Paris … an interlude
So in the midst of all this Holiday frenzy and Christmas shopping angst, hubs decided to whisk me off to Paris for a couple of days last week in order to nail that important pressie for moi.
To be fair, he’s had mixed fortunes over the years on the Christmas pressie front. His nadir being the time he bought me a Prada belt which was way too big and then meant I had to head into Madison Avenue to switch it. On managing to build up the courage to waft past the security man at the door, and make it past a number of scary looking shop assistants who were looking curiously at me, wondering what in fact I might be doing in their hallowed store; I finally got to the exchange desk way in the back of the store. The kindly assistant advised me that I had in my posession a man’s belt which had been purchased in the sale. Poor old hubs had tried so hard to get it right – bless!
Needless to say I left the store with an exchange in the shape of something far more up my street, and headed home to thank hubs for trying his best, but also to suggest perhaps gift vouchers might be the way forward…
Another year he outdid himself in a good way, when he hired a driver to take us both into New York for the day from the ‘burbs. We had a glorious champagne fuelled lunch and hit 5th Avenue on a mission. The Prada store was once again in my sights and I returned with the most beautiful tan slouchy leather tote, which has earned it’s place as the best cost-per-wear/use item I’ve ever had. So we have clearly made headway in figuring out the perfect gift purchasing plan. As far as I can see, the winning formula seems to be exotic city location + champagne = perfect pressie buying conditions.
Paris …the shopping
We stayed at the delightful Park Hyatt at Place Vendome. Having snarfed a quick lunch at a local pavement cafe after hopping off the Eurostar, we hit the Tuileries Gardens as the sun began to set, then headed along Rue Saint-Honoré, packed with shoppers and beautiful stores with twinkly Christmas lights. I loved Colette, an iconic boutique full of chunkily priced designer pieces which I’ve been seeing up close and personal in recent press days. We also sauntered past L’Opera which is stunning by day or night, and finally ended up peeking at the windows at Galeries Lafayette like excited little school kids.
We then popped into the shoe department and there espied the most beautiful Valentino rockstud heels which had Christmas pressie all over them. The rest is history and hubs came home with a gold star for his efforts. I’m just wondering how he’s going to top that next year?
