://jennyphoria.com
Music Credits
Music: Jazz In Paris - Media Right Productions https://youtu.be/mNLJMTRvyj8
About Us
Welcome to Paris Estate of Mind! Join hosts Gail Boisclair and Marie Pistinier as we talk about the good, the bad, the ins, the outs of property rentals and purchases in and around Paris. We'll have topics for renters, owners, and visitors, share questions we are regularly asked, and more.
Have a question for the podcast? Send us an email at hello@parisundergroundradio.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to Paris the State ofMind on Paris Underground Radio. For more
great content, join us on Patreonat Patreon dot com slash Paris Underground Radio.
Welcome to Paris A State of Mind. Join us as we talk about
the good, the bad, theends, the outs of property, rentals
(00:22):
and purchases in and around Paris.We'll have topics for renters, owners and
visitors, share questions we are regularlyasked and more. My name is Gail
Barclaire of Perfectly Paris and my cohost is Marie Pistigner of lokim Paris.
Be a part of it. Bothof us are proud members of the SPLM,
(00:43):
the first representative body of furnished rentalprofessionals. Hello everyone in podcast world.
We are back in the studio foranother episode of Paris A State of
Mind and we're continuing on with they'rea very popular series of what it's like
living in certain neighborhoods. So we'vebeen running around Paris virtually and talking to
(01:07):
different people. So today we havethe pleasure of having Conte de Saint Jeanmin
which Saint Germaine is actually a reallygood liqueur. Just in case like slightly
off topic if you didn't know that. Who create GPS guided audio tours in
Paris starting in the fourteenth Roundie Small, and we're going to talk to him
about all kinds of things. Welcome, Thanks Gail, yet to be here,
(01:30):
and I concur I actually love thetaste of was that siour elderflower?
Yes, elderflower exactly? Liquor?Yeah, it's really nice, great four
sprits. You know, well actuallyyou know, just like a little more
aside about that is I much prefercenterment sprits to an apparel sprits. There
(01:51):
you go, your team, cugo. But getting on to the topic at
hand, what Roundie Small, doyou currently live in now in fourteenth fourteen?
Look at these him, okay,and what's your closest metro station?
The closest is Alysia. So Alisiais online four and that's for many people.
The sort of the official roundabout ofthe area is Alsia, so everybody
(02:13):
will talk about the Alsia roundabout.The real name is the place Victor and
ellen Bash where resistance fighters and humanrights defenders during World War two. But
everybody just calls it Alesia and theysee the roundabout, and I see the
church and they don't know what youmean. Oh wow, And that's a
good little interesting tidbit already for people. And how long have you been living
in that area? So in thisarea about seven years now and moved in
(02:37):
and actually now I'm buying there,so I'm gonna at some point fully owned
a place where I live. That'sexciting. So that means you really like
it. But we'll get to thatin a minute. And why then,
since you've only been there seven years, what made you choose where you're living
right now? Was it just amatter of what you found or was it
really a matter of choice? Well, it was actually love my partner who
(03:00):
has lived all around the planet,who's Irish. When she decided to put
her life savings into an apartment,she said it had to be in the
fourteenth and ideally it had to besouth of the Montparnas Cemetery and around the
area of Ruda Gia, which isthis big like shopping street that has like
this village field. And so westarted, you know, walking around the
fourteenth and then by going through listings, we found that there are other cool
(03:23):
parts of the fourteenth than just thatRuda Gia area. And she had very
strict criteria. It has to beAsmanian building. It has to have a
fifth row balcony, you know,with the living room dining room connected,
and that I had one job.Actually, my job was to be the
bad Cup when we saw the apartment. I should trash the place. I
should say no, this is notgreat, so that she could be the
(03:44):
good Cup and enjoy all those features. And I failed. I felt miserably.
The place was great, and shegot the place, and now I
moved in. You know, that'sa funny story. Actually it's a good
one. And so you really lovethe area and you feel as happy about
the area as you did when youfirst moved there seven years ago. Oh
(04:05):
yeah, even even more so becausethe you know, it's a very unknown
part of the fourteenth So the realestate agents called that the Golden Triangle of
the fourteenth. But that has nothingto do with the Golden Triangle of Avenue
Monte and all those fancy shops.It is just that there's this triangle of
Asmanian buildings right smack in the fourteenthwhich look great because the entire streets of
(04:25):
Asmanian you know, if you've seenthe movie Inception, when the buildings start
to bend. That's this type ofarchitecture we're talking about. But what I
discovered was that this was so denselypacked with shops and bars and things you
can do locally that I always discovernew things, Like just walking around that
neighborhood is incredible because there are moreand more things that you've never heard about
because it's a quiet place. Andlike when you are describing the fourteenth first
(04:47):
in your your main roundabout of allthe air on this moment, you did
like what most people do, whichis oh, yeah, and then you
know, at best people go,yeah, really, leg it is,
but that's you know, that's likethe tip of the ice word. Like
all the rest of the fourteenth issouth of it, and it's actually much
more interesting than the more boundless area. So it's it's really full of surprises.
Yeah. Well, and that's thewhole reason why I wanted to do
(05:12):
this series, because I thought,you know, we all have preconceived ideas
of what a particular area is like, but you really only know if you're
living in it exactly. And soI can talk until I'm blue in the
face about my area, but Icertainly couldn't talk about your area, because
I don't know enough of it apartfrom liking it more and more every day
(05:32):
and every year, etc. Whatdo you like most about where you live?
