Paris Insights: An Interview with a Man of Many Words

Interview by Linda Donahue

For the past few months, readers of ParisienSalon.com have been enjoying restaurant reviews by our resident food critic, Tom Reeves. But Tom is a fascinating person whose love affair with Paris extends well beyond his appetite for good cuisine. Both Tom and his wife, Monique Wells, are published authors who have been sharing their knowledge of the French capital with visitors for years.

I had the chance to sit down with Tom and Monique one rainy afternoon last month at A Verse Toujours (on Avenue des Gobelins in the 5th) and chat about their life in Paris.

How long have you lived in Paris?

Eighteen years.

What led to you moving there?

My wife, Monique, was offered a job with the French-American pharmaceutical company, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer (now called Sanofi Aventis).

At what point did you decide to write Paris Insights, and why did you do it?

Monique and I started writing a newsletter entitled Paris Insights in February 2000 to promote Discover Paris!™, a travel-planning service that we had just launched. We believed that potential clients would find the newsletter interesting and that the subjects that we wrote about would help establish our credibility as travel planners who knew a great deal about the city.

What inspired you to choose the subjects that you wrote about in the book?

The book is a selection of the newsletters that we have written since the year 2000. We selected these particular newsletters because we think that they best represent the spirit of Paris as we perceive it. Paris is an exciting city to live in, and we wanted to convey why we find it so compelling. We think that the newsletters communicate our passion for the city.

©2010 Diana Lui

Please explain the concept of “tourist versus traveler.”

A tourist is a person who is satisfied with experiencing only the highlights of a place. For example, in Paris many tourists will climb the Eiffel Tower, walk through the Louvre, and stroll up the Champs-Elysées and then go away satisfied. Many of them travel with a “been there, done that” mentality.

A traveler wants to have a deeper understanding of why things are the way they are. For example, why was the Eiffel Tower not dismantled at the end of its concession? How did the Louvre evolve from a fortress into a palace? Who designed the Champs-Elysées and why does it have a triumphal arch at one end? Travelers also like to experience things from a local’s vantage point – for example, eating at neighborhood restaurants and strolling through “off the beaten track” areas of the city.

So does Paris Insights – An Anthology appeal to the tourist or the traveler?

Both! Tourists will find information about major sites such as Notre Dame Cathedral, the Champs Elysées, and the Luxembourg Garden. They will also find information about French dining customs so that they know what they might expect when they enter a restaurant and sit down for a meal. The traveler will enjoy these features as well, but will also appreciate the entries about less commonly explored aspects of Paris. Examples include an article that explores the relationship that Parisian dog owners have with their pets; one that advises strawberry lovers about the best varieties that are available in Paris markets; and one that presents a beautiful, but little-visited church named Val de Grâce.

What inspired the chapter entitled “Paris, Past and Present?”

We added this short feature to our newsletter in January 2007. We use it to present aspects of Paris that evoke nostalgia for the past or enthusiasm for the contemporary. As this feature evolved, we began to use it to provide complementary information to the main newsletter article. For example, in the July issue of Paris Insights, the main article is about a medicinal herb shop in Paris. The complementary article is about the Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants that was founded in Paris in 1626.

In the chapter entitled “Tasty Treats,” you devote entire articles to food items such as strawberries and honey. Why this focus, as opposed to writing about traditional French recipes or the famous croissant?

There is lots of information about traditional French foods—including the croissant—available on the Internet. We try to avoid reporting on items for which information is readily available. We seek to report fresh information, or at least, information that most readers might not be aware of. At the same time, we want to share information about things that give us pleasure, and to report on them from our unique viewpoint.

We apply this philosophy to all of the subjects that we write about, and do not hesitate to visit the municipal libraries of Paris to uncover new topics! For food-based newsletters, we love to visit markets and specialty boutiques to find new subjects about which to write. Lately, we have been focusing on coffee and artisanal chocolates for our blog and our Facebook entries.

So let’s talk about Paris. What’s your favorite thing about it?

My favorite thing about Paris is that there is something new to discover almost every day! It is an endlessly fascinating city.

Is there anything you don’t like about the city?

For the first few years that we lived here, dining in smoke-filled restaurants was a miserable experience. That problem is history, now that smoking is no longer permitted in public places. I have always been puzzled about how the French, who are justifiably proud of their fine wines and great cuisine, could tolerate smoke in their restaurants in the years prior to the ban.

In Paris, for the most part, the annoyances that come with urban life are tolerable because the benefits of living here far outweigh the nuisances.

Do you have a favorite neighborhood?

The neighborhood that I live in, just behind rue Mouffetard. Rue Mouffetard is a market street that is always bustling with people (except on Mondays when most of the shops are closed). Some complain that the street is overrun with tourists, but I believe that the tourists are helping to keep the cash registers ringing, bringing economic vitality to the area.

A favorite restaurant?

It is difficult to name a favorite because Paris has so many fine restaurants! We write a weekly restaurant review for our Paris Insights Web site and for Parisien Salon, as well as a monthly review called “Le Bon Goût” for our subscription newsletter Paris Insights, so we carefully research each restaurant before we go there to dine.

If forced to choose a favorite, we would name Le Fin Gourmet at 42, rue Saint-Louis-en-l’île. We have dined there on several occasions, including Valentine’s Day.

Do you vacate the city with the Parisians in August? If so, where do you go?

We prefer to remain in Paris in August. The city is so calm during that period that we feel that we have it to ourselves! We usually travel at the end of the year when we take a group tour with a French company that specializes in cultural travel. We have explored Jerusalem, Vienna, Mont Saint-Michel, Barcelona, Berlin, and Strasbourg on Christmas or New Year’s excursions with this group.

A first-time visitor to Paris only has one full day to explore the city. How do you think this person should spend their day?

With such limited time, it is probably best to engage a private, chauffeured tour for a half-day to see the highlights of the city, and then, to return to the areas that looked interesting from the car and stroll around for the rest of the day. Notre Dame Cathedral would be a good place to start, for example. One can admire the sculptures on the façade of the church, then enter and walk around the ambulatory. To save time, rather than going off to some outlying area of the city, it might be best to walk straightaway from Notre Dame to Ile Saint-Louis. From there, walk to place de la Bastille and then walk into the Marais. Double back to Ile Saint-Louis to finish off the day with a great dinner at any one of the fine restaurants on rue Saint-Louis-en-l’île, such as Le Fin Gourmet, Mon Vieil Ami, or L’Orangerie.