We stayed at a hotel in rue de Richelieu in the 2 eme Arrondisement , close (as it happened) to the magnificently long building that formerly housed the Biblioth è que Nationale until President Mitterand modestly decreed that a new national library, the Biblioth è que Francois-Mitterand, be built next to the Seine. Across the road was the École Nationale des Chartes : ‘ Grand é tablissement d’enseignement sup é rieur au service de l’histoire, de l’histoire de l’art, de la philologie, de l’arch é o
It was sometimes unbearably hot in Paris – and when I saw water being sluiced along the gutters, I recalled my first visit to the city, in August 1969; then, I had deliberately walked in the gutters to keep my feet cool. It did rain once last week, however: a biblical downpour while we were having supper in the Brasserie Vaudeville, opposite the Bourse. This restaurant originally opened in 1918, just as the Great War was grinding uncertainly towards its end – surely a bold time to start a business? – and it
In Rooftoppers Sophie criss-crosses Paris, looking for her mother, at rooftop rather than at street level. Taught by Matteo, a boy who lives among the skylights and chimney pots of the city, she learns how to climb, run and jump safely, how to navigate her way from one street – even from one arrondisement – to another; he even teaches her tightrope walking. These are skills that Katherine Rundell herself has acquired. In the Introduction to the novel, she says, ‘I’ve always loved being up high; I lo