I mean, for me, it'sin many ways is the history,
because it's a it's a place thatyou know, a couple hundred years ago
it was a countryside. So itgets built quite recently when it comes to
the history of Paris, but ithas incredible you know, World War two
resistance related histories, so it hasincredible architecture, like the first building by
(05:55):
Lucorbuzier in Paris is in my neighborhood. You have everything from Aldaco to the
first brutalist architecture, like the neighborhoodchurch is made of red brick, which
is not that common in Paris tohave an entire building made of red brick
and be proud of it. Youcan find a little bit of everything,
and also there's even things that areolder, like we have sections of the
(06:18):
Roman aqueducts going through the Ahndis Monethave been unearthed, so you can walk
in the street and see slabs ofstones build there by the Romans to bring
water to the Clooney Spa basically andit's still there, so we never know
without actually coming here at amating that'scrazy. So there's so much stuff.
(06:38):
And also, let's face it,for me, my number one thing that
I love about the fourteenth is thecatacombs because I go there every now and
then. I was there completely legallyyesterday for for a special tour. And
it actually impacts both the hobby aspectof you know, living here, Like
the tourists come to the catacoms,they don't go any further south. They
go to Catacombs and then they gohome in the center. But actually that
(07:00):
impacts your life a lot, Like, you know, you got to make
sure that your building is secure,and the people doing the inspections checked that
the quarries under your ground floor arestable. But also like just a few
months ago, there's a guy whowas doing to his basement and the floor
gave way and he fell in ashaft of the caaccombs that had not been
(07:20):
properly covered up. So it's notthat the floor gave no, No,
it was his hotwood floor in thecave literally had not been properly you know,
like masoned out or cemented out,and he felt halfway down to the
lower levels of the ground had tobe like pulled off by the firement.
So it's like this is not acommon thing, but it's just to tell
(07:41):
you that. Yeah, the historywill remind you that it's there every now
and then, and you have totake good care of your building, even
if it's your cave. Make sureyour cave has a stable ground, you
know. Yeah, it certainly remindyou that it's there when you fall through
the floor. Yep, good grief. And do you think that there's a
certain type of person that would enjoyliving in the area, Like, I
(08:03):
mean, could it be families,couples, swinging singles, all of the
above, none of the above.Yeah, it really depends. So for
clubbers, no, Like we don'thave clubs, we don't have loud music
venues, So if you want aparty in a loud way every night,
it's not gonna work. Really likeit. It's probably as close as it
gets to, you know, sortof theater. And our neighborhood there is
(08:26):
actually a swingers clubs next door.They have menu outside on the street,
and it doesn't feel very inviting.So even even for people that are into
that, it didn't look very queerfriendly. Or anything. So I'm like,
don't want to, don't want togo there, And that's as loud
as rarely as it gets. No, the rest is really for families.
It's really quiet, but it's alsofor people that want everything there. I
(08:48):
want their cinema there, like cabdrivers when they when they bring us home,
they look around, they say,wait a minute, you have everything
here, and they say, yep, yep. That's why we rarely go
outside because the neighborhood is so denselypacked. And for the students, there
are a few because there's a lotof you know, the cham Dburne at
the top floor of those million buildings, But the real concentration is the City
Universal so the big student dorms thatare from every country has their own building
(09:13):
with their own architecture. There's moreLe Corbusier there, if you're into that
for the Swiss, so it's likea park with student housing. So it's
really that's the only place where youwould see so many students in the fourteenth
is because they're literally in their spot, like that's their their compound is the
City University. But the rest,I would say is mostly families and maybe
more like larger family with more childrentowards the west because there's more like high
(09:37):
rise, more social housing, andsmaller families where we are, because those
million buildings are not truly designed forbig, big families, so it's like
when two children tops, but lotsof schools. Yeah, I do think
that is one of the things thatwhat you just mentioned about the size of
the older building. I think alot of people don't realize that the majority
of them aren't really very family friendlybecause you're going to have usually bedrooms at
(10:00):
most every now and then three bedrooms. Anything more than three bedrooms forget it.
Yeah, it's really rare. Andif there's something that you found out
after living in this area that youwish you knew before that our listeners should
know about apart from falling through thefloor. Yeah, no, I mean,
I would say, on the positiveside, is really the architecture,
because I never realized how much ofthe basically the founders of modern architecture had
(10:26):
worked in the neighborhood, Like becauseyou had all these artistic types, you
know, at the type of theMontanas, the last generation that the Hemmingways
and so on, their buddies werearchitects, so they try crazy stuff back
then, so and you have alot of those buildings left all around.
