Les Soldes

France has big sales twice a year called les Soldes that last about five weeks. The dates and requirements are governed by law. This winter les Soldes began on January 8 and Sande Krieger and Jenny Munford timed their trip to be in Paris during les Soldes and when Kate was in Paris.
The first day we went to Bon Marché and the boutiques nearby.

Wall of Water at Bon Marché

Beautiful Fruit at Bon Marché

Radish and Cabbage Sculpture

Nougat and Panettone

Prepared Foods

Kate

Sande, Kate and Jenny

Across the street from La Grande Épicerie is the beautiful Bon Marché department store. We loved the displays there. They had beautiful clothing and shoes. We ate at a cozy café on the third floor near the shoe department.

Escalators at Bon Marché 

Smeg Appliances

We ended up sampling a tarte citron with huge meringue on top and a tarte au pomme back at the bakery in La Grande Epicerie.

Colorful Market Bags

Tarte Citron with lots of Meringue

Afterwards we walked toward the Saint Germain and Saint Sulpice shopping areas. On our way we passed the Hotel Lutetia. In 2018 they were remodeling the Hotel and it was covered with scaffolding. It is so beautiful now.

Hotel Lutetia

Hotel Lutetia

Repetto Ballet Store

Kate and Jenny at a Flower Shop

The next day, Thursday, we went to more of our favorite department stores, beginning with Printemps. La grève continues so we had to ride a very crowded bus to get up to Printemps, but somehow we squeezed on.

Printemps Department Store

We looked for shoes for Morgan's wedding and couldn't resist looking at the wedding dresses.

Wedding Dresses at Printemps

Printemps

We had a snack of hot chocolate, croissants and une assiette des frites under the dome to keep us fueled.

Printemps Dome

Printemps Display

Police Vans by Printemps

The transportation strikes continue in Paris. They began December 5th and continue to drag on. Thursday was a big national demonstration day and there was a planned march beginning at Place de la Republic on the east side of Paris and ending near where we were shopping and the Gare Saint Lazare.
It was really interesting watching the national and Paris police set up to handle the demonstration. Roads were cordoned off and some blocked with armored vans. The police had on body armor but we knew they weren't serious yet because they were still wearing their hats rather than helmets.

Armored Policeman on his Phone

Gare Saint Lazare

We left before the marchers arrived and were able to take one of the automated subways running all day over to the BHV department store near Hôtel de Ville.

BHV

By the time we finished shopping at BHV, the métro had begun running again and we thought we could get home rather easily. It had also started raining steadily. Carrying lots of shopping bags we headed down to the métro. After the first stop, they announced that because of the demonstration and march, the subway would not go past the Musée du Louvre stop. We wanted to go two stops further down the line and switch trains at Concorde to get home. But no dice. We tried to take a bus but the buses weren't running either. We came across an empty cab but he refused to take us. There was gridlock everywhere. So we started walking along with all the other Parisians. In the rain. There was no other way but to walk those last two miles home (that felt like 10, not two!). We have had enough of the grève!