Au revoir Paris

It's the last day of November, and outside the apartment window, it says

                                             CHRISTMAS!

I am in a good bye state of mind. Paris, a city of many neighborhoods, each with its own flavour, its own feeling, its own vibe (or lack thereof). I realised rather quickly that the city has more of an east/west divide  than a north/south one (right bank/left bank), based on the way I dressed. If I stayed West, I dressed a little bourgeois plain. However, if I headed East, I went for a funkier look.

Photographing one last time, I looked for men, who are decidedly missing from this blog. However they too are quite present in vintage stores and consignment shops.

Men also like to shop for clothes, although not as much as women do. This trio walked by me in the Halles district, fresh from an expedition at a shop that had intriguing bags clearly. In the street, I searched for a Parisian male whose look seemed ubiquitous no matter the neighbourhood, and tapped into the vintage aesthetic. 

I loved this guy's jacket, man bag, and back pack.


The city has much to love but also much to get used to. The "manif" as they call them were more of a nuisance than anything. This one, protesting killing animals for fur,  went down below the apartment. One of the slogans they were shouting was "les animaux sont pas des manteaux!" (animals aren't coats).

I guess that means no suede coat like this one I coddled at Hippie Market in the Halles neighbourhood...

The other aspect of the city of Paris that requires getting used to is the sheer number of people living in the streets, or begging in the metro and on the sidewalks. Thinking about clothes when so many people are destitute is obviously problematic. But what I find even more difficult to reconcile is the simple act of shopping with the presence of so many people sitting outside the store entrances.

***

Color during these bleak months lifts my spirits. (Does this blog entry resemble "Elle" magazine pages where human interest stories are surrounded with ads for expensive jewelry and perfume?)

I snapped this woman as she walked by me. Her mustard jacket and purple scarf were lovely.

Crossing the Place at Edgar Quinet metro station, this woman's colorful coat and pastel bicycle felt so "urbanofeminine."

I became more discreet in my picture snapping after a guy tried to take my camera away up on the Canal Saint-Martin, which explains why all my subjects are so distant. Unless I know them and they have given me permission to take their picture and post it on the blog. 

So, this is farewell from Paris. I don't know when I'll be back. I hope that my senses have a memory, that will hold on to the distinct neighborhoods, faces, foods (no more dropping into a boulangerie on my many walks and picking up breakfast goodies), orderly exhibits and spontaneous art, shop windows, metro stops, unusual buildings and historic details, discreet alleys and hidden gardens, and many conversations with strangers, and old and new friends.  

"Souvenirs" I picked up along the way: one more Côtélac dress from "Des Habits et vous" in Lyon where I touched down quickly earlier this month, and one from "Le Grenier d'Anaïs" on rue de Fleurus here in Paris. 

 Côtélac dress from Des Habits et Vous, Lyon; belt from Beacon's Closet, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

I also discovered yet another vintage/consignment shop on the rue du Faubourg Montmartre in the 9th, where I picked up a little silk scarf for Clara...A la prochaine as they say...