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Things to See in Paris

Aired November 14, 2012 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

GREGORY MARCHAND, FRENCHIE RESTAURANT: All right, this is Frenchie, rue du Nil, in the 2nd Arrondissement. This is my restaurant and just going to take you to my favorite places in Paris.

Du Pain et Des Idees, the best bread in Paris, it's the one we use for the restaurant and he does amazing (INAUDIBLE). Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hurry up!

Bonjour, Christophe.

CHRISTOPHE VASSEUR, DU PAIN ET DES IDEES: Hello, Greg. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

MARCHAND: How are you doing?

VASSEUR: Fine.

MARCHAND: So, we're hungry.

And then the bread for the restaurant.

VASSEUR: Sure.

Because I'm the only baker in Paris.

MARCHAND: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

So, Christophe, what makes your bread so special?

VASSEUR: The crust. Half a centimeter thick, curst and air (ph). It's just a fireworks.

MARCHAND: Yeah, there caramelization (ph).

VASSEUR: Without being burnt. This is the key.

MARCHAND: It's on the edge, always.

VASSEUR: Yeah, like when you do (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), you want to be warm inside and...

MARCHAND: And very crusty on the outside.

VASSEUR: Yeah, outside. And it's just and art to reach to that. That's the magic if baking.

MARCHAND: Thank you, Christophe.

VASSEUR: You're welcome.

MARCHAND: Well, guys let's go La Tete Dans Les Olives.

So, I love going to this place, because Cedric Casanova, the owner of La Tete Dans Les Olives literally means, the head in the olives, works with specific people in Sicily. And no every product you're going to see here, there's a real human story behind it.

CEDRIC CASANOVA, LA TETE DANS LES OLIVES: Hey. What's up?

You can sample all of the products. Olive oil, because it's what it's all about, olive oil, but as well as, you know, sun tried tomatoes, (INAUDIBLE), dried tuna.

CASANOVA: That's another oil we made with (INAUDIBLE). That's made with chilies (ph) and chilan (ph).

MARCHAND: No, chilan.

CASANOVA: Have you tasted it?

MARCHAND: No. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

CASANOVA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

MARCHAND: You are much less heat on the back of your throat. It's got a good consistency in the mouth, it's nicely -- it cut nicely, your pallet, without this like greasy sensation, which is really nice.

OK, so this is Workshop Isse. It's Japanese epicerie. For me, the top Japanese epicerie in Paris. With only top end products. Super selected, super sauce and let's also do lunch. So, let's to and try some Japanese food.

Sometime, you like inspiration, you know, in your kitchen, and I come here and I ask Mr. Kuroda, which is the owner, you know, if we can try a few things, you know, I mean, you have beautiful sauces, a lot of different vinegar and I work a lot of acidity, so I like all the balance, so, you know he always brings new perspectives to a dish, new layers.

TOSHIRO KURODA, WORKSHOP ISSE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

MARCHAND: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) merci.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KURODA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

MARCHAND: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(LAUGHTER)

As Mr. Kuroda says, this is what they cook at home. That's what I love about the place, because when you come here and then you eat like in someone's home in Kyoto, for a chef, it's very special, you know? We like simplicity.

And you never know what you going to eat.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KURODA: No.

MARCHAND: Just come in, they just serve you the dish of the day, you know, the plat du jour and that's it. And you have nice sake after, you go for a siesta. Lovely.

ADAM ROBERTS, INVISIBLE PARIS BLOG: Paris, for me, is more about what I call the invisible areas. It's not literally places that you can't see, but places that we don't notice, because maybe we're too busy looking elsewhere. So, I spend a lot of my time just walking around, finding these places, trying to learn as much as possible about them and then telling the stories.

Today, we're at the bottom of Belleville. Until 1860, there was a big wall that ran along here, which separated Paris over here from the suburbs Belleville on that side. It was also a good way to collect taxes, which meant that all of the good inside of Paris were more expensive than on the outside, so Belleville became very well known as a place where people could go and drink alcohol and party.

There are over 160 different nationalities that live here, today.

Up here is the Rue Denoyez. Well, this street has become well known for street art. It's constantly changing, so each time you come, you'll see different works of art. There's nothing that stays here for very long.

Technically it would be illegal, but there are certain places where it's tolerated, but here it's encouraged.

This is the Rue Saint Blaise in the village of Charrone. When you look up at the perspective up to the Saint Germain de Charonne church, which is from the 11th century, the perspective hasn't changed in hundreds of years.

We're in the 13th arrondissement (ph), it doesn't look like very much, but this is one of my favorite parts of Paris.

Over here, we have the first skyscraper what was built in the 1960s. At the time it was quite a revolution. It was the first really tall building that was built in this city.

Behind me is one of my favorite buildings in Paris, which is Auguste Perret's Mobilier National building. It's where they store all of the furniture and equipment for official government buildings, somewhere that we can never visit, but somebody's just going in, now.

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NICOLAS FOURRIER, TOUR GUIDE IN PARIS: Hi, I'm Nic from (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). We are just making tours of Paris in this (INAUDIBLE) French car (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Let's go for a tour and meet Mariama.

MARIAMA, SINGER/SONGWRITER: Hi, I'm Mariama. I was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, I grew up in Cologne, Germany, now I live in Paris, France, and I am singer/songwriter.

