Today was a cold, rainy day in Paris.  Chad was a little more motivated to do things than I was, so while he ran an errand this morning, I sat around in my pajamas and read my Kindle.  I started out by reading a book about the moral, social and environmental impacts of eating meat, and then I was all, “What the heck am I doing?  I don’t want to be reading this!  I’m on vacation.”  And I switched to a good mystery.

Chad’s errand took him to a famous kitchen supply store.  (Is anyone out there surprised?)  We had stopped by that store last week just to see what it was all about, and it was pretty cool.  It was like an old hardware store, except with cooking stuff.  You name it, they had it.

And then we saw this:

We’ve been talking about getting new pots and pans for our kitchen, because most of what we have is old with a non-stick coating, and the coating is deteriorating.  Which means the coating is going to get into our food.  Gross.  Well, Chad returned from his errand this morning with copper saucepans in 3 different sizes, and the price was very reasonable.  Cheaper than Williams-Sonoma, even with my 20% designer discount.

Once Chad stopped gloating about his new pans and I changed out of my pajamas, we braved the rain and headed over to Lot of Wine.  This is a wine store/bar in our neighborhood that we ran across on Saturday night.  The owner, Nathalie, was very helpful and knowledgeable about wine on Saturday night.  When I had asked if she had a wine list, she said, “C’est moi!  Je suis la carte de vins!”  (It’s me!  I am the wine list!)   We headed over there today for a light lunch.

The walls of this tiny place are lined with cubbies displaying the wine.  You can buy bottles to drink there or to take home, or you can get certains wines by the glass.  We had some cheese, some foi gras (get over it, it’s France, for crying out loud), and some wine.  We then bought 2 bottles of really great white wine to bring back to the apartment.  (I almost just said, “to bring home,” but who am I kidding…  those wines will be in our bellies long before we head back to Atlanta.)

On the way home, we stopped off at the cheese shop.

 

Next was a stop at the produce store to pick up some salad fixings for dinner.

 

This was also around the time that I realized that the soles of my shoes weren’t waterproof and that my toes were feeling “squishy.”  So, next stop was home to shed the wet shoes, dry off, and warm up for a few minutes.  Then we headed back out to go to the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie which showcases contemporary European photography.  It’s free on Wednesday evenings, and, as I mentioned in my Parc Floral post, we love things that are free.  Apparently, a lot of other people do as well, because the line to get in went around the block.  We decided to go sit somewhere for a while and wait out the line.  We popped into La Cidrerie du Marais, and after being there a little while, we realized that we had had lunch there when we were in Paris in 2009.  How random is that?  The Cidrerie specializes in cider (kind of like beer) and crepes.  So we shared a small jug of cider to pass the time.

When we headed back to the photography venue, the line was even longer, so we decided to skip it.  We headed home via the rue des Francs-Bourgeois, window-shopping on the way and then passing through Place des Vosges.

Place des Vosges is a beautiful example of urban planning and architecture.  It takes up about 4 city blocks and is this huge park/square/plaza space.  When you enter from our street, rue St-Antoine, you see this entry:

 

For some reason, I think it’s pretty cool that cars drive through that central arch.  Anyway, here’s another view of the Place:

Can you imagine living in one of the apartments in those buildings?  I don’t even want to know how much those cost.  And here’s a final image of the arcades that ring all 4 sides of the Place at the ground level of these buildings:

These arcades are lined with cafes, restaurants, jewelry stores, art galleries, very high-end places…

Now it’s evening.  While I write a blog post, Chad is watching the A-Team in French.  Does anyone remember the A-Team?  I remember it being pretty cool when I was a kid, but now it’s pretty awful, even when they all sound so sexy speaking French.  It’s terrible, but it’s on every weekday night in all its glory.  And there is something fascinating about watching Mr. T strut around while hearing French voice-overs.  Yes, it’s exactly as you might imagine…