April 2nd Afternoon

Here's a round-up of what I did yesterday afternoon:

I shopped in the Louvre Carousel shops. I ended up here by accident when I popped out of the Metro station to discover that I was in the mall. I was on my way to the Museum of Decorative Arts, near the Louvre.

The Museum of Decorative Arts covers many things including fashion and jewelry. Currently, there is an exhibition on fashion designer Sonia Rykiel. She's been designing ready to wear clothes since the late 1960s. She's still designing today. A sweater emblazoned "Obama" is the final piece in the exhibit. Some Japanese tourists were finishing the exhibit at the same time as me. They excitedly pointed out the sweater to each other and the only word I caught as they snapped photos was Obama. It's nice to be loved again. The jewelry was outstanding and creative. One purse (or very large broach) was a pink sapphire encrusted seashell. It's much prettier than it sounds.

Walked up the Avenue de Opera towards the Opera Garnier. This is the opera house from Phantom of the Opera. I stopped at a sidewalk café for a café creme and an apple tarte with vanilla ice cream. And got hit on again. I'm not sure if it was me or the possibility of a green card since this particular gentleman told me he is learning English so he can get a better job in the United States. Asked for my phone number again after I said I was married.

I thought I was going to see the opera house, but it turns out I really wanted to shop today. I gave up online shopping during Lent, so I've shopped very little over the past month or so. I stopped in at Zara (a popular Spanish clothing chain), Monoprix, and 3 or 4 other ready to wear type clothing shops.

I ended up at Galerie Lafayette who is having a huge spring sale. I bought a blue nylon hobo type purse from La Bagagerie, a popular Paris purse maker. I didn't have the energy to look at all of the costume jewelry, but I tried on some cute Spring clothes upstairs. Always a pleasure to stop in at Lafayette.

Jumped on the Metro and headed home for dinner. Got off at the Bastille stop, bought a small baguette, a brioche with sugar for breakfast, and an apricot tarte. Dinner ended up being the baguette, the amazing and mouthwatering sheep's milk cheese, fresh strawberries, and half of the tarte.