Food shopping and Les Galeries Lafayette

Wednesday 4th June 2014

Blog post by the mother

Miss 7 was feeling a bit under the weather today so she and I stayed home to 'rest' while the others went off to the Pompidou Centre.

After some resting time Miss 7 and I set off down the street to our local shops to shop for dinner.  First stop was the boulangerie for some baguettes and chocolate cookies (apparently these are necessary if one is feeling unwell).

After the boulangerie we crossed the road to the fromagerie for a wedge of very ripe brie.  This also made Miss 7 happy - a cheese named just for her!

Final stop was at the boucherie for some poulet cordon bleu. 

Each of the shops has their own little ways of doing things and particular etiquette about making purchases.  Basic rules seem to be: always greet the serving person with a "Bonjour monsieur or madame".  Make sure that you wait in line for your turn - don't wander up and down looking in the cabinets.  Do not touch the glass cabinets to indicate what you want - point from a distance.  Always finish with lots of "Merci monsieur/madame" and "Bonne journee".
After a restorative lunch of pizza from the boulangerie for Miss 7 and a croque monsieur for maman we headed off through the rain to meet the others at Gare St Lazar.  Grande Maman needed to collect her train tickets for travel outside Paris which we managed to do with some help from one of the assistants.  Then we took a brisk walk through the rain to the Galeries Lafayette with a brief stop on the way to purchase Mr 14 some new jeans.
The Galeries Lafayette were busy and full of tourists but the central dome was as beautiful as ever.

 Papa added to his sock collection and we all had a giggle over the Eden Park underwear range.  It's amazing home time flies when one is shopping or even just window shopping.  In French window shopping is 'leche-vitrines'  which literally means licking the windows. That is really all we could afford to do at the Galeries Lafayette but it was fun all the same.

 We headed back up to St Lazar through the rain and were all very glad when we got back to the apartment for our delicious dinner from the local shops.