Buying a Bed in Paris

It almost sounds like the title of a French comedy.  And it has its farcical moments, bien sûr.  Here are some of the things I've learned through my recent experience shopping for a bed in Paris.

1.  Do a little research online, just in order to find out the component parts of a bed, where you might be able to purchase one, what the price range seems to be (hint - higher than in the US) and what things are called in French. 

2.  The average French bed comes with the mattress (matelas, pronounced mah-tuh-lah) and something called a sommiel (pronounced so-mee-ay).  It's not a box spring exactly, but it goes in the same position as a box spring.  You don't have to buy the sommiel, and it's sold separately from the mattress.  Some people use only the mattress, either alone or in a platform setting.

3.  One must also consider les pieds (like it sounds, the feet).  These are squat round wooden posts that the mattress and sommiel stand on to raise them off the ground (in lieu of that ugly metal frame with wheels that American bed salesmen get a few extra bucks for).  Again, the pieds are not necessary, but sometimes they come with the set.  You choose color and height (my salesman recommended the taller height because it would be better for under-bed storage; right he was!).

3.  French beds seem to be very, very soft, even when called firm (presumably because if you want something really hard, you'd sleep on a Japanese-style bed, which are quite popular in Europe).  If you want a firm western-style bed, you really have to try them out.  And generally, the firmer you want the bed, the more it's going to cost if you want a bit of softness on the top layer of it.  

4.  Speaking of which, they call the feeling at the top of the mattress the "accueil" (welcome/greeting/reception).  That took a while to figure out, as the salesman kept saying it each time I would lie down on a mattress model to try it out!

5.  You can buy beds online.  There appear to be at least a couple of reputable companies, but since I didn't use one, I will not name names.  They are easily found with an internet search.  However, an American friend who has lived here for years prefers the online option and avoiding the department stores.

6.  I was told by consumer and salesman alike that the reason French beds are so much more expensive than U.S. beds is that French people make a big investment in a bed and keep it far longer than in the U.S.  I still don't follow the relevance, but perhaps without the economies of scale, they have to charge more for each one they sell?

7.  I bought mine in one of the grands magasins (department stores).  I got lucky and landed in Paris right at the start of the big fall sales.  (I didn't know there was such a thing, since there's only supposed to be two big sale periods throughout the country, but this was not called a sale and, thus, I suppose it was not one, even though prices were reduced 30-50%.)  Each brand was offering a few beds on sale promotion.

8.  In a department store, the bed department is manned (peopled?) by a sales rep who is affiliated only with one brand.  If you want to compare among brands, do it on your own.  You won't get comparison information from the salesperson, as you bounce among however many sales people as equals the number of brands you're choosing among.  This may be why they're so expensive.  It seemed that stationed next to every six beds or so, there was another salesperson at a tiny desk. 

9.  Beds come in so many sizes!  It's important to write down the exact dimensions of your bed, and also how deep it is, because bed linens likewise come in as many sizes!  For example, there's a bed measuring 140x190 centimeters and other measuring 140x200 centimeters.  Really?  A ten-centimeter difference?  Yes, really.  And ditto the sheets and comforter covers.

10.  When the bed is delivered to you, the pieds get screwed into the bottom of the sommiel.  Then, the delivery people check both sides of the mattress carefully before "installing" it, because the mattress will have a winter side and a summer side, presumably each topped by a fabric appropriate to the season and having the secondary benefit of promoting a semi-annual flip of the mattress by the user.

11.  Unlike in New York City, when the delivery is scheduled, you're given a range of hours (of about 3 hours) by the store.  That morning or the night before, you get a call telling you exactly when to expect them to arrive.  Amazing, especially since they actually arrived right on time!  And there was no delivery fee!  I don't know if that's common or not, or if was related to the sale or the particular store involved.  Either way, I'm not complaining.

12.  Bed linens are interesting, too.  There are square pillows and rectangular pillows (also of varying sizes), made of many different levels of down, down and feathers, feathers only, or synthetic (not so different from in the U.S.).  As for sheets, flat sheets are rarely used and not as easy to find as fitted sheets.  That is because the traditional comforter (couette) usually gets covered with a comforter cover and, thus, it seems that there is no need for the top sheet.  It is a lot easier to make the bed in the morning, for sure, especially with the fish tail of extra fabric at the bottom of the comforter cover which gets tucked into the bottom end of the bed under the mattress in order to hold it into place.  What genius!

I decided it was worth all the effort and every euro spent!  My sleep is crucial to me, and I can say I am a contented consumer thus far.  Zzzzzzzzz......

My favorite New York app

...is The Scoop, from The New York Times. 

