We have been exploring neighbourhood parks and there is one that has been eluding us...the square des missions étrangères. First visit...couldn't find our way in; second visit...found an information board that indicated the parc was open from 1pm to 5pm; third visit...forgot the opening times and arrived at noon; fourth visit...arrived at 3pm but the gates were locked. Pourquoi? Because the parc is only open from 1pm to 5pm on two days of the year...Journée du Patrimoine and Fête du Jardins. We politely pleaded at the office if we could please, please visit...but to no avail...non, non, Madame, désolée. Hmm, filed away for a future trip!
In between the third and fourth visits to the square des missions étrangères, we headed off to the 14th arrondissement to visit a record store...Best Ouest. This store is not well known and would be a first-time visit for us. Record stores notoriously open late...sometimes noon, sometimes 2pm or 3pm...Brent just nods sagely and says, "It's a lifestyle, not a business"! Well, three cheers for their lifestyle, but accurate hours - either posted on the internet or scribbled on the metal roller door over the storefront - would be a great help! We took a punt, arrived at noon...roller door shut.
We found a boulangerie, bought a takeaway lunch and headed to a nearby parc...le jardin de la Zac Didot. This was part of a series of small park areas - a combination of grassed areas, a playground and half-court for basketball/soccer, a plantation by schoolchildren including a gorgeous "hotel for insects", bird boxes and compost bins. These types of gardens are most common in the outer districts of Paris and are real hubs of the neighbourhood. It was gorgeous.
Wandered back to Best Ouest...roller door still shut. Nothing like a coffee to fill in time! We lingered, Parisien-style, at an outdoor table at a café nearby...2pm, roller door still shut. That's it! On the metro and home (via the, "Non, non, Madame," at the square des missions étrangères)...sigh.
A load of washing on and feet up for half an hour, I phoned Best Ouest and Monsieur answered. He is open! Back on the metro to the 14th. Well...I am so glad it was an effort to visit this store because it is an absolute aladdin's cave. A tiny, tiny shop piled randomly with records, books, cds, dvds, toys, second-hand china, camera and video equipment. I mean PILED. I moved unattached cupboard doors and empty cardboard boxes to search through records! At one point I balanced a pile of paperbacks, dvds and a turntable so that Brent could search through a stand of records. Monsieur offered us a coffee...we were in for the long haul!
This was the most fun I have ever had in a record store! Today's record stores are usually quite well-ordered and labelled...which has an upside, because you know where your interest area is located...but, then, where's the fun for the vinyl-digger? It's a whole different world when Status Quo turn up in the jazz section, when Earth, Wind & Fire turn up in the Française section, when a rare coloured vinyl of Chic is buried in a pile on the floor...and all in wonderful condition! This is spéléologue-ing at its finest!
Next door to the record store is a boutique beer shop with beers from all around the world...and I'm writing this with a Grand Cru Rodenbach Belgian bière in hand! Salut!
3 comments:
Salut Sally & Brent, Patience paid off, obviously well worth the return visit to the store. Recently on the gardening show on T.V. there was an interview with a very colourful frenchman who has been transforming rather plain buildings with the plant covering like in your 'photos - quite interesting. Love, L&G
Hello Sally and Brent
Now you're talking turkey, an impressive collection of architectural wonders that showcase what France really has to offer! The Best Quest is a destination that could even tempt me to travel to Paris. Triffle Towers, Arc de Whatevers, Frumpidor Centres and the underground Ghettro - yeah, yeah. But what an amazing shop front. I can see why you would want to persevere and eventually gain entry to this contemporary Tutankhamun's Tomb. Not even Howard Carter finding Tut's golden mask could have been as excited as Brent finding a Chic record - please tell me it was a coloured vinyl copy of 'Le Freak'.
But the wonders didn't end there - you have photos of buildings growing green beards. I guess every room is rented to a hipster.
And to top it off a hotel for insects! How can Melbourne be the world's most liveable city when Paris has an insect hotel - surely a wonder to top anything the ancient or modern world has to offer??
Photos please as I can only imagine such a palace: Rented VW Beetles pulling up at the lobby dropping off the guests - groups of Praying Mantis in town for a religious convention, Dung Beetles keen to check out the quality of the toilets, Carpet Beetles impressed that the one they are walking in one is red, the Root Weevil rushing over to the condom vending machine......
And to think you enjoyed all this AND had a Belgian beer in hand, you two must have done something pretty spetacular in your previous lives is all I can say.
Cheers
Paul
Ooohhh....hotel for insects! That is the most beautiful of hotels. If that doesn't make it's way into a cross stitch I will be surely disappointed. Fi
Post a Comment