LETTERS FROM PARIS #30 please don't tell...

I call it “shopper’s catnip.” I found it expressed on a website about Rue de Commerce:
“A visitor to Paris might never find the Rue de Commerce. It’s in a residential area that’s not particularly remarkable…I stumbled on this shopping area when I was visiting a friend of mine," writes Lisa Anselmo in the "Bonjour Paris" website.’ Putting that on a website is like going on a national television talk show and saying to the host: “I’m going to tell you a secret.”

It’s not snobbery but there is, at least to some people, nothing more delicious than saying “I found this cute little place. No one goes there except the local people.” The same is always said about a restaurant that you “discovered” thanks to a cab driver who of course, never tells anyone else about a place where there are only locals and not a tourist in sight. Of course, it’s a clever fiction.

It was at least six years ago for us. In our pre-exchange days we were staying a tiny hotel near Les Invalides. We strolled around and “discovered” a wonderful restaurant. It looked like nothing from the outside, but inside – three floors of pretty good dining.

I re-discovered Rue de Commerce when I Goggled “commerce” just to find the restaurant. I have stopped reading Fodors and Frommers and Rick Steves. What I find I find. If it is jammed with gawkers, so be it. Café de Commerce is simply a good place to eat on a great little street to stroll. The maitre d' was downright pouty when I said we didn’t need English menus because he said, in French, “I speak both languages.”

We were surrounded by French speakers. Always a good omen for snobs. The lunch which began with a Salade Cesar, never to be mistaken for a Caesar salad, and went on for me with a quite good Grillade accompanied by fries and a pepper saucer. Shirley was not so lucky. She didn’t realize she had once again (she did it at Brasserie Lipp) ordered a pork shank. It is a cut that is usually densely fatted with a small meaty reward underneath. We accompanied it with a more than passable demi of the house Bordeaux. O.K. O.K. I’m “doing” food again. I’ll finish with the check – about 50 euro including a large bottle of fizzy water.

We enjoyed the ambience of the street so much, we’ll go back again. It’s a bit crowded on a Saturday but still everything is quite accessible. There are shops for everything, but nothing is so chic you have to check your makeup and hair before The “Commerce’ Metro stops right in the middle. At one end, according to the website, there is a wonderful Monoprix store that has everything from food to pharmacy. We missed it!

The beauty of it as that the street is it has style witout being piss-elegant, comfortable without being assertive, welcoming without being pushy. So much so that we hit a shoe store that seemed to be having a sale. Shirley bought three pair of quite lovely casual shoes (not for walking) for less that 150 euro! We sat for a while on a bench in Rue de Commerce square, reading our Ebooks and watching the people pass by. I spotted a little store that said “bijou.” We left with an exquisite kind of necklace with a cascade of what seem to be very glittery little beads. (Hey, I’m no jeweler!)

Is Rue de Commerce really enough off the beaten tourist track that you feel a little special? Perhaps. I did not see one person taking pictures - except me.