Rest and Dates

Tags

Angelina, Bertrand, chocolate, France, hot chocolate, meals, Metro, metro Palais Royal, Omar, Palais Royal, Paris, Sherard

Sherard headed home on Thursday morning. In eight days we had walked 107 miles, averaging 13 miles a day, with 18 miles on our peak day. I generally walk an average of 7 miles a day when I’m in Paris but Sherard upped my game considerably!

Guess which week Sherard was here (June 1-8)

After he left I was tired! And my heel was hurting again — for obvious reasons. So I settled in for a day of rest and blogging. I had several free days before my next visitor, however, so I checked my social networking apps, and ended up making two dates, one for afternoon tea and the other for dinner.

I met my first date at métro Etienne Marcel. Omar is a 26-year-old Southeast Asian man on his first visit to Europe. He’s culturally Muslim but applies its principles flexibly. Like me, he enjoys travel and photography, and has a quirky sense of humor. I gave him a short tour of the Village Montorgueil, then we had tea at my apartment. We had a nice conversation and agreed to meet up again for drinks the following evening.

My Omar

My second date was with a young French guy. He proposed that we meet at métro La Motte-Picquet – Grenelle, an area with which I wasn’t particularly familiar. There were many exits so I picked the most plausible one. There was a huge crowd of people there, going to some sort of soccer event (the Euro Cup is being held in France this year) but no sign of my date. I had relied on being able to contact him when I got there but the app we had been chatting on wasn’t working for me and I didn’t have any other contact info. I waited half an hour and finally the app started working and we met up. He proposed dinner at a restaurant quite a distance away, so we walked over. The meal was pleasant enough and he was pleasant enough, but I was more interested in Omar at this point so we didn’t make another date. He walked me back to the métro and I called it a night.

Mostly a rest day, yes, but I nevertheless ended up walking more than 7 miles!

I started out Friday morning for a non-date rendezvous with Bertrand (Jared R’s French friend, whom I had met at our dinner party) for hot chocolate at Angelina on the rue de Rivoli. We had a lovely conversation, en français. I was sorry to hear about the continuing homophobia of his brother, even though the rest of his family has been supportive. I forget sometimes how lucky I’ve been!

Me and Bertrand at Angelina

Delicious hot chocolate and rather rich chocolate truffle at Angelina

Mural of Nice at Angelina

After Angelina I read my Yourcenar book for an hour in the lovely garden of the Palais Royal.

The garden of the Palais Royal

A gallery at the Palais Royal

Surely the strangest métro entrance in Paris: Palais Royal

A Flâneur is Born

Tags

4ème arrondissement, Alésia, art, Belleville, Boulangerie, Café de l'Industrie, Carrousel du Louvre, flâneur, FNAC, France, Haussmann building, Le Verre Siffleur, Louvre, Marais, meals, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, Sherard, Uniqlo

Wednesday was Sherard’s last day in Paris so we were thrilled the night before to see that the Louvre would reopen! We got up early — for us — and arrived shortly after it opened. Unfortunately, there was already a huge, raucous line. I searched online for a way to jump the queue, and was pleased to discover that the same strategy I had used other years for the Musée D’Orsay also works for the Louvre. In both cases the bottleneck is the security line, but both museums have a much shorter security line for people who already have tickets. You can buy tickets ahead of time on line or at FNAC or many tabacs, but if you wait until the last minute there’s a tabac that sells Louvre tickets right in the underground Carrousel du Louvre where we were waiting. The express security line for people with tickets is up at the glass pyramid so once you have your tickets you go there and sail past the normal security line. I was proud of having worked this dodge but I could see that Sherard was still repelled by the mob scene. I asked which galleries interested him most and when he left it to me I led him to the Mona Lisa, which I assumed he would want to see, even though it attracts the worst sort of paparazzi crowd. After that I spied a few paintings I liked but I could see that Sherard was still not into the experience.

Portrait of a Man Holding a Statuette by Bronzino, Florence, 1503 – id. 1572

Over morning coffee Sherard and I had a heart to heart talk. The upshot was that all he really wanted that day was to buy two items he had seen on earlier walks: (1) a rug he had admired during our walk through the Belleville and Couronnes neighborhoods and (2) a small painting he had liked at a gallery in the Marais. I was proud of Sherard for asserting what he really wanted in the face of the conventional expectation that one has to see the Louvre!

