Sew What: Off to see the Fashion Houses

After the nightly “Studying of the Maps” we had decided today’s foray into the streets of Paris would take us to either Avenue Montaigne and Rue du Faubourg St Honore where we would find the ‘Palaces’ of the top couturiers of Paris or to the intersections of Boulevard Haussmann, Rue Lafeyette and Rue de La Chaussée D’Antin, where these same designers have retail outlets in the Galleries La Fayette. The Galleries La Fayette won out as it sports a domed glass roof in its central area that is a sight to behold. It is also close to Place Des Victoires, where the new aspiring design houses are clustered.

As seems to be our modis operandi, we set out on foot with only a vague plan for the day, apart from the direction we would head towards. It just seems that there is always something to take our interest off in a completely different direction and today it seemed was no exception!

With our trusty “The Paris Mapguide” (published by Penguin) we found our way to Rue Montmatre which terminates at Boulevard Monmatre, a large busy thoroughfare, which would lead us to the three way intersection where Galleries La Fayette is situated. We were waylaid in Bd. Montmatre by an enticing little ‘passage’ it was not terribly wide but looked very interesting. It was reminiscent of Melbourne’s Block Arcade only obviously much older. Called Passage des Panoramas it housed all sorts of amazing little shops. We were charmed by the very serious stamp dealers and philatelists, I was astounded that several of the French stamp collections were black and white engravings. They offered stamps for the budget collector as well as the serious investors. Michael was like a pig in muck!

One of the charming little shops in the "passage"

Michael checking out a Stamp dealer's shop.

A view along the "passage"

This off shoot is being renovated, no shops but some of the premises seem occupied, maybe with design businesses?

Seating in front of one of the restaurants.

This was a quirky little shop that sold toys from the 50's and carnival type toys, bought up from old warehouses, memories of childhood!

Tiles on the floor, being restored, though not particularly matching, all added to the charm of the place.

There were also dealers of post cards and all sorts of collectibles as well as some interesting little restaurants and a smattering of jewellery and crafted clothing and accessory shops. We followed the arcade down almost to its end where there was a branch leading off to the side. Along here it appeared to be empty and undergoing renovation, there were some shops that appeared to be housing some sort of business but it was all very sedate, maybe they were just establishing. The sign at the end of this section read Galerie Saint Marc, which, I think is the street near its end. We walked back through to where we’d entered and out onto Bd. Montmatre to resume our quest to visit the Fashion houses.

Of course there were lots of stops on the way for photos. The doors of Paris are particularly intriguing and I just had to photograph every second or third one! Then there are the dogs of Paris, all shapes and sizes and breeds. One of the stamp dealers in the ‘passage’ we’d just left had a little dog curled up in his bed on the desk, Michael went in to make a purchase and didn’t even notice him!

I have fallen in love with the doors of Paris.....

and have probably taken enough photos to publish a book!!! These doors usually lead to the apartments above the shop fronts.

In one of the stamp shops, a little dog lay quietly in his basket on the dealer's table.

Making our way to Boulevard Haussman and along until we found where the three streets met, we did finally make it to Galleries La Fayette.

Both stores are a part of Galeries Lafayette

It was overheated and crowded but all the big names were represented on the ground level: Channel; Gucci; Prada; Dior; Louis Vuitton; Cartier and many more, we mostly only looked and of course I snapped photos. The Parisians it seems, take their dogs everywhere, even shopping and no-one bats an eyelid. The Galleries was so over heated and there were so many people all looking for post- Christmas bargains, but even 30% off a lot of Euros is still a lot of Euros. We made our way to the centre of the building to look up at the famous glass roof and the highly decorated floors above, we decided not to venture to the upper levels as the crowds and the stuffiness caused by the overheating were beginning to take a toll, so once again we headed outside. Ah, fresh air, and it’s almost warm outside today, 7 degrees, that’s a welcome change to 0C or 1C which is what it has been. Now we had to navigate our way to Place Des Victoires and the up and coming young guns.

A classic Chanel jacket suit with me reflected in the window!!!!!!

Chanel bag

Louis Vuitton

The glass dome, partially obscured by Christmas decorations

Ceiling and upper levels

the ceiling under the upper levels, decorated with rich carving

Even the dogs go shopping in Paris!!!