So that for me was a positiveon the negative because I know all of
Paris and I love all of Paris. For me, the fourteens was never
a negative or anything. But apparentlyfor a lot of tourists, a lot
(10:48):
of Americans specifically, they don't knowabout the fourteen so they think it's the
suburbs, and then when they go, they go, oh my god,
there's actually all these cute little streetsand there's like, you know, the
village life and blah blah blah.And so what I did not know it
would be this sort of v shapewhere you know, like people stopped trashing
your place, and then the momentarrived, suddenly there's this complete reversal say,
(11:11):
oh, but this is actually reallynice, and I'm like, well,
yeah, like I knew it,but so I was surprised. I
was surprised by their reaction. Theirreaction was a surprise. I'm like,
what is wrong with these people?And then I remember, Okay, they
just have to learn, like everybodyelse, when you don't know a place,
you have to come and tried itfor yourself, and then you know,
you know, yeah, I mean, and that's often how I end
up discovering new areas that I endup liking, is by going to meet
(11:33):
a friend or whatever, or meetingsomebody or trying a new restaurant or what
have you. Just going out ofthe area every now and then, and
sometimes I yeah pleasantly. I wasin the seventh earlier today, for example,
and I was also there I thinkon Friday, and I saw this
really great looking Indian restaurant. Sothen I looked up all the details and
(11:56):
I thought, oh, yeah,I've got to go check that out,
even though it's totally not in myarea. But before I went to the
seventh for work, which is whyI go to the seventh now for different
apartments. I always pooh pooed theSeventh as well too, but there's parts
of it that I actually like,Like I'm sure I probably would love your
area too, but I don't knowit no exactly. And that's and that's
(12:18):
part of the reasons why. Yeah, I mean, just you are talking
restaurants, Mosuke. So there's thisrestaurant by Molisako, who's like the hottest
chef in France right now. Hemixes you know, West African French,
Japanese and Mexican style flavors. Amazing, amazing chef. There's the thing is
booked like montha in advance, andhe installed his restaurants in a completely dead
street of the fourteenth Like even Iwould walk by there without noticing it was
(12:41):
there. But yeah, you cantake six months just to get a table.
So that's like you were saying,like, unless you actually come in
person, you don't realize. Butthen I ate there once and it's amazing,
It's it's really worth it. Soindeed, sometimes you just have to
scratch the surface. And the beautyof it is making people. And that's
why I make these tources, makepeople go and walk in small streets that
don't look like anything. But actuallyif you listen and if you hear about
(13:05):
the history, suddenly it makes perfectsense and there's value. There's value in
it, you know. Yeah,definitely anything else that you could think of
telling anyone about your area. Imean, I guess maybe two shout outs.
One there's a person called who goesby police Amy and she's so it's
all in French. With all thisone you have to speak French, but
she does basically everything that's happening inthe fourteenth So art exhibits, vernissage,
(13:31):
you know, nonprofit events, visits, and she's based in a former convent.
So the neighborhood is actually famous forthat because it was close to Paris.
But in the countryside there's all thesereligious communities that had massive compounds,
and as you know, Catholicism hasbeen going down in France, the communities
are shrinking and at some point theysell and so in this case, the
nuns, we're getting a bit older, they sold their compound and they say,
(13:54):
okay, we'll get a smaller placesomewhere else. And before this is
converted into you know, new healthesbuilding, it gets used by There's this
company called Plateau Band that basically doestemporary use, so they put in artists,
startup companies, nonprofits, they doemergency housing for refugees and so police
SEMy is based there and she well, first she gave me a two of
the compound, which is amazing ifyou have the chance. It's called the
(14:15):
Village Ray. But she keeps thissort of ongoing schedule of exciting things that
are happening in the fourteenth strictly inthe fourteenth. So that's probably a good
link to give to people, likeif you want to know what's happening,
because I'm all city, but she'sfully focused on the fourteenth And one of
the other people there is called LaRue, so in the heart of the streets,
and it's a nonprofit that takes foodthat's about to perish that cannot be
(14:37):
sold anymore in supermarkets, so theytake it from the supermarkets, they cook
meals with them right now, andthen they give the meals for free to
to people in need in the street. And they're based in that same former
convent. So I think it's thebest thing in the world where you're preventing
waste and at the same time you'reyou're feeding the needy locally and they're and
they're based in that convent, soin a way that the message because they
(14:58):
were a Franciscan, so in away the message sharing and helping your neighbor.
Even though the nuns are gone,the message is still there. So
I'm trying to raise money actually onInstagram is the first time I'm doing it
based works partly. A quarter ofthe goal has been reached, So yeah,
if people want to help the peopleof the fourteenth you need. Then
they can go on Instagram and checkout what's happening there. If you're enjoying
(15:20):
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our sister podcast, Don't miss This. Join Jennifer Weekly for the scoop on
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(15:43):
There are more and more community restaurantsand Paris that are helping the needy.
I used to work for one forthree years called the Repertorio in the
Crypt of the Madeline Nice. Yeah, oh that's yeah, that's a classic,
that's a famous one. Yeah,but I mean it's really important.
And they have the same concept withthe food waste. But I actually love
that too now that when we gointo a supermarket you do actually have like
(16:07):
binds of food that technically is youknow, has to be sold by whatever
date the anti gaspiage exactly now,so rather than throw it out, they
sell at a price. It's interestingif you walk around the fourteenth you'll see
a lot of composting boxes that havebeen made by this group called It's like
(16:27):
a local friendship group for the neighbors, and they organize like a giant dinner
in the streets with like six hundredpeople eating at the same time and sharing
meals. And they also organized recyclingof food waste, so you can compost
your stuff in the streets like allaround. You don't have to walk any
far. It's like at the cornerof the streets, you get your regular
binds and you get your compost.So it's really exactly for that. So
(16:48):
if you ever finish your plates,instead of being chastised by your parents,
you can you can use the leftoversand put it at the local compost box.