We got the hell out of there and headed east. The problem was that neither of us remembered exactly where he had seen the rug, so we retraced our steps: up rue de Belleville, then over to the Parc de Belleville and back down from there. Along the way we saw several pieces of street art that Sherard liked way more than anything he had seen at the musty old Louvre.

Street art in Belleville

Street art in Belleville

[Click here to download an enormous pano of the piece above.]

Just as we were about to give up on the rug, back at the Boulevard de Belleville, I noticed some Muslim stores on rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, and sure enough, there was the rug! Sherard bought it for a song, and the first of our missions was accomplished.

After lunch at the Café de l’Industrie — a sentimental favorite from my first year — we headed over to the Marais.

Sherard’s lunch at Café de l’Industrie

There was a moment of anxiety at the gallery when the painting Sherard liked was no longer on display! But after he asked at the counter the clerk brought out many similar pieces and Sherard left as the happy owner of a colorful semi-abstract portrait. Both missions accomplished, we happily strolled home through the Marais.

Uniqlo store in the Marais, in a former foundry

Sherard suggested that we eat dinner in a completely non-touristy neighborhood we had not yet visited. I took a deep breath and proposed Alésia, a typical if unexciting neighborhood in the 14ème arrondissement. I had no specific place in mind so we simply explored. Needless to say, this warmed the cockles of my flâneur heart!

Lovely Haussmann building in the 14ème arrondissement, near métro Alésia

Boulangerie in the 14ème arrondissement, near métro Alésia

The restaurant we settled on, Le Verre Siffleur, turned out to be friendly and rather stylish as well as offering a good meal at a reasonable price.

Bob’s dinner at Le Verre Siffleur, in the 14ème arrondissement

Among our pleasant conversations there was one with a young man from Dijon who gave me his number and invited me to visit his city for a few days. Sherard noted that something similar had happened with an artist earlier in his visit, and asked me whether this sort of thing occurs to me often. I responded, “Only in Paris!”

We ended the evening, comme d’habitude, with cocktails at Experimental Cocktail Club. The bartender was charmed when we mentioned our afternoon in Belleville, which she “adores.” But when we mentioned our excursion to Alésia she said, with a visible shudder, that she “never crosses the river.” Just like crossing the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge!

Mot du jour: « comme d’habitude », “as usual”.

Paris Sacred and Profane

Tags

Arc de Triomphe, Chez Ginette, Experimental Cocktail Club, France, meals, Montmartre, Parc Monceau, Paris, Sacre Coeur, Sherard, St-Pierre-de-Montmartre

Tuesday was a bit brighter so we set off to see the view from the base of Sacré-Coeur, the white-domed church on the top of Montmartre. Rue Montmartre starts near my place, at the foot of Saint Eustache, so we followed it through the faubourg, then took rue des Martyrs and many flights of stairs up to the top. The view was panoramic but too hazy for my postcard aesthetic.

We both found the tourist crush around Sacré-Coeur off-putting, but we enjoyed the much calmer and much older St-Pierre-de-Montmartre that shares the summit.

Peaceful alcove in St-Pierre-de-Montmartre

We had a late lunch at Chez Ginette, a modest but pleasant restaurant just above the Lamarck-Caulaincourt métro station. The food was fine and the view was unbeatable. After eating we strolled over to posh Parc Monceau. It was later than I usually see the park and there was a steady stream of joggers. We read our books for a while, trying not to let ourselves be distracted by the passing parade.

Gilded entrance to posh Parc Monceau

Then we headed over to the Arc de Triomphe. I made the classic error of mistaking the métro entrance for the underpass beneath the traffic mayhem of the Étoile, but after a brief diversion we found the correct entrance and explored the base of the monument.

Tricolor flying beneath the Arc de Triomphe

We had passed an attractive restaurant on our way up to the Arc de Triomphe so we backtracked a couple of blocks and had a good meal at Le Beaucour, in one of the posher neighborhoods of Paris.

Sherard enjoying his café gourmand a few blocks from the tourist crush around the Arc de Triomphe

After regrouping at home we started our evening with cocktails at Experimental Cocktail Club — where I’m becoming a regular — then beers at our neighborhood bar Hoppy, then a special birthday visit to a gay bar that I had avoided all these years: Le Depot. Sherard had enjoyed the upstairs bar at Total Beur the previous Friday, but on Tuesday only the downstairs was open. It was just as sketchy as my friends had said! The physical space was clean enough but the few other patrons had a zombie quality that we put down to a single-minded obsession about hooking up. After finishing our beers we fled, sadder but wiser!

