The Riches of Paris

Did you think I was going to talk about the Louvre? Or the Musee d'Orsay? Not at all. The Riches of Paris by Maribeth Clemente is a shopping and touring guide to the finest shops and boutiques of Paris. Most of the shops are for fashionable clothing but there are a few others that might be interesting to visit if we walk past them. For instance, A La Mere de Famille which is a chocolate shop that children love and which has a location on the rue Montorgueiul. (And it is one of the few flash websites that works really well.) I'm afraid their chocolates are still awfully expensive (€37 for a 400 gram box) but we could lick the windows.

Then there is the caviste Lucien LeGrand Filles & Fils where they are supposed to have about 100 different corkscrews and there is a quaint parfumeur called Detaille. Listen to the description of this perfume: A few green touches, an armful of flowers, jasmine, Ylang Ylang, narcissus and orange flower, and in the background, the exquisite softness of vanilla and benzoin, the mystery of precious wood, sandalwood and patchouli. I can see why it costs €85 for 100ml but I'm afraid it's beyond my budget, and I don't care for patchouli. That's why I'm thinking that we'll be doing a lot of window shopping, like we did in San Francisco as children, and that my favorite store might be the Monoprix five and ten.

But The Riches of Paris also mentions two Provencal fabric stores on the left bank (6th arrondissement): Les Olivades at 95 rue de Seine and Souleiado at 78 rue de Seine. We've been so happy with the round table cloth that I got in Lausanne that I wouldn't mind getting another one. In France they call this fabric Indienne because the paisley design was originally from India. Souleiado also has dishware and clothes (the teapot is 70,00 € but maybe they'll have a sale). I wonder if any of these stores would have a terra cotta cicada.

Clemente also mentions that you can get the hand painted terra cotta santons from Provence for nativity scenes in stores around Saint Sulpice, specifically G. Thuillier (10 Place Saint Sulpice) and Au Service de la Liturgie (8 rue Madame). I don't imagine we can afford any but they would be nice to look at. Yes, I know it sounds like I should be going to Provence and not Paris.

Clemente mentions another parfumeur in the Latin Quarter: L'Artisan Parfumeur that sells handcrafted terra cotta balls filled with aromatic vegetable ambergris (not quite sure what that would be). Again something interesting to look at but unaffordable ($90). I wonder if we can go into the store and sample the perfumes like in an american department store. Probably not.