Paris. Seeing how the other half lives and shops

Today we left our ordinary, working-class suburb (which is interesting in itself) and went to where the "beautiful" people live and shop. Interestingly the French refer to this class as "les people," but there is a certain undertone to the way in which it is used.

So off we headed on the Metro to Concorde and from there we strolled along the rue de Rivoli (with the required stop at W. H. Smith's English language bookstore).

Concorde

Then left up rue Cambon to Place Vendome with the Austerlitz Column at its centre.

Place Vendome

The French Ministry of Justice is also found there, at number 13. On its facade is a curious carved metre which became the national unit of measure at the time of the Revolution.

The Metre Marker

Now this is pretty spectacular. On the one hand there is the Ritz Hotel and on the other all the very, very expensive jewellers. Needless to say, we admired without purchasing.

Ritz Hotel

From the Place Vendome we moved up the rue de la Paix. The shopping here is the sort of place where if you have to ask the price you can't afford it. And, I might add, the shopping for men is just as good as that for women. Indeed, where else could one find detachable collars?

Detachable Collars

Oddly enough, we found that a cup of coffee here cost us one-third of what we paid later in the day in the tourist area of Montmartre. Not only was the coffee excellent we got to watch the excitement as a large number of gendarmes descended on the Park Hyatt Vendome. We never did find out what it was about, but it was certainly interesting.

Park Hyatt Vendome

Les Gendarmes at the Hyatt

After walking up the rue de la Paix we turned into rue Daunou, a short street whose only claim to fame is that it has Harry's New York Bar at number 5.Over the years, Harry's was frequented by a number of famous American expatriates and international celebrities such as Knute Rockne, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Bill Tilden, Coco Chanel, Jack Dempsey, Primo Carnera, Ramon Novarro, Matthew DeCoste, Aly Khan, Rita Hayworth, Humphrey Bogart, and even the Duke of Windsor occasionally showed up. It was here that George Gershwin was reputed to have written "An American in Paris."

Harry's

On to avenue de l'Opera to admire the magnificent Opera House and to stop to buy some biscuits at the elegant La Cure Gourmande before catching the bus home.

La Cure Gourmande

Later in the day we went up to the Butte for a glass of wine and a coffee and watched the silhouette cutters at work before returning to our flat.

Silhouette cutters at work