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| Villa Modigliani, Paris |
Our recent trip to Paris might
have been a quick one, but it was almost perfect and as five years have passed
since I was last there, it made me realise that five years is too many years to
stay away from Paris.
Adrian often arrives at
Montparnasse station when travelling for work and pops above ground for a
coffee, before making his way by Metro to Gard du Nord for either the Eurostar
to UK or the Thalys to Belgium. It is an area of Paris he knows well, but one I
don’t think I had ever been to until last weekend. He booked us a night at the
Villa Modigliani that has a private, secure underground car park, but is also
an easy walk to Montparnasse station and two Metro stops. As we drove, having
the car park was very handy, but I would say small cars would be preferable as
it was quite scary getting the Mondeo around the tight corners.
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| The cosiest shower |
The hotel is hidden in a secluded
courtyard with a pretty terrace to the front and back that had the weather been
better we would probably have made good use of. Our room in the eaves was
clean, cosy and comfortable, and we both slept really well. It was surprisingly
quiet for a room in a city; even with the window open on Monday morning, when
Paris was busy, the courtyard muffled the street noise nicely. The bathroom in
the eaves meant the shower was rather limited for space unless you were short
like me, but for us it was a rare luxury to have a bath.
Our rooftop views (sadly not of
the Eiffel Tower which we only glimpsed from the car on the drive in) were of
real Parisian life through open kitchen windows; the young man washing his
dishes in his modern fitted kitchen, the elderly lady making her dinner in her
rather dated kitchen, the young couple preparing for a night out. There were also
apartments with huge picture windows leading to flower decked roof terraces,
empty of life as the weather wasn’t really alfresco weather.
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| Rooftops of Paris |
After our chilly but fun
afternoon watching the Tour de France on Rue de Rivoli we took the Metro back
to Montparnasse and on the walk to the hotel we found a small family run
Italian restaurant, which looked just perfect for our evening meal. After a
quick freshen up at the hotel we were seated in La Mamma (by the Italian
mother) enjoying an aperitif and watching the pizza chef (her son) working away
in full view of the diners. The pizzas were delicious, the service was friendly
and full of smiles and the prices were not too dissimilar to our rural
restaurant prices.
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| Paris Metro |
The staff at the Villa Modigliani
were all very friendly and I would have no hesitation in going back or
recommending the hotel, the only negative I can think of was that their breakfast is priced at 16€ per person, but Paris isn’t short of cafés serving coffee and
croissants. We chose an open fronted window seat at Adrian’s regular café when
he is making the trek from Montparnasse to Gard du Nord. Having him as my own
personal tour guide meant I looked far less like the lost tourist I would have
been without him. Two café alongés and two croissants for 8.20€ was much more
within our budget and the bonus was that we got to walk there and watch a bit
of early morning life on the way. It was quite the sensory overload for me from
the smell of the boulangeries, the beauty in the stonework and the balconies as
well as the people. I love my quiet village life, but Paris gave me tourists in colourful rain coats with wheelie suitcases, a lady in high heels daintily
peddling a hire bike to work, a suited and chic scarf-wrapped man on a moped
and even a smart lady scooting her way along the pavement, as well as the
sleepers curled up in the doorways. I am also happy to report we didn’t meet one surly
Parisian; even the waiter in the café at breakfast smiled and served us without
delay.
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| Breakfast in Paris |
Paris, thank you for an almost perfect 24 hours. I will be back and I
promise not to leave it so long next time, but please can we have better weather next time, thank you.
This is not a sponsored post, but
should you wish to stay at Villa Modigliani or eat at La Mamma here is where
you can find them:
Villa Modigliani, 13 rue
Delambre, 75014 Paris 01 56 54 20 00
La Mamma Italian Restaurant and
Pizzeria, 46 rue Vavin, 75006 Paris 01 46 33 17 92
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