Have you been to Paris a few times and are looking for something new and different to see? I’d highly recommend a visit to the Grande Mosquée or Grand Mosque of Paris.
Evidence of multicultural Paris
If you know me, you know I love different cultures, especially when different cultures exist together. For this reason, I really love the Paris Mosque, one of the largest in France. It was built in the 1920s and is located in the 5th arrondissement. In other words, it’s on a nice piece of real estate near the famous Rue Mouffetard and Jardin des Plantes on the eastern side of the Left Bank.
This is interesting to me because you’re taking something relatively new — in terms of construction as well as culturally to France back then — and putting it in the middle of a very old part of Paris. I love that.
A few years ago, I was walking in the neighborhood and saw Muslim worshippers (men in this case) leaving the mosque after their prayers. Many of them wore traditional gowns/robes of different colors — representing different regions of the Muslim world. By this point I had already lived in a Muslim country and enjoyed seeing a little piece of that culture again, this time in France.
However, it’s worth noting that I have never heard the call to prayer at the mosque — and I believe it’s because of France’s policy of laïcité, which puts limits on some expressions of religion in public spaces (this is a thorny issue).
However, I found a 1927 photo of a man named Mahmed Teskoub doing the call the prayer from the minaret of the mosque.
The restaurant and bakery
Something I’d recommend to anyone looking for a good meal in Paris is the restaurant at the mosque. A few years ago, my friend Jean and I had a meal there. The weather was very good, so we sat in the enclosed, open-air courtyard.
It was packed with people that day, a testament to the good prices and excellent food. Their main offerings are meat or vegetables with couscous or cooked in a tagine.
There is also the salon de thé or tearoom where you can choose from all kinds of tasty little cookies, baklava, and other baked goods.
The women’s hammam (sorry fellas)
Finally, one of the big draws of the mosque — for me, anyway — is the hammam. Years ago, on one of my visits to Paris, my friend Ruth suggested I check it out. This was long before I knew much about Islam and the first time I ever tried a hammam — a (largely) Middle Eastern/North African-style public bathhouse.
I had a lovely — and funny — experience.
When I arrived, I paid the fee for entrance, which included use of the hammam, a towel, and tea afterwards in the relaxation room. The hammam is open every day and is only for women.
For anyone who is not acquainted with naked steam/sauna/spas/hammams, you must leave your modesty at the door. I learned this after that first visit to the hammam and years visiting various hot springs — co-ed hot springs nonetheless — in Bavaria, where everyone was nekkid. (The middle-schooler in me thought people might point and laugh or stare but they don’t do that.)
Once I got myself situated in the hammam, sans clothing, I entered the space where women were taking in the steam and scrubbing their skin with a special glove used for exfoliation. This was so long ago — but I have a vivid memory of sitting on a slab where a lovely French woman was sitting and scrubbing away at her skin. I must have asked her what I was supposed to do because before I knew it, she started to scrub me down with her glove to show me how it’s done. (In French, the exfoliation is called gommage - a key word!) This was not a woman who worked there, but rather a fellow steam-room patronne and I appreciated her for taking me under her wing!
After that, I put on a robe and went into the relaxation room, which was a quiet space with ornamental cushions on the floor to sit on. A woman came by to offer me a cup of tea in an ornate Arabic-style glass tea glass. It was a delicious, sweet mint tea. I felt rejuvenated.
You can wander the grounds of the mosque if you’re not up for a meal or the hammam — it truly is a unique cultural experience in Paris if you’re looking for something different.
À bientôt
Jenn
Sources:
Paris je t’aime: Paris Mosque
Mosquée Paris website (in French)
Wanderwiles blog on the hammam
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