Meandering through Paris on a gloomy day

I had a very quiet, slowly flowing sort of day in Paris yesterday.  Both my friend and I were on the iffy side of a cold, so were not in any kind of mood for adventures and epic efforts.

After a leisurely lunch near the Chartier (we had planned to go to that restaurant but arrived too late - massive queues!) we drifted down the Boulevard Poissonniere, and I wondered why the French thought fish were poisonous...... 

We walked past the famous cinema the Rex, and trickled towards the Bastille, where A wanted to buy some stickers (don't ask).  Then fate, in the shape of a flea-market (brocante), struck.  Obviously all other plans were shelved, and we spent  two hours or so working our way through the various stalls.

By the time we got to the sticker place I regretted my choice of footwear, and installed myself outside a little cafe, while A went off in search of her stickers.

Having accomplished that task, we shuffled back to the Metro and took the #5 back to the Gare du Nord.  Luckily the authorities have recently set up a new bookshop with a Laduree franchise in tow just before the Eurostar terminal, so we were able to recover from our labours - we had walked four out-of-sight hours that afternoon!!! despite our fragile condition - and await my boarding time in reasonably gracious surroundings.

As you can see the weather was dry but overcast, and light conditions not ideal for photographs.  Nevertheless I think it is important that I take the odd picture for these blog posts, just so my readers realise that Paris doesn't always resemble the images postcards and coffee table books from Paris like to suggest.......

The Rex cinema

A insisted I took a photo of this, rather than his twin, statue - the twin is rather defiled by graffiti, and it makes Paris look a bit vandalised

I loved all those old light fittings!

 

The flea-market!

Little cafe near Bastille

Modernist church hulking nearby

New Eurostar amenity

Bohemian Book Binge

Daunt - classy but pricey

So I know I haven't done any posts since I came back from la Bourboule.  Life is hectic, things have to be achieved, and stuff keeps on happening.  Still, I am hanging in there, and to celebrate October and Office-Togetherness, I organised another epic social event that took place last Saturday: The first ever

Bohemian Book Binge!

Basically, it involved haunting a wide range of bookshops on a likely Saturday, punctuated by frequent culinary interludes and the odd pint.  A word to the wise:  don't get drunk the night before, as some of my fellow bibliophiles did; it may crimp the pleasure and result in a shortened book-crawl.

We kept things fairly informal, and people joined the group as and when (they managed to extricate themselves from their bedclothes).  The more dependable of my triplets and I gathered for breakfast at my favourite Pain Quotidian, and then walked down to Daunt in Marylebone High Street, where we were met quickly by Cool Dude and, much later, by the less dependable triplet.

Daunt is very impressive, it looks more like an old college library than a bookshop, and specialises in travel guides and books set in foreign climes, as far as I could make out.  I bought a book called 'Shamans, Lamas, and Evangelicals' by CR Bawden; it is the story of a couple of English missionaries in Sibiria and was considered the coolest book any of us bought during the day.

Daunt again - notice the overhead gallery?

Up on the gallery, at a risky angle

After Daunt we drifted towards the Book Barge Word on the Water, by taking the underground from Baker Street to King's Cross and walking down to Granary Square.  Only a few photos, since I covered this bookshop in a previous post.  Everyone loved it, of course - how could one not?

http://dblenck.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/legal-irritations-floating-literature.html

Walking towards the Book Barge

Brilliant book browsing picture taken by the third triplet

Having exhausted the possibilities of the Book Barge, we drifted a few yards downriver and installed ourselves outside a restaurant, intent on refreshments, and to allow the last member of the Librocubicultarists, the Almost Triplet, to catch up with us.  What do you mean, you don't know this word?

We had wonderful weather, sunny and just warm enough to be able to sit outside.  We spent a very pleasant hour or so eating, drinking, and discussing each others' book purchases.

Lunch venue at Granary Square

After that we hit the road again, and walked, past St Pancras ...

... and King's Cross ...

.... to Scook Books.

That's Books spelled backwards, by the way

Scoob Books in Russel Square is a delicious jumble of old books, some expensive, most affordable, with a huge number of volumes.  Later on over tea this was voted our favourite bookshop of the book crawl, and it was with real regret that we left it again to walk towards out next destination.

Scoob

The last of Scoob

The next - and as it turned out - last bookshop we went to was Henry Pordes in Charing Cross.  It was rather full, and I forgot to take any photos.  It has both very old books and modern art volumes, both very beautiful, inter alia.

For photos, click this link:  https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=henry+pordes+books&biw=1093&bih=510&tbm=isch&imgil=ZOn4C4awNdYuhM%253BAAAAAAAAAAABAM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.henrypordesbooks.com%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=ZOn4C4awNdYuhM%252CAAAAAAAAAAABAM%252C_&usg=__gRpu7qxRMsAUemyHJcuwsMEvZ7Y%3D&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjy_K2czfbPAhUGBBoKHUOzAbYQuqIBCG0wDQ&dpr=1.25&imgrc=6EVPOKay7o_uQM#imgrc=6EVPOKay7o_uQM%3A

Next on the list was Any Amount of Books, also in Charing Cross Road, but by now we were flagging, and instead of tumbling head first into this legendary den of foliofanciers we ended up in a sort of pub/cocktail bar.

We asked for tea, and received cups in various sizes with mismatched saucers, and two of us received no saucers at all, because 'they were out'.  But since we were rather tired, we accepted this ill-assorted crockery, solemnly dunked our tea-bags into the hot water supplied and fatalistically hoped to extract some teaishness from them.

Thus we wiled away at least an hour.  We only left because the Almost Triplet conceived a sudden desire for a 'cream bun'.  So we scoured the environs for evidence of cream buns, and scaled the peaks of joy and dark disappointment in several shops, which from the outside looked like cream-bun-shops but upon closer inspection turned out to be purveyors of pizzas and miscellaneous
savouries.  Eventually we gave up, and the Almost Triplet made do with some Maltesers - a sad reflection on these post-Brexit times, I feel.

Having another hour to fill in, we wandered around aimlessly, finally seeking refuge in reasonably empty pub, to discuss politics and our next Book Binge.  I also took a few more bad photos - when will I learn not to take night time pictures?

The day finished as it started - two triplets in North Audley Street, eating and drinking and tripping linguistically through the tulips of modern life.

A thoroughly enjoyable day, I do declare!

Big Ben

Notre Dame?

Are you fooled?