Shopping

Yesterday was not that eventful. Sam and I took Eli on a long walk in the afternoon. We learned that the neighborhood west of us is very posh. We happened upon some of the businesses you only find in big cities; for example, a bookstore that sold only aviation books. We went to a big Monoprix and got what we needed to make spaghetti with leeks and marscapone. I added sundried tomatoes, which worked surprisingly well.


One of my goals in coming to France was to remedy my sad business attire situation. I will be wearing suits a lot, after all. So today, after playing with Sam for a few hours, Eli came with Sam and me to meet Ally and shop at the big department stores on boulevard Haussmann near the Opéra. We went to Galeries Lafayette and Printemps. These are both housed in buildings that date to the nineteenth century and are among the world's first big department stores. If you've been to the Marshall Fields (now Macy's) in downtown Chicago, you know the type of place. Both stores had all sorts of wonderful things. I fell in love with a suit at Printemps, so that's what I got. It was kind of a splurge, so I'll be wearing it a lot.

We came back home by métro. We had hoped to get some of the brightly-colored eclairs we'd seen at a bakery a couple blocks from our apartment, but they were all sold. Sam made chicken soup with rice, using the leftovers of the poulet rôti we had for Sunday. I forgot to tell that story earlier! By the time we went shopping Sunday evening, many businesses had closed, including the boucheries with rotisseries where you get your roast chickens. Ally and I found a hallal butcher just off boulevard de Clichy who was open. We bought a chicken and a barquette of potatoes for about half what we expected to pay. For some reason the butcher told us we were "nice" (gentils). A bargain and a compliment? What was the catch? Well, the chicken was excellent and meaty, and the potatoes were pleasantly waxy, so I don't know. I guess there wasn't one.