The entire neighborhood now is covered inthose. It's really hyper them.
So a good job on the Pozafor having done that. So no,
no more excuses. No, that'svery good. I think we all have
to be conscious of that. Andso I have a big question for you
(17:10):
though, if you could have thefairy godmother of apartments in Paris come down
and offer you any apartment anywhere inthe city. Where would it be and
what type of apartment would it be? Ah? Yeah, so really no
limits. I would take the tourSaint Jaques. I would literally take the
let's say, the last two floorsof the Tours Saint Jacques, because it's
(17:32):
the best view in Paris, andbecause it doesn't have an active church attached
to it anymore, you're not goingto be woken up by the bells because
that used to be the steeple ofthe church. But there's no bells now,
so you're quiet. You get thebest view in Paris. It's very
central. We probably need to installa lift, you know, so that's
that would be probably, But yeah, best view in Paris, great Gothic
(17:53):
architecture. And if that's not possiblebecause it's you know, it's a national
monuments, it's hard. Yeah.Yeah, So if I have to remain
within legal like purchasable items, Iwould buy actually the apartments upstairs from mine,
just because the neighbors are super noisy. So this way I would keep
it as a as an empty quietspace above my head, so I could
(18:15):
have a vacuum above me to justlike have quiet. I will stay there,
but with quiet above I would bethe plan. Well, maybe we'll
hope that one day the fairy godmotherwill make Tour Saint Jacques your future home.
That great, that will for surebe quiet. Yes, well,
(18:36):
thank you. And at the endof all my shows, I always want
people to get to know who myguest is as well too, So could
you share a little bit about yourselfto the listeners and let them know how
they can get in contact with you. Definitely. So I'm the Conde Saint
Genmin And if you know the namefrom history, it's normal. You can
(18:56):
google it. There's actually a recentvideo about sort of a history YouTube that
mentioned who the Condestaintma is and whathe's been doing throughout history. So I
won't go into the details. WhatI'm doing these days actually taking people on
walked Paris with their smartphones, soI'm not there. You're just unloading my
voice and I'm telling you go letgo there, look down, look up,
(19:17):
because I'm showing you things you wouldnever see otherwise. And I started
in the fourteenth I'm gonna leave itat some point, hopefully because people are
asking me, Okay, that's great, I've done your fourteenth twelve. Now
I want something else. But thefirst one was really about cute little streets
with lots of flowers and underground water. We talked about the Roman Aqueduct a
bit but there's a reservoirld, there'sall kinds of things. So right now
(19:37):
it's the best season. This isthe summer. Go, go and walk
those little streets. The flowers areincredible. You'll see small individual houses with
gardens inside Paris, not in thesuburbs, inside Paris. So that part
of the fourteenth is really cute,and the other parts, which is less
cute. It's the bit it's aboutLoupan like the Lupan series on Netflix with
with Do Marci and Lupin the Gentlemanthief that inspired the series, and the
(20:02):
catacombs. So I take you abovebasically all the locations where the series was
shot. I even take you tojail, so I make you walk near
the walls of the prison La Sente, the last jail in Paris, is
in the fourteenth and I explain toyou about the jail breaks and what's happening
below your feet, and the timesthe houses fell down in the catacombs.
So it's really you don't go therefor IQND you go there more for like
(20:25):
the shocking history, but again stillin the fourteenth. So it's a good
way to show you, like twocompletely different ways of enjoying Paris in different
ways. That's great. Do youwant to share your website or Instagram?
Oh yeah, yeah, so it'swalked dot Paris, so the website is
walked out Paris. Instagram is walkedout Paris, so it's always the same.
(20:45):
And then if you already know theapp, the app is called voice
map, So if you already knowthe app, I'm on there too,
so you can see you can seemy tours on the Paris. And apparently
a lot of people like to listento them at home, even when they're
not in Paris. So I gotpeople from Montreal listening to them like a
podcast. I got people who knowthe neighborhood really well and said, I
don't have time to walk around theneighborhood, but I really want to hear
(21:07):
the stories, so they listen tothem at home. So it's designed for
listening while walking. But some peoplejust go to walk Paris, download the
tours and listen to them like thestories of a podcast. So hey,
that's cool. Next time you comein Paris and you can do it for
real, no problem. Oh wow, very cool. Well, thank you
very much for everything. I hopethat we've got some new lovers of the
(21:27):
fourteenth after listening to this podcast,because you certainly made it sound much more
interesting than what a lot of peoplethought, including myself. Well, thank
you and thanks for having me.I'm glad I got to share this with
you and looking forward to your inperson walking of these little streets. Absolutely
yes, I will have to bea convert and have more positive things to
(21:48):
say. We'll have something to sayabout the fourteenth Pecas. Right now,
I don't have a lot of heartfrom what you two said. Thanks again,
Thank you, have a great day. Thanks for listening to Paris A
State of Mind featuring Gale of PerfectlyParis and Marie of Lokim, both who
are founding members of the SPLM.Paris A State of Mind is produced by
(22:12):
Paris Underground Radio, the Music Jazzand Paris Is by Media Rite Productions.