It's like having an in-the-know friend in the city, and it's free.  As the easy-to-use home screen (example above) shows, there are specific categories that are updated regularly containing short reviews from Times reporters and often a link to the longer review that appeared earlier in the newspaper itself.

I love the great GPS locator in it, so that if I'm somewhere and looking for (more often than not) a coffee bar, it will tell me where to go - you'll find something new and never get lost. 

And speaking of coffee bars, this app is a wonder if you're anywhere below 34th Street, but the Upper West Side?  Oh, I wish.  Where are you, great coffee places, in my neighborhood?  Besides Joe, of course.

It's super for finding out what's happening in art, music, theater, dance and all things cultural in New York.  And I love the ideas for day trips out of NY, most of which can be reached by train or bus, if a car isn't in the cards.  The "Only in New York" section is perfect with its suggestions for out-of-town visitors (and for the weekend "tourist" that I so enjoy being even though I've lived here for so long).

Check it out and go somewhere new!  As you do, you can even feed your competitive soul, if you have one like I do, by check marking the spots you've been to.  Email, Facebook, web links, etc., are also easy to access from each of the posted items.  It's full of great ideas.  Even if you're a jaded New Yorker, you'll find something you never knew or thought about before.

Get out this weekend and do something new!

Everything

Here's a fun game I was playing with myself as I walked the aisles of BHV for the first time a couple of days ago:  "Do they have ____?"  I would think of an item, then check out the wall placard on each floor of the grand magasin (department store) on the Rue de Rivoli just behind the Hôtel de Ville of Paris, to see if I could track down its location in the store.  And, voilà!  It would be there - clothes hangers, wall paint, towels, Chantelle lingerie, door signs to label bathrooms for men or women, electric power tools, cooking supplies, alarm systems, lamps, school supplies, handbags, dinner plates, makeup, sushi.  Yes, sushi - shoppers get hungry, right?

There wasn't a thing I could think of that this place didn't carry.  It was a Saturday and a sale day, and the whole world seemed to be there, too.  BHV, short for Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville, is pronounced "bay-ash-vay" and everyone who lives here for any length of time knows this store, although it is less known to tourists.  

It is pretty close to being central Paris's answer to Sear's and Target.  There are other places to obtain many of these items but they are not as centrally located or all in one store.  Besides, when you ask someone where to find "X," that thing you cannot think of where to possibly locate, the answer invariably comes back, "BHV will have it."

And that's what happened to me.  For some reason, I've been losing buttons lately.  Two coats and a blouse.  It was finally time to try to locate buttons!  Good grief.  I tried first in retouches,  clothing repair shops/tailors.  Nope; I just got blank stares and the Gallic shrug.  Unlike in New York, I guess if you show up without the actual button you want to have sown on the garment, you are asking for too much to think that they might either have a bowl full of stray buttons or a recommendation of where you can buy one.  What I was thinking was that they'd be able to direct me to Paris's button district, assuming that it might be like New York in that way.  There's not a button you can't find in New York; it may take a hunt through a few tiny shops,  mainly in the Garment District but even on the Upper East Side (like Tender Buttons), but that's all part of the hunt, and the reward is an exact match.

After I had tried three retouches without any luck, I turned to a friend who's lived here a while and asked where the tiny button shops were.  She replied, "Why a tiny shop?"  I had to explain that it wasn't the size of the shop that was important; rather, it was those New York button boutiques I was thinking of when I asked.  She shook her head and said "BHV!"

BHV did indeed have buttons.  It had none of the charm of button hunting in New York (not that I'm either a pro at this or have any desire to be, I just was tired of the cold drafts from the missing button locations on those two coats).  I quickly found two close-enough matches (who's really going to notice, right?) and got into the checkout line for my 3.90 euro purchase, alongside the customers with slightly larger items in their baskets - like floor lamps, pillows and house paint.

Les Soldes 2012

The big French winter sales began yesterday!  They are mandated by the French government (and may only run twice a year during these designated periods, except for "private" sales, which is for another post).  This round of les soldes will continue through February 21.  The prices continue to decrease as the days and weeks pass, as does the available inventory, so the game of timing is a precious one.

Buy your airline ticket now; there is still time!  I just saw a sale on the American Airlines website with great fares from the U.S., if anyone's interested.

New York Favorites - Union Square

Union Square Greenmarket

It's not exactly "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens," but these are a few of my favorite things in and around Union Square in New York City.

the fabulous produce at the Greenmarket

Beads of Paradise

Journelle

Union Square Café

...not to mention agnès b., Blue Water Grill, the enormous Barnes & Noble, Republic, Paragon Sports, and Casa Mono.

