Paris, Day 7: Friday at L'Opera

Today was our last day in Paris, and we decided it was fitting to devote it to shopping. I did *have* to take us to some picturesque background for the fashion photo of the day. So here I am at the Opera house. The weather was utterly variable today--a little bit rainy, a little bit hot. I could have worn footless tights and sandals, but eh, I was ok in full tights and mary janes. The skirt is the same fabric as the DVFish dress, and the line suits the blouse much more than the fuller navy skirt. At home I have never in my life tied a layer around my neck, but I felt very insouciant and Parisian tying my denim jacket over my shoulders. Everyone does it here. Well, with sweaters, not denim jackets. But I was still an approximation of Parisian.



S's husband had requested (!) that she buy a dress in Paris so she, you know, reluctantly agreed. As for me, on my very first visit to Paris when I was 17 years old I promised myself a Parisian dress. I was on a package tour with my less-than-mobile grandmother and I didn't get a chance to fulfill my wish.

Then when I came back three years ago just for 24 hours at the tail end of my Scandinavia trip because I was feeling the itch for Paris my Parisienne friend Rebecca took me to some boutiques where I discreetly suffered a heart attack at the 100E+ prices and luckily nothing fit--trop grande a la poitrine. You'd think with the alleged French appreciation for petite boobies I wouldn't have the same trouble I have at home of everything being too big in the bust, but it was the same.

I had my two cuts of fabric that will become dresses, but the promise I made to myself umpty-hum-over-a-decade years ago was still outstanding, so I was casually looking as well. Our first stop was Printemps, which S had been lulled by the guidebooks into believing was the "affordable" Paris department store. *cough* It was amazing to see high end designers up close (I went straight for the Sonia Rykiel, as I love *everything* she sends down the runway) but she quickly concluded that Printemps was a bit out of our price range. I was pleased while wearing my yoked blouse with tucks that there was a whole lot of yoking and tucking going on in the latest styles by the latest designers.

Instead, we went to the little mall next door and the cheap shops across the street where she found a cute linen dress and a top. I wasn't sure about buying my dress after all. Everything is in the current babydoll/trapeze line, which is very trendy but (1) the perpetual sewist's refrain of "I could make that" was echoing in my head, and (2) my vaunted Paris dress will have a life cycle of two years max if I buy now.

We later went to Rue de Levis (there is a Levi's store on there, but we don't know if it was named after blue jeans, somebody else named Levi, or the ancient Jewish tribe) where I tried on a mod/flapper rayon stretch dress with a drop waist that just made me a little too uncomfortable about the hip fluff to pay $50 for it.

I did, though, finally buy my Paris dress. It is in a trapeze line, and I will have to take it in a little under the arms because even the S was too big in the bust, but it's a lovely navy linen (which just happens to go with the wardrobe), made in Europe (Italy), and every time I wear it I will relish that I am finally, finally in my Paris Dress! (And at 29E, I don't feel so bad that it's a trendy line. Though I'm trying to avoid converting that into dollars in my head.)

This picture is horrid--the girls have both left and this is me at the end of a 7th long day of sightseeing using the self timer with the camera on a shelf inside the cabinet that holds wine glasses and without any kind of video editing program. But after all that talk, I felt like I couldn't leave you totally hanging.



I leave very early in the morning for the airport, and then it will be "Au revoir, mon Paris"...for, um, a week. I'll be back for work less than 7 days after I get home. Weird, right? BUT! My mom is leaving the country for the first time in well over a decade and it just so happens that she's coming to Paris and it just so happens that I can arrange my work trip so we overlap for a day. Isn't that tres cool? I won't have a computer/internet for that trip, but I'll try to do some fashion pics to post when I get home.