Jhender

took a walk around Paris today. unfortunately the weather sucked, it was threatening to rain all the while, and the wind was so cold. took a little walk in jardin du luxembourg, always nice to see kids and fountain, and statues and garden chairs. got a nice picture of the kid playing with his boat.

then we walked over to Pierre Hermé’s shop. It’s so decadent, all the cakes and macarons, and the price..

followed with a visit to Eglise Saint-Sulpice, with it’s Delacroix artwork and rose line. lots of restoration works going on though.

and then me and tim ate at a crepe place. i cannot remember the name. blue ship theme. a ham/cheese/raweggyolk galette + sucre demi-beurre crèpe + 25cl cidre for 11€. yummy.

walked past Les Deux Magots, where Sartre wrote. touristy place. and then a Rue Bonaparte has many nice antique and quaint and weird shops. selling old books, manuscripts, odd stuff.

and then to another decadent shop Ladurée. lots of temping macarons and cakes again. my gosh. good thing we have good self-restraint.

then went over to Palais Royal, i always liked this place, nice garden, nice place to play, kids at the sand pit, and the music box shop at the end.

lastly made our way over to Place de Madeleine, where we visited Fauchon, this crazy luxe food shop selling foie gras, choc eggs, cakes, more macarons, champagne, gift sets. whole shop is pinkish. and then there was a shop selling caviar at xxxx€/kg, another one Maison de la Truffle with similar kinda prices. oh yes there was also a restaurant at Palais Royal with caviar dishes at xxx€.

you look at the price and the item, and you get this knowing ridiculous smile on your face, recognizing the insanity of such a life, the sheer decadence, indulgence, luxury. right here on the almost unassuming streets of paris. from a distance, the street doesn’t look that much more special than another, the shop isn’t as bombastic as the LV@Elysees. but you really gotta know the names to feel it. the feeling as you cross one narrow street after another, seeing named cafés, named creperies, named patissiers, restaurants, a woman sitting in a shop crafting, two old men sitting in armchairs amongst art pieces, ladies with teacups, Bvlgaris, another LV, another Yves Saint Laurent, another Dior, another Masserati ( i believe i saw 2 or 3 today), and then Agnes B Homme (Homme!..). [thanks to wikimapia.org i now know that Chanel fashion headquarters is just right behind]

p a r i s

Photo Gallery
Picasa web albums: i like this, coz i’ve pinpointed the photo location on the inset google map
gallery on blog: same photos, just on the blog, loads faster and it has the nice lightbox thing
facebook album: which doesn’t have the googlemap thing, but has facebook linking
[i really wish all the features could be found in one place, but that would be too much monopoly]

Private note: visit Place de Marché St Honoré.