Angelina Tea Room & Le Flaneur

Today, thank goodness, the sun was shining again and there seems to be a warming trend.  Makes for much more comfortable walking around.

I didn't get out of  Rue Truffaut until around 11am today.  I wanted to find a guide book, since I foolishly did not bring one with me........duh......  Just down from the Opera is the famous Brentano's Bookstore...former purveyor of English Language books....Formerly!!  Apparently they went through a bankruptcy, opened under new management and now sell mostly touristy stuff with one corner devoted to English language books.  So, after that disappointment, I kept on walking down to Rue de Rivoli.  I decided to go to the also famous (isn't everything in Paris...and rightfully so) Angelina's Tea Room.  They are well known for their Chocolate Chaud (hot chocolate), but I was hungry and decided to have lunch instead.  The Chocolate Chaud, would have been a meal in itself.  It will give me a good excuse to go back on another occasion.

Here is a picture of the Chocolate Chaud....which I did not have.

This fantastic place is another of those places that frown on people taking pictures...and who can blame them.  No one really wants a camera in their face while they are in an elegant place having lunch.  I could have taken some pictures.....some people very rudely were.....but, in the words of Eliza Doolittle "I'm a good girl, I am."  ....OK, you people who might have evidence to the contrary.....

So here are some pictures I pulled off Google Images, just so you can see what it looks like.

The place is full of mirrors everywhere.  Almost anywhere you sit you can see both a beautiful mural and a reflection of yourself...or a reflection of someone you want to watch...but not stare at directly.  Coco Chanel used to come here often, her shop is just a few doors down and around the corner.  I didn't go there today.  I'm saving it for a sacred pilgrimage all it's own.

For lunch I had a salad with duck fois gras, a glass of wine, and a pastry that was.....unbelievable.  The waiter said it was one of their specialties (I'm sure all their pastries are pretty special..!), with chestnut flavor.   On the inside, under the sweet exterior was whipped cream...or something light and not too sweet....on a delicate cookie.  Here's what it looked like.

They have a pastry shop right as you enter the tea room.

The one picture I did manage to take, since I was all alone, was in the ladies room.  It's not a great picture, but a place I would like to remember.  Now some of you probably won't find this fact too interesting, but for me the best part about this ladies room was the mirrors.  There was actually a full length, three way mirror.  You know, one of those ones where the two sides can swing in any direction....well these could swing all the way if you wanted them to....not like at Nordstroms where they only move a little bit.  But then I guess you wouldn't expect any less from a mirror that Madam Chanel might have actually stood in front of.

In this photo, the full length mirrors are on the wall opposite the wall I took the picture of.  Too much information?...?   Oh, well....

After leaving Angelina, I wandered.  I became Le Flaneur.  Flaneur is a French word meaning...a sort of wander....One who wanders around aimlessly,  enjoying whatever comes along.  Sometimes defined at one who saunters, strolls, or loiters.  Here are a few images.....  Unfortunately, because of the light, it was hard to get pictures of shop windows without lots of reflections...

With all the reflections, it's kind of hard to tell what this is...it is a kids clothing store.  I just liked the outfit and the display.

While wandering around, I went to a quite well-know Kitchen Supply store...Dehillerin.  It's amazing.  Apparently it's been there for like a hundred years or more.  It was hard to get pictures inside because it was cramped and kind of dark...but I did get some good ones from the outside.  I bought myself a really good corkscrew.....what else.....

The place was just full of every kitchen implement ever conceived.  Lots of beautiful copper pots and pans...fantastic, fine knives of every description.  And in the basement, huge pots and huge utensils for commercial kitchens.

After Dehillerin I went to a place called Comptoir de la Gastronomie.  They had a fantastic selection of all kinds of cured meats, pate, wine, oils....all kinds of attractive stuff.  I bought a small piece of garlic sausage.  I haven't tasted it yet....but it looks really good.

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More sauntering.....I came across a Christian Louboutin shop.   The window wasn't really set up well for picture taking.  I tried....  I do love shoes with ankle straps....if only I could wear heels....

These shoes had more sparkle than any shoes I've ever seen.  The picture doesn't really show it, but it's like they were made of diamonds.

I thought of my Joe.....  Windows full of stringed instruments and a craftsman inside repairing the well-used ones.

Don't know exactly what this was other than art....but they were long tubes full of colored powder.  I think it might have been powdered pigment....because I think...but not sure....it was an artists workshop...although no actual pieces of art were on display.  Again, the picture does not really do this display justice, with all the reflections....