Day 7 in Paris, Just Shopping, pretty much

I have really gotten into Paris time.  Last night I was still up at midnight and slept in until 9:AM.  That is 3 PM to midnight "home" time.  I love having no schedule.  I've only booked a  couple of excursions, so most of the days are open for whatever moves me.  Today, I wanted to shop.  I heard about a HUGE mall that I checked out and it was really not interesting.  After finding a Starbuck's "toilette" (thank goodness for SBux's!)  I meandered the streets of The 3rd arrondissement, The Marais district. Lots and lots of little cafes. For some reason I had difficulty deciding where to have breakfast and it wasn't until 1:30 PM that I finally settled on a cafe, purely out of starvation.  I tried a Paris tradition, Croque Monsieur, which is really just a piece of bread with a thin slice of ham, then a Lot of Emmental cheese melted on top. Broiled.  A Belgium beer with lemon.  Yum.  

I then found the Bazar de Hotel de Ville  which was like a HUGE Macy's only fancier.  The basement level was called a DIY department.  It was a large hardware department with everything you might find in Home Depot only French.  I loved looking at the house numbers, door knockers and cobbler miscellany. You gotta know, I am a hardware store freak.  

The top floor (five) was the arts and crafts department.  Of course, I was in heaven there!  Sadly, the french-made Sennelier pastels were just as expensive in Paris as in the US.  Oh, well.  I did pick up a cool rubber stamp, a few pencils and some French labels.  

This was the second store I've been in where they had a huge department devoted to buttons, yarn, zippers, ribbon and rick-rack. I haven't seen a lot of fabric, but the displays of the above items are very colorful.  

By the time I'd made my rounds of this area of town, it was 5:30 PM and I was ready to head back to Montmartre.  Not a hugely productive day, but I did get to see a new area and I scored a new purse!  

PS  I am thankful for modern technology.  Even though I don't have 4G/data service here, I do have wi-fi in my apartment and am able to text and FaceTime my family peeps.  Usually, it is evening when I am here and able to do that, which makes it about 10 AM in Seattle.  It makes me feel connected.  So far, I have not minded traveling alone.  I tend to get along with myself pretty well!  No arguing at all!

 Art supplies!

 Croque Monsieur

 Buttons!

  A map of where I have walked so far!