For more information on this show andothers, go to Paris Underground Radio dot
com. This episode of Paris theState of Mind was produced by Jennifer Garrity
for Paris Underground Radio. For moregreat content, join us on Patreon at
(22:34):
Patreon dot com slash Paris Underground Radio
You're listening to Paris the State ofMind on Paris Underground Radio. For more
great content, join us on Patreonat Patreon dot com slash Paris Underground Radio.
Welcome to Paris A State of Mind. Join us as we talk about
the good, the bad, theends, the outs of property, rentals
(00:22):
and purchases in and around Paris.We'll have topics for renters, owners and
visitors, share questions we are regularlyasked and more. My name is Gail
Barclaire of Perfectly Paris and my cohost is Marie Pistigner of lokim Paris.
Be a part of it. Bothof us are proud members of the SPLM,
(00:43):
the first representative body of furnished rentalprofessionals. Hello everyone in podcast world.
We are back in the studio foranother episode of Paris A State of
Mind and we're continuing on with they'rea very popular series of what it's like
living in certain neighborhoods. So we'vebeen running around Paris virtually and talking to
(01:07):
different people. So today we havethe pleasure of having Conte de Saint Jeanmin
which Saint Germaine is actually a reallygood liqueur. Just in case like slightly
off topic if you didn't know that. Who create GPS guided audio tours in
Paris starting in the fourteenth Roundie Small, and we're going to talk to him
about all kinds of things. Welcome, Thanks Gail, yet to be here,
(01:30):
and I concur I actually love thetaste of was that siour elderflower?
Yes, elderflower exactly? Liquor?Yeah, it's really nice, great four
sprits. You know, well actuallyyou know, just like a little more
aside about that is I much prefercenterment sprits to an apparel sprits. There
(01:51):
you go, your team, cugo. But getting on to the topic at
hand, what Roundie Small, doyou currently live in now in fourteenth fourteen?
Look at these him, okay,and what's your closest metro station?
The closest is Alysia. So Alisiais online four and that's for many people.
The sort of the official roundabout ofthe area is Alsia, so everybody
(02:13):
will talk about the Alsia roundabout.The real name is the place Victor and
ellen Bash where resistance fighters and humanrights defenders during World War two. But
everybody just calls it Alesia and theysee the roundabout, and I see the
church and they don't know what youmean. Oh wow, And that's a
good little interesting tidbit already for people. And how long have you been living
in that area? So in thisarea about seven years now and moved in
(02:37):
and actually now I'm buying there,so I'm gonna at some point fully owned
a place where I live. That'sexciting. So that means you really like
it. But we'll get to thatin a minute. And why then,
since you've only been there seven years, what made you choose where you're living
right now? Was it just amatter of what you found or was it
really a matter of choice? Well, it was actually love my partner who
(03:00):
has lived all around the planet,who's Irish. When she decided to put
her life savings into an apartment,she said it had to be in the
fourteenth and ideally it had to besouth of the Montparnas Cemetery and around the
area of Ruda Gia, which isthis big like shopping street that has like
this village field. And so westarted, you know, walking around the
fourteenth and then by going through listings, we found that there are other cool
(03:23):
parts of the fourteenth than just thatRuda Gia area. And she had very
strict criteria. It has to beAsmanian building. It has to have a
fifth row balcony, you know,with the living room dining room connected,
and that I had one job.Actually, my job was to be the
bad Cup when we saw the apartment. I should trash the place. I
should say no, this is notgreat, so that she could be the
(03:44):
good Cup and enjoy all those features. And I failed. I felt miserably.
The place was great, and shegot the place, and now I
moved in. You know, that'sa funny story. Actually it's a good
one. And so you really lovethe area and you feel as happy about
the area as you did when youfirst moved there seven years ago. Oh
(04:05):
yeah, even even more so becausethe you know, it's a very unknown
part of the fourteenth So the realestate agents called that the Golden Triangle of
the fourteenth. But that has nothingto do with the Golden Triangle of Avenue
Monte and all those fancy shops.It is just that there's this triangle of
Asmanian buildings right smack in the fourteenthwhich look great because the entire streets of
(04:25):
Asmanian you know, if you've seenthe movie Inception, when the buildings start
to bend. That's this type ofarchitecture we're talking about. But what I
discovered was that this was so denselypacked with shops and bars and things you
can do locally that I always discovernew things, Like just walking around that
neighborhood is incredible because there are moreand more things that you've never heard about
because it's a quiet place. Andlike when you are describing the fourteenth first
(04:47):
in your your main roundabout of allthe air on this moment, you did
like what most people do, whichis oh, yeah, and then you
know, at best people go,yeah, really, leg it is,
but that's you know, that's likethe tip of the ice word. Like
all the rest of the fourteenth issouth of it, and it's actually much
more interesting than the more boundless area. So it's it's really full of surprises.
Yeah. Well, and that's thewhole reason why I wanted to do
(05:12):
this series, because I thought,you know, we all have preconceived ideas
of what a particular area is like, but you really only know if you're
living in it exactly. And soI can talk until I'm blue in the
face about my area, but Icertainly couldn't talk about your area, because
I don't know enough of it apartfrom liking it more and more every day
(05:32):
and every year, etc. Whatdo you like most about where you live?
