ooh shiny things

i have decided to be a tourist for a little while, until the work thing happens for me. my travel book for paris has little mini tour suggestions, so that is what i am doing for the next few days. today i walked around parc monceau, a part of the city i hadn't been to before. very pretty; sever joggers were taking advantage of the mild weather.

at the end of that tour i was on haussmann boulevard, so i decided to go to the galeries lafayette, one of the big department stores here (also a place i had never visited).

the exterior is old and gorgeous and...ooh la la...the interior is a modern masterpiece! it's all marble and chrome and cool modern sculptures and amazing merchandise. the whole store (or what i saw of it) is set up like small boutiques (a la fred segal...or maybe vice versa?). there are eight floors; i only took a look at four. it was overwhelming, like a museum...you can only take in so much in one visit. every major label is represented: chanel, lanvin, marc jacobs, mac, agnes, dior, tons of others i don't even know about. i saw a cell phone for $10K euros. TEN THOUSAND (i counted the zeros)! I don't know what it was made of, but it looked like platinum. even the cafe was cool. it has a groovy club feeling with low vinyl covered sofas and hard plastic chairs but it's done all in pale blue, white and chrome so it has a fresh, clean feel.

if you want to see the interior, check out the link below:

http://www.tripadvisor.fr/LocationPhotos-g187147-d189193-w4-Galeries_Lafayette-Paris_Ile_de_France.html