On Thursday, June 20th, 2024, after a Pilates class and a session at the gym in Simon’s Town, South Africa, my husband and I were having breakfast in our patio overlooking False Bay, while enjoying a sunny day.  It was probably around 10 in the morning and as we sipped our mate and coffee, we chatted about our dear friend Karel Nel, and his posts on Instagram from Paris.  A few of Karels’s pictures were from the Brancusi Retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, and in one of them he mentioned that the “Beaubourg” was closing for repairs at the end of 2024 for three to five years.

In the middle of breakfast, I said to Michael, “why don’t we go to Paris?.” Michael smiled, and between bites of his toast, he agreed that it would be nice, not really thinking he was going that very evening. “Let’s do it then,” I said enthusiastically. Two hours later we had made arrangements for our dog and cat to have a sitter at home, we had booked our flights, made a reservation at a hotel and packed two carry-on bags. Yes, our trip to Paris was decided on a whim.

Our secret weapon for getting organised on such short notice was our friend Martine, who lives in the heart of Paris and runs a hosting and hospitality company called MartInn key2Paris (please find all her information listed at the end of this article). We had stayed at Martine’s lovely apartment, on Rue d’Argout in the second arrondissement, thirteen years ago but when we rented her place back then, she was away so we didn’t get to meet her in person. In any case, on the morning of our hurried decision to fly to Paris, we called Martine, left a message in her answering machine and literally five minutes later, we received her call. In her beautiful French infused perfect English, Martine told us her apartment was already booked but she offered to send a few suggestions for hotels with good tariffs and located within walking distance to all the main attractions in Paris. It took all of half an hour after her call for us to book our stay at the first hotel suggested on Martine’s list, Hotel Chopin, a gem from 1846, located in the historic and utterly charming Passage Jouffroy, on Rue Montmartre.

That morning, as we emailed back and forth with Martine, we made a plan to have drinks with her on the evening of the day of our arrival, which happened to be on the day of the Fête de la Musique in France. And so we did. It was wonderful to meet Martine in person! At her suggestion, we met just over the road from our hotel at Coinstot Vino on the Passage des Panoramas, another little jewel filled with restaurants, cafes, antique stores and so many more inviting places behind grand old façades. What a delightful visit and meeting of the minds with Martine, sharing a delicious charcuterie platter with fresh baguette and organic wine. It was as if we had known each other forever.

After dinner, Martine encouraged us to walk around Paris towards the Seine river, so we could enjoy the festive feeling in town. La Fète de la Musique proved to fill the city with so much joy and happiness with music everywhere.  And so, after walking Martine to her door, we strolled into the Parisian night. And it was a night to remember, the weather was balmy, and the sky was marvellous. We walked and walked, two lovers in Paris. We went through Place de la Victoire, and on to Palais Royal, and then on to the area of the Louvre museum, and it was just magical.  The city of lights at its best … so romantic and evocative! Our hearts were full on that first day.

The following early morning, we realised that Martine was a gift that kept on giving, as we woke up to an email from her, full of great suggestions of things to do based on the interests we had expressed the night before during dinner.  Martine is a great listener, and anyone travelling to Paris would benefit from her knowledge, her understanding of Paris and all that gorgeous city has to offer.

The first thing on our agenda was to see the Brancusi Retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, so Martine made suggestions built around our visit to Beaubourg.  We were delighted and in awe of the greatness of Brancusi’s work, his vision and the incredible beauty in front of our eyes. We spent a few hours quietly walking through the magnificent exhibit, taking it all in. Such a powerful experience and so grateful to have seen it.

After the Brancusi Retrospective, we went to a small gallery on the Left Bank, Galerie Larock Granoff to see an incredible collection of paintings by Marc Chagall, which also included a small Joan Miró painting.  What a find! We loved it and wouldn’t have found it without our friend’s advice.

That day included a lot of strolling, crêpes eating, buying our favourite teas at Mariage Frères and people watching, such a great way of absorbing the beauty of Paris.  That evening, we had a hearty dinner at Le Cochon à l'Oreille, another great recommendation from our Parisian friend, which brought us to a cosy place with seven or eight tables, a zinc bar, and a menu board, all in French, we could hardly read but were delighted to choose from. The tiny bistrot was filled with locals. We loved the food and the friendliness of the server. We felt we were eating a home cooked traditional French meal and enjoyed every bite we took. We walked home happy and full.