I mean, for me, it'sin many ways is the history,
because it's a it's a place thatyou know, a couple hundred years ago
it was a countryside. So itgets built quite recently when it comes to
the history of Paris, but ithas incredible you know, World War two
resistance related histories, so it hasincredible architecture, like the first building by
(05:55):
Lucorbuzier in Paris is in my neighborhood. You have everything from Aldaco to the
first brutalist architecture, like the neighborhoodchurch is made of red brick, which
is not that common in Paris tohave an entire building made of red brick
and be proud of it. Youcan find a little bit of everything,
and also there's even things that areolder, like we have sections of the
(06:18):
Roman aqueducts going through the Ahndis Monethave been unearthed, so you can walk
in the street and see slabs ofstones build there by the Romans to bring
water to the Clooney Spa basically andit's still there, so we never know
without actually coming here at amating that'scrazy. So there's so much stuff.
(06:38):
And also, let's face it,for me, my number one thing that
I love about the fourteenth is thecatacombs because I go there every now and
then. I was there completely legallyyesterday for for a special tour. And
it actually impacts both the hobby aspectof you know, living here, Like
the tourists come to the catacoms,they don't go any further south. They
go to Catacombs and then they gohome in the center. But actually that
(07:00):
impacts your life a lot, Like, you know, you got to make
sure that your building is secure,and the people doing the inspections checked that
the quarries under your ground floor arestable. But also like just a few
months ago, there's a guy whowas doing to his basement and the floor
gave way and he fell in ashaft of the caaccombs that had not been
(07:20):
properly covered up. So it's notthat the floor gave no, No,
it was his hotwood floor in thecave literally had not been properly you know,
like masoned out or cemented out,and he felt halfway down to the
lower levels of the ground had tobe like pulled off by the firement.
So it's like this is not acommon thing, but it's just to tell
(07:41):
you that. Yeah, the historywill remind you that it's there every now
and then, and you have totake good care of your building, even
if it's your cave. Make sureyour cave has a stable ground, you
know. Yeah, it certainly remindyou that it's there when you fall through
the floor. Yep, good grief. And do you think that there's a
certain type of person that would enjoyliving in the area, Like, I
(08:03):
mean, could it be families,couples, swinging singles, all of the
above, none of the above.Yeah, it really depends. So for
clubbers, no, Like we don'thave clubs, we don't have loud music
venues, So if you want aparty in a loud way every night,
it's not gonna work. Really likeit. It's probably as close as it
gets to, you know, sortof theater. And our neighborhood there is
(08:26):
actually a swingers clubs next door.They have menu outside on the street,
and it doesn't feel very inviting.So even even for people that are into
that, it didn't look very queerfriendly. Or anything. So I'm like,
don't want to, don't want togo there, And that's as loud
as rarely as it gets. No, the rest is really for families.
It's really quiet, but it's alsofor people that want everything there. I
(08:48):
want their cinema there, like cabdrivers when they when they bring us home,
they look around, they say,wait a minute, you have everything
here, and they say, yep, yep. That's why we rarely go
outside because the neighborhood is so denselypacked. And for the students, there
are a few because there's a lotof you know, the cham Dburne at
the top floor of those million buildings, But the real concentration is the City
Universal so the big student dorms thatare from every country has their own building
(09:13):
with their own architecture. There's moreLe Corbusier there, if you're into that
for the Swiss, so it's likea park with student housing. So it's
really that's the only place where youwould see so many students in the fourteenth
is because they're literally in their spot, like that's their their compound is the
City University. But the rest,I would say is mostly families and maybe
more like larger family with more childrentowards the west because there's more like high
(09:37):
rise, more social housing, andsmaller families where we are, because those
million buildings are not truly designed forbig, big families, so it's like
when two children tops, but lotsof schools. Yeah, I do think
that is one of the things thatwhat you just mentioned about the size of
the older building. I think alot of people don't realize that the majority
of them aren't really very family friendlybecause you're going to have usually bedrooms at
(10:00):
most every now and then three bedrooms. Anything more than three bedrooms forget it.
Yeah, it's really rare. Andif there's something that you found out
after living in this area that youwish you knew before that our listeners should
know about apart from falling through thefloor. Yeah, no, I mean,
I would say, on the positiveside, is really the architecture,
because I never realized how much ofthe basically the founders of modern architecture had
(10:26):
worked in the neighborhood, Like becauseyou had all these artistic types, you
know, at the type of theMontanas, the last generation that the Hemmingways
and so on, their buddies werearchitects, so they try crazy stuff back
then, so and you have alot of those buildings left all around.
