Closings in Paris
 

Just an FYI:
Two places that people who post here have used in the past are now closed (or closing soon):

I was shocked to see that Gerard Mulot, the wonderful bakery/deli at the corner of rue de Seine and rue Lobineau had closed on my recent visit. I have no idea why- it always seemed to do a brisk business.

And I just read in the latest Secrets of Paris newsletter that Access Academy - the internet place on rue St-André-des-Arts is closing at the end of July.

That's surprising -- that Mulot closed. Was there a sign that said where it moved?

There was a sign saying where the nearest bakery was, but I don't think it was another Gerard Mulot place.

thanks for the update marcy

Thanks for sharing that info since I was planning on going to both in September (and really looking forward to Gerald Mulot). Did you happen to find another Intenet cafe in the neighborhood?

Kate

Gee, I hope the Gérard Mulot near the Luxembourg is still open! I yearn for the lemon tart all the time.

While we enjoyed many outstanding delights at Gerard Mulot, the chocolate tarts were our favorite. The window displays were always so beautiful.

Woody

Maybe they are just renovating or something (Mulot). It could even be some personal closure. There is another Mulot shop in the 13th arr that just opened recently, though. Hard to believe that wellknown shop would close its Saint-Germain store, though, but his website doesn't even mention it. www.gerard-mulot.com

Access doesn't surprise me, I think that business is hard to make money on, and that is very expensive real estate. The one near Luxembourg Gardens on rue de Medicis that had operated for years closed in the last few years, also (Orbital?).

We were at Gerard Mulot's on rue de Seine in March and it was packed. Were you by chance there on a Wednesday? They are closed on Wednesday and the place is boarded up. No sign saying that they are closed on only for the day. Hopefully that is what happened.

No, they were definitely closed, and the interior was being torn apart. It looked pretty final to us- not like just remodeling, but I hope we were wrong.

I will have a short period of mourning followed by a search for another patisserie for our March trip. We had a tradition of getting some goodies from Gerard Mulot for our picnic in the airport for the trip home.

Gerard Mulot was open last week and the tarts are as scrumptious as ever (especially the lemon and dark chocolate!).

I was in Paris last week, and Access Academy was open also, at least for now. I wonder if Secrets of Paris knows for sure they are closing.

Access Academy was still open the last time I looked, a few days ago, but they were selling off their PCs at bargain prices. They started with 400 PCs a few years ago, then gradually sold off space, and now appear to be folding. EasyInternet met the same fate years ago, as did Café Orbital.

I think what's happening is that French people are finally starting to buy PCs of their own, and so using a PC in an Internet café is no longer necessary (the French are many years behind the times in terms of PC ownership). Also, many places offer Wi-Fi hot spots now, so the need for a hardwired PC is diminishing when anyone with a laptop (or even a PDA) can sign on directly to the Net.

Internet cafés will probably disappear for the most part in the next few years, like telephone booths at the post office.

Also, La Samaritaine has closed indefinitely, because the old Art Deco building is woefully out of conformance with modern fire codes. No clear date for reopening as yet.

I was just going to report back that Gerard Mulot is indeed open again, but I see someone beat me to it!

I don't know whether it was just closed for remodeling, or vacation, or what. ( or if I was hallucinating? :-) ), but I was glad to see it open. The food there is just heavenly!

Christina, I didn't realize your trip to Paris was about now, didn't you try a new hotel in a new (for you) location?
How did it work out?

marcy, last week if you saw a tall guy drooling on the counter at G. Mulot, then you saw my husband. I think Mulot's tarts and bread are incredible but we like pastry at Carton on Buci much better.

I can't imagine anything more heavenly than Poilane's apple turnovers and tarts...have been eating them for decades. Happy Travels!

hi, Elaine. Well, this post probably isn't the time or place, but I stayed at the Pavillon Bastille hotel to try a new area (just inside the 12th). The hotel was very nice, I liked it a lot, but I should have known better after all these years and not booked a hotel on a major street as the traffic was quite loud. NOt the hotel's fault, it is small and they had no openings on the back side during my stay. It worked out okay when I figured out my quadruple protection against street noise (close windows, turn on room AC for "white noise", put in earplugs and also a pillow over head). At least this hotel is one French hotel that actually has a good room air conditioner that you can control yourself, and the room was quite nice. I didn't really care for that area of Paris, though, and wouldn't stay there again, due to the location. At least I got a very good discount on the rooms for summer, it was only 104 euro, and well worth that (except for the noise -- I was thinking, as much as the French claim to care so much about the environment, etc., why don't they have some regulations limiting those darn motor scooters' noise which is just horrendous). Can't they have some noise abatement regulations on those things?