A Monday Stroll

Tags

Berkeley Books, Boulevard Saint-Germain, Design et Nature, Deyrolle, Edgar, Fontaine de l’Observatoire, France, Galerie Vivienne, Instutute du Monde Arabe, Jardin de Luxembourg, Palais Royal, Panthéon, Paris, Right Bank, Sénat, Security Fence at the Sénat, Seine, Sherard, Square Barye, St. Etienne du Mont, stuffed animals, taxidermy

On Monday Sherard and I set out to explore the right bank, which we had slighted so far. We strolled over by way of the elegant Galerie Vivienne and the lovely garden of the Palais Royal.

Bookshop in the Galerie Vivienne

Greenery in the garden of the Palais Royal

We crossed the Seine and entered the 7ème arrondissement along the rue du Bac, so I could show Sherard Deyrolle, a world-famous taxidermy shop with an astounding collection of animals and insects. I respected their rule against photos but to give you the idea here are some pics from the smaller but also wonderful Design et Nature [Photo Set] at the other end of my own rue d’Aboukir.

Stuffed animals at Design et Nature

Stuffed animals at Design et Nature

After walking along the posh Boulevard Saint-Germain we had coffee at the square in front of the Odéon, were disappointed to find that Phyllis Cohen’s Berkeley Books is closed on Mondays, then strolled through the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Panthéon seen from the Jardin du Luxembourg

Security fence going in around the Sénat in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Necessary, but sad.

Fontaine de l’Observatoire of the Jardin du Luxembourg

We chose a pleasant spot and read our books for an hour in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Sherard pretending to read Foucault in the garden of the Palais Royal (which he really did in the Jardin du Luxembourg)

Then we walked over to Vavin, where I had had a memorable Niçoise salad my first year, at La Rotonde. They didn’t have this on the menu, though, and everything else looked pretty pricey, so we had cheap and cheerful baguette sandwiches at a boulangerie instead. We then walked up to the Panthéon, where I was disappointed to find that the beautiful St. Etienne du Mont church is closed on Mondays. Then through the Jardin des Plantes, fortunately open. The free observation deck of the Instutute du Monde Arabe is also closed on Mondays, and Square Barye, the little park at the east end of l’île Saint-Louis, was closed due to the flood, so all in all we had a good walk but were frustrated by closures at several points.

We partially made up for the disappointments of the day with a lovely small-plate meal at Edgar, a newly-opened hotel restaurant right around the corner from my 2016 apartment.

Dinner at Edgar

High, But Not Dry

Tags

art, Bastille, Belleville, Canal Saint-Martin, Comptoir General, flâneur, France, Ghetto Museum, La Bocca, Marais, meals, parc de Belleville, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Paris, Place des Vosges, Point Ephémère, Rosa Bonheur, rue de Mouzaïa, Sherard, villas

Thwarted by the closings of the the Louvre and the Musée D’Orsay, I promised to take Sherard on Sunday to one of the highest points in Paris, which I guaranteed wouldn’t be affected by the floods. I was right, but … read on.

We walked across the Marais — where Sherard saw a small painting he liked — via the Place des Vosges (mentioned in my French Linen post) to the trendy area east of the Place de la Bastille, then over to the Canal Saint-Martin, which was interesting as ever.

Street art along the Canal Saint-Martin

I showed Sherard Comptoir General but realized, seeing it through his eyes, that it was no longer the astonishing art-intensive Ghetto Museum that Alexis had introduced me to several years back, but had become just a big hipster bar with a few bits of African decor.

We walked the length of the canal up to Point Ephémère, a hipster bar in part of an old fire station that I had been reading about. We stopped in but it looked too sketchy for our bourgeois tastes. Sad for me since I like to think that a flâneur can appreciate all aspects of the city. There was a leftist political rally of some sort on the plaza between the canal and the Basin de la Villette. We stuck our heads in but it wasn’t our scene either.

