"The sweetness of the easy life of Lisbon" with Jean-Pierre

I have lived in Lisbon many years.

Normally I don't tell people to go to a specific place. I say you only have to walk, in the center of the city. Walking the old parts--Alfama, Mouraria, Bairro Alto, Bica.

Because that's one of the pleasures of Lisbon. Having no destination. The sweetness of the easy life of Lisbon is that. It's really that. Suddenly, you turn a corner and see a very nice view. There's a nice terrace and you just want to sit.

Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara

Sunset on the Rio Tejo.

Miradouro da Graca, or technically, Miraodouro de Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Do you have a favorite view?

Let me think. It may be something obvious—a view with the river. Well, it depends, I mean, maybe you could look north. 

Ah. Some time before my birthday, around the end of May or beginning of June, you have two or three streets in the city with jacaranda. The tree that flowers before it leaves. When they fall down its slippery. It's quite dangerous, actually, on the streets. One street is Avenida Dom Carlos, which begins at the parliament. At the end of Rua de São Bento, until the river. You have another one by the university, Duque de Ávila. 

It’s not purple. It's light purple. It's lilac. It's not natural. Something pops. It comes from Brazil. It's talking with the rain. Here, you are still in Europe, but always maybe with one foot or one finger in the tropics. This color is really not common. It's something painted. It's something like 15 days that they are flowering, so it's very uncommon. It's always for my birthday! I arrived in Lisbon, and said, it’s for me. 

What was your first impression when you moved to Lisbon?

I'm from Paris. I wasn't wrong, with my first impression. Because I was rapidly seeing that it was my city. A city for me. A city good for life. Sometimes it's hard to put into words. It's a question of feeling. It's a question of reason. A question of life.

Maybe it was obvious for me, because Paris was a very crowded city. Lots of people, lots of activity. This is a middle sized city. For me, I just arrived, and said it’s the city for me. The size of the city was for me.

Here, be careful. We always imagine Lisbon is a Mediterranean city. True. But with a more oceanic influence, so it's more like San Francisco. A lot of fog, a lot of rain. You don't have so many seasons. You have summer, but all the rest of the year, you never know. You can have cold, warm. In four days you could have four seasons.

And for me the big problem of Lisbon...because every nice place has problems. It's maybe not the weather itself, but how the city was built. Everything is built for summer. It's as if it doesn't rain here. But it does. And it's ugly when it rains. We don't have gutters, so when it rains, everything goes everywhere. So you just want to stay at home. And sometimes you have like one week, you wake up and it's raining, and you go to bed, and it’s raining. You wake up in the middle of the night, it's raining. For one week. 

Everything is nice, aesthetically, but nothing practical for the rain. And even when it's dry, you can easily slip. You have no place to stop when you're falling down the hill. You have to have someone in your way to stop you.

How many years have you lived here?

Many. I forget the number. How long are you here?

Maybe a month.

Good. So many come for a few days or even one week, and they think they know the city. I'm quite fed up with the tourists who imagine they can understand this place in two or three days. Maybe they have the impression that it's an easy city. But it's a very complicated city. And since the crisis, it has changed, in the last few, maybe three, years. There has been a wave of tourists from Northern Europe. Many of the apartments around here are now rented to tourists by the week. I know so many locals who have sold their apartments recently.

People here love to speak. And maybe you feel this is one of the good things about Lisbon...well, every good thing has an opposite side. Sometimes, you understand, they don't even have a conversation. Only a "versation."

And the notion of time here is not really Northern European time. It's very south European time, very Mediterranean. There are lots of things to say about time here. There's no word for if you have a meeting with someone and he doesn't arrive. There's no word. It's not a problem.

The Night in Lisbon with Ana

Our travel bookshop in the neighborhood of São Bento is an excellent beginning to a visit in Lisbon. From here, follow the tram track, because as you go up you have little shops, like tea shops where you can buy tea, little places to eat, get a drink.

And then we start going up, following the tram tracks. As we go up, to the right there's this beautiful view over the river. It’s called the Miradouro at Santa Catarina.