I wanted to take you to this area of Paris, which is called the le Marais because it's my favorite. They have a whole lot of vintage stores, here, and this is the most fun of all of them because you weigh your clothes and you pay them by the kilo, that's why it's called the Kilo Shop.

You shouldn't have take me here, I want to buy everything.

So, we are now here in the monastery (INAUDIBLE) Cloister and Church of the Billettes and I took you here because I'm fascinated with places that remain through time. this is the only midlevel monastery that remains in Pairs, to this day.

We are not in a super place, Guitare Collection, at what's special about this place is that it only has vintage guitars and browse (ph) very happy if you can afford them.

Don't be mistaken, I'm not a guitarist, I'm a singer/songwriter. Oh, that sounds good.

I am inspired here, a lot. Not really for writing songs, but for everything that's connected with, so concerts or videos.

We're not in Pigalle, not far from the famous Moulin Rouge and we're heading (INAUDIBLE) to the Pigalle Country Club, a little tiny bar with a lot of read inside. And they have a drink called the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (INAUDIBLE). I'm going to play here tonight for the Mama Festival in Paris.

JEROME DREYFUSS, ACCESSORIES DESIGNER: I'm in (ph) Bohemian Paris. This is the area where older writers and the artists were working at the beginning of the century and it's still an area where you got a lot of art galleries and things like that, and I really like the atmosphere.

You feel, sometime you're living in a museum. I think the best way to see the area is just to walk by in the street and to discover all the small, tiny shops, small galleries.

Here we are, finally at Deyrolle. Let's go in.

Deyrolle is totally magic. You know, you feel that you are going somewhere where the time stopped there and you can be a child.

Here we are, in the room where you can find all the butterflies, I think, of the world. And I like to come here, very much, because it's inspiring me, a lot, and on the color aspect. As I don't know where to go with my color (INAUDIBLE), I come here, I watch the butterflies and I see some nice yellow with nice brown and I'm like, oh, that's a nice idea for colors. And the mixes of the colors you can find on those butterflies is incredible.

So, here are, good friend (ph), in front of the Galerie Downtown Francois Laffanour, a gallery that I especially like because they are showing the best artists of the world.

I mean, (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), another gallery, just across the street and they are showing some really nice pieces of Scandinavia (ph), the architect. I like this very, very much because they are always showing like the best designer of the -- from the `50s through the late `60s. He always makes old furniture busy with nice photographs and paintings. And he can find like the most amazing people from all round the world and recreate the old story of a designer, or an architect's from the pieces he designs.

That's great, in Saint Germain you can find a lot of people playing music on all the corner of the street because Saint Germain is so really famous for the -- all the jazz clubs. At night, there are a lot of jazzman, very famous, playing there.

(INAUDIBLE) made for tourists. That's the way Saint Germain is. I think that it is the better word to describe Saint Germain (INAUDIBLE).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LAURA SATANA, TATTOO ARTIST: My name is Laura Satana, I'm a tattoo artist. I have my own shop called Exxxotic Tattoos in the 20th district of Paris. I really love Paris as a city where I was born. I feel that there is a kind of a darkness and a romantism (ph) at the same time, so this mix it makes something really different from other cities.

So, we are in Les Puces, another place I really, really like because I used to spend lots of time here when I was a teenager. It was a place very famous for punk rockers, for finding music, clothing and anything else (INAUDIBLE). There is lots of antiques, hip hop t-shirts on the other side.

Here is the first place I want to bring you, it's called Quintessence Playground, it's a kind of antique shop, but with very special place, I can say. I think we can enter here.

It was interesting to come to St Ouen to the flea market because it's only open on the weekend. I like this place because there is lots of different inspiration that I can link directly with a tattoo with a, like, all the baroque pieces and all kind of stuff as well, really creepy, but nice to see.

Now, it's end of the day, it's time to have a drink with my husband. This is a really nice place, so let's go in.

When they open Mama Shelter it brought a totally new clientele to the district. All the topographies and calligraphies were done by the same guy who did the window at my shop.

Tourists that don't know much about the 20th district, they are more about the (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), this is the -- another way of seeing Paris, like, very close ups (ph) (INAUDIBLE) art, the result (ph) of poverty, as well, in the 20th district, so it's a big mix between the different people, different social classes. That's why I really love being here, you know?

MIMI XU, DJ AND SOUNDTRACK DESIGNER: Tonight, I'm going to take you for (INAUDIBLE) as French people do, to a place called (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) which is a little rum bar in (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), so I hope you enjoy it.

It's winter now, let's have some heat. Let's have a little island of joy and drink, and there's a beautiful little bar and I love it.

The difference of partying in Paris to other cities is that we like to go to many different places in one night. You don't get stuck in one place, you do five parties, because you can.

The venue is called (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) and it's a new venue on the Seine River, it's a party that features many different artists, like Gwyn Velvet (ph), Black Crow, the Shoes.

I can only (ph) go see this band playing and it's going to be a fun party.

We are really going for a new eye-opening experience with, you know, rock bands, (INAUDIBLE) pop, disco.

The Rex is historical techno club. They always well known for having the best sound system. The crowd are music lovers and, you know, I love going there.

I'm really excited to take you tonight to see Laurent Garnier. Laurent Garnier is a French DJ pioneer. He's the one who brought rave to France. And with the liberty, tonight, his 25th year of a career, and he's going to be here for eight hour and it's going to be awesome and big DJ sets (ph), so let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

END