Gentle readers, when last we met, I told you about my amazing Parisian day of great weather, ice-cream-eating, and witnessing a spontaneous poetry-mugging? Well, today I am going to tell you about the rest of that particularly lovely day.
After the aforementioned poetry-mugging (in all honesty, a phrase I never, ever thought I would have to come up with), I continued to wander through the city. And as I was passing by the teeny tiny rue de la Parcheminerie, what did I see but a big Canadian flag outside a shop? Naturally, I went to investigate and lo and behold, I found the best bookshop in Paris. Okay, that might be an exaggeration as I have not (yet) visited every bookshop in Paris, but it is exactly what you would want a bookshop in Paris to be. See photos above - books stacked everywhere, narrow little aisles, a charming Canadian proprietor who will give you coffee or peppermint tea while you browse, great prices and an excellent selection of things you actually want to read. I only bought two second-hand books because they don't take cards at the moment and I was down to my last 15 euros for the week (yes, down to my last 15 euros and I spent 12 of them on books, that's how starving writers stay starving), but I swear to you that within five minutes of walking in, I had spotted at least twenty books that I have always intended to read and never gotten around to. Bliss, just bliss. The Abbey Bookshop, people, put it on the itinerary for your next visit to Paris.
Following this, I strolled along the Boulevard St Germain and then went wandering toward the river, when whom should I run into but my fabulous friend Mr R? It's not that it was so great to run into him specifically (although of course it was) but to run into ANYONE I know. Seriously, I only know about five people in the entire city of Paris, so to accidentally encounter any one of them is practically a mathematical impossibility. It made me feel like such a local, and that was one seriously nice feeling to have...
Anyway, that was it for the interesting events of that day - I could make up something about finishing up the day having cocktails with George Clooney, but this blog is for things that actually happen in real life, not things that only happen in my head - sadly!
After the aforementioned poetry-mugging (in all honesty, a phrase I never, ever thought I would have to come up with), I continued to wander through the city. And as I was passing by the teeny tiny rue de la Parcheminerie, what did I see but a big Canadian flag outside a shop? Naturally, I went to investigate and lo and behold, I found the best bookshop in Paris. Okay, that might be an exaggeration as I have not (yet) visited every bookshop in Paris, but it is exactly what you would want a bookshop in Paris to be. See photos above - books stacked everywhere, narrow little aisles, a charming Canadian proprietor who will give you coffee or peppermint tea while you browse, great prices and an excellent selection of things you actually want to read. I only bought two second-hand books because they don't take cards at the moment and I was down to my last 15 euros for the week (yes, down to my last 15 euros and I spent 12 of them on books, that's how starving writers stay starving), but I swear to you that within five minutes of walking in, I had spotted at least twenty books that I have always intended to read and never gotten around to. Bliss, just bliss. The Abbey Bookshop, people, put it on the itinerary for your next visit to Paris.
Following this, I strolled along the Boulevard St Germain and then went wandering toward the river, when whom should I run into but my fabulous friend Mr R? It's not that it was so great to run into him specifically (although of course it was) but to run into ANYONE I know. Seriously, I only know about five people in the entire city of Paris, so to accidentally encounter any one of them is practically a mathematical impossibility. It made me feel like such a local, and that was one seriously nice feeling to have...
Anyway, that was it for the interesting events of that day - I could make up something about finishing up the day having cocktails with George Clooney, but this blog is for things that actually happen in real life, not things that only happen in my head - sadly!
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