On our next day, the plan was organised around a visit to Musèe Bourdelle in Montparnasse, as Michael had mentioned to Martine that he liked sculpture. So we left our hotel early in the morning and, on our way to the museum, we stopped for coffee and tea at Café Montorgueil, a café we had visited thirteen years ago.  This time around, we made the acquaintance of the friendly waiter from Mali, who spoke Spanish, French, English and a few more languages and had been a professional football player, playing for the National team of his country. Being an Argentinian, football is always a good conversation. We ended up having breakfast there twice in a row. Rue Montorgueil is a charming pedestrian street in the 1st and 2nd arrondissements lined with restaurants, cafés, bakeries, fish, cheese, and wine shops, produce stands and flower shops.

Then we walked some more and upon seeing a group of tourists outside Aux Merveilleux de Fred bakery enjoying some amazing looking pastries, we couldn’t resist the temptation and bought a cramique au sucre, a huge and yummy sugary pastry that we shared while we sat on lounge chairs at the Jardin du Luxembourg, people-watching and enjoying the views of the gardens. From there we went to the Cimetière de Montparnasse, which dates back to 1824 and is one of the most beautiful cemeteries in Paris, and home to the graves of denizens such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett, Susan Sontag, Constantine Brancusi, Guy de Maupassant, my beloved Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar, and many, many more. This cemetery is like a green, peaceful haven to stroll and contemplate.

Following Martine's little secrets, we walked out of the Cimitière and on to see the façade of the Théâtre de la Comédie Italienne, the only Italian theatre in France that performs exclusively plays by Italian writers, classic and contemporary, in French translation. Only after these meanderings about town, did we go to Musèe Bourdelle, where we were taken aback by the prolific work of Antoine Bourdelle, a French sculptor and teacher. Bourdelle was a student of Auguste Rodin and an important figure in the Art Deco movement and the transition from the Beaux-Arts style to modern sculpture. The larger than life scale of some of his work was powerful and the beauty of his studio and home a must see. On the way back home, once again strolling along quaint streets, we sat at Le Valentin to enjoy some of their classic pâtisseries and a cup of tea. Later that evening we went to a small Argentinian restaurant inside Passage des Panoramas, and sat at the counter, filled with nostalgia with the food from my home country.

On our last day in Paris, there were more jewels to be found following Martine’s carefully suggested itinerary that included an early visit to La Madeleine, the Church of Sainte-Marie-Magdalene on Place de la Madeleine in the 8th arrondissement. The gorgeous building of neoclassical architecture, which opened in 1842, was planned by Louis XV as the focal point of the new Rue Royal, leading to the new Place Louis XV, the present Place de la Concorde. After quietly sitting at the Madeleine, we went on a fabulous two hour visit to the enchanting Hôtel de la Marine, a historic building on the Place de la Concorde, just east of Rue Royale. The Hôtel de la Marine, built between 1757 and 1774, was originally the home of the office managing the furnishing of all royal properties.  After the French Revolution, it became the Ministry of the Navy till 2015, and then it was entirely renovated. It is now open to the public and part of the national monuments of France.

More walking around town and through Place Vendôme, which was getting all the more decked out for fashion shows, then a lovely lunch and off to the Fondation Pinault at the old Bourse de Commerce. The Pinault collection offers more than ten thousand works of art that show a perspective on the arts from the 1960's to the present time. The spectacular building dates back to 1763, and in 2017, architect Tadao Ando created the plans for what now houses the Pinault Collection, which opened to the public in May, 2021.

We had a feast of art, food and inspiration.  Our last day in Paris got better when we met Martine for a drink and a chat, at Le Vaudeville on Place de la Bourse, a restaurant in our friend’s neighbourhood. It was the best send off back home, talking about so many subjects and sharing our intrigue, fantasy and dream of moving to Paris, or at least living there part time..

If you are planning a trip to Paris, either on a whim or with ample time to get organised, please reach out to Martine, nothing better than to be introduced to Paris through her amazingly well curated eye. There was not a single exhibition or gallery or restaurant or small piece of information she shared with us that we felt did not come from her intimate knowledge of her wonderful city. The way Martine talks about Paris and how she listens to people, that is a gift.  We have experienced it first hand and our journey in Paris has been more magical because of that.