And then I would eat a little snack and maybe go to a movie. There's a place to eat when you are at the miradouro. There are these stairs and a little cafe there, and from the terrace, you have the same view as at the miradouro. Nice salads, all that, great juices.

Then I'd come back to the main street with the tram and go the cinema. There's a cinema called Ideal, and they have indie movies. Then go out in Bairro Alto.

Most people just stay in the more touristic places and they don't walk around. But it's nice to just get lost. You have to forget the travel guide, and just walk.

What do tourists usually look for at your bookshop?

Travel guides for Lisbon, or a novel that takes place in Lisbon. My favorite is The Night in Lisbon. During World War 2, many Jews from around Europe fled to Lisbon, and it was a route to the United States. In this book, this young man who is trying to go to the States tells his story to a Portuguese man and they go from cafe to cafe to talk as places close, because they've only just met, they're strangers. So you have the story of a young couple and also the story of the places that these two men go through the night in Lisbon.

But that’s not the one I sell the most. The one I sell the most is Night Train to Lisbon. Because of the movie, the one with Jeremy Irons. Unfortunately there are also a lot of other Lisbon books but they're not translated.

Miradouro de Santa Catarina is a popular meeting spot, with a fantastic view of the river. With a kiosk, a cafe, and lots of space to sit and picnic, this viewpoint is one of my favorites.

Mouraria's tasca-crawl with June

I recommend to walk the district of Mouraria. There is a route called Rota das Tascas da Mouraria. It is a very old district that is not very touristic, but is one of my favorites. It is on the bottom of the castle. 

You can find the Rota das Tascas online. "Tasco" is bar. So you don't have to go to every single bar, but I recommend taking a ginjinha in one of them, and seeing the atmosphere of the district. It's authentic! It's like an old town, with children playing in the streets and dogs running around. It's like the old home of your grandmother. The architecture is very old because, like Alfama, this district survived the earthquake. They were the only ones,  so the structure is quite peculiar, like many of the buildings are a little sideways, because of the earthquake.

There is one tasco called Os Amigos da Severa. It's in a street where fado was born--like, people started singing fado there. The wall of the street had pictures in wood in the wall of famous fado singers. There is also a vegetarian restaurant I love, The Food Temple. It's in a very small square—I love that square. Go in there for a tea or a piece of cake or dinner. One of the cooks is from Thailand, so it's different. 

What do you love about Lisbon?

People is what I love. I'm not originally from Lisbon, I'm from Spain. The first time I came here it was a surprise. Everyone in Lisbon is open and so warm. I was standing in the square waiting for someone, reading a book, and an old woman walked up to me and was like, are you lost? Can I help you? And that would never happen in Spain, but it happens here in Lisbon.

So for me that's the best, the people. And I like that it is small, a lot happening, a lot of free live music. Small coffees and restaurants, and I like the variety. You can find the more sophisticated, bohemian, hippie, rockabilly.

The Secret Lisbon is the best Lisbon guide ever. It's not like, "In 19blahblahblah the king blah." It's a really nice book. It's not a novel, so read it in parts. It’s divided in districts, and it changes how you walk to the small districts, the small details. It's my favorite book about Lisbon. 

You know where you should go, is Estrela da Bica. It's not traditional Portuguese, but Portuguese people go there. You have to go early--like at 8. Otherwise it will fill up completely. I've gone many times around 8:30 and they are already booked for the first night. It's very very good. Maybe go up the funicular, have a tea and look around, and then drop by early to book a table.

Illegal Chinese is very cool. In Mouraria, there are three. There's one that is really good. There is one that is horrible, it's awful, it’s so bad. Everything tastes the same because they just cook everything in the same sauce. But it's cheap, I guess. But when I went there I was like, I'm never coming back.

Which one is the bad one? 

I don't know, they don't have names! They're just houses. You walk in and they have tables in the living room, the dining room, all the rooms. The last time, I went with four people, and there was just one little table for us in like, a tiny room.