Running Errands

Once I got to Paris, I checked into my hotel and got all settled in. I was going to meet my friends around seven-thirty that evening, so I had a few hours to run some errands. And I had errands.

The BHV in the middle. Paris city hall on the right.

I picked up a few postcards at a stationery store on the Place Maubert and stopped in a tabac for a carnet of métro tickets and some stamps for the postcards. Then I went to a phone booth and called Ken to let him know I was there and checked in.

Next, I headed over the BHV (le Bazaar de l'Hôtel de Ville). It's one of the big Parisian department stores that I enjoy going to. They have just about everything in there. I was looking for some pants and/or jeans. I was quite naïf. The BHV has gone upscale, and every bit of clothing is name brand/designer. Levi's cotton Dockers were ninety-one euros a pair. That's like a hundred and twenty US dollars. Bzzzzt. Not for me.

The lowest price for a pair of jeans was over one hundred euros. I'm sorry. That's a hundred and thirty dollars for jeans, and they had more holes than the ones I've already got. I am so not an urban hipster. It's back to the local hypermarché for me. That and waiting for my next trip to the US.

But I did find hooks for my kitchen pot rack, of which I needed a couple more. And I bought some Bic pens. The pen I brought with me died. And I had postcards to write. And, as you know, Bic is the quintessential French pen. And the cheapest.

Next, I headed over to les Halles and the kitchen emporium called E. Dehillerin. Ken and I had decided that we wanted a new cutting board. We bought one there a few years ago. It's plastic, about 3/4 of an inch thick, and white. But we really wanted a larger one, and one that was black or green, so that it wouldn't take stains so easily.

Well, they didn't have a black one, but they did have a green one, so I got it and was outta there in a flash. Then I headed over to the rue Montorgueil for a rest and a glass of wine. I spent a good forty minutes there, enjoying sun, people watching, and writing my postcards. Oh, and did I mention wine?

L & L and I met up later and made our way over to the brasserie Gallopin, where I had made reservations for dinner. It's across the street from la Bourse (the Paris Stock Exchange) and is a very nice place, in my humble opinion. We had a great meal and a good time. We all had the same appetizer, a creamy "gâteau" de cèpes. My main course was a navarin de poissons, featuring salmon, cod, and shrimp. Dessert was pear sorbet with a snifter of pear brandy on the side. After dinner, we walked down through the Place des Victoires and over to the Louvre to see the Pyramid.

My Eiffel Tower video.

It turned out that we were there in time to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle, which it does for about ten minutes on the hour after dark. So I took a video. We were full of food and wine and were quite happy about the whole thing. That's pretty obvious, non? It sounds very windy, but we didn't notice. ;)

By then it was after midnight, so we headed over to the rue de Rivoli to hail a cab so L & L could get back to their hotel, and I descended into the métro to head back to mine. I was in bed by 1:00 am.

More tomorrow...