So many places, so little time!

'Tis the Season, Paris Version

It's a first for me - December in Paris.  And I've been carrying my camera around, looking for Christmas.  I assume this is "part I" because I must, really must, find more.  Thus far, Paris is no competition for New York (not that there's anything wrong with that)!  

Store front windows might be decorated more brightly than usual, with packaging more on display and highlighting gift items, maybe a sparkle here or there as well -

- but, otherwise, not so much.  Some shopping streets have lights strung overhead.

The Pantheon has a cluster of Christmas trees in front.

The métro features a few (and by that, I mean a minority) of posters featuring or promoting Christmas.

Of course, those métro posters are both ads for department stores.  And speaking of which, since Bon Marché is just down the block and is such a lovely store, I wondered what I'd find there, figuring perhaps a Bergdorf's kind of glitz and glamour.

(The building's exterior lighting changes in the darkness of a winter evening.)

Nope, these windows are a bit interesting, but definitely understated, and no lines of children, tourists or anyone else for that matter were crowding either the store windows or the aisles of the store itself.  

In fact, the holiday store windows are, to this American consumer's eye, a bit odd.  As you can perhaps see, in front of each window has been placed a protective shell that extends outward onto the sidewalk.

One walks into this covering to view and hear a little sound/light show (and to be protected from the rain - now there's a reason!).  It's in French, of course, and features not particularly Christmas-y music, more like rock-and-roll, the beat of which pulsates with the lights from the store windows.  I hate to be a nay-sayer, but I wasn't compelled to spend money on gifts or to go inside the store.  Too bad, I believe, because I understand that in 1909, the first moving-figure window for Christmas shoppers was in fact in the window of Le Bon Marche.  That I'd like to see!

I'll have to get over to Printemps and Galeries Lafayette and report back further in part 2 of this minimalist review.

Emergency Preparedness - part 1

Sign on door of lingerie boutique, Town Shop, Upper West Side

New Yorkers don't scare easy.  We're cynical, we believe very little we see, hear and read, and particularly so from the media, here in the media capital of the United States (I guess we realize how much spin is in the recipe, because we're the ones baking it.)  So, I wondered how we'd be responding to the warnings, the evacuation mandates, and the heeding of the shop-till-we-can't-lift-another-Poland-Spring-bottle directions.

As usual with us New Yorkers, I saw it all yesterday.  The subways were busy, the sidewalk cafés were full and the grocery stores were emptying out in an orderly, almost party-like fashion. (I laughed as one young man walked by with his arms full of large tubs of Ben & Jerry's, and he responded with a knowing smirk - that he was indeed going to have to eat quickly if the power goes out.)  The biggest surprise was the overflowing nail salons - did I miss the memo requiring picture-perfect finger and toe nails during a hurricane, or are a lot of women just preparing for some overnight dates necessitated by a closed subway system?  (Remember the Blackout Baby Boom of 1965?  No?  Well, I wasn't here then either, but it's urban legend in NYC, and perhaps there's a Hurricane Baby Boom to come.)  

Water bottles on the N train

At Fairway last evening, doing a little unofficial visual surveying, it seemed that the barest shelves and those garnering the closest attention were the water and bread shelves (depleted by 10pm) and the snack aisles.  Today I'll see how the liquor stores are doing.  

Of all the preparedness lists I received from helpful friends, the most interesting item was coffee - make pots of coffee, I was told, to avoid the grumpies in case the electricity goes out.  Oh dear, I received an email from Joe Coffee that their store near me would be closed both today and tomorrow - a weekend without Joe OR the subway.  Unthinkable.

Drinking and Glasses Shopping

Three courses of a lovely French meal in a café garden as the sun sets, a glass of rosé and good conversation.  The perfect formula for an evening that can end in many ways.  Need I say more?  (OK, in fact, I was out with one of my best friends, but that's besides the point.)

Imagine my surprise then when I found that my post-dessert activity turned out to be buying two new pair of glasses at Tina Catherine, the coolest store on Eighth Avenue in Chelsea we just happened to fall into on our post-dinner promenade to the #1 train.  Well, they do say that alcohol lowers the resistance; so true...they should hand out beer and wine in department stores.

But I am not at all unhappy - quite the contrary! These glasses are the best, the boutique is sleek and easy to shop, and the young proprietors are lovely.  The team consists of two great guys with excellent taste and an optician who is relaxed and knows what he's doing.  They all make it way too easy to select a pair (or two) of beautiful, well-fitting - and very cool - glasses.  

Of course, after I made my purchases and then left them there for the prescription lenses to be ordered, I wondered on the street (and the morning after) what the heck I'd just done (you know, the usual remorse in the aftermath of dining, drinking and spending).  

