A Day of Music

This and other posts are part of the "Paris Tour" party on Anita's blog, "Castles, Crowns and Cottages." The links are at the bottom of her lovely post HERE.) 

One of Rick's big dreams for his Parisian vacation was visiting the luthiers and guitar shops, with an eye toward choosing a new guitar for himself.

The district in Paris where there are multitudes of shops is a street called Rue du Rome and some of its sidestreets.

So, on another rainy day, we were off!

The streets in this area are named after the capitol cities of Europe -- it's no surprise that the Metro stop was called Europe.

 

The first shop we visited was one he'd heard of from the luthier we met on our first day, but they were closed for lunch.

So, we moved to the next one, where a lovely shop owner showed Rick many guitars, all of which he played.

Then we asked the shop keeper to play one, which was quite delightful!

After visiting the first shop, we were ready for lunch. The cafe on the corner looked nearby and inviting. 

Called La Lutetia, we were to discover a totally decadent and delicious omelet there! 

 

I love how dogs are present in cafes, restaurants and stores of Paris!

After lunch, we returned to our original destination. The shopkeeper was in the back, playing.

 

He invited Rick to do the same. While he played (and played and played), I made good tracks in my journal, settled into the comfy sofa in the front of the store.

 

Rick left that store with some music, but no guitar. The price ($10,000) and the thought of customs duty was a little bit overwhelming.

 

We window shopped around the area, finding a variety of fascinating shops.

 

A music shop offered some good deals on the sidewalk.

 

Inside, it was simply enormous, packed with sheet music.

 

Max Eschig was a publisher who was noted for his guitar publications. His company had once been at 48 Rue du Rome -- so of course, we had to take a photo!

All in all, our time at Rue du Rome was delightful -- if you are a serious music fan, you could do worse than spending all or part of a day trying out instruments.

And if you're a beginner, another version of the franchise could be found here, along with terrific CDs and sheet music.

After, we walked down toward the opera, where we would go tomorrow and did a bit of window shopping.

The displays were fabulous!

But we opted to spend our money at our favorite department store, BHV, located near Jerry's apartment. It's not inexpensive, but it's less than the others and the merchandise is as lovely.

 

Jerry fixed us a nice dinner and we had to agree that despite the rain, we had a lovely day!

Lessons from Paris

If you are planning a day like this -- interesting to one person, less so to the other, be sure to pack a book or journal. That well could be your only time to write in it -- or postcards, for that matter -- and your time will pass quickly.

Just because you window shop or even go into a grand store, remember, you may be able to get quite similar merchandise less expensively -- be a smart shopper and don't let the fabulous displays or emotion of the moment get in your way!