06/16/12: The Rue Daguerre, staying in Paris

One of the big benefits of staying at the Hotel Montparnasse was the Rue Daguerre, a street full of shops and restaurants that was just a stone's throw away.

I don't think it's possible to understand what people love about Paris if you don't spend some time in a neighborhood like this one. If all you do is stay in a hotel and visit well-trafficked tourist sites, you'll never see why someone would want to live in this city.









The Rue Daguerre had a typical mix of specialized food shops for cheese, wine, bread, pork, and other staples. It also had a shop that specialized just in foie gras.

Regularly, outside the wine story, a chess game was in progress.

Here's a quick meal we assembled from different shops on the street. The pink round items are a jellied egg and salmon. There's also a cheese rolled in mango pieces.

There was a Monoprix supermarket on the same street, but we never visited it. Why, if you can eat this well?

Not surprisingly, the Rue Daguerre had its share of bistros and cafes. We're having breakfast here, at the cafe at the mouth of the street.

We also found a great crepe place, just off the Rue Daguerre.

Great food is reason enough to visit these cafes. Sitting outdoors is another. If that's not attractive enough, how about running into family and friends? That's what you see every day, all day, the extremely sociable side of Paris.

By the way, if you think that the French are snobs about their language, don't. It might have been a fair stereotype in earlier generations. Today, you often hear people switch to English happily, as did one group that was having breakfast near us when an American acquaintance joined them.