Le Shopping

Thursday after class I needed to go by and see Mr. Dressner again to pay the rest of my rent for the month and see if he needed a copy of the insurance paperwork. It wasn’t too far to walk, and since that put me having to go down rue du Renne, I decided to save myself a trip and do some shopping after I took care of business. I can’t afford to shop a lot because of the exchange rate and everything being more expensive here, but there were a few things that I’ll be needing for the fall. Anyway, I know that area of town the best because it was close to where I went to school last time. I went in several stores, but I was mainly looking at Zara, Mango, Etam, and H&M because they are more in my price range and have stuff that I like. I know we have Zara in America but it is so much better in Europe. And, the great thing about Paris is that there are like some 25 Zaras. It doesn’t make any sense to me because a lot of them are within 1/2 a mile of another one. And yet they manage to do fine. I don’t understand, but I do like it, because when you find something you like, if they don’t have the right size, then chances are one of the 24 other stores has it. I found a great little trench coat for the fall since I neglected to plan for the milder months and brought mostly winter stuff.

Trench coats are everywhere right now. I’ve been trying to get a read on fashion for the fall and see what the big trends are going to be, but the weather has been in transition recently so fashion is kind of all over the place right now. Grey is very popular for this fall, as are jewel tones. Skinny jeans and leggings are still popular with ballet flats, kitten heels, or boots. I’ll let you know if I pick up on any incoming trends. Paris fashion is weird to me mainly because I’m from Florida. Someone from New York or something wouldn’t probably notice as many differences. They are definitely less casual, but at the same time very relaxed about fashion. It’s less structured and more...bohemian I guess is how you describe it. They don’t worry too much about colors matching, they don’t wear much makeup, and they don’t spend a long time on their hair, the air-dried look is perfectly acceptable. Of course when I say “they” I am making a gross generalization, but that’s the best job of stereotyping I can do.

And in case you were wondering the French use the english word for shopping, but it is pronounced french (kind of like le show-ping). It’s one of those English influences that the Acadamie Française tries so hard to keep out of the French language. (The French Academy is a group of people who are the official authority on the French language, and they try to get people to use words like “courrier electronique” instead of “e-mail”. Good luck with that...)