{"id":564,"date":"2017-09-07T17:07:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T15:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/?p=564"},"modified":"2017-09-08T07:38:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T05:38:08","slug":"le-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/le-shopping","title":{"rendered":"Le shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>

A bateau mouche plies its romantic route under the bridges at sunset<\/p><\/div> To be ensconced in Paris by accident is never a bad thing. Particularly in Summer. I found myself there for consular assistance when my passport unexpectedly went missing while in the south of France. The inconvenience of bureaucratic red tape \u2013 what the French aptly call \u201cpaperasserie\u201d (a proliferation or plethora of paperwork) \u2013 paled into insignificance alongside the pleasure of soaking up the sights and sounds of the city of light.<\/p>\n

Modern Parisians, twisting the dictum of Descartes, believe that \u201cI shop, therefore I am\u201d. Au Bon March\u00e9, the third oldest department store in the world (after London\u2019s Fortnum and Mason\u2019s and New York’s Macy\u2019s), opened its doors to the public in 1838 and is a temple dedicated to the goddess of shopping. The other landmark Parisian shopping shrine, Galeries Lafayette, is largely overrun by tourists clamouring to take home a piece of Parisian \u201cje ne sais quoi\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Galeries<\/a>

Galeries Lafayette\u2019s 70 000 m2 fashion flagship store<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

\"ABMs<\/a>

ABMs classic ride to consumer heaven<\/p><\/div>

\"Laced<\/a>

Laced with desire<\/p><\/div>But Paris is best known, not so much for \u201cle shopping\u201d as for the art of \u201cfl\u00e2nerie\u201d \u2013 indiscriminate wandering along its cobbled streets and river embankments. It makes good sense, too, in times of economic austerity to indulge in guilt-free window-shopping, or what the French affectionately call \u201cfaire de la l\u00e8che vitrine\u201d (literally \u201cto do some window licking\u201d). \"20170527_190616\"<\/a>
\n\"20170522_205117\"<\/a>\"20170529_103216\"<\/a>\"20170530_105221\"<\/a>
\n\"20170527_135935\"<\/a>\"20170530_215446\"<\/a>\"20170523_073518\"<\/a>\"20170526_075740\"<\/a>

\"Colourfully<\/a>

Colourfully in-Seine after a bout of fl\u00e2nerie<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Regret<\/a>

Regret de Mo\u00ebt<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To be ensconced in Paris by accident is never a bad thing. Particularly in Summer. I found myself there for consular assistance when my passport unexpectedly went missing while in the south of France. The inconvenience of bureaucratic red tape … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}