So that for me was a positiveon the negative because I know all of
Paris and I love all of Paris. For me, the fourteens was never
a negative or anything. But apparentlyfor a lot of tourists, a lot
(10:48):
of Americans specifically, they don't knowabout the fourteen so they think it's the
suburbs, and then when they go, they go, oh my god,
there's actually all these cute little streetsand there's like, you know, the
village life and blah blah blah.And so what I did not know it
would be this sort of v shapewhere you know, like people stopped trashing
your place, and then the momentarrived, suddenly there's this complete reversal say,
(11:11):
oh, but this is actually reallynice, and I'm like, well,
yeah, like I knew it,but so I was surprised. I
was surprised by their reaction. Theirreaction was a surprise. I'm like,
what is wrong with these people?And then I remember, Okay, they
just have to learn, like everybodyelse, when you don't know a place,
you have to come and tried itfor yourself, and then you know,
you know, yeah, I mean, and that's often how I end
up discovering new areas that I endup liking, is by going to meet
(11:33):
a friend or whatever, or meetingsomebody or trying a new restaurant or what
have you. Just going out ofthe area every now and then, and
sometimes I yeah pleasantly. I wasin the seventh earlier today, for example,
and I was also there I thinkon Friday, and I saw this
really great looking Indian restaurant. Sothen I looked up all the details and
(11:56):
I thought, oh, yeah,I've got to go check that out,
even though it's totally not in myarea. But before I went to the
seventh for work, which is whyI go to the seventh now for different
apartments. I always pooh pooed theSeventh as well too, but there's parts
of it that I actually like,Like I'm sure I probably would love your
area too, but I don't knowit no exactly. And that's and that's
(12:18):
part of the reasons why. Yeah, I mean, just you are talking
restaurants, Mosuke. So there's thisrestaurant by Molisako, who's like the hottest
chef in France right now. Hemixes you know, West African French,
Japanese and Mexican style flavors. Amazing, amazing chef. There's the thing is
booked like montha in advance, andhe installed his restaurants in a completely dead
street of the fourteenth Like even Iwould walk by there without noticing it was
(12:41):
there. But yeah, you cantake six months just to get a table.
So that's like you were saying,like, unless you actually come in
person, you don't realize. Butthen I ate there once and it's amazing,
It's it's really worth it. Soindeed, sometimes you just have to
scratch the surface. And the beautyof it is making people. And that's
why I make these tources, makepeople go and walk in small streets that
don't look like anything. But actuallyif you listen and if you hear about
(13:05):
the history, suddenly it makes perfectsense and there's value. There's value in
it, you know. Yeah,definitely anything else that you could think of
telling anyone about your area. Imean, I guess maybe two shout outs.
One there's a person called who goesby police Amy and she's so it's
all in French. With all thisone you have to speak French, but
she does basically everything that's happening inthe fourteenth So art exhibits, vernissage,
(13:31):
you know, nonprofit events, visits, and she's based in a former convent.
So the neighborhood is actually famous forthat because it was close to Paris.
But in the countryside there's all thesereligious communities that had massive compounds,
and as you know, Catholicism hasbeen going down in France, the communities
are shrinking and at some point theysell and so in this case, the
nuns, we're getting a bit older, they sold their compound and they say,
(13:54):
okay, we'll get a smaller placesomewhere else. And before this is
converted into you know, new healthesbuilding, it gets used by There's this
company called Plateau Band that basically doestemporary use, so they put in artists,
startup companies, nonprofits, they doemergency housing for refugees and so police
SEMy is based there and she well, first she gave me a two of
the compound, which is amazing ifyou have the chance. It's called the
(14:15):
Village Ray. But she keeps thissort of ongoing schedule of exciting things that
are happening in the fourteenth strictly inthe fourteenth. So that's probably a good
link to give to people, likeif you want to know what's happening,
because I'm all city, but she'sfully focused on the fourteenth And one of
the other people there is called LaRue, so in the heart of the streets,
and it's a nonprofit that takes foodthat's about to perish that cannot be
(14:37):
sold anymore in supermarkets, so theytake it from the supermarkets, they cook
meals with them right now, andthen they give the meals for free to
to people in need in the street. And they're based in that same former
convent. So I think it's thebest thing in the world where you're preventing
waste and at the same time you'reyou're feeding the needy locally and they're and
they're based in that convent, soin a way that the message because they
(14:58):
were a Franciscan, so in away the message sharing and helping your neighbor.
Even though the nuns are gone,the message is still there. So
I'm trying to raise money actually onInstagram is the first time I'm doing it
based works partly. A quarter ofthe goal has been reached, So yeah,
if people want to help the peopleof the fourteenth you need. Then
they can go on Instagram and checkout what's happening there. If you're enjoying
(15:20):
this episode of Paris A State ofMind, you may also be interested in
our sister podcast, Don't miss This. Join Jennifer Weekly for the scoop on
what's happening in Paris Paris A Stateof Mind. We'll be right back after
a word from our sponsors, andnow back to Paris A State of Mind.
(15:43):
There are more and more community restaurantsand Paris that are helping the needy.
I used to work for one forthree years called the Repertorio in the
Crypt of the Madeline Nice. Yeah, oh that's yeah, that's a classic,
that's a famous one. Yeah,but I mean it's really important.
And they have the same concept withthe food waste. But I actually love
that too now that when we gointo a supermarket you do actually have like
(16:07):
binds of food that technically is youknow, has to be sold by whatever
date the anti gaspiage exactly now,so rather than throw it out, they
sell at a price. It's interestingif you walk around the fourteenth you'll see
a lot of composting boxes that havebeen made by this group called It's like
(16:27):
a local friendship group for the neighbors, and they organize like a giant dinner
in the streets with like six hundredpeople eating at the same time and sharing
meals. And they also organized recyclingof food waste, so you can compost
your stuff in the streets like allaround. You don't have to walk any
far. It's like at the cornerof the streets, you get your regular
binds and you get your compost.So it's really exactly for that. So
(16:48):
if you ever finish your plates,instead of being chastised by your parents,
you can you can use the leftoversand put it at the local compost box.
The entire neighborhood now is covered inthose. It's really hyper them.
