Shopping in Paris

Here are some pictures I took while I was out shopping yesterday. I hasten to add that these are not items I bought, only items that caught my eye and that made pretty pictures, partly because of the way they were lit.

So just enjoy looking.

Jardins du Luxembourg

After lunch yesterday, it was cloudy, but not raining and not too cold, so Marie and I walked in the Luxembourg Gardens and did our visiting.

We talked about the two subjects that are our favorites: traveling and relationships. Marie is not a shopper. She adores traveling and, unlike me, she researches and visits all the important places in all the countries she visits.

She has visited me in several of the places I have stayed in. She came to Ville Franche while I was studying French on the Riviera several years ago and she stayed with me in both of the apartments I rented in Florence, the one overlooking the Ponte Vecchio and that fabulous one on the Piazza della Signoria.

Relationships are also important to both of us, and we talked about how ours is one where we don't see each other for several years -- I'm also not good to e-mail -- but that when I think of Paris, I always think of Marie. We always make a plan to visit and pick up right where we left off.

The secret to having supportive relationships, I believe, is to find areas of interest and interact in those areas, not expecting people to be with you in places where they have no interests.

Anyway, the Luxembourg Gardens was a lovely setting for our visit.

Time for a Little Shopping on the rue de Rennes

Today is the day I'm going to devote to shopping. In the area near Odeon and Saint Sulpice there are several streets that are my favorites: rue de Vieux Colombier,rue de Sevres, rue de Four, and rue de Rennes.

Or, if the rain gets really tiresome, I'll just go to the big department store in the 6th, Bon Marche, and look around for trinkets: earrings, hats, handbags, scarves.

Lunch on the rue de Conde

I was going to call this post "Lunch at Schmuck's" because that is the name of the restaurant, but that does not come close to conveying the experience.

It helps if you know that "schmuck" is the German word for "jewelry," but somehow even that bit of linguistic sophistication does not erase the feeling tone of "schmuck."

My photos are blurry, but even they convey the feeling, the atmosphere of this jewel of a restaurant on the rue de Conde, every inch of which is covered in wall paper that looks like toile.

It was my intention to eat outside today, but the weather wasn't agreeable, so we ate inside instead.

For 15 euros, you could get either a salad and an entre or an entre and a dessert. The salad was crab; the entre was filet mignon stuffed with prunes; and the dessert was creme brûlée. Paola and Martha both got the crab salad; I, of course, got the creme brûlée.

Afterwards, we had a cafe with chocolate.

Grand Hotel des Balcons' Petit Dejeuner

Breakfast in bed is one of my treats to myself in Paris. Parisians, unlike Americans, don't feel like you are being dissolute if you have your tea and croissants snuggled down under the comforter. And it's the closest I'll ever come to being like Lady Mary on Downton Abbey.

I think I like looking at the tray as much as drinking the tea and eating the croissants. But the food is fine: creamy yogurt with lots of fat and no fruit, soft cheese, three kinds of fresh bread, and French butter. I don't mention the orange juice because it is not fresh squeezed and I don't have it anyway. Even a Madeline today.

It's just after 8:30 a.m. and much too early to think about going out unless you are being picked up by a sightseeing tour bus, which of course I'm not.

My own day should look something like this: have breakfast and read my blogs, find someplace to get my hair cut... I told Jo I was not going to do that this time, but I feel my resolve weakening. In fact, I noticed walking home last night on the rue Monsieur Le Prince a place I'm going to try.

Then Paola is coming to the hotel at noon. She and Martha and I are having lunch. About all that, more later

In the Marais with Maha

This post is going to be mostly images because the sun came out this morning. What a difference that makes on your mood as well as on your lens.

Maha and I put on all our gear and took the metro to Chatelet--the busiest interchange in Paris and the only way to get to the Marais from Saint Germain des Pres--and took Line 1 to St. Paul.

From there we walked into the Marais for some shopping and eating, enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful shops. The shops in the Marais are fully open on Sundays, one of the few areas in Paris where they are.

We got there about 10:30 when the streets were half empty and had breakfast. By noon it was hard to get through the crowds, lots of bicycles and baby strollers.

These candy colors ankle boots are not what we bought, but for a picture they were irresistible.

Dinner at Betsy's on Blvd. Montparnasse

These are not the roses that Martha got for us to take to Betsy and Richard last night. The ones Martha got were lovelier, but alas, I didn't get a picture of those. This will just give you the flavor as I write about the evening.

When Betsy found out that Martha and I were coming to Paris for a week, she invited us to come to their apartment on the Blvd. Montparnasse for dinner on Friday evening. And we did that.

For dinner we had pigeon with rice and lentils, creme fraiche, and Parmesan cheese. Lots of fresh bread and real French butter, salad and cheese. Finally, tart au citrone and cafe.

Betsy and Richard listened to our escapades, gave us tips about Paris marches, and told us about "Nuits Blanches" -- the night when Paris is even more lit up than usual with music and dancing all night.

Sounds good in theory, but the rain makes it dicey for me. Any way, Maha is coming over about 5:30 pm and we'll see.