Entre Les Murs

Shopping In the Marais

Yesterday was, in a way, our first day to actually enjoy Paris together. We had no urgent chores, no deadlines, no timetable to meet. We could just go out and look around for ourselves.

Up at a decent hour, coffee, breakfast, and we were out the door at the crack of noon. (Because we had somehow accumulated in our fridge a large number of mushrooms in several varieties, the morning included a large mushroom omelette. This may have delayed our launch a little.)

We first headed towards Avenue Victor Hugo to a shopping area seen from the bus but not yet explored. We immediately bagged a pair of boots and shortly after a winter coat, contributing to my stylish wife's evolution from a Torontonian to a Parisian.

We emerged at the Arc de Triomphe and took the metro to the Marais, where we found lunch and simply wandered amongst the shops. This area is a little curious because, owing to its history as a Jewish area of town, many of the shops are closed on Saturday yet many are open on Sunday. One can find oneself on a block where all the storefronts are firmly shut, then turn the corner and be again amongst shopping throngs.

We added little to our purchases, but strolled here and there and tried things on. We drifted out of the streets and into BHV, our department/hardware store. We had brought a list, but the Saturday crowds were too daunting, and we cut it to a few essentials and departed for home.

On the metro on the way home we had corroborated for us the advisory that line 1 is heavily frequented by thieves. Stopped in the station, outside the open doors directly opposite where we were standing, there was a sudden commotion and shouts of "police". Two or three plainclothes police immobilized two people, one of whom was a more indignant than guilty-looking West African man. The other I couldn't see. Handcuffs emerged and just as things were calming down half a dozen uniformed police arrived (in the pillbox caps that make them almost as quaint as London bobbies) and there was more commotion as they wrestled the passive prisoners to the ground. I was sorry that our recent guests missed the show, since A in particular would have found it professionally interesting.

posted 20.11.05