So today I had planned on gatecrashing the Chanel and Valentino fashion shows. Ha! I guess the fates had decided that wasn't a good idea. The day started off wrong and went downhill from there. 8:00 am, girls are in foyer of building, arguing as usual. I am trying to get Bentley in his crate and get downstairs before they raise the roof so I take the stairs. Mistake number one - I slip and fall and bang the hell out of my butt (no biggie really because my butt is so padded! LOL) and my left forearm. Thank God I was holding on to the railing. Shake it off and hustle for the Metro. But the hurting and aching gets worse and it hurts to move my arm. Shit - so at school I ask the primary school principal if I could go get some ice from the nurse - guess something was lost in the translation because she insists that the nurse isn't there to help the parents. OKAAAAAY - but what do I do? I am hurting and I have no idea where to go to get it checked out! She disappears and comes back with an address for a radiologie clinic -it's where they send the kids from school when they get hurt. So I make my way over, no idea what to expect or how to make myself understood and I am in tears.
"Je tombe a la maison" - somehow that comes across and they xray my arm - no break, thank God! But it hurts like a mutha and is swelling and black and blue and purple. Whole process took an hour and cost me 70 euros - considering that I would have been at the doctor all day back home and paid that AFTER my deductible, I am a happy camper. I still have time to meet my friend and make the Fashion Show! Maybe I can find some coffee and spike it - for the pain of course.
So I meet up with my friend and her new friend and have a cup of coffee and talk about what brought us to Paris and all that. Have them in stitches with stories of how I hurt myself in the past (why folks find that amusing, I will never know - it's all perfectly normal if under strange or crazy circumstances). Finally we decide to grab a bottle of water and head over to the Grand Palais where the Chanel Fashion show is located.
Oh my freakin' God - I have never seen so many photographers, want to be photographers, fashionistas and want to be fashionistas! People decked out in outlandish costumes, for lack of a better term. Women (wouldn't exactly call 'em ladies) in entirely inappropriate clothing for the season or the weather. And half of the outfits were just UGLY! Mismatched brocades in Spring Colors - I know this was the Spring Collection but hello, it's Fall here and the temperature was a damp and chilly 56 degrees! Some poor folks needed a shower and a hairbrush! Others definitely needed a sandwich! And the posturing - everyone wanted someone to take their picture! And then when the show let out - the chaos was, well chaotic! Shoving and shutter clicking - I have no idea who was taking pictures of whom! And the people coming out of Chanel? well I expected sleek and sophisticated but they weren't exactly - and they were mostly wearing black and white! I guess in homage to the colors of Chanel but one usually associates the wearing of all black with New Yorkers! There were some fantastic shoes but I didn't take any pictures - didn't want to feed that beast, if you know what I mean.
So then we decide to go to this second-hand store in the 1st Arrondisement - my friend had gotten the name from a trusted source that this was a place to get some good stuff. So off we went - walking through the Tuileries to Rue Rivoli. I love walking through the Tuileries - I feel like I am walking back in time. But not this time - there was scaffolding everywhere and tents and workers dismantling tents - not so picturesque. Of course the tourists and the fashion people are everywhere - we get swept up and cross over to rue St Honore Fauberg - the hoity toity shopping street, where the rich and civilized shop. HA! I got hit by a delivery van who ran a red light! Thank God that there was a crush of people so the driver only tapped me - too many people so the van couldn't go fast but had to creep. Damn! But at least the van missed my smoking slippers and only clipped my thighs! (wish it had shaved a few inches off!) LOL That's it - we head straight for the shop - no more detours - they are not good for my health!
Turns out the store is in the Galleries Vivienne - a lovely covered shopping alley in one of the oldest parts of Paris. Really lovely and quiet - a pedestrian mall so no danger of being run over! I found a lovely cranberry colored velvet jacket. And then I needed lunch and a glass of champagne - I survived! But just to make sure, I took a taxi back home. No reason to tempt fate or try my luck!