Is grey the new black?

I went back to Merci today. Merci is a big shop in a former factory in the 3rd. Merci is super chic. Merci was set up by the owners of Bonpoint children's clothes. Bonpoint are the absolute pinnacle of children's clothes in Paris. They are ridiculously expensive, beautifully made and set the fashion for the under 12s. I blame Bonpoint for the very sombre palette of French children's clothes. Everything is brown, grey, a shade or brown  or it will tone with brown. There will be a whole generation of little girls who have been denied wearing pink or other bright colours. The exceptions are the muted, dusky pink which works well with brown or perhaps a dash of hot pink may be allowed with navy but only in winter.

The Parisian mother would never buy anything for her daughter at Gap. The Parisian mother does not allow her daughter to wear any logos except for Hello Kitty. A hat with Charlotte Fraise (Strawberry Shortcake) was found in the park when I was with a group of mothers from school. One mother turned her nose up at the logo and said "I'm sure this doesn't belong to any of your children". Luckily no-one in our family was wearing their Wiggles Dorothy the Dinosaur hat that day.

Back to Merci.  All profits from Merci go to a children's charity in Madagascar. There are some big name labels (Stella McCartheny and I can't remember any others) who have sold their clothes to Merci at manufactures' cost. The designer clothes are cheaper than normal (but still expensive!) and Merci has higher profit margin to donate to the charity. Merci also has a furniture department, kitchen department, two cafes, a florist and a whole wall of second hand books. There is also a line of Annick Goutal perfumes (Annick Goutal was the sister of the founder of Bonpoint).

I lunched with an Australian friend in the downstairs cafe. Boring sore tooth again so I was restricted to the very delicious mushroom soup which of course justified the very delicious chocolate mousse.

It was my Australian friend who glanced over the clothes department and asked "Is grey the new black?". Actually, I think the French wear more grey than any other colour all year round. I have to admit that I just bought myself a new grey scarf and have been eying off a dark grey handbag.

www.merci-merci.com

The ugliest building in Paris and let's call Ottawa

It was time to renew Jack and Elizabeth's Australian passports. I kept postponing the visit to the Australian Embassy as I had bad memories of long waits at the Australian High Commission in London. No such problems today as we sailed through the door and only had to wait about 3 minutes to be served.

Unfortunately there was no proud-Australian moment  as I was standing on Australian territory. I find the Seidler building depressing and empty. It feels like a big hunk of concrete has been whacked down in the middle of Paris. I am an architectural luddite so perhaps it is a masterpiece but it seemed to me today that even the Australian flag was a little embarassed to be posted outside.

Little Miss Manon doesn't have Australian citizenship yet as her mother is a little lazy. I asked the lovely French lady taking my passport applications where I needed to go to make the appointment to lodge the citizenship request.

"Ah, yezz, you neeeed to calll Ottawa in Canada to make an appointment for 'ere in Paris. Zey don't pick up zeee phone 'ere. You can call betweeen 3pm and 10pm in the eeevening. It will be an iiinternational phone call for you. Wee don't know what zey do. Weee are just passports. Zey are iiimmigration."

The Immigration Department could only have been about 10 metres from the Passport window.

Manon was very well behaved at the Embassy and was rewarded with a run around the playground at the Champ de Mars. This is the view from the playground. The Eiffel Tower is like the Sydney Harbour Bridge for me and I presume many other people. Both bits of steel make me very happy to be in the city that they represent.

The feelings that the Sydney Opera House evoke is another story.

Catching a few rays

Un petit crème at Rousseau this morning where I was just slightly surprised to see a very smartly dressed older gentleman reading the newspaper and having a glass of wine at 10.30am. Friday is market day and we made a quick detour before we hit the park.

I thought that this elderly gentleman and elderly lady were a couple but not so. Madame shuffled off and slowly put on her elegant leather gloves which were the same colour as her handbag. Monsieur had a cravate and stayed  reading his paper.

A little later I saw elderly couple greet each other in the park with a tender lingering kiss on the lips .In France lip kissing is ONLY between people in a relationship.  A French girlfriend went to a wedding in Sweden and was aboslutely shocked to see all the males at the wedding line up to  kiss the bride on the lips and the females line up to kiss the groom.  The French faire les bises which is a kiss on both cheeks.

I actually thought at the time that I hope FH and I are as affectionate in our later years. The elderly couple sat on a bench and Madame showed Monsieur what she had bought at La Grande Epicerie and then they went in different directions.

On our way to pick up Jack and Elizabeth from school for lunch I passed Monsieur. He had just spoken to the regular seller of a magazine whose proceeds go to the homeless. The magazine seller said "Merci, Madame". I did a double take and indeed Monsier was a Madame. I don't quite know what that signified to me except that tenderness is a good thing.

