Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [46]
Meanwhile, I’m feeling comforted because 1) I thought I was the only person dumb enough to have this problem, and it turns out I’m not; and 2) I’ve just been presented with a clear solution. When the shopkeeper looks at me to see if I want to buy the product, of course I do! I absolutely love this process of knowing that when I walk into my hardware store, my problem will be solved—kindly and professionally.
The second reason I love this store is that it meets all my imaginable needs. My store is never out of a product. Whenever I occasionally summon the courage to venture into a “superstore” (grande surface), that dehumanizingly vast acreage of mostly useless junk imported from China, and have wandered the endless aisles in my demoralizing quest—all my senses bombarded with garishness—invariably the item I’m looking for is out of stock.
So how do these small, independent wonder-stores manage to persist in Paris? The answer is simple, and yet unthinkable in the United States: superstores are not allowed to exist within the city limits. This is a measure deliberately taken to protect the diversity of the thousands of small shops that make Paris the place we love, as well as the livelihoods of all those shopkeepers. In the provinces, the effects of the superstore metastasis have been just as devastating as in the United States. It’s becoming difficult to find an old-time quincaillerie in French country towns. Sadly, village squares are often marked by the vestige of a storefront, where once—before the appearance of the local Brico Dépôt—thrived a magnificent country hardware store densely stocked with all the accoutrements of daily country life, including a smiling, knowledgeable, and courteous shopkeeper familiar to all.
Do the products at my local hardware store cost more than the mass-market junk in the grande surface? Of course they do! But I can’t even find these products in the mass-market stores, let alone find someone who will explain to me how to use them. I’m oh so happy to know that, just a three-minute walk away, I’m sure to be able to solve my latest household catastrophe, in a calm, orderly, stressless atmosphere, surrounded by interesting, quality products, and administered to in a courteous and highly personalized way by a shopkeeper I know. In short, I happily pay more to preserve this intensely human and agreeable experience of my daily life. Call it the price of civilization.
Thirza’s Take on Paris
THIRZA VALLOIS
If—MON DIEU!—I was told I could bring only three books with me to Paris, I’d choose the trio of Around and About Paris guides by Thirza Vallois, who has lived in Paris for more than forty years. To quote from her author bio, “She knows Paris stone by stone and has read every book of note about its history and development.” I knew when I picked up volume one, From the Dawn of Time to the Eiffel Tower (which covers the first through seventh arrondissements), that this was what I wanted to accompany me around the city.
Each volume in this hugely informative series—the other two are From the Guillotine to the Bastille Opera (eighth through twelfth arrondissements) and New Horizons: Haussmann’s Annexation (thirteenth through twentieth)—is organized numerically by arrondissement, representing the way the city grew, and each arrondissement is presented with an overall introduction followed by a detailed walk. Readers and walkers will experience the major sights and special out-of-the-way places and will learn what makes each quartier distinct. Vraiment, these books are remarkable for the details Vallois imparts—and even if you use just one volume and follow just one walk, you will be amazed by how much you’ll learn.
THIRZA VALLOIS contributed this piece to the Web site Bonjour Paris (bonjourparis.com; see the Bonjour Paris entry