We were both in need of a toilet, they are not very easy to find in Paris, even in the big shopping complexes like Galleries La Fayette or Les Halles, unless you know what you are looking for. We sort of stumbled across the first public toilet we’d come across on the street. It was one of those automatic, self-cleaning affairs, we pressed the button to open the door, no response! Better read the directions, which were written in French, English and German, dull red=occupied; green=vacant; blue=self-cleaning underway and bright red=out of order. Ok, got it! Blue was showing ever so lightly on the ring around the button. We waited, and waited, until we decided there had been enough time to clean the bloody thing by hand with a tooth brush! It was obviously out of order, we moved on. Along the way we looked into restaurant windows to see if we could spot signs of a toilet, it was by now close to lunch time and we decided we could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. We could not spot any, I remembered something someone had told me about if you need a toilet anywhere in the world, find a Mc Donalds restaurant. I had vowed that we wouldn’t go to Mc D’s or any other multi-National chain while overseas, but this was an emergency and there was one just up ahead, we were back on Bd. Montmatre, we made for the golden arches. It was packed to the rafters, no loos on the ground floor, so up the stairs, wall to wall people and a huge queue for the loos. No, we couldn’t wait, so headed off again. We were on the opposite side of the road than we’d been on the way down earlier in the day and soon drew close to where we’d discovered the first ‘passage’ and there was a corresponding one on this side of the road, called Passage Jouffroy, the decision was unanimous we headed in to have a look in there as well. The shops in here were equally as interesting but quite different in what they were offering. Jewellery, specialist toy shops, a shop that specialised in walking sticks with carved handles, a framer/art gallery, photographic gallery that sold prints by renowned photographers, an art bookseller and the place we chose for lunch, La Tour Des Delices, we checked first to make sure it had a loo! It did and the food was good as well. Double bonus!!!

The Passage Jouffroy

The soup was very substantial

Desert and tea, with sugar sticks.

A sugar stick

The cafe where we had lunch

The deserts were divine

Michael's desert, apple tart with a cheesecake topping.

The soup was rich and satisfying, full of chunks of vegetables. We had desert too, for me a citron and raspberry tart of exquisite flavour and Michael had pommés tart with a fromagé topping, very very nice!! Sated now and feeling a little more comfortable and a little less desperate we hit the road once again, to track down the up and coming designers. We found what I thought was probably one of these young designers along the way. It was a milliners, I took a photo of the window display, then peering through the glass doors at what was obviously an atelier as well as a showroom, we were greeted by a very French and stylishly hip woman who opened the door and invited us in I explained that I taught textiles to teenagers and they had been making fascinators. “Oh, oui!” she understood. I asked if I could take photos , “Mmm, non.” she said with some reluctance. I assured her I understood, “But you must look inside and go downstairs, where there is, how you say, flowers and feathers, we sell too. You choose what pieces you like and we put it together.”

The front window of the milliner's atelier.

This place was a real working millinery concern with a showroom to the right as we entered, then as we moved further in there were shelves full of hoods of every colour, these are the felt basis for hat making. Other shelves held a rainbow of crossgrain tapes also a basic in hat making there was rolls of printed or embroidered cinamay, an open weave moldable ‘fabric’ used by milliners. Through a work room and down the stairs into a store room that had shelf after shelf with cards displaying the contents. Flowers, feathers, single leafs all sorts of colour and texture and, behind all the shelves there was another workroom from where drifted the unmistakable aroma of glue. One of the workers came out and was obviously surprised to see us down here, she was in the process of asking why we there (very nicely) when her boss, the lady who had invited us in appeared and began to show us different pieces and explain some of the things they used. It was a very interesting experience, one we would have missed if we had decided to utilise the metro!

Eventually we did get to Place Des Victories. We reached it via a little cobbled area called Place Des Petits-Perés, it was sort of a little square dominated by a church and surrounded by shops with religious statues above a few trendy shops and beautiful apartment type buildings, it was only a short walk from here to our destination.

The church in Place des Petits-Perés

one of the trendy shops facing the church across the square

The cobbled square

Religious statue over one of the shops

Little purple berries in a planter in the square

We spotted the large statue of Louie XIV in the centre of this large circular area. It was surrounded by temporary barriers fencing off work around the road surrounding the statue. The ‘up and coming’ designer shops around this area proved a little disappointing, I guess I had expected cutting edge design, something really different, instead it was young designer brands, like Kenzo, Maje and Hartford, nothing really exciting. We headed for home, it was around 3.30, we soon found our way back to Rue Montorgeuille, our local shopping strip which is apparently the remnants of the original markets that were Les Halles. We made some purchases for dinner and then home. Another long, but satisfying day, the highlights were not the top or the new designers, but rather finding the ‘passages’ and their intriguing occupants and our visit to the milliners shop!

The statue of Louis XIV in the Centre of the area.