On the summer between my second and third years of college, I went to Paris for a short-term study abroad program in Comparative French Literature. During my time there, I discovered that my favorite thing to do in all of Paris was to sit at cafés to read and watch people pass by. In particular, I loved the location and atmosphere at La Contrescarpe. (Why they had ‘Cambridge Tavern’ coffee cups, I will never understand). La Contrescarpe is a café on the Southern end of Place de la Contrescarpe just off of Rue Mouffetard in the Fifth Arrondissement. Rue Mouffetard is a small, lively street that is full of cafés, shops, food marts, bars, and restaurants, all of which have apartments for a few stories above making you feel like you are walking through a man-made canyon. The street is entirely cobblestone and, for most of the day, is closed to motor traffic. The energy on this one street exemplified to me the spirit of the average Parisian: friendly, happy, helpful, and enchanting. While walking through, it feels as though you are wandering around some sort of an animated musical from a children’s movie. (If anyone has seen Anastasia (1997) it absolutely feels like the song the characters sing as they wander through Paris). This feeling culminates at Place de la Contrescarpe: a small roundabout lined with cafés and shops with a fountain in the middle situated a few blocks away from the Pantheon. Every evening that I spent at La Contrescarpe, there were two old men who performed accordion/fiddle duets for hours. They always seemed so joyous and would smile and laugh their way through the songs they played as they encouraged people to dance in the emerging moonlight. How could anyone not be enchanted by such a quaint, beautiful, and wondrous place?

– Hazel

Photo © 2015 Hazel Arroyo

Note: This picture was taken on an iPhone 4S.