About Town… Massages and Straps.

Don’t get too excited about the title.   They are two separate subjects.

I am trying to catch up with my various pearls of wisdom…. Well, merely observations…   And I have rearranged the order of posts – the Thalys event was most important.   Just now I hit the POST button for Thalys and leaned back in the chair, wondering, what will I do now – 6 hours before I meet someone for dinner.

Oh yeah.  I have to plan the trip to Croatia and to Ireland – to give me time outside Schengen and extend my time in France.  I can’t believe it, but after making 6 hotel and 8 train and 1 ferry arrangements, I am planned out!  So a short break for lunch and back at it.

Back to the title… Straps.

I bought two more purses but the straps were too long.  So I needed additional holes.  Sound familiar?  I think I mentioned this before- I liked the first bag so much I bought two more.  The neighborhood guy took care of it – the transaction was entirely in French but it was costly – 7.50 per hole.  New bags needed the same investment.  Yet… it’s August.  And of course, he was closed.  So I found another cordonierre over by Notre Dame.  Again, in French!  But he charged me only 5 euros for both bags.  Yup, Neuilly-sur-Seine is a bit pricey.

Massage.  I am a regular massage customer – started having massages in Visalia more than 15 years ago.  When I moved to Sacramento, it took visits to probably 8 massage therapists until I found the marvelous Kim Bidwell.  So here in Paris, I have hesitated.  It’s been 5 months since I have had a massage.  Finally, I searched.  Trip Advisor is a great resource.  Found Michel the stylist there.  And found Leah the massage therapist.  Well, I found Massage Concepts.  And I was assigned Leah.  Of course, she’s French.  But she lived in Santa Barbara for several years and….. yes…..  she received her massage training in Ojai.

It was a great massage.  I will be going back in late September (too much going on to work in another appointment before then).  After the massage, I had a dinner with a CE.  We spoke English the entire time.  I was way too tired to handle French.  But it was a great tired – super relaxed.

House cleaning.  I hired a cleaner to come in and do a deep cleaning and wash the floors.  It was worth every penny.  Sometimes you just have to get help.

And now I am working on stocking up for my next visitor.  The Marche is much smaller in August – even the vendors take the month off.   LB comes from Oakland on the 28.  Lots of plans, including London by way of Calais, Dover (white cliffs anyone?), Brighton and Bath.  Then as soon as she returns to California, my niece arrives for a week in London and then we return to Paris on the Eurostar.

It’s going to be a very busy September!

And a couple interesting signs….
In Maintenon I actually walked the Santiago de Compostela trail for a short distance.

And near me, there’s a nice building with a little plaque that says Water on All Floors.  Wow.
Really?  I guess there was a time that was special.

Last week we had a great dinner at the Drug Store Steak House on the Champs Elysees.  Ya. Really.  Strange name. But the store reminds me of the famous drug store in Beverly Hills… Schwabs!  It was an incredible meal.
The building is quite modern and they decorate with lights.  A friend told me there used to be a beautiful classic building there but it burned down in an intense conflagration (some folks died) several years ago and was replaced with this.