Not having had much luck thus far I directed our steps to my ace-in-the-hole, the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, which never fails to charm. Imagine my chagrin when it too was closed! Not of course due to flooding — it’s one of the highest places in Paris! But it seems that the rains that preceded and caused the flood had soaked the soil and rendered certain trees unstable. There was a sign at the main entrance, however, saying that one of the ginguettes in the park was still open, accessible presumably by a safe route. There was no mention of my primary destination, Rosa Bonheur (which usually has a terrific gay scene on Sunday afternoons) but since it was close to an entrance at the top of the park I hoped it might be open as well. I checked its website and phone message and there was no mention of it being closed so we walked up along the outside of the park to the highest point, where a sign informed us that Rosa was closed. We got a quick bite at a restaurant across the street, where our only cold comfort was schadenfreude as we watched families and gay guys come up to the locked gate to discover — as we had — that both the park and Rosa were closed.

Not-terribly-good lunch on rue Botzaris

Our luck turned at this point, however, as Sherard enjoyed the little pedestrian “Villas” off rue de Mouzaïa, which led us up to the completely non-touristy Parc de la Butte du Chapeau Rouge, with a commanding view of the northern suburbs.

Flowers on Villa d’Alsace, off rue de Mouzaïa in the 19th

We walked back via the Parc de Belleville, and Sherard really enjoyed that area, especially appreciating a rug in a Muslim shop we passed by at some point in our meanderings.

Crowd at an impromptu concert at the Parc de Belleville

That evening we had a late dinner at an old favorite, La Bocca on rue Montmartre.

Seafood pasta dinner at La Bocca. The long thin shells are clams, although I’m not sure they are the same species as we get in the U.S. since I’ve never seen a shell like that at home

 

Two Parisian Evenings

Tags

apartment, France, Jared, Lemon, meals, Montorgueil, Paris, puit d'amour, rue Montorgueil, Sherard, Stohrer, Zhizhong

Sherard and I understandably got a slow start on Saturday morning, after our big Friday night. We caught up with Jared W and one of his friends for lunch at Lemon, the new Icelandic place I had eaten at a few weeks before. We enjoyed our pocket sandwiches and juice drinks but like last time the service, while friendly, seemed unduly slow and disorganized.

After lunch I introduced Jared W and his friend to Stohrer on rue Montorgueil, which was an instant hit! The bakery/deli is one of the oldest in Paris, having been founded in 1730.

Jared W and friend with their first puits d’amour (wells of love) from Stohrer on rue Montorgueil

That afternoon Sherard went shopping while I did some reading and blogging. At 4 pm we joined Jared R and Steve, the other two members of our book group, for a transatlantic meeting on Skype to discuss the second half of the Pulitzer-prize-winning book Middlesex, which we all liked. Jared R was thrilled to see us at the apartment where he had spent several happy days the previous week, and Sherard and I enjoyed a tour of Steve’s new house.

When Sherard and I first planned the trip I had gotten tickets to the Paris Opera for a performance of La Traviata. This had seemed like a good idea at the time and Sherard had viewed a version with English subtitles to prepare. As it worked out, however, he was too tired, so I invited Zhizhong instead. We both enjoyed it, and were surprised that the three-hour performance seemed to fly by. As it turned out there were both French and English surtitles.

Zhizhong and me at La Traviata

I was surprised to see that there was a 30 minute intermission after the first few scenes, then a shorter intermission later on. This made perfect sense, however, when we realized that a light supper was on offer at fairly reasonable prices. Since neither of us had eaten before this was a godsend.

I was sorry Sherard couldn’t attend but he really did need a serious nap. He woke up hungry around 9 pm and set off towards the Gare du Nord to find something to eat. (Not the direction I would have recommended, but it worked out great.) He got into a conversation in a café with a couple of guys who turned out to be gay. They invited him home, served him a Brazilian meal, and watched Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with him. His Southern knowledge helped elucidate many subtle points.

So, special Parisian evenings for both of us!

[I’m still a week behind in my blog, but at least I’m making progress!]

Drinking While Paris Drowns

Tags

Arturo, beur, drinking, Experimental Cocktail Club, France, Garçon Magazine, Hoppy, Jared, La Chaise au Plafond, Le Depot, Les Mots a la Bouche, Les Souffleurs, Marais, neighborhoods, Open Café, Paris, Quetzal Bar, rebeu, Sherard, Total Beur

Friday night was an epic bar crawl. I’m tempted to just refer the gentle reader to the Circe Chapter of Ulysses and leave it at that. But as a dedicated blogger I must try to record the experience!

