Promenades de Paris - La Madeleine

L'église-de-la-Madeleine Promenades de Paris - la série:
• l'Île-de-la-Cité
• le Louvre et les Jardins des Tuileries
• Le Palais-Royal
• La Place Vendôme

As has become our custom with these Promenades de Paris, we will begin today's tour where we finished our last tour. Thus we will take le Métro, ligne 1 to Concorde.

We will walk north on rue Royalle toward what is formally called l'église-Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, more commonly simply called la Madeleine. On our left at numero trois is the famous restaurant Maxim's.

The world-famous Maxim's..

Maxim's is decorated in the Belle époque style. The restaurant was founded in 1893 by Maxime Gaillard. Since 1981, the restaurant and its multinational spinoffs have been owned by Pierre Cardin.

The belle époque bar at Maxim's.

Next door to the resaurant, Maxim's has a store featuring their house wines and an array of packaged foods. As we walk north, we will pass porcelain, crystal and jewelry shops. At the end of rue Royale is place de la Madeleine. Those of you who were not with us when we visited the church, may want to take a peak inside. It is well worth the visit.

L'église-de-la-Madeleine is a popular venue for concerts of classical music

The rest of us are going across the street to the right to numero 6, place de la Madeleine to Maille, the famous mustard maker. In this shop we may also buy cornichons, huile d'olive, vinaigre and related items, all top-quality.

Moutards par Maille

In the northeast corner of the square is the luxury épicerie, Fauchon. Founded in the mid-XIX ème siecle, Fauchon always catered to the "carriage trade" until a few years ago, when they tried to become more mass-market. The attempt failed and Fauchon is now trying to take the tarnish off their image.

The displays of food in Fauchon's windows are truly works of art.

Fauchon, after a serious misstep by trying to become more mass-market is trying to regain its status as THE carriage-trade épecerie in Paris.

Now we will turn north onto rue Vignon, sprinkled with boutiques, many of them dedicated to food. At numero 21 is La Ferme Saint-Hubert, a well-known fromagerie, cheese shop, with an adjacent restaurant featuring, naturally, cheese dishes. Across the street at numero 24 is La Maison du Miel, which has been in business since 1898 selling over 30 kinds of honey, and, yes, tastings are allowed. Louis la Vache has brought friends in Californie cadeaux from this shop on occassion.

Now we will cross rue Tronchet onto rue des Mathurins and walk east to Square Louis XVI. Here we will find a small chapel, a rose garden and a little cimetière in the park. Now we'll turn south onto rue d'Anjou for a short distance, then we'll angle left onto boulevard Malesherbes back toward la Madeleine.

At numeros 3 - 5 boulevard Malesherbes is Résonances. The best way for Louis la Vache to describe Résonances to U.S. readers is that it is upscale and something of a combination of Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma.

On the west side of place de la Madeleine is another épecerie, Hédiard, another carriage-trade store dating, like their competitor, Fauchon, from the XIX ème siecle. Near the front door are open bins of spices that draw us in the door with their aroma. Inside we find pastries, tea, chocolates, foie gras, wines, and (unlike Fauchon) fresh produce. Upstairs is a restaurant.

Various views of Hédiard, below.



At numero 19 is Maison de la Truffe which serves lunch and dinner and at numero 17 is Caviar Kaspia, should you wish to fuel yourself with vodka and caviar. Now we'll head through galerie de la Madeleine, turn onto rue Boissy d'Anglas, past the famous Buddha Bar and board le Métro at Madeleine and head home.

Louis la Vache hopes that you are enjoying these promenades de Paris as much as he enjoys having you come along for them. We'll do another one soon and we'll visit les Halles then, d'accord?.