In our random wanderings, we have discovered numerous shopping strips contained in "covered passageways", most of which must have originally been open laneways, but which have at some stage been covered over to form arcades protected from the weather. Some of these were off Rue St Denis, which we had chosen to walk up (such as Rue Caire) because of its interesting variety of cheap shops, sex shops and generally dodgy characters. We were fascinated by the hairdressing shops focusing on particular ethnic varieties ("black girls", "white girls"), but its true that people fitting into these demographics often seem to wear distinctive hairdo's. One passage was full of Indian restaurants. Another covered laneway off Rue St Denis seemed to be have a "rag trade" speciality, rather like the slopes of Surry Hills.
We encountered another group of covered arcades, rather more upmarket this time, on either side of Bvd Montmartre on the border of the 2nd and 9th arrondissements. These were passages Verdeau, Jouffroy and Panorama. These featured very cute shops, tea rooms (much quieter and more comfortable than Angelina's) and speciality stores individually trading in tiny ceramic-ware, old stamps, postcards or movie posters.
The covered passages are fascinating, and are pretty well unheralded in most of the touristy stuff we had read.
Then, being in the area, we walked to Bvd Haussmann where the glitzy department stores of Galleries La Fayette and du Printemps compete for the Christmas Euro with fantastic sound and light effects in the streets, artificial snow blowing, and window displays which are clever and cute but notably short of any Christmas stories or messages. The streets and inside the stores are crowded, oh so crowded. As an exercise in shopping, Paris takes Christmas very seriously, and we notice that all the stores are open extra hours. Galleries La Fayette probably takes the crown in our view, but an incredible atrium inside their main store gives them a great opportunity to decorate. The more modest C&A store across the road does its best, but is left behind by the bright lights of La Fayette and Printemps. The photo of us and the Eiffel Tower is taken from the rooftop of Galleries La Fayette - you can see the Grand Palais too. We picked just the right time to go onto the roof - the dusk lights of Paris are stunning.
To bring back old memories, we called into the railway stations Gare de l'Est and Gare du Nord, separating these two visits with coffee at a very smoky tabac. A lot has been done to modernise these main line stations since last time we were here, but we confirmed (what we feared) that Gare du Nord (a possible way for us to get back to the airport) is no place for anyone with luggage. The few lifts seem not to work. We looked at the Eurostar, TGV (very fast train) to London leaving from this station (as we had looked at St Pancras in London). Gare du Nord was very crowded with nervous looking travellers - it appeared that there were major delays somewhere.
We are big walkers, and our routine in Paris seems to have evolved to the following. We don't get up until 9am (it's dark until 8:30), and Mike has a half hour run. The best route is to and then around the Ile St Louis and the Ile de la Cite, mostly because there is no traffic there, and it amounts to about 5km. He comes home with a fresh baguette, and breakfast then occupies us until we leave for a long walk at about 11:30-12. Sometimes we catch the Metro to begin the walk. We have made good use of Tracy's great walk cards, but sometimes we wander without such direction, like today's trip. Coffee breaks are important - Clare has found it better to order cafe au lait rather than cappucino, because the latter often comes with a heap of whipped cream rather than milk foam. We walk until 8-9pm, then find our way home, by more walking or by Metro. To control consumption, we have tended to eat one meal out a day, be it a lunch or a dinner, and with the other meal being snacks (olives, cheese, bread) at or from our apartment. We are enjoying drinking Kir at the cocktail hour at some bar or other. It's easy to order too!
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