From Tourist to Shopper

We slept until 9 and then took a Metro ride to Galeries Lafayette downtown to shop!   Sorry Scott.  I held her off as long as I could.  Galeries Lafayette is a most interesting place.  It was filled with shoppers and gave us a bit of crowd anxiety.  There are 9 floors of shopping.  Each floor is wide open with various stores / designers but no walls.  It's like a department store layout but made up of different vendors.  The high end names like Cartier, Rolex, Tiffany, Prada, LV, Chanel are on the lower levels.  By the time you reach the top floors, you're down to silly souvenirs like flashing Eiffel Towers.  We shopped on level 5 or so and got some cute clothing that was bon marche (inexpensive).   We also got Mandy a house coat/robe and house shoes/slippers for her new home.  Wearing shoes inside is frowned upon. I knew this from growing up in Cottonport, La.  Plus, she will now be sharing a home with a family, so she needs a robe for walking about in the night or morning.

On top is a cafeteria-type dining hall and the very top is an observation deck where you can look out on all of Paris.  That was really nice.  Pictures will be posted on Mandy's FB wall soon.

The next adventure of the day was to find a Carrefour which turns out to be similar to Target or Wal Mart.  There she was able to get a pay-as-you go card for the cell phone the Cahn's loaned her.   We found the Carrefour in Boulogne (via subway) and returned to a friendly bar we had discovered there near the deRostolan's.  The bar is called Bar des Amis and became our own version of Friends or Cheers when we hung out there on Monday night before our dinner date - we didn't want to be late and had arrived in Boulogne early.  We made friends with the owner Ronnie and a restaurant owner named BouBou.  Our best times are when we spend time with locals.

We're back in the hotel with our baguette and comte cheese for dinner.  There's only so many dining experiences we can handle.  Luckily we walk and walk and walk to burn some of the calories.

And now for our lists of French likes and dislikes....

We love...

• all the food
• dogs in restaurants and stores
• menu items with prices that include tax and service charge included
• Nutella
• wine that doesn't give you headaches
• two kiss greetings
• compliments
• people who speak English
• tiny coffee cups
• French bread / baguettes
• comfortable shoes
• scarves
• relaxed meals
• small markets with fresh flowers and fruit on the sidewalk
• leather gloves
• the efficiency of the subway system
• no expectation of tipping - 5-10% is adequate
• King Cake - a gallette
• art everywhere!
• roundabouts
• magnificent churches and cathedrals

We dislike

• dog poop on sidewalks
• the weakness of the dollar
• French TV
• rain and puddles
• gray skies and cold weather without snow
• loud drunk French couples leaving bars at 5 a.m. near our hotel window
• numbering ground floors as 0 and second floor as 1

There's not a lot to dislike here.  If we think of more, I'll update.

Everything went very well with Mandy's visit to the Cahn's Thursday night.  They'll pick up her luggage here Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and then she'll show up there Sunday morning to live when I leave for the airport at 8 A.M. or so.

One more day here.  We're both getting a little sad as my final day approaches.  Oh what to do?

7 hours ahead of my dear America...
Lisa

Epiphany en Boulogne

Sunday night may serve as the highlight of our trip to Paris as we were invited to a family celebration in the beautiful home of Elisabeth and Hubert, Lucie's parents.  (Lucie and Mandy are friends in Richardson - Lucie is an exchange student at JJ Pearce High School this year.  Lois, our dear neighbor, serves as her American aunt and has had Lucie and Mandy over for dinner many times.)

Their home was exactly as I would imagine a French home to be in the city... enter through a heavy wooden door next to the sidewalk onto a porte cache, then into an inviting home filled with beautiful Louis XV furniture and lovely art with a ceiling with exposed raw beams.  Their windows looked out to pretty courtyards very similar to those in New Orleans.  By the way, there is wrought iron balconies everywhere.  New Orleans is by far the most European city we have in America... or at least the only one that I have visited.  And while I'm on decor, the most unexpected thing on this trip is to see all of the very modern furniture in many of the restaurants and lobbies.  It is like the French have decided to turn their back on their history and leave antiques to the museums.  The bright, sleek Ikea-like furnishings are in stark contrast to the beautiful old buildings which house them.   Americans would give their eyeteeth to have the antiques!  Well, at least the cathedrals here retain their beauty and history.

Amanda Rose and I took the bus to Elisabeth's neighborhood and then she picked us up at the bus stop.  The bus ride was fun but slower than we expected.  We were slightly apprehensive about knowing so little French to attend a family gathering, but what the heck!  This is nothing if not an adventure!  We have both developed tremendous courage from this trip.  Not to worry!  The family was sooooooooo gracious.  Many were able to carry on long conversations in English even though they learned it years ago. They were very interested in talking to us and we enjoyed their stories.  The cousins, uncles, aunts, sisters all had very interesting education and careers - lawyers, UN diplomats, government officials, retired military, financial managers, commercial real estate.  Lucie's older sister is working in rural France to help poor farmers rent land.  She organizes investors in the city to buy land for them.  So cool!  The uncles and aunts complimented me by saying they thought I was Amanda's sister, not her mother.  I just love these people!  Amanda attracted the attention of many of the charming great uncles.  They were very complimentary of her eyes.

Oh and the food!  King Cake here is like an almond or apple turnover with flaky crust.  The "baby" inside are ceramic charms and the one who gets it wears a crown for the night.    We also had champagne and cider and wonderful French coffee.

Elisabeth brought us back to the hotel which seemed way closer by car than by bus.  She also brought Uncle Phillippe home in the car - he lives one block from our hotel.   We have made lifetime friends.  Should Amanda stay through July, I will feel much more at ease knowing she has these wonderful people to turn to.

Amanda is researching French schools today.  Elena, Elisabeth's daughter-in-law from Brasil, suggested she look into a course at the university - La Sarbonne.  We are also venturing to Notre Dame and Saint-Chappelle today.  So much to see and do!

Love to all,
Lisa
(guest blogger for Amanda)