A Dog "Walker," Les Soldes, The Darkest Hour and Crêpes

Kelly did his long run on Saturday and had to stay up on the quais rather than run down close to the weather.  Kelly discovered this new way to "walk" about a dozen dogs at once.

Can you see the dog in the helmet in the basket on the front of the bike?  Never know what you'll find in Paris.
While Kelly was running, I went up to Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps on boulevard Haussmann to check out Les Soldes.  This year the winter Soldes are January 10 to February 20.  Les Soldes are a big deal here in Paris.  Twice a year all unsold seasonal merchandise goes on sale throughout the country.  After the first week, items are discounted more.  But the best things go quickly the first week.  What is interesting is that the sales are legislated by the French government.  In 2008, the French Senate declared that Les Soldes cannot be longer than five weeks.  The dates must be synchronized among all shop owners.  They are to happen only twice a year, once in winter beginning the second Wednesday of January and once in summer beginning on the third Wednesday in June.  The store is obligated to mark the original price as well as the Soldes price, so that you know you aren’t getting a 40% discount off an elevated price tag. Shop owners have the right to hold other sales at different times of the year, but only for a total period of two weeks.  Sales during other times of the year have to be called a "promotion" or a word other than Soldes.  It's the law!


Les Soldes Table at BHV

Les Soldes

I had checked out Les Soldes at the BHV department store but I wanted to see what Printemps had to offer.  This store is so pretty.  It spills out over several buildings.  The designer boutiques inside the store are filled with shoppers from China-sometimes the shoppers are even lined up just to get into the boutique to shop.





Entrance to Printemps



On the top floor of Printemps is a restaurant under a beautiful stained glass dome.  I went up to sneak a quick peek.  This restaurant is on Kate's list when she comes to visit.  So pretty!

I hurried home to meet Kelly to go see the movie The Darkest Hour about Winston Churchill and World War II.  We found a theatre down boulevard Saint-Germaine past the Cluny Museum that we could walk to.  It was showing the Version Originale or VO in English with French subtitles.  I enjoy following the subtitles to see how things are translated.  We splurged on popcorn and shared an Orangina.  We had a choice of sweet or salty popcorn.  Evidently the sweet is the most popular in Paris.  When we got inside the theatre, which had a pretty small screen, by the way, we noticed there were no cup holders.  I'm not sure we saw anyone else with popcorn or a drink.  So while we don't really recommend the over salted popcorn, we definitely recommend the movie.  Gary Oldman was a great Churchill.

Kelly in the Movie Theatre

On the way home we stopped at a crêpe stand.  Kelly rides by this stand on the way home from his office.  He says there are always people lined up to get a crêpe or a gaufre (waffle) at the stand so he figured it must be good.  We couldn't decide what kind of crêpe to get.  Everything looked so good.  We watched the man make us a fresh Nutella-banane crêpe with a whole banana in it as Kelly chatted with him.  It tasted so good as we shared it walking home.  A perfect Saturday in Paris.

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