THE DESTINATION108 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA | JULY 2019
LUCIANO MORTULA - LGM/SHUTTERSTOCK(BOOKSTORE),ELLEN ROONEY/ROBERTHARDING/DINODIA PHOTO LIBRARY(CAFÉ)chaude as you laze at Les Deux Magots
café, which overlooks the statelySaint-
Germain-des-Préschurch. You’d be
tasting as much the milk-and-chocolate
speciality as sheer Parisian nostalgia,
for Julia and Paul’s frequent coffee-and-
croissant halt was also the stomping
ground of intellectual elites such as
Ernest Hemmingway, Jean Paul Sartre
andSimone de Beauvoir.
SHAKESPEARE AND
COMPANY
Shakespeare and Company is an ode to
antiquity itself—the sort of place where
you are likely to pick your purchase,
chance upon a first edition ofThe
Little PrinceorThe Velveteen
Rabbiton your way to
the counter, and head
home with treasures you
didn’t think to look for. It
doesn’t hurt that the likes
of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra
Pound andJames Joyce once
hung out at the institution.
For Julia, however, scouring its
shelves only reiterated the want
for a comprehensive French cookbook
in English, something she went on to
amend.LES HALLES
Paris’s premium fresh food market
Le Halles could be likened to its belly—
centralto the city and rumbling with
shoppers scouring wholesale essentials
packed cheek by jowl. This was before its
demolition in 1971. Apparently partial to
her round-the-corner rescue ofRue Cler,
Julia would have still spent ample time
walking Le Halles for pig trotters or
pearl onions. Brace youzelf, ifyou were
to stand here now you’d be looking
atForum des Halles, a modern
shopping mall. However, this
leg of Paris’s food map is still
worth a dekko for those who
prefer their history and their
onion soup hot—there are
enough authentic eateries
to go around and it is
only a short walk away
from the cobblestone
street market of Rue
Montorgueil.Browsing the aisles of Shakespeare and Co. (top), Child deemed the supply of French cookbooks in English inadequate; She frequented the
intellectual hub of Les Deux Magots café (bottom right); Mastering the Art of French Cooking (bottom left) is an original in culinary literature.