On Wednesday Sherard and I had visited Les Mots à la Bouche — the indispensable gay bookstore in the heart of the Marais. A friendly clerk invited us to the launch party on Friday for Garçon Magazine issue 4, so we arranged to meet Arturo there to start our evening. Meanwhile, Jared W got in touch to suggest coordinating with him and a friend so we suggested that he meet us there also. Then a young Chinese filmmaker who I had met once in Boston surfaced and asked if we could meet up this evening. So I invited him to meet us there as well. The more the merrier!

Arturo was already at the Garçon launch party when we arrived, and a photographer was taking pictures for possible use in the next issue. Naturally the three of us volunteered; my guess is that our photo might just get in: How could they resist a handsome latino, a super-cute mixed-race guy and a charming much older gentleman? Then Jared W arrived with not one but four friends. We toyed with the idea of looking for a table for eight but eventually decided to go our separate ways for dinner. Then the filmmaker arrived, and showed every sign of wanting to spend the rest of the evening with me, despite the fact that I already had two excellent companions. I introduced him to the photographer and sent him over to have his picture taken, saying that I had to go back to my friends.

That seemed to work, so Sherard, Arturo and I headed over to the Open Café for cheap happy-hour beers on their terrasse. Who should arrive, however, but the filmmaker, still lonely as a cloud! I walked him into the bar and introduced him to a sweet-looking Australian of my vintage to help him order a beer. Happily, this time my social engineering worked and we saw them later going into Quetzal Bar.

Meanwhile, the three of us walked down to Les Souffleurs for cocktails. Arturo was scandalized when the bartender larded his martini with vermouth, but after much heated discussion he got an American-style martini, and ended up with a free drink. Who should we see as we left to find dinner but Jared W and his four friends! (This wasn’t as big a coincidence as it might seem, since Lisa’s Geoff had introduced both of us to the bar during Jared’s stay with me a few years back.) Jared and his friends had already eaten falafels on rue des Rosiers, so Sherard, Arturo and I went looking for a table for three.

My favorite Bad Boys, Sherard and Arturo.

Happily, we found one at an old favorite, La Chaise au Plafond. Their famous millefeuille appetizer wasn’t on the menu, since tomatoes were not yet in season, but otherwise the meal was up to my expectations. The only photo I took, however, was of the toilet — sorry, it was that kind of evening!

The toilet at La Chaise au Plafond. Arturo almost touched hands with the person opposite, thinking that the hands he saw were his own in a mirror.

After dinner we walked back to our own neighborhood (Arturo’s apartment was nearby) and had excellent cocktails at Experimental Cocktail Club. Arturo was feeling tired for some reason, so after a couple of drinks he headed home.

Sherard and I were still thirsty, though, so we each had a distinctive craft beer at Hoppy, a brand new beer bar just down the street. We closed the place down, and had a nice conversation with the owner as we left.

Hoppy

When we got home, however, Sherard realized that this was Total Beur night at Le Depot — a big 16th Anniversary event! I like beurs/rebeus (slang but not necessarily insulting terms for guys of north African ancestry – mot du jour link), but I was a bit tired myself by this point and I had never been to Le Depot, in part because friends had described it as a creepy sex club. So Sherard headed out once more into the alluring Parisian night. He reported the next morning that it was a lively and attractive crowd, and that the ground floor was a pleasant, normal gay bar. (He also brought back a card for free admission on a Tuesday night, but more about that later…)

In case you found this a teensy bit confusing here’s a helpful table:

Party/Bar/Restaurant	Sherard and Me	Arturo	Jared W+4	The Filmmaker	The Aussie
Garçon Magazine issue 4 Launch Party at Les Mots à la Bouche	X	X	X	X
Open Café	X	X		X	X
Les Souffleurs	X	X	X
Quetzel Bar	X	X		X	X
La Chaise au Plafond	X	X
Experimental Cocktail Club	X	X
Hoppy	X
Le Depot	Sherard

Sherard and I have been friends for years, and we’ve shared a glass of wine or two on many occasions. This is the first time we’ve traveled together, though, so when he first arrived I asked what his attitude was towards going out drinking. He said he was open to the idea, and he was true to his word!

