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By Mark Seal -- American Way Magazine The sultry Sopranos star takes you on an insider’s tour of the City of Light. Here’s Lorraine Bracco, psychiatrist to Tony Soprano in HBO’s hit The Sopranos, analyzing her deep-rooted, abiding attraction to Paris. Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, she went to Paris in 1973 for what was supposed to be a month-long modeling assignment. With one taste of a café au lait and croissant on her first morning, she fell in love with the city forever. “I ended up staying 10 years,” she says, modeling, producing French television, acting in several European films, and even hosting her own Radio Luxembourg talk show. But in 1983, her family called her home, and she returned to New York, determined to move back to Paris as soon as possible. Back home, her plans changed when she landed a breakout role in Someone to Watch Over Me, with Tom Berenger. That was followed by her Oscar-nominated turn as a mob wife in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. After a host of other roles, Bracco became a Sunday-night staple as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on HBO’s critically acclaimed The Sopranos. This month, you can also see the actress in the big-screen comedy Riding in Cars with Boys, co-starring Drew Barrymore. But the role to which she’d most like to return is that of a Parisian. Here’s a weekend in the City of Light with Lorraine Bracco. FRIDAY Lodging “I would stay at the Hôtel Duc de Saint Simon, right near the Rodin Museum. It’s a quaint hotel, with the feeling of a bed and breakfast. I lived across the street from the hotel for a while, so when I go back, I stay there. Later, when I went over to make a movie, I stayed at the Hôtel Raphael. It’s right behind the Champs-Élysées. It has a great bar, which is a nice place to meet people and have a drink. The rooms are old and French with creaky floors and big windows. It’s nice because they haven’t modernized it. The bathrooms are huge and have fabulous dressing rooms. Very, very lovely.” Dinner “I was never a big chichi restaurant person. I like to go where there is a little action or excitement. I love La Coupole and Brasserie Lipp, two of the oldest brasseries in Paris. Lipp is a very Parisian restaurant where lots of political and intellectual people go … with their dogs. It’s old and quaint, and most of the waiters are as old as the building. I love La Coupole because you get to see all of Paris. It’s exciting to walk down the long aisles of tables to get to your seat. L’Orangerie is a beautiful eatery on the Ile Saint-Louis. It’s absolutely charming and lovely, the most romantic restaurant in Paris in my opinion, especially if you wanted to seduce a man.” Nightlife “The Opéra Garnier [Paris Opera] is so stunning. Now they have another, Opéra Bastille, which is supposed to be absolutely fabulous, too. But I love the original. I remember being mesmerized by it, just blown away. I wanted to touch it, to walk down the Grand Staircase and leap. You almost feel like Cinderella. It’s old and massive and stunning. Just magnificent.” SATURDAY Breakfast “I fell in love with Paris after the café au lait and croissant I had the first morning. I went to a little cafe and couldn’t speak any French. I just pointed to everything that I wanted. I got that big cup of café au lait and I said, ‘Oh, man, this is for me.’ For a month, I would just point to food and say, ‘Could we have this? Could we have that?’ The food is the first thing you have to get down. I love to go to the cafes. They are fabulous. They’re coffee shops where you can get a little bit of lunch, a little wine. They’ve got a bar usually, and you can buy cigarettes and lotto tickets. They’re where all the French go to have a coffee in the morning. They’re on every street corner. And they’re all different. It’s always amusing to go and watch the people.” Culture “My favorite museum is the Jeu de Paume [Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume]. I’d like to bring in a bed and a toothbrush and live there. It’s just an eyeful. I also love the little Rodin museum [Musée Rodin] with the sculptures. It’s on Rue de Varenne.” Lunch “One of my favorite lunch places is the Italian restaurant Stresa. Great Italian food. Great artichokes. And, of course, there’s nothing like eating Italian food in Paris — all the fresh vegetables and fruits and great