Paris! au Bon Marché Rive Gauche

We spent a couple of hours today exploring the "Paris!" exhibition at Le Bon Marché - a celebration of life in Paris.  The exhibition features work by the street stencil artist Fred le Chevalier - his Parisien characters are suspended in the central space of the store, rotating slowly as if they are on a dance floor.  Pop-up corners within the store showcase collaborative works by Parisien designers - sneakers, snow-globes, skateboards, typography, t-shirts, and so much more!  Next door, at La Grande Épicerie, the exhibition continues with displays celebrating French-sourced food and wine.

The afternoon was spent at Best Ouest, a second-hand store, digging for that vinyl gold.  When I say "the afternoon" I really mean "way too long" waiting for Jean-Pierre, the proprietor, to decide to open.  He says he opens at 2.00pm - which I think he did - but we arrived at 3.00 to find the door locked, and he didn't return until 4.00.  Hmmm, Paris time!  We lingered over lunch at a local bar, fingers-crossed that there would be some activity when we returned - and success!

Best Ouest is a tiny space that has me sneezing the minute I enter, thanks to boxes of old treasures randomly stacked, creating a narrow, maze-like path from the door, through the store and back again.  There was quite a haul by Monsieur - nothing too remarkable, he says, but he seems happy with his disco/funk goodies, particularly a Frank Zappa US 12" from 1982.