Outside the Louvre, Inside the Musée du quai Branly

Tags

art, conceptual art, Eva Jospin, France, Louvre, Louvre pyramid, musée du quai Branly, Panorama by Eva Jospin, Sherard, Street artist JR, trompe l'oeil

On Friday morning Sherard and I walked to the Musée du quai Branly by way of the Louvre. Even though the Louvre museum was closed we could walk around the complex. There were playful conceptual art projects in both of the main courtyards.

Street artist JR makes the pyramid disappear — from one perspective

The pyramid reappears from any other angle.

Panorama by Eva Jospin at the Louvre. Mirrors outside reflect the buildings of the courtyard.

Inside Panorama by Eva Jospin you are in a cardboard forest. Yet another way of making the Louvre disappear.

The Musée du quai Branly is an enormous feast of tribal and indigenous art from Africa, South America, Oceania and Southeast Asia — basically the places where France had colonies — plus some good contemporary work by Australian aborigines. We had lunch first at the museum restaurant then plunged into the enormous, confusing permanent collection. Here are a few pieces that I especially appreciated.

Ceremonial poles from several islands, at the Musée du quai Branly

Clan headdress, Population Tlingit, Alaska, 1860-70, Musée du quai Branly

Mask, Population Krou, Ivory Coast, end of 19th century, Musée du quai Branly

That evening we went out drinking, but that’s another story…

The Great Flood of 2016

Tags

Arturo, Crue de la Seine, Flood, France, Louvre, musée du quai Branly, Musee d'Orsay, Paris Flood, Paris Flood of 2016, Pont de l'Alma, Seine Flood of 2016, Sherard, Square du Vert-Galant, Zouave, Zouave du Pont de l'Alma

On Friday morning we finally realized — too late — that the flooding we had noticed on Wednesday was the real thing. The Seine was already the highest it had been in more than 30 years, and was still rising! Both the Louvre and the Musée D’Orsay were closed indefinitely, so staff could focus on moving precious artworks from endangered galleries to higher levels. So much for Sherard’s short list! I proposed a list of second-tier museums that were still open — still fabulous, but not quite in the same class. Sherard suggested that we choose the one most likely to close next so I ruefully proposed the Musée du Quai Branly (which I have previously dubbed “the primitive art museum that dare not speak its name”). We walked over along the banks of the Seine so we could take in the scene.

A few pics of the flood:

The Square du Vert-Galant at the point of the l’île de la Cité, completely underwater during the Great Flood of 2016

Inundated restaurant on the bank of the Seine during the Great Flood of 2016

Pont au Change during the Great Flood of 2016

Seine floods are customarily described by how high they rise on the statue of a Zoave on the Pont de l’Alma. Normally he is high and dry, but today he was wading in up to his thighs. For comparison, the 1910 flood came up to his shoulders!

Zouave du Pont de l’Alma in the Great Flood of 2016

Tout Paris looking at the Great Flood of 2016 from the Pont de l’Alma

The flood peaked early Saturday morning at 6.1 meters, just shy of the 1982 flood level, and the second highest since the catastrophic flood of 1910 (though 2-1/2 meters lower) [link]. Paris is acutely aware of its exposure to flooding; shortly before starting the trip I had read an article about a massive flood response simulation that was conducted in March. Some mitigation measures are feasible but there is basically nothing Paris can do to prevent another flood comparable to 1910 if it rains enough.

French Linen

Tags

French Linen, J'Aime le Lin, Linen, marketing, Muji, Sherard

Marketing normally leaves me cold, but the linen industry is conducting a remarkable campaign in Paris that not only engaged and amused Sherard and me but ended up selling us several items.

We first noticed a street in the Marais decorated with huge lampshades, saying “I Love Linen.”

Lampshades over a Marais street. Part of a French linen marketing campaign that popped up all around the city.

While I did find this impressive, and rather charming, I had no idea that I was falling under the spell of a brilliant marketing campaign.

Then the next day we saw this impressive installation at the Place des Vosges. At first we thought it was contemporary art, which it sort of was.

A field of flax, stacks of raw linen, etc. at the Place des Vosges

Sherard with display of linen thread at the Place des Vosges

There was also a handsome display of linen shirts, and I presciently commented to Sherard that I might be persuaded to buy one at some point.

The deal was closed when we stopped in at Muji in the Forum des Halles underground shopping center. Linen items were 20% off! I bought a shirt and Sherard bought a scarf.

Sherard going native with his café gourmand and his French linen scarf