So a good job on the Pozafor having done that. So no,
no more excuses. No, that'svery good. I think we all have
to be conscious of that. Andso I have a big question for you
(17:10):
though, if you could have thefairy godmother of apartments in Paris come down
and offer you any apartment anywhere inthe city. Where would it be and
what type of apartment would it be? Ah? Yeah, so really no
limits. I would take the tourSaint Jaques. I would literally take the
let's say, the last two floorsof the Tours Saint Jacques, because it's
(17:32):
the best view in Paris, andbecause it doesn't have an active church attached
to it anymore, you're not goingto be woken up by the bells because
that used to be the steeple ofthe church. But there's no bells now,
so you're quiet. You get thebest view in Paris. It's very
central. We probably need to installa lift, you know, so that's
that would be probably, But yeah, best view in Paris, great Gothic
(17:53):
architecture. And if that's not possiblebecause it's you know, it's a national
monuments, it's hard. Yeah.Yeah, So if I have to remain
within legal like purchasable items, Iwould buy actually the apartments upstairs from mine,
just because the neighbors are super noisy. So this way I would keep
it as a as an empty quietspace above my head, so I could
(18:15):
have a vacuum above me to justlike have quiet. I will stay there,
but with quiet above I would bethe plan. Well, maybe we'll
hope that one day the fairy godmotherwill make Tour Saint Jacques your future home.
That great, that will for surebe quiet. Yes, well,
(18:36):
thank you. And at the endof all my shows, I always want
people to get to know who myguest is as well too, So could
you share a little bit about yourselfto the listeners and let them know how
they can get in contact with you. Definitely. So I'm the Conde Saint
Genmin And if you know the namefrom history, it's normal. You can
(18:56):
google it. There's actually a recentvideo about sort of a history YouTube that
mentioned who the Condestaintma is and whathe's been doing throughout history. So I
won't go into the details. WhatI'm doing these days actually taking people on
walked Paris with their smartphones, soI'm not there. You're just unloading my
voice and I'm telling you go letgo there, look down, look up,
(19:17):
because I'm showing you things you wouldnever see otherwise. And I started
in the fourteenth I'm gonna leave itat some point, hopefully because people are
asking me, Okay, that's great, I've done your fourteenth twelve. Now
I want something else. But thefirst one was really about cute little streets
with lots of flowers and underground water. We talked about the Roman Aqueduct a
bit but there's a reservoirld, there'sall kinds of things. So right now
(19:37):
it's the best season. This isthe summer. Go, go and walk
those little streets. The flowers areincredible. You'll see small individual houses with
gardens inside Paris, not in thesuburbs, inside Paris. So that part
of the fourteenth is really cute,and the other parts, which is less
cute. It's the bit it's aboutLoupan like the Lupan series on Netflix with
with Do Marci and Lupin the Gentlemanthief that inspired the series, and the
(20:02):
catacombs. So I take you abovebasically all the locations where the series was
shot. I even take you tojail, so I make you walk near
the walls of the prison La Sente, the last jail in Paris, is
in the fourteenth and I explain toyou about the jail breaks and what's happening
below your feet, and the timesthe houses fell down in the catacombs.
So it's really you don't go therefor IQND you go there more for like
(20:25):
the shocking history, but again stillin the fourteenth. So it's a good
way to show you, like twocompletely different ways of enjoying Paris in different
ways. That's great. Do youwant to share your website or Instagram?
Oh yeah, yeah, so it'swalked dot Paris, so the website is
walked out Paris. Instagram is walkedout Paris, so it's always the same.
(20:45):
And then if you already know theapp, the app is called voice
map, So if you already knowthe app, I'm on there too,
so you can see you can seemy tours on the Paris. And apparently
a lot of people like to listento them at home, even when they're
not in Paris. So I gotpeople from Montreal listening to them like a
podcast. I got people who knowthe neighborhood really well and said, I
don't have time to walk around theneighborhood, but I really want to hear
(21:07):
the stories, so they listen tothem at home. So it's designed for
listening while walking. But some peoplejust go to walk Paris, download the
tours and listen to them like thestories of a podcast. So hey,
that's cool. Next time you comein Paris and you can do it for
real, no problem. Oh wow, very cool. Well, thank you
very much for everything. I hopethat we've got some new lovers of the
(21:27):
fourteenth after listening to this podcast,because you certainly made it sound much more
interesting than what a lot of peoplethought, including myself. Well, thank
you and thanks for having me.I'm glad I got to share this with
you and looking forward to your inperson walking of these little streets. Absolutely
yes, I will have to bea convert and have more positive things to
(21:48):
say. We'll have something to sayabout the fourteenth Pecas. Right now,
I don't have a lot of heartfrom what you two said. Thanks again,
Thank you, have a great day. Thanks for listening to Paris A
State of Mind featuring Gale of PerfectlyParis and Marie of Lokim, both who
are founding members of the SPLM.Paris A State of Mind is produced by
(22:12):
Paris Underground Radio, the Music Jazzand Paris Is by Media Rite Productions.
For more information on this show andothers, go to Paris Underground Radio dot
com. This episode of Paris theState of Mind was produced by Jennifer Garrity
for Paris Underground Radio. For moregreat content, join us on Patreon at
(22:34):
Patreon dot com slash Paris Underground Radio
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