Off M went, early in the morning, to his training. My only plan was to further examine some of the shops we'd seen on Sunday, and to go to a few that I'd put on the map before our trip. And lunch.
I retraced our steps down Rue du Bac to find:
Monoprix - a department store that also has food. I picked up a few things there and continued on...
to Curling, a lovely store with beautiful, simple clothing. The salesclerk was sweet and helped me pick out a few things. I left with a gorgeous navy wool jacket, with fuchsia lining, a couple of merino turtlenecks, and a piece of paper. The piece of paper was to pick up the skirt they were altering for me. Such nice service - a great store. I was excited to bring M there to show him all the things I didn't buy!
I crossed St. Germain and continued on Rue du Bac to Rue de Sèvres to La Grand Épicerie de Paris at Le Bon Marché Department Store. It didn't occur to me to take any photos while I was there, but it was incredible. Food from all over the world - beautifully, if overwhelmingly, displayed. I didn't buy anything because it just seemed that there was too, too much. It was easier just to look and not touch anything.
My plan was to take the Sèvres - Babylone metro (#10) to Odéon, then switch to (#4) to Châtelet - Les Halles. There were a few stores I wanted to visit in this area:
G. Detou - after having read David Lebovitz's piece, I knew I would have to go there. It's a small, extraordinarily well-stocked food store. Take a look at his photos - they're way better than mine would have been. I didn't buy anything there, either. I think I should have.
From there, I popped into A. Simon on Rue Montmartre - a cookware shop with lots of goodies. I didn't buy any because my real destination was E. Dehillerin - an even bigger cookware shop.
Closed Mondays. Oh well. I would return on Tuesday.
Then, lots more walking and getting hungry. I stumbled upon Le Pain Quotidien on Rue Petits Carreaux. I didn't really realize that it's a Belgian chain, or that they have U.S. bakeries. It just looked and smelled really good. I had a vegetarian pot-au-feu (which was basically vegetable soup with quinoa in it, which was wonderful and which I've already tried to replicate). While I was there, the waiters were spray painting winter scenes on the windows with "snow." They let me do one.
I also took a look at Alain Coumont's book.
Fortified, I walked and walked and browsed all the way back to our neighborhood. Cold and tired, I got a coffee and made notes about my day.
We had crepes and cidre for dinner. I was wrong about Day IV... we only had cidre at the creperie the night before, having stuffed ourselves a mere few hours earlier.
DAY VI
My plan for Tuesday was to go out to a famous second-hand store which is on the outskirts of Paris, and then clear across the city to some other shops I'd read about. It was the perfect solo excursion, as M really doesn't like the metro, and this was going to require quite a lot of the metro.
The route: from Odéon (#10), 11 stops to Michel-Ange – Auteuil (there was a saxophone player playing loudly right next to me on this entire route), switch to #9 to Rue de la Pompe (a guy selling flowers sat right next to me, incessantly trying to sell me flowers). I walked to Reciproque.
"Open in 1978 on 1 500 square feet by Nicole Morel, young press attaché at that time, RECIPROQUE has expended 30 years later to 7 500 square feet. This second-hand shop of luxury items, the biggest one in Paris, offers in its 6 boutiques, all next to each others on Rue de la Pompe, several tens of thousands of FASHION items of COUTURE and French, Italian, Japanese, Belgium, American,….and all over the world DESIGNERS, as well as home articles and modernes and antiques Jewelleries."
It was a great place to browse, filled with very fancy, fancy second-hand things. I was going to take a bunch of artfully-composed photos with our big camera, but I heard a clerk scolding someone who was taking pictures, so I took one surreptitiously with M's phone and gave up.
I did learn a valuable lesson, however. As I was leaving, a chicly-dressed woman came in with a big snazzy camera (like our big snazzy camera). She spoke, in French, to the clerk. I gathered from their conversation that the woman had called ahead and gotten permission to do a photo shoot FOR HER BLOG. She was given free reign to take photos and arrange things and otherwise breeze around the shop with her chic clothes and tall boots and big camera. I HAVE A BLOG. AN INTERNATIONAL BLOG (meaning that a handful of very kind people who happen to live in several countries read it). I have a big camera. I have tall boots. I could have called ahead. Next time, I will. A very good lesson!
I left the women's boutique empty-handed. Nope, no handbag, no jewels, no couture anything pour moi. It was fun, though, to find an Hermès bunny tie for M at the men's boutique.
From there, I went clear across Paris (#9 to Roosevelt; #1 to Bastille) to check out Le Bonheur des Dames, an embroidery shop I'd read about in Paris Made by Hand. It was a terrific place, full of project ideas that are completely unrealistic but inspiring. "Unrealistic" in the sense that when I see these things, like an enormous embroidered heirloom tablecloth pattern, I unrealistically think that
A) I know how to embroider;
B) That it wouldn't take that long to do; and
C) That I would ever use it if I'd spent as long as it really would take to make it.
I did find, however, a very small project:
It reminds me of the embroidery my Farmor used to do. I also got some fetching fabric for a project that has yet to reveal itself to me:
It was absolutely worth the travel to go there. Here's a nice piece about the place.
My next task was to check out the Church of Saint-Séverin, also in our neighborhood, to see if it might be a nice option for Christmas Eve. I made my way back... this time:
I took care to map my way to the church. It was beautiful and easy to find. I went inside. Beautiful. Great - another terrific option for Christmas. Except... it seemed familiar. That's because it was Saint Sulpice, not Saint-Séverin. Whoops. So, I went from there to the actual Saint-Séverin.
It was also beautiful outside:
But I wasn't crazy about the modern stained glass windows inside:
I was ready for a coffee, so I sat in a cafe right by our hotel and rested for a bit. Next to me was a scene that has probably played out as long as there have been French boys and foreign girls...
She (in German accent): "But I don't want to go home. I never want the semester to end."Sigh.
He (in French accent): "You could stay at my flat for a few days..." (touching her legs under the table).
She: "I don't want to see my boyfriend. I've grown apart from him. My parents are fond of him, but he is not exciting like you."
He: "Yes. I have to see my girlfriend at Christmas, but she doesn't understand me the way you do."
She: "I hate this." (fighting tears).
He: "It is very difficult for so many reasons... I do not want to be without you."
She: "If you are meant to be with someone, you will know it..."
He: "I want to be with you now, that is all I know."
She (crying): "Tomorrow I will wake up in Germany and think this was all a dream."
He: "Maybe it was."
Dinner at Les Deux Magots was an unexpected surprise - no reservations - and was delightful.
All a dream.
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