PARISIAN WALKWAYS NOMA: the Nord Marais A STROLL AROUND THIS HISTORIC NEIGHBOURHOOD, WHICH IS
FAST BECOMING AS HIP AS ITS CHIC SOUTHERLY COUNTERPART Words: Thirza Vallois Photography: Richard Nahem
people ❙ pleasure ❙ places
1. IMAGES & PORTRAITS 35-37 rue Charlot Tel: +33 6 65 23 95 03
Fabien Breuvart’s shoebox of a shop, just bursting with vintage photos and old cameras, is an eminently suitable location for the conservation of the ‘Paris populaire’ recorded by street photographers. He’s also a portrait photographer and ingeniously fits studio sessions into his compact space.
FORGET ABOUT THE Place des Vosges and its vicinity. The centre of gravity of the Marais has shifted further north and been re-dubbed ‘Le Haut Marais’ or ‘NOMA’ (Nord Marais). It’s not quite New York’s MOMA but the message is clear — this is hipster ground, increasingly chic and less and less shabby, with Rue Charlot as its backbone. Café Charlot is the bustling hang-out, situated on the strategic corner of the Rue de Bretagne and Rue Charlot. Replacing an old boulangerie, this cafe boasts a retro decoration inspired by the 1950s and a handy terrace for people-watching.
2. EUGÉNIE SEIGNEUR 16 rue Charlot Tel: +33 1 48 04 81 96
One would expect to be intimidated by a lady who framed a Picasso, but Eugénie Seigneur is unassuming, witty and fun. Her workshop offers a heart-warming journey into the neighbourhood’s past as it straddles the sites of an old café and an optician, and she’s kept the former’s tiled floor and the huge wooden spectacles cabinet intact.
This neighbourhood of small manufacturers and workshops was too remote to attract developers when the southern Marais took off in the 1970s, but its authentic local colour and affordability attracted creative Parisians and all varieties of hipsters. Pascal Fonquernie of Parismarais.
com is one of them and he provides unrivalled insights into the area from his homebase on Rue Charlot, the first gentrified street, which attracted art galleries after the 1985 opening of the Musée Picasso a little further south. Eugénie Seigneur, the delightfully eccentric picture and mirror framer (16 rue Charlot), is
3. LES COMPTOIRS DE CARTHAGE 27 rue de Picardie Tel: +33 1 48 04 37 37
This bright, laidback restaurant is as sunny as owner and chef Kate’s adopted Tunisia. Kate is inexhaustible about Tunisia, praising its traditional crafts, samples of which decorate the space. She’s equally passionate about organic ingredients and bicycles across Paris to buy the finest and freshest available.
Matiéres d’Art is “halfway between an art gallery and cabinet of curiosities”
among those who appreciated the proximity of the museum. She had the honour of working for the Museum of Modern Art at the Pompidou Centre, framing pictures by the likes of Kupka, Kandinsky and Malevich – Picasso too, although she trained as a sculptor at the Beaux-Arts School. Rue Charlot commemorates the neighbourhood’s developer in the early 17th century, Claude Charlot. His earlier project for a monumental Place de France was nipped in the bud by the assassination of Henri IV, in 1610. It would have graced the area with pre-Haussmannian radiating arteries named after the provinces of
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