I was out strolling in google maps in the vicinity of Crêperie Bretonne at 67, rue de Charonne in the 11th arrondissement (east of the Bastille) because it was one of David Lebovitz's favorite crêperies and I wanted to check out the neighborhood to see if we could come up with some sort of walk over there. In the street view I noticed a store with all sorts of nameplates and latches in the window and thought it might be worthwhile to visit some hardware stores (besides the basement in BHV) just to see what we couldn't live without. If you do a "search nearby" for "hardware" on a google map location, it will pull up a bunch of quincailleries (and no computer stores -- imagine that!). If you want to know how to pronounce that, go to Forvo and you can hear what it sounds like. If you want to get an idea of what sorts of treasures we could find in a French quincaillerie, check out this one: A la Providence Quincaillerie Leclercq, where there are all sorts of knobs and handles and hooks to choose from. TimeOut Paris even has an entry for it. And there's another one down the street: Le Jeune Freres, which specializes in decorative hardware for furniture and doors from the sixteenth century, just in case you have any of that hanging around.I'm not the only one enthused by quincailleries. Paris Postcard has a posting: Why I love my quincaillerie.
Oh my, oh my I've got to start saving now to afford some of those treasures in the quincaillerie, but how am I going to decide what to buy? Will we suffer some domestic disaster in the apartment? Cathy and Fdo...keep practicing your French. Do you think they'll speak English in our anglophone neighborhood?
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