Friday, July 05, 2019

A day for shopping

As we were finishing a long, warm evening walk that had taken us to the lower reach of the 15th arrondissement along the leafy Avenue Félix Faure, we stopped in the Thomas fromagerie shop (cheese shop) near the apartment, on the Rue du Commerce.

Yes, the little fromagerie is a good place to buy cheese -- Salers is our favorite.  But we also buy butter, milk, and eggs there.  Occasionally Tom buys fruit preserves there, and once in a while I purchase a bottle of the excellent, pale rosé wine that sits, quite chilled, in the refrigerator case next to the orange juice.
The Eiffel Tower early this morning.

In fact, the entire shop is very chilled.  The super air conditioning felt great, so we didn't mind waiting while a couple of other customers were served.

One of those customers bought some country ham to go with his cheese.  When it comes to things like wine or ham, the fromagerie will offer only one or two selections.  But those selections are superb, and not too expensive.

You never touch the cheese in a fromagerie.  You wait to be served, and you say the name of or point to the cheese you want (after you say bonjour, and s'il vous plait, of course).

Tom completed the food shopping with the purchase of a baguette de tradition at the famous Eric Kayser bakery.  It was a delicious addition to our dinner later in the evening.

Earlier in our walk, I showed Tom the new news kiosque on the Place du Commerce/Square Yvette Chauviré (still getting used to the new name for this little old park).  Evidently, the news kiosques are being replaced all over the city.  The new one at Commerce is especially nice.  One day I went past and the old kiosque was gone, with nothing but a concrete foundation to mark the site; two days later, the new kiosque was up and functioning, it seems.  I'm impressed by the efficiency.  The new kiosque is so attractive that we almost wanted to go in and buy a newspaper, the way we used to do.  (Nowadays, we read the papers online.)

News kiosque on the Rue du Commerce at the Square Yvette Chauviré

We also stopped in a dress shop that I'd been noticing on the Rue du Commerce.  The place is called Liu Jo.  An Asian-French woman was minding the store yesterday.  She was an excellent salesperson.  She made me feel comfortable, and motioned Tom to an easy chair where, she instructed him, he would wait for the "fashion show."  She was good at assessing my size, and selecting dresses that would accommodate and even compliment my broad shoulders and chest.

I think I tried on six dresses, and selected one.  I also bought a useful and cute fan to use in stuffy restaurants.  The fan (eventail) folds neatly and stores in my handbag.  And it is cute, featuring an image of a black cat.


I noted that the tags on the dresses in Liu indicate that they are all made in workshops in France.  The web site states that the clothes are of Italian design, from the Carpi region.  Aha, I thought.  That's why the dresses fit me so well.  Clothes made in China and elsewhere in Asia often cheap out on the amount of fabric used in the sleeves and chest, and so they don't fit me well.

Dresses work in warm weather in Paris -- at least, for me they do.  The high temperature yesterday was 81 degrees F, which was pleasant combined with a low nighttime temperature of 60.  The normal high temperature for this date is 73, but that would seem uncommonly cool, given the kind of weather we've had for the past few summers.

Back at the apartment, I made a summery gourmet salad for dinner, and we enjoyed the cool evening air.

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