Musings on off the beaten track Paris

Bibliotheque Mazarine
21 quai de Conti, 6th
“Because it’s incredible, lined with books, old leather bound volumes, old winding narrow library stairs reaching to a walkway that rings the ceiling with murals, hidden spaces behind the bookshelves, the quiet and rustling of pages. It’s also open to the public, unlike some French libraries, and a day use card very easy to obtain. I often go for research on my books and stay for hours.”

Rue Meslay
Metro Temple or Republique, 10th
“Drop into any of the crammed designer markdown shoe shops lining this street at the edge of the Marais below Republique. What more needs to be said - go there ladies. In Murder at the Lanterne Rouge, Aimée casts a longing eye at the stairs, ‘the stairway to heaven’ as her friend Martine refers to it, from rue Notre Dame de Nazareth leading to rue Meslay.”

Musée des Moulage de l'Hôpital Saint-Louis
1 avenue Claude-Vellefaux 10th
Open by appointment, tel 01 42 49 99 15
“Founded in 1867 in the seventeenth century Hôpital Saint Louis originally built for plague victims, this dermatological museum houses the wax castings of skin diseases. It’s creepy, weird and out of the last century. To understand and illustrate for his medical students, a doctor commissioned a fruit seller in the Passage Jouffrey who sculpted wax fruits to show his wares, to sculpt human appendages. In my book Murder in the Bastille, Aimée’s partner René visits a doctor in the museum.”

Maison des Métallos
94 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 11th
http://www.maisondesmetallos.org/
“Built in the 19th century for workers ‘ouvriers’ who filled the quartier and now a thriving hub of dance, theatre and literary discussion and conferences. This center radiates the spirit of the old worker’s roots and today’s modern community.”

Du Pain et des Idées
34 rue Yves Toudic, 10th
“A boulangerie close to Canal Saint Martin - the baker at last check in still used a wood burning over for his baking...and old artisanal style.”

Parc Montsouris
RER Cité Universitaire, 14th
“A English garden style near the reservoir with a lake, odd sculptures and where local Parisians go on Sundays with their families...just very local and Parisian.
The meridian line of Paris pierces it and its great green space. Walk up to Impasse Nansouty at the very tip near the tram on Boulevard Jourdan. You’ll think you’re in the French countryside...a street of houses built for soldiers wounded war victims and their families after the Great War. Henry Miller and Anais Nin, Braque, Lawrence Durrell all lived nearby.”

Didiers Crêpes
3bis rue Carpeaux, 18th
“Run by Didier from Brittany, the lace curtains, light blue storefront, a pet rabbit for years, grows a lot of his produce in his plot outside Paris...ambiance and locals.”

Cara - Tuesday

PS -At almost every book event on this tour someone asks 'Do you outline your books? How do you take an idea into a story? '
And I've yet to explain it well because, it's kind of a mystery to me. Forces take over and it's hard to explain and if I did understand the process I don't know that I'd want to explain. Everyone writes books in their own way.
All I know is I don't outline, wish I could and that it would save me tons of time. Call me a Seat of the Pantser...for me it's like finding a place in Paris then throwing it against the wall - like how some people cook pasta - and see if it sticks for a hundred pages. If so, then there's a story, there's a place to explore and reasons why my detective would get involved. The story, the characters work their way out from there. Any one an outliner or seat of the pantser?