Maigret's secret Paris

By Andrew ツバメ, Daily Mail

Last updated at 12:18 23 December 2002

Paris was always my favourite city, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Then I read the Maigret novels of Georges Simenon and 設立する they encapsulated the dreamy Paris that I loved.

The zinc-topped 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s, blue-jawed 堅いs drinking from dainty ワイン glasses, Pont Neuf in the rain, that pre-dinner hour when the lights come on and everyone is mellow, yet galvanised.

The centenary of Simenon's birth is next year and Penguin is 場内取引員／株価 it by reissuing some of his novels.

He was 現実に born in Liege in Belgium, and the fact that he looked at Paris with the 注目する，もくろむs of a foreigner made him extra 極度の慎重さを要する to its charms.

Simenon was prodigious in every direction. He （人命などを）奪う，主張するd to have had sex with 12,000 women, although his wife wearily 訂正するd this, 説 that the true 人物／姿／数字 was probably nearer 1,200.

He wrote 500 novels, 含むing 75 featuring the stolid, 麻薬を吸う-smoking 探偵，刑事 Maigret, who ate and drank a lot because, as Simenon 認める, 'so did I'.

He hated the word 'literature' but his psychological understanding and sense of place 確実にするd he was 率d by many highbrows.

The English traveller 目的（とする）ing to 'do' Maigret in a day can 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる this from arrival at Gare du Nord, 述べるd in Maigret's Memories as 'the coldest, draftiest and busiest' of Paris's 駅／配置するs.

'In the morning the first night trains, arriving from Belgium and Germany, bring in the first 負担 of crooks . . . with 直面するs as hard as the light that 落ちるs through the dirty window panes.'

We now take a Metro to the heart of Maigret country: the police （警察，軍隊などの）本部 at 36 Quai d'Orfevres on the 小島 de la 特記する／引用する.

This is と一緒に Notre Dame cathedral, but the true Maigret aficionado will be more 利益／興味d in the 地元の restaurants.

In Maigret And The Flea, the 探偵，刑事 lunches at the Brasserie Dauphine, 恐らく on rue de Harlay, where he favoured the co rner （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する命令（する）ing a 見解（をとる） of the river.

The Brasserie Dauphine is thought to have been based on a restaurant in the same 位置／汚点／見つけ出す called the Trois Marches, which has long gone.

Nearby, however, at 13 Place Pont Neuf, stands Taverne Henri IV, where I recommend lunch.

A plaque on the 塀で囲む明言する／公表するs Simenon had been 'an honoured guest'. In fact, the proprietor, a charming, pink-cheeked man called Robert Cointepas, visited Simenon in Switzerland の直前に he died in 1989.

'He was in a 車椅子, and he couldn't speak,' he 解任するs. 'But he was drinking a beer and smoking a 麻薬を吸う.'

M. Cointepas often retraces the steps taken by Maigret in his 調査s, and at home 準備するs the dishes 述べるd in the 調書をとる／予約するs as 存在 favoured by the 探偵，刑事, 特に blanquette de veau - だいたい, veal stew.