Paris:- Wednesday, 16. April 1997:- It is another truly bright day and I still have a mood left over from yesterday, from sitting on a terrace for hours across from the Gare de Lyon.

Yesterday, at the end, we left the terrace and crossed the Seine to the Jardin des Plantes, and that reminded me of the eastern part of the 5th arrondissement - the eastern Latin Quarter.

I spent a fair amount of time here some years ago. There also is a reader who has written twice to compliment me on my report about the rue Mouffetard, and I have twice replied that it was not mine. To be sure, I have gone back to all the reports I did for 'The Paris Pages' in 1995, and all of Metropole's past issues for last year, and I've turned up nothing.

Still, I 'remember' Mouffetard, and if I gave the report some other title, it may be there but I - and my search software - cannot find it anywhere.

What I do remember is my grand photo tours of 1989 and 1990, when I came to Mouffetard from the direction of Gobelins in the south. The lower or bottom end of Mouffetard is a public street marché, and like the dot on an exclamation point, there is a final, not quite a 'place,' where the marché winds up - which is very Parisian in atmosphere.

To begin, kind of where yesterday left off, I go first to the Arènes de Lutèce - to see if the 'renovators' have had their way with this Roman reminder of that long-ago occupation. The gardeners are hard at work replanting a bit of grass, but I see no change at all from what I remember from the early 1980's. There is part of the remains of an arena, backed by some old but ordinary apartment buildings. The whole thing looks a bit forlorn and forgotten.

It is thought the arena was constructed about the year 200 AD, probably before the baths at Cluny, because there is no brick in the construction. What is known for certain, is that the arena was wrecked by left-bank residents - possibly after a rugby match; but actually before the arrival of the barbarians - around 285, in order to build a quick defense wall on the Ile de la Cité.

Later, around 375, Parisians came back for more cut stones, to use for the construction of the Saint-Etienne church; and thereafter plundered it regularly for handy building blocks. A couple of hundred years later the remains of the arena may have been used for circus activities, but over time they were gradually buried by dirt and more or less forgotten.

The arena was alluded to a couple of times over several hundred years, but by 1821 it was considered to be pure myth.

Baron Haussemann came to the rescue inadvertently when the rue Monge was put through from 1860-69. In early 1870 the arena was discovered. Everybody rushed to preserve the site, but the bus company won and a large part was made into a local depot. More relics were discovered in 1883-85, including one skeleton measuring two metres twenty. The restoration to the present state took place in 1917-18.

I know nothing about this as I study the scene. Two fellows are kicking a ball around and a couple of people are sitting on the Roman stones. The overhanging apartment buildings are annoying, and I look for angles to exclude them, but it is not easy. I have mixed feelings: the 'renovators' have not done their customary job here, by making it look too new, too scenic; but the Parisians in need of building blocks and the bus company, have left it less than satisfactory.

This has been a 380-word side-trip I didn't expect. I leave, going past the interesting métro exit and go down rue Monge and cross over at the place Monge and get to the rue Mouffetard by way of the rue Ortolan.

Mouffetard is 605 metres long and no more than six metres wide; it is an ancient section of the Roman road to Italy, by way of Lyon - and has had this name since the 13th century. Actually it has had several variations of this name including 'Mostard,' and Saint-Marcel, but a lot of people simply call in 'La Mouff' today.

The lower part has one of the most colorful marchés in Paris, and to see it you should arrive early, especially on Saturdays. The street is semi-pedestrian after the crossroads of the rue de l'Epée de Bois, and it is possible to walk down the middle in relative safety.

It is not Saturday and it is not early as I do this walk and although I am not in a real hurry I am going too fast to see every little thing of interest - taking a good look at La Mouff should take about a day if you are really pressed for time; otherwise it probably needs a week.

There are an incredible variety of shops, cafés, market shops, passages and bars and you can easily skip the fast-food places that are moving in. They do not stand out, as all the shops are small in frontage; it is almost like a jungle with a single path running through it. Where cars are forbidden, it is comfortable, because higher up, towards the place de la Contrescarpe, the sidewalks are very narrow and walking and seeing are almost impossible as you have to dodge fellow citizens as well as not get run-over.

The six hundred metres is not much, but it is too much for this visit. I've come in about a third of the way down - giving Contrescarpe and its possible colony of clochards a miss today - but I do go off on the rue de l'Arbelète to look at the café there.

Before the place Edward Halpen was invented - or merely renovated? - the area in front of this café had room for a terrace and the whole effect caught my fancy, and I have a good photo of it. I remember it well, but I have forgotten this 'renovation' and once again I am disappointed in the 'new' version.

There are some places in Paris, not particularly historic ones, where there is a accidental combination of layout, of structure, of decor - which combined, are... well, essentially Parisian.

In some places, Montorgeuil for example, a careful renovation can bring a somewhat down-at-heels area back to life and even new glory as new people with respect for the surroundings move in. In other places, such as the 'Village de Charonne' in the 20th it takes longer to catch on. The third possibility of a renovation is one where the existing ambiance is destroyed, and if it was a good one, it is sad to see it gone.

The Café de l'Arbelète is still here and it has survived a re-paint, but its surroundings haven't. It is still a good-looking bar. Its sunlit and somewhat dusty terrace is a memory.

At the bottom of La Mouff, some of the marché's flower dealers are still open, but trucks are pulling in and out from a supermarket further up the street.

The Saint-Médard church is on one side, behind the cherry blossoms that are out all over the city, and the bar I like is still with its ambiance. With a glass of Evian I take a good look at its ambiance inside again, and it is pretty much as I remember it. It could be a good rainy-day place too, to sit in and read the paper - but today it is not doing much lunch business.

In fact, I have no idea what time it is, except that it is afternoon and the sun is out. That could be it; in the shade it is not warm and this bar's terrace is in shade, while terraces I see across the street are sunlit and have lots of people on them - as if it were a holiday.