Along the Seine & Rive Gauche, Paris

Ze Kitchen Galerie, as well as Les Bouquinistes to which it is practically joined at the hip in more ways than one, is situated around the Rive gauche or Left Bank of the River Seine in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. In the vicinity, you'll find a few of the famous bouquinistes—the booksellers, not the restaurant—along the Quai des Grands Augustins hawking their bookwares quietly. Lovers of French literature and history, as well as of French language in general, would do well to mark this as a stop, for it's a place to find relatively cheap used books that may be hard to get in a non-francophone country. I was even able to buy a book of Edgar Allan Poe short stories translated to French by Baudelaire. Not bad for 3€!

Not very far is the famous Notre Dame Cathedral, which emits its mournful bell sound regularly. The closest Métro stop is St. Michel–Notre Dame a mere couple of blocks away.

A city known for its variety of arts, Paris is naturally home to many artists (struggling and otherwise) and the Left Bank is a performance stage for many musicians and painters. Here, a drawing by a young street artist with mad skills.

As I've mentioned above, the area is also home to street book vendors and if you look closely at the sign on the Pont-Neuf, the city's oldest extant bridge, you'll see that book vending is inextricably intertwined with the history of the neighborhood and, indeed, of the French capital itself. It's a story of free markets and corporate censorship, the vendors being driven out and reinstated depending on the mood of public officials, egged on by bookstore owners, about "uncensored" hawkers. But nowadays, they are a World Heritage Site. On the right, one of the official establishments: Quoi de neuf, Les Neuf Muses?

If you don't care for books, how about an American movie in French? An ad for "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

As with many big cities, certain areas of Paris can be prone to graffiti, the bane of city administrators and the art of the disenfranchised.

Victory and death: St. Michael the archangel vanquishing Satan's forces (or Louis Vuitton salespersons, I can't tell clearly) at the Fontaine St. Michel. On the right: you'll find many of these commemorative plaques all over Paris (like the one around Musee Rodin, for example, the picture of which I posted before).

Need directions? On the left, what to eat. On the right, where to go. Note that, for planning purposes, the toilettes and Latin Quarter are in the same direction.

Be sure to walk around, there's a lot to discover here. And beware of pickpockets!