wine. I love it, love it, love it. I’ve seen Elton John, Alain Delon, lots of people at Stresa. There’s also a nice little cafe near the Louvre pyramid. It’s called Le Café Marly. It looks out over the pyramid. If you want something more substantial, go to Chez Georges. It’s got a terrace and you can see all of Paris. It’s very Zen-like to have lunch there.” Shopping “If I could buy only one thing in Paris it would be cheese. I love the vacherin cheese. It’s just so smooth, like a brie, but a little more creamy. Of course, there’s the infamous Rue des Rosiers, with all the open markets on Saturday and Sunday mornings, which is just delightful. I really lived there, so being able to go to Rue des Rosiers and do my shopping was always great fun. You’ll find the open markets all over Paris. I love the big flea market, the Marche aux Puces, on the outskirts of town. For clothing, I liked Ventilo. Armand Ventilo is a great designer, very French. I loved his clothes — very simple with a touch of femininity. I also liked Joseph, which is not really French. It’s English, but it’s a great place to shop.” Snack “The Ile Saint-Louis has the greatest ice-cream shop called Berthillon. Oh, my god, it’s the best ice cream in Paris. We’re used to Carvel and Häagen-Dazs pops and Mister Softee trucks; this is what the French are used to. You must take a walk around the Ile Saint-Louis. It’s so old, you feel like you’re in the 17th century. It’s definitely a lovely walk. You’re not too far from Notre Dame. I used to go to Patisserie Car-ette in the Place du Trocadéro, a tea place where I’d always see Catherine Deneuve. I didn’t really know her. Now I do, but then I didn’t. She would go to Patisserie Carette at tea time, 4 p.m., and I would love to have been able to say hello.” Dinner “Kinugawa is a great Japanese restaurant with the best sushi in Paris. Tong Yen is fabulous for Chinese. It’s right off the Champs-Élysées. Typical Chinese with a very happy atmosphere and lots of great food. When I modeled, all my Swedish friends would go to the Maison du Caviar, which I liked a lot, too. I hate caviar, but they serve smoked salmon, so I was in luck. It was always fun. It’s kind of sparse and modern. You know, smoked salmon, caviar, and good vodka.” Nightlife “Les Bains is still a happening place. It’s still hot and heavy, very intimate. It’s got the best deejays. I’ve been there and danced until 4 or 5 in the morning. It doesn’t really get going before midnight. You have dinner upstairs, then go downstairs to dance. Everybody goes there, from rock stars to tennis players to actors.” SUNDAY Excursion “Traveling out from Paris is great. You can go to Provence and Bordeaux, and see the wine châteaux. But if you’re going to go to spend any time in Paris, you need to go see the Château de Versailles. I had the great pleasure of going to Versailles and having dinner in the Hall of Mirrors. That was magnificent. I was invited to dinner by then-president Giscard d’Estaing, and it was a very formal dinner for the king of Saudi Arabia. The room was lit up with candles and there must have been at least 100 people. It was mag-nificent. Versailles is a part of the French culture that’s been writ- ten about, that’s been dreamt about, and that is truly magnificent.” ONE ENLIGHTENING SUMMER IN PARIS “I was working as a producer for French television when they asked me to step in and man one of the Radio Luxembourg talk shows for the summer. When they asked me if I thought I could do it, I said, ‘Yes,’ like a fool. Because everybody in Paris goes on vacation for the summer, it was the lonely Bracco in August. The show was in French. I always had an accent, but I speak French well. I didn’t really ‘interview.’ I just talked about things in the news, mostly things about rock-and-roll, and I played rock-and-roll music. I interviewed Jacques Chirac when he was the mayor, and he’s now the president. I interviewed everybody from Mayor Chirac to Bruce Springsteen to people talking about how the French should use pooper-scoopers — anything. I did the show for about three months. I had always modeled, so everything was always about my appearance, and this was more about what was going on inside of me. That was very good for me, although my audience was probably only the prisoners in French jails. I can honestly say I grew up in Paris. I went as a girl, and left as a woman.”
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