Soldes

Today, the girls and I went shopping.  July is the month of sales.  There are huge signs everywhere, SOLDES.  Josh and Fred did their own thing and the girls had their own mission. 

We began at Bon Marche.  We all came to the conclusion that although department stores certainly have a huge variety and a bit of every designer, we can’t deal.  Overwhelming.  I find myself feeling almost drugged out.  I just walk around in another planet.  Too much coming at you.  We walked the floors and soon exited.  Too much.  I worked at Macy’s for years.  Now when I walk into a department store, I have an immediate adverse reaction and need to exit immediately. 

We sat down at a cafe, had something to drink and regrouped.  We got on the Metro and went to the Concorde stop and walked St. Honore.  All the high end stores.  Still too high end for Jess and Em.  After much walking ( there appears to be a theme in the walking ), we stopped in Colette Square which is beautiful.  Large, open and lots of people watching and had a bite at Cafe Le Nemours. 

After lunch, we walked behind the Palais Royale.  Many many years ago, Fred and I had walked that area.  There is a park and a square with raised brown and white cylinder blocks.  It brought back many memories and of course I had to take some pictures.

There happened to be fashion show going on too.  We crashed the show.  It was taking place on one sid
of the park.  This particular area has a plaza going around the park with a variety of stores ( I will get to those later ).  The designer was Wu Yong.  A Chinese designer having his first show in Paris.  I nabbed a press kit.  The show is beyond words.  About 30 people, men and women, dressed in peasant type clothes, doing a tai chi choreographed show.   There was also a woman facing the tai chi group working a weaving machine.  Each time she pushed the machine to create a row, you could hear the sound through the speakers that were lining the plaza.  With that sound there was also a gong, weird music and crashing of waves.  I suppose the show was supposed to be spiritual and anti-establishment  fashion.  Perhaps appealing to the anti-fashion sect.  Not sure I see many men wearing the denim dress that one man was wearing during his tai chi exercise.  Let’s get real, fashion is fashion.  It is not made for the peasants ( sorry peasants ), it is made to create trends and statements that are then knocked off to sell to the masses.  This is a big market.  Looking good, feeling good and making a statement for the times we live in.  Not really into the peasant thing.  But, considering this the first Chinese designer having a show in Paris, we did feel like we were making history even if the clothes were god awful. 

We walked the square.  It is an interesting area.  There are seriously high end vintage stores.  One store, was so snotty that the majority of their wares are by appointment only.  Please.  The best store was hands down Gabrielle Geppert.  The woman who was there, who I assume is the owner, could not be nicer.  Her collection is incredible.  You could literally spend hours in the tiny story.  She has drawers of vintage jewelry.  Jackets from Jean Patou and Chanel suits from every year.  A total wow, wow, wow. 

Between the vintage is the latest and greatest.  Acne and Marc Jacobs.  There has been lots written up about the Marc Jacobs store.  In Paris it is fabulous, if you live in NYC, seen it, done it.  The Acne store is great.  I haven’t been to the store that Acne recently opened in Soho but I do like their stuff.  The girls did fantastic with the Soldes.  Love the Soldes.  We also mingled with everyone else buying clothes, a few stars.  It was fun.  I felt like the den mother.  As I said on the couch, everybody, including the stars, were asking for my opinion.  Very funny.

We made our way home, quickly changed and went out to L’Avant Gout. 

I took Jessica and Emily ( and my Mom and sister ) to L’Avant Gout 7 years ago.  It had just opened up.  We were literally the only people in the restaurant that spoke English.  Not sure that would happen today with the Internet but the place has changed.  Everyone speaks English.  There are English menus.  The food has gone downhill too.  Alas.

The special which is the pork stew wasn’t that good.  Nothing was even worth writing about.  The restaurant is out in the outer areas.  Think outer Brooklyn (where the food is much better). 

End of the day, I am exhausted, as usual.  Tomorrow, music concert all day long.  Looking forward to it.