An airline ticket to romantic places

[susie_flo]

Just back from a little jaunt to Paris...

This was a mini getaway with Alice, one of my oldest friends (not on livejournal).

As ever, Paris was a lovely feast of austere greyness, pavement cafes, cobbled charm and head-turning menswear. Alice and I tried our utmost to shop with abandon, but the ever-creeping tide of globalisation has made it hard to find anything that we could not just as easily purchase in London. Alice did the decent thing and bought some French lingerie and a pair of cake tins from a patisserie specialist. I came home with an unsatisfying amount of unspent euros, but at least a little richer for beer, wine and tarts.

On one of our meanders we came upon a little gallery with some really beautiful paintings of dilapidated interiors by an artist called Christian Benoist... see for yourself here:  www.galerie-moisan-benoist.com/nouveautes.php 

It's been a long time since I went away with a female friend and it struck me what a different experience it is to going around as part of a couple. For one thing I had forgotten how outrageously flirtatious French men are (that's a polite word for it, really). Paris men seem to come in two predominant flavours... category one are the unbearably stylish, pretty young things with cheekbones like razor blades (sadly these are not the flirty ones). Category two are the paunchy, middle aged lotharios with an excess of sexual confidence :-O

Just like Marie Claire, we stayed in a fancy apartment, off the Boulevard St Michel. Well ok, it was a hotel, but in the same wonderful location, slap in the Latin Quarter, and with the added charm of a resident cat. The most languid, lethargic cat in the world, she spent our entire visit curled up in the same position on an artfully shabby red velvet couch... at one point she deigned to lift her chin in order to be tickled, but the category 2 man behind the desk was at pains to inform me that she responds best to a man's touch...

The journey home was brightened up by delicious raspberry tarts, but disturbed somewhat by the most disgusting specimen of manhood I have ever had the displeasure to share a carriage with. There was not a single blessed moment devoid of bodily noises. Ewwwwwwww!

A small consolation in returning home was the welcome gluggability of some lovely, fruity new world wines... perhaps I am a philistine!

Anyway here are some random piccies...





 

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Cat! On sofa! Cute!

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Heh... she was v. cute, albeit with an air of haughty luxury on her queenly sofa. That and a tolerant indifference to being pampered by guests... (she finally opened one eye and stretched out her chin under an onslaught of determined petting but otherwise ignored the attention).

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

with an air of haughty luxury on her queenly sofa

A lifestyle worth emulating, I think.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, she was indeed the Joan Collins of the cat world :-)

(Actually she reminded me of Rosamicula after her birthday meal, collapsing onto her sofa wearing red velvet and demanding tea to be brought to her lips).

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

That really is one of the nicest bits of Paris IMVHO. I used to go to St Michel because there's an English bookshop called Shakespeare and Company just round the corner from the Metro, where I got a copy of The Hite Report at the tender age of 19 ;-)

You are so right about French men ;-)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

My word, what a lovely provenance. Have you still got it? How much more 'rive gauche' could you get than buying sexy books in Paris at the age of 19...

I did actually bimble past Shakespeare and Co - I wish I had taken a photo cos it is such a picturesque little book shop.

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

I do still have it, it's very tattered now.

Did you go to the flea markets? I was very lonely and had no friends, so used to spend most of my time off at the cinema or wandering round looking at stuff. There's a bit one called Les Puces up at Porte de Clignacourt which you'd love.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

I guess it was well read! :-p

I would have loved more time this week, I haven't been to the area you mentioned and the flea markets don't tend to run mid week... tsk, I would definitely have spent my euros if they had been!

Paris is a bit like the 1970s... a lot of shops seem to close randomly with no explanation and most of them close for lunch. (The French don't really have a work ethic... we could probably learn from that!)

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, theory rather than practice, that's the story of my life ;-)

It's the biggest market I've ever been to and you'd love it - the main day is Sunday so you'll have to go back at a weekend sometime.

Work ethic? They'd never tear you away from the computer that long :-P

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Dammit, your pictures have induced cravings for Paris. It's just the best place there is. :-)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

You're so right - there's just no ignoring the urge to visit again every few years.
Go now! The boulevards are calling you... there's a petit four with your name on it. You want to, you know it... :-)