lunch, shopping, Saturday


One of my favorite places to rendezvous is at the fountain in the Jardin du Palais Royal. I’ve been enjoying the graceful splendor of this garden for decades.

There are restaurants and elegant shops under the arcades. Or you can just sit on a bench or chair and enjoy the sound of birdsong and the splashing fountain.

The garden is a perfect starting point for shopping and lunch. My friend, Monique, and I rendezvoused at the fountain at noon. (We met while working in the same American law firm in year 2000, and have been friends ever since. Back then, we were bilingual legal secretaries. Today, she runs her own B&B business and I work as a paralegal-translator in the legal department of an investment bank.) We headed north to the Galerie Vivienne, built in 1826. See this splendid mosaic tiled floor? It’s the original floor created by Giandomenico Facchina, an Italian mosaic artist who did much of his work in France.

IMG_8665IMG_8667

It was lunch hour, but we got waylaid by some linen clothes in a boutique called Manuelle Guibal. We chatted awhile with the woman who worked there. She gave me the name of a boutique in Lisbon where I can find the same clothes. (I’m going there in June.) See my Portugal travel posts.

IMG_8668IMG_8669

We then headed towards the Place des Victoires where I wanted to visit the English boutique that I visit and rave over in London, The Designers Guild. This one had just opened. It was a lot smaller and, I’m sorry to say, the customer service didn’t hold a candle to the service you’d get in London.

IMG_8680

Directly across the road was this restaurant where we sat at an outdoor table. I ordered a tomato mozzarella salad and a tiny glass of wine, Monique ordered a sort of grilled chicken niçoise salad.

IMG_8691IMG_8687IMG_8693

When you think that you can buy a decent bottle of French wine for 6 euros and you’re charged 6 euros for a tiny glass, it’s a little bit scandalous. But this is the price you pay for the privilege of eating in a chic Parisian neighborhood.

IMG_8727

Speaking of chic, directly around the corner and located on the Place des Victoires is this gorgeous little boutique where I’ve been shopping for decades.

IMG_8704

Upon entering, we spied a bunch of gorgeous scarves. Italian made, some were silk, some were a blend of silk and modal. A type of rayon, modal is a bio-based textile made from the beechwood tree. Modal fabric feels silky-soft on the skin yet is hard-wearing and colorfast when dyed.

A woman can never have enough scarves, is my opinion. Again, we spent a long while talking to the friendly saleswoman and trying on scarves. 

IMG_8708IMG_8721IMG_8713IMG_8714

I ended up taking these last two photos of myself in the mirror because no-one could figure out how to work my camera. Sigh. I always end up doing everything myself. The scarf I ended up buying – half silk, half modal – is a gorgeous swirl of mauves, greens, pinks and yellows. It’s lightweight, soft and warm and you can scrunch it up (great for travelling.)

Our last stop was Dehillerin, the kitchenware store located off the rue du Louvre. I was in search of a strainer, called une passoire in French.

IMG_8731IMG_8732IMG_8734

This shop used to be, and still is, a wholesaler for restaurants. Before tourists discovered it, it was a sleepy dusty place. Now it’s super-popular and has a new lease on life.

2 thoughts on “lunch, shopping, Saturday

  1. I always enjoy the wide range of subjects Juliet includes in her posts. The post about “Trump the wrecking ball” got my blood boiling as I read about his shallow and inconceivable behavior to wreck the facade of Bonwit Teller. So he could build on of his monstrous Trump Towers. He is such an embarrassment on all accounts and a dangerous man. How sad! He is ruining our country and I only hope he will get what’s coming to home someday.

    So it was a welcome pleasure to read Juliet’s post today about her shopping expedition. What fun. Thank you for taking my mind off our wrecking ball!

    • Thanks for your comment, Roxanne. Well, you know the saying – When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping! (Except in my case, things aren’t really tough, I’m happy to say 🙂 )

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s