Shopping in Paris...

Today, the ladies wanted to make another foray into Paris. Instead of sightseeing, they wanted to do some shopping. After a little investigation, it turns out that the Galleries Lafayette is the second most visiting destination after the Louvre. So, we headed out for that shopping center.

We rode the subway to the Opera stop. We walked a couple blocks behind it to get to the shopping center. (It was easy, you just follow the trail of tourists beating feet to the designer outlets.)

On the way, we went around the back of the Metropolitan Opera center and saw the most unique wrought iron. These gizmos appear to have the prow of a Viking ship sailing out of the poles in four directions. If you look closely, you can see the carriage lamps sticking out of the top of the ship's prows. They are flanked with tall poles decorated with women. All that detailed wrought ironwork for a light fixture. There were two or three of these Viking ship bow lights alongside the building and between them, there were the scantily clad female light posts. It was quite stunning.

Then a block or two past that, we were at the Galleries Lafayette. This store is huge. We tried to climb to the top and work our way down, but I'm sure there were floors that we didn't even see.
The central dome is a stunning stained glass and wrought iron confection. I'm sure my pictures don't do it justice and I felt like a true goober standing in the center and taking pictures straight up. The colors of the glass are glorious. It's a colorful, intricate piece of art of which the entire country of France should be proud. It's a four story atrium. The center floor below this is the make up and perfume counters.

So there are a lot of perfectly coiffed women wearing a lot of black looking down on people trying to take a snapshot of this.

I'm used to seeing things like this in historical theaters or cathedrals. Never in a department store. To take these photos, I had to dodge those chicks who walk around spraying perfume on total strangers. If you look, you can see the carousels of clothing up on the floors around the perimeter of the dome curve. It was all I could do to continue shopping and not just stand and stare at the dome and all the detail.

The plaster ceiling that surrounds the arch is ornate and gold leafed. I actually felt like a higher class citizen shopping in these lovely surrounds. The rest of the store was just normal, modern fixtures. The only really gorgeous historical part of the architecture was this central dome area. But even though I was surrounded with lovely, high class decor... it doesn't mean that I have good taste.

Because THIS is what I bought at the Galleries Lafayette.

That's right. I must have been blinded by all that gold leafed splendor because these shiny gold combat boots called my name. And the 70% off price tag made it possible. I'm told with the right outfit, these will look great. I'm just planning on wearing them under jeans. I love, Love, LOVE these shiny gold boots. I arrived in Paris with just three changes of clothing. Two pair of shoes, one of which were flip flops. I had to buy something, right?

--Sandee Wagner