Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [277]
Monoprix is probably my favorite store, and visitors should know that not all Monoprix supermarkets are created equal—you may have to go to more than one to find what you want. (Some have wonderful grocery stores—I have bought salt, sugar, lavender sugar, and and great gifts there.) I usually tell people to avoid the big department stores because I find them overwhelming, but I was just in Galeries Lafayette and it was terrific! Upscale grocery stores are great, including Lafayette Gourmet and the Grande Épicerie at Bon Marché, which is just so great. The arcades of the Palais Royal are a great place to find more unique things. I’ve also just found two new stores that are fab: Uniqlo (17 rue Scribe, 9ème / uniqlo.com), a Japanese version of Gap; and Igloo (111 avenue Victor-Hugo, 16ème), which at first glance seems kind of a tourist trap, a little like Pier 1 with weird stuff, but it is very cool, like a little department store—they have everything.
Q: Why did you decide to leave France?
A: It was hard to think about leaving France at first, especially Vaison-la-Romaine, where I was part of a little community, but everybody had left except for me and Patricia and Walter Wells. It just suddenly felt right. At my age I should be downsizing. My kids are in Paso Robles, which is just this amazing community. It’s truly in the middle of nowhere and exists because it’s halfway between L.A. and San Francisco. It was once the heart of the salad bowl but is now grapevines—about 80 percent are only five years old. There are a few people who’ve been there for thirty years making wine, but not many, and tastings are free or around five bucks. Some bottles of wine are fifty dollars, but the average is ten to twenty dollars. It’s thriving here! The French will tell you that one of the most important things in life is sitting down and sharing a meal and talking, and this happening in Paso.
Q: Is there any place you’ve not yet been that you’re dying to visit?
A: There are a million places that I’m dying to visit. Born to Shop books are chosen by numbers of visitors to various destinations, so I’ve never been to Cape Town, for example. There are a couple cities in Vietnam I’d like to go to, and I’d like to get back to Bangkok. I always want to go someplace else.
In addition to Gershman’s Born to Shop books, I also like to consult a few others that I’ve found very helpful over the years:
Chic Shopping Paris, Rebecca Perry Magniant with photographs by Alison Harris (Little Bookroom, 2008). Magniant founded the Chic Shopping Paris company (chicshoppingparis.com), a service offering personal tours of Paris’s bonnes adresses by bilingual guides. I have yet to work my way through every boutique in this book, but I’m almost there, and I can report that each shop I’ve visited is unique and interesting, even those I left empty-handed (which didn’t happen very often). Most of the shops Magniant recommends offer goods and services available only in Paris, and she regularly updates these listings and posts her new finds on her Web site.
The Flea Markets of France, Sandy Price with photographs by Emily Laxer (Little Bookroom, 2009). Though this terrific book covers a number of regions in France, one chapter is devoted to Paris and includes the marchés aux puces at Porte de Clignancourt, Porte de Montreuil, Porte de Vanves, and Place d’Aligre. As Price notes, the objects for sale at these markets “provide a glimpse of everyday life in decades past, and also suggest how that heritage continues to resonate today.” She includes much practical information for the flea market experience (when to go, how to get there, how to communicate, how to bargain, market schedules), as well as good suggestions for other things to do and other markets close by. I think this is indispensable for flea market aficionados.
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