Shoes, Beggars and Buskers

14 April 2008

If you are in Paris on a Monday, remember that just about everything is closed. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration,but not much of one. Certainly, you need to plan what you are going to do around what is open. For example, our Boulangerie is closed which means fresh bread is not available in our immediate neighbourhood. But if that were the only thing, it would be trivial since there are other Boulangeries that are open. More importantly many of the things that a visitor to Paris might like to see are closed. Don't, for example, plan on going to the Musee d'Orsay on a Monday, it is closed. The good news, however, is that the Louvre is open (but don't try to go there on Tuesday).

We set out this morning to go to Bercy. This is a very upmarket shopping area with a lovely park. At one time it was where wine was stored and the stone storage buildings have been turned into a shopping village. Other than that, there is not a lot there unless you want to buy souvenirs or look in shop windows. I have to confess the nicest part of it was the park. But that may have been because so much of it was closed; Monday!

We left there and just as the rain came down we were able to get a bus which took us to Paris's Chinatown. Lots of restaurants and interesting Oriental shops but guess what, most of them were closed because it was Monday. Damn!

Completely disgusted by this time, we headed back towards one of our favourite places, the Palais Royale. We thought we would have lunch in one of the many charming cafes in the grounds but - yep, you guessed it - Monday.

We did enjoy watching a couple of excellent musicians busking in the grounds. Actually busking here is quite intriguing. We recently on the Metro when two competing groups of buskers boarded our carriage. On meeting each other they laughed and one group got off at the next station to await another train. There are buskers everywhere: on all the trains, various street corners, shopping centres, etc. They range from the very good to the absolutely appalling. There are also many beggars sitting with cups and ranging from the severely disabled to those who appear to be quite healthy.

We finally found a crowded cafe for lunch and were lucky to escape yet another downpour. After lunch, feeling our luck might have run out, we decided to come home. On the way we stopped and admired the Comedie Francais and then as we waited for our bus we had a good look at the summer fashion in ladies' shoes. All the shoes in the attached picture are women's and as you can see, they are very masculine and very "1930s".

Spring still hasn't arrived. Very heavy rain showers through the day and a maximum temperature that would have been struggling to get above 5-7C.