Today we spent a great deal of time strolling around St-Germain-des-Pres. This area - quite possibly our favourite in the city, has a terrific array of small and interesting shops, churches, and restaurants.
This area of the left bank is fuller and livelier, it's
streets and cafes more crowded, than when it was at the forefront of the city's intellectual life in the 1950's. The leading figures of the time have gone, and the rebellious disciples have retreated to their bourgeois backgrounds. However, the new philosophers are here, the radical young thinkers who emerged from the 1960's upheavals, and the area still has its major publishing houses, whose executives entertain treasured writers and agents at the now celebrated cafes. Now, however, they share the area with the haut monde, those who patronize Yves St Laurent's opulent premises and the elegant rue Jacob's smart interior designers. On the south side of the Boulevard St-Germain, the streets are quiet and quaint, with a selection of good restaurants, and at the Odeon end, there are brassy cafe's and a profusion of movie theaters.We had just a wonderful day, stopping for pizza for lunch and shopping, and window shopping... Checking out the 30,000E (YES, thirty thousand Euro) ranges at La Cornue, where every range is hand-made to order, stopping to check out the big book of pussy (and the big ass book and the big dick book) at an independent book shop, shopping for fruit and veg at the marche, and someone had too much fun with Diderot's statue last night....
Another gorgeous day with a high of about 65 and cloudless sunshine. See Carolyn and Scott - it doesn't rain all the time here - only when you come! LOL!
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