Skalli and Marty's shoes at Rudy's
Metro to Les Halles
Cuisine and food stores: Dehillerin,
Crazy fabulous vintage store
Back on Metro with doggie
Dentist
Au Pied de Cochon
We are settling into a routine now but still sleeping in as we fight off the last vestiges of jet lag. Again, we get a late start but we are not in a hurry as we have plenty of time to reacquaint ourselves with Paris. As we walk up rue St. Placide the shops are beginning to open and the day has begun. A quick breakfast of the usual cafe au lait and croissants and we are good to go.
The jewelry store that Jill has been eyeing has finally opened and she checks out their wares. This is the famous designer, Skalli, whom many of her friends have discovered which has great gifts which Jill has found irresistible. A quick swipe of the credit card and she is happy.
Across the street Marty finds Rudy's shoe store showing some huge discounts on men's Italian soft leather walking shoes. They have his size and he tries on a pair of brown beauties. Sold. Men make such quick buying decisions. Why can't everyone shop like that? We take our loot back to our apartment, make some quick clothing adjustments and head off towards the Marais and the Les Halles area for today's tour.
Our St. Placide Metro station is perfect for going where we want to go, as it is very centrally located, and we are re-learning the Metro system and finding it oh so convenient to get around quickly.
We arrive at Les Halles Metro Station in a few minutes. This area was once the "belly of Paris" where the commercial meat and produce purveyors were located for centuries...where all of Paris' food arrived to be sold and distributed to stores and restaurants. In the early '70s, right after we left Paris, this historic marketplace was destroyed in the name of 'power and modernization,' the Gaullist urban renewal mantra. Since then the entire area has been transformed into a huge shopping and entertainment center with restaurants and modern shops catering mostly to young people, a sad modernization for us and many Parisians. A huge steel structure now dominates another construction site in the area which will be transformed into a new 'jardin' (garden) with walking paths and large statuary. There are representations of what it will look like pasted on the barrier walls...it will be beautiful as only Paris would have it, but definitely a far cry from the historically nostalgic marketplace, once a mainstay of traditional French identity and the gritty old-world Paris mystique.
As we walk along the edge of the park construction site we pass a venerable old restaurant standby: Au Pied de Cochon (The Pig's Foot) which has been around since 1947, and we could not resist making a dinner reservation for old time sake. The place is sparklingly new but kept in the French belle epoch style. OK! But things change and it has become very touristy and kitsch, again with the Paris mystique and grit gone.
Jill has in mind to visit several of the large kitchen supply stores in the area, some of the only authentic remnants left from the original Les Halles area, and we are excited about that, a little off the tourist track. As we walk towards E. Dehillerin, the oldest of the bunch, founded in 1820, for connoisseurs and gourmets, we are charmed by its rustic interior as if it hasn't changed since it opened so long ago. All around, on wooden shelves, are copper pots and pans, saucers, machines of all sorts for commercial kitchens and assortments of every kitchen implement and gadget you can imagine. The place is cramped and crowded, just the way we like it. Did we buy a few objects? You bet but we won't tell. This was an experience we will remember as a highlight of this trip. Within several blocks are other kitchen supply pretenders including Mora and La Bovida, among others. None have the charm of E. Dehillerin and are newer and modern in appearance.
A block away is G. Detou, a smallish but very prominent exotic spice store catering to the food trade. In this store you feel transported to some far off land with unimaginable smells and scents.
Just a block away we find rue Montorgueil, the upscale foodie street which we'll talk about later.
We're now back on the Metro, along with a dog, squeezed in among the people in a very crowded train...don't know what the fare is for the dog...to go back home, freshen up, and get ready to go to Jill's dentist appointment.
Just a block away we find rue Montorgueil, the upscale foodie street which we'll talk about later.
Did we mention that she broke part of a tooth...in no pain, but needed to be fixed. Luckily Jim, our host at the dinner the other night, recommended his English speaking dentist. Dr. Arnaud Lettelier has his office on the very swanky rue Raspail. He is very gentile, in his 40's, and all looks good, but, as we know, dentistry in France is not what we have in the good old USA. He immediately recognized the broken inlay, but in the essence of time and our situation, he did a simple bonding procedure. Jill asked him if she could floss there and he said probably not, and food won't get stuck there anyway, and why do I need to floss? Americans, he said, floss every day, but French only floss when something gets stuck in their teeth. His bonding didn't leave space to floss, so he gave her a teenie brush to scrub the gum. It actually does work, but their dental hygiene isn't up to ours. Chalk this up to a local experience, and we'll see what our dentist says back home. But the solution is working. Cost? 50 Euros! We paid it and ran!
Then we're off to dinner in Les Halles at Au Pied de Cochon, where we had made a reservation earlier in the day...very touristy, faux Belle Epoque and not as authentic as it used to be, but nostalgic for us.
Then we're off to dinner in Les Halles at Au Pied de Cochon, where we had made a reservation earlier in the day...very touristy, faux Belle Epoque and not as authentic as it used to be, but nostalgic for us.
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