Part of our trip includes shopping the stores, walking the streets, and visiting the Paris Flea market. This is the information part of the trip: What the European community is buying, what they're wearing and seeing what they are embracing beyond the pages of American Vogue and Elle Décor magazines.
We are saying between the Elysee Palace off the Faubourg-Saint-Honoré (rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré) and the Madeline Church (L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine), the Roman Catholic church in the 8th arrondissement. The Madeleine Church was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army. To its south lies the Place de la Concorde, to the east is the Place Vendôme, and to the west L'église Saint-Augustin.
A fabulous French townhouse
As we walk the streets on the way to the Metro at le Madeleine, I am snapping pictures like a foreign tourist! Haha!! I love the architecture, all of it! The imposing closed doors that open to a lucky few who live behind them, when open reveal a way of French beyond the street.
Beautiful over sized doors, above, open to courtyards and to rarely seen private residence's
Beautiful, large knockers are frequently seen in Paris
A stores elaborate flower display lures us in, only to find it is actually a florist that sells only silk flowers. So real that yes, we had to touch them too!
Flowers at the store, SIA
Chocolates at one of the many Paris confectioners, beautifully presented, above, and a Gorilla made of chocolate, but this one with the itchy middle finger, below.
Paris window shopping is like no other city. What we see here isn't seen in the US for many months, or in some cases, years. Below are some of those most notable windows.
House of Dior
Gucci, may we never see this come to pass for American men!
Kenzo, lion and animal print pants for him and her.
Pearl trimmed shorty boots at Chanel
Flowers at Lalique
We took the metro out to Porte de Clignancourt on the Northwest side of Paris, to the Paris flea (Les Puces), officially known as Les Puces de Saint-Ouen, originated in the 18th-century when chiffoniers or rag-and-bone men resold goods and clothing found in aristocrats’ rubbish bins, setting up just outside the gates of Paris to avoid fees and taxes incurred within city walls.
Considered the largest flea market in the world, it is actually a series of many mostly adjoining, separate flea markets, "in an labyrinth of 2500 stalls and 17 kilometres of alleyways spread over 6 hectares, not to mention the task of navigating the 70,000 bargain hunters that visit every week".
Silver by the pound!
Brocante (junk)
Fine antiques and paintings
One of the nicer alleys
Great planter at one of the shops that specialize in garden furnishings
And an abundance of..., er...,ah... street fashion?
There are several websites you can visit, here is one of them: http://www.marcheauxpuces-saintouen.com/1.aspx
Dinner at L'Endroit (the Spot), 67 Place du Doctuere Felix Lobligeois, in the 17th. A bit of a ways out, but I your a hipster and want the most fabulous gourmet hamburger in Paris, this is the place. If you can get by this Russian doorman, you're "in" (just kidding, he's the owner and very cool).
A street fare across the street from L'Endroit gets lively with a band singing. "it's only rock'n roll" in French, with dancing children being led by a clown In white coat), not sure if he was professional or just a passerby.
la Madeleine at night
We hurried back from dinner to our "hood", for a concert at la Madeleine. A string concert with vocalist singing Vivladi. In that venue, it was truly magnificent, we were so lucky to have experienced that.
Yikes I'm out of here! I just heard on the news that Secretary John Kerry is on his way here to see the French President and Arab League Ministers to drum up support for attacking Syria. I remind you that we are less than 50 feet from the Elysee Palace, the official resident of the French President!
All for now in haste to the Maison & Objet show for the day.
Good night moon.
1 comment:
Ohh! The door knockers are beautiful! Can't wait to see them, Unc! Time is drawing closer! Please tell me that you bought a ton of the silver by the pound!
Post a Comment