Un petit crème and a strand of jasmine

Manon and I have our morning ritual. I have a café crème standing at the bar at Rousseau in rue Cherche Midi and then we go to the little park beside Bon Marché. If I stand at the bar I can have a petit crème in a medium size cup for 1.80 euros. If I sit down at a table the only option have a grand crème in a big cup for 4 euros. I don't mind paying more for service if I sit down but I am not sure why I can't have a petit crème. Many cafés in the area are the same. I must ask but fear I will just be met with a gallic shrug.

The regular waiter is called George. I haven't dared call him by his christian name as I have only been going there for 2 years. He is still 'Monsier' and I am 'Madame'.  Disaster struck one morning when George was on holidays. His replacement refused to serve me a petit creme and said that George had no right to serve them only le grand. The only way around the problem was for me to ask for a noisette (macchiato) in a medium size cup but with a lot of  milk. This was served to me very happily and, of course, was identical to what George serves me every day.

After coffee I managed to steal 10 mins in the La Grande Epicerie. Manon knows the route from the café to the park and starts saying "park, Park, PARK" if I detour. Luckily she was still munching on her pain au chocolat this morning and didn't notice. I noticed the price of Philadelphia Cream Cheese - 4.86 euros for one 200g tub - no cheesecake baking for me.

Once Manon realised where we were we had to head to the park and I had my first sinking feeling about the approaching winter. It was a grey morning about 12c and the exterier lights of Bon Marché were on at 10.30am.

My mood and the weather both improved as I met a friend for lunch in the Indian Quarter and stocked up on the essential rose syrup. I had read about this syrup on Chocolate and Zucchini's blog  here . The shop she talks about is very close to FH's office and he duly bought a bottle for 7 euros. I have since found it in the Indian shops at 3.80 euros. I love a bargin. The syrup is fantastic for adding to icing and I intend to make myself a rose lassi after drinking one yesterday at lunch.

Lunch was at Dishny which may hold the record for the cheapest menu in Paris for lunch at 7 euros. (A menu in France would usually include entree, main and dessert.) The vegetable samosas were incredibly fresh and the servings of curry and kourouma were so copious that we were not hungry for the dessert of semolina cake. We nipped in and out of sari shops, Indian grocery shops and my favourite, the Indian florist. The florist has fresh flowers flown in from India twice a week and I can't resist buying a strand or two of fresh jasmine. Each flower is hand crocheted to the next. The strands only cost 1.20 euros each .I hate to think how much the worker in India was paid.

Unfortunately I had to go back to the dentist  but I had a spare 20 minutes to meander around Montmatre . I hadn't realised that the dentist was so close to the only vineyard in Paris, Le Clos Montmatre. The harvest is in a few weeks.

http://le-rousseau.com
http://www.restaurantdishny.com

Dentists and Demonstrations

I think my five least favourite words in the world are "You need a root canal".

Feeling quite depressed as I left the dentist in Montmatre, I jumped on the metro for 4 stops to meet FH for lunch. We went to a Korean restaurant, Sambuja, which looked quite promising as there were many Koreans customers who didn't seem to be related to the owners. We pointed to the meal that the Koreans beside us were eating and asked for the same which ended up being a good choice.

I then popped into Eglise de Notre Dame de Lorette as I thought it had famous stained glass but I was obviously wrong as it is probably the only church in Paris without stained glass. I picked up a pamphlet in the church detailing the artistic merits and history and Notre Dame de Lorette is one of the most richly decorated churches in Paris. Strange that the pamphlet didn't mention the following:

The church obtained its name from the lorettes of Paris, women who were kept by male members of the upper class. The church became known as the Notre Dame de Lorette because of the many women of this social standing who frequented this particular church. Lorettes were accepted members of society as well as commodities of wealthy men. The fact that a church was named after them mirrors their importance in the society as well as the acceptance of this social practice.

This demonstration greeted me as I walked out of the Rennes metro. I couldn't work out who was demonstrating but they were yelling and carrying banners saying "Solidarite!". Demonstrations are so common here that the Parisian daily newspaper, Le Parisien, didn't even mention it. FH thinks that it was La Poste workers demonstrating against potential privatization. I found it quite menacing. It was very loud with many loudspeakers on cars and a lot of smoke.

Sambuja 65 Rue du Faubourd Montmatre 75009

Another summer update - 2009

The entry for Summer 2009 almost reads like the entry for Summer 2008. Cap Ferret (Atlantic Coast) with more oysters and Provence. The beaches in Cap Ferret are the closest I have found in France to the large Australian expanses of beach.

The first photo is the view from Favourite Oyster bar no 1. Oysters were 7 euros per dozen and shucked right in front of you.

Cinderella in the morning

Week mornings are normally a rush - children up, children breakfast, children dressed and then out the door for school. Occasionally someone has time to make their bed but it is usually preceeded by a mother's request.

This morning I walked into Elizabeth's bedroom to find her singing "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" (from Cinderella).  She was kneeling and making her bed. It was almost exactly the same scene from the film except that Elizabeth didn't have little birds helping her.

Sing with Cinderella