Le Bon Marche

They told me to get the Flu shot. It was posted on every wall of the Grand Maison. I told myself I would, I really did. I even put it into my iCal. Hélas, I did not get my flu shot. So of course, I got the flu.
It wasn't too bad. Just the small mix of fever, cold sweat, chills, nausea, and exhaustion. Also, I may have lost a couple of days to the fever, but I couldn't really tell you because I think I just passed out and was unresponsive for a complete 24 hours. Oh well. Its over now, or its getting better which is all I could have hoped for considering its almost my last week in Paris.
In order to celebrate my renewed health- or perhaps to give me a bit of sanity- I decided to quit my quarantine and join the rest of the world on the Left Bank. Now I'm not much of a rive gauche snob, i never have been. Perhaps because I live on rive droite, and I always like the proper life a bit more than the creative bobo types. (But i'm fairly certain its the first one...) So I was pleasantly surprised to visit the new Le Bon Marche --fervently recommended by one of my Rive Gauche snob friends. Of course it had everything that the Gallery Lafayettes had minus one things: Tourists ( or a much lesser quantity). I only heard French being spoken and there were no chinese sales people approaching me with their best chinese greeting ( I am Korean thankyouverymuch.). All of the merchandise - can I even call it that when it is like art? - was pulled for a different crowd. There were no "souvenir" type purchases. Everything was couture and it was bought for a purpose, rather than as a memorabilia.
I was absolutely captivated by the small, but very well pulled Givenchy section. It was the first time I saw the new collection in stores and they actually had the tee shirt I wanted to buy. That was good. or not so good.
My favorite part was La grande Epicerie which is kind of like a Dean&Deluca, but filled with old ladies in mink coats and french which makes everything taste better and cost more. They have absolutely the most delicious almond croissants and Pain aux Raisins in their bakery section.


I'm looking forward to going back as soon as this flu and finals are finally over!!

Bests,
J