Bastille column

The "July Column" at Place de la Bastille towers over a crowded outdoor market.

A Sunday market

For years, especially when we lived in the Marais, many a Sunday morning found me with basket in hand, poking around for fresh herbs, seasonal vegetables, salts, charcuteries and fresh fish -- then topping it off with a salidou-smothered crêpe -- at the vast marché Bastille, a cook's dream.

Man in black

Dressed in black from head to toe he cuts a poetic silhouette on a back street in the Bastille district.