04/04/23 10:32

Back in Gregg’s in the 20^th.  Pain au Suisse, Verveine bio tea and a strange-coloured ink coming out of the Cross fountain pen that I bought myself many, many years ago.  That was before I understood about fountain pens, their writing weight and the size of their nibs.  This is a medium.  As regular readers of my writings know, I’m more of an extra fine guy.

Yesterday, Nev and I took the Bateau Mouche.  It was with tickets that had been provided by the first time I entered the Paris marathon.  I’d bought one of the packages that included extras including these tickets and a magnet.  These tickets had a 2-year expiration date on them and we both felt that this could be the last opportunity to use them before they ran out.  With out next big trip being a shorter one in June, it would have only left 3 months to use them.  So we did.  That’s not the theme of this paragraph, though.  The theme of this one is the use of cameras.  We both love the iPhone 13 mini.  I got mine through work and did a SIM card switcheroo with my iPhone XR.  Nev was lucky enough to get hers for Christmas 2021 – a gift from Santa.  Her iPhone 7 was getting old…

On Saturday, we decided we were going to go on our shopping day.  I wanted to go to the Marais as well as some more regular, high-street, down-to-earth shops.  We made our way from the hotel to a stop near to Bastille and walked down.  We saw my old start and finish line from the half marathon a month ago.  We also walked a part of the route that took us past Le Favorite.  Not my favourite, but a hot spot for café Instagrammers in Paris.  It’s opposite the church with the red door.  We continued walking all the way to the newly opened Monoprix and to the merry-go-round.  I forget which came first, actually.  But that’s not particularly relevant.  Let’s call it creative nonfiction.  Anyways, we cut through a part – off the beaten path – to experience the non-touristic touristic Paris.  After a little while, Nev decided her requirement for coffee was at almost boiling point.  We stopped at a café/bistro on the corner of a square, opposite Bagelstein.  It was called Saint Antonio.  A reference and conversation starter about Ibiza holidays.  Early afternoon beverages finished, we headed toward the Marais (after a very quick Google Maps enquiry).  It was right, left, right, left, nope, not that one, the next one, and left again.  We saw the small unique shops, the little cake shops, the specialist shops and the Marais that I remembered from my Heygo travels during Lockdown and curfew times.  We popped into a Yiddish bakery and got an onion platzel and a poppyseed bagel.  It was definitely a bagel as opposed to a beigal, for this no Brick Lane delight.  However, the ‘pastrami’ was beautiful, the hummus and mixed sweet pepper salsa was tasty and the gherkins were unreal.  The 6-inch circular roll with a hole was rather good, all in all.  After sitting outside the school that has the tragic history attached, I noticed Le Voltigeur on the corner.  A walk around the block later and we find an English bookshop – more on this in a later entry – and then further walking lands us round the back of the Pompidou Centre, towards the Hôtel de Ville and back to BHV Marais.  Finally, I get to go in and have a look around.  It’s taken around 4 years to get to this stage. I didn’t know that it belonged to Group Galeries Lafayette.  Not that it makes a difference, just a nice point of interest to finish this entry with.  And I didn’t even cover the actual point of the earlier paragraph.