I need not have worried.  My glasses are now a week old and I still can't bring myself to put in my contacts rather than wear these amazing glasses.

What I loved most, aside from the owners themselves, is the tight and well-edited collection.  Tina Catherine is not full of the designer names that are stamped on everything from perfume to shoes and towels.  The glasses they offer are names one may or may not know - Cutler&Gross, Dita, Lafont, OliverPeoples and Persol.  These are styles that are beautifully crafted and simply designed (but not trendy in a way that will no longer be so in a month).  I could have walked out with everything in the shop; that's how good they are.

But no need to take my word for it.  Go "see" for yourself.

Les Soldes - New York version

Ooh la la, les soldes!  If you love Paris and you love shopping, you'll know what I'm talking about.  It's July; it's time for the summer sales.  Lucky for us in NYC, we also have them here - the sales and a couple of the great Parisian shops I love.  

My all-time favorite is agnès b.  Straight-forward, high-quality, classic and iconic Parisian sportswear - I guess it could be said that it's Paris's answer to J. Crew and Gap.  

Next up, my new (second) favorite this year, which I've shopped in Paris on place Saint Sulpice (unbelievably mobbed during les soldes), is Comptoir des Cotonniers.  

They recently have attacked New York City with three boutiques, the last one opening only two weeks ago on Madison Avenue, in the 80s, a stone's throw, in fact, from agnès b. 

Shop those two back-to-back and, for a few bons moments, you're almost in the Sixième (even after you get your credit card bill, all but for the currency exchange fee).  And, as usual, in the name of research, bien sur, I did a bit of birthday shopping.

Phobias

I definitely have a few phobias.  Chief among them?  Flying, unfortunately.  That's a tough one for someone who enjoys travel so much.  But I have learned to cope, and my battle gear is always with me when I fly (small wine bottle on board, Enya on the iPod, noise-canceling headphones, and often something stronger for the longer flights).  I mostly manage to not let my phobias get in the way of my life. 

Bergdorf Goodman's window designer, though, you have to wonder about - he really knows phobias.  The current window displays are such a brightly colored kick to the senses that I was compelled to take pictures.  I'm not entirely sure there was a heavy emphasis on fashion here, but they're loads of fun, especially taking some time to read the signs that go with the clever displays.  Lucky for us, the window design team doesn't suffer from defenestraphobia.

Even if you have a fear of shopping (most men I know do), go see these windows.  They're probably some of the most creative store windows we'll see in New York until Barney's offers up their Christmas windows.

Hats of Spring

It's a season of hats in New York City, this and every spring in the last few years (since the street fedora became trendy with the hipster set), but this spring, I notice it more for some reason.  Perhaps it's because I've got the camera out and am snapping all the hats I see.

The small fedoras have the most urban appearance to me, but the larger brim hats do a better job at sun protection...and they're just so much more varied, colorful, individual and clearly seasonal.

I have two favorite milliners (love that word, just brings you right back to "Hello, Dolly," "My Fair Lady," Ascot and the Kentucky Derby, doesn't it?).  Luckily, New York has a few very good shops.  The best have the hat designers on premises,  happy and proud to fit the customer with just the right design in just the right size.  I love the tiny boutiques of Lisa Shaub and Barbara Feinman.  Both shops are downtown (Nolita and the East Village, respectively) and both are owned and run by their amazing designers, who have helped me select mes chapeaux for every season.  As a matter of fact, when I was in Barbara Feinman earlier this spring, two tall blonds had just purchased about half the store for the Kentucky Derby; it was such fun watching them try on all those huge hats I'd love to buy but would think I'd never have any possible reason to wear.  But I do love hat shopping, maybe even more than hat wearing (they always seem to look so much better on everyone else)!

MUJI

Packing light when traveling is always a gamble, hard enough to do under the best of circumstances.  But when the weather turns against the Paris méteo forecast you were diligently checking every day for a week before your flight, there you are, with a well-edited suitcase full of color-coordinated mix and match clothes that now are either too warm, too light, or too wet from the rain to wear.  What to do?

This happened to me a year ago in Paris during a stretch of unseasonably hot and sunny May weather.  No big sacrifice, to be sure, except that all I'd packed were sweaters, long-sleeve t-shirts, black pants and jeans, expecting the more typical cool and damp Paris spring.  It was over 80 degrees, no AC (as we well know), bright sunshine and time to do something about it!  Shopping is also no sacrifice of my time in Paris but I have enough summer t-shirts at home and didn't feel like spending a fortune.  It wasn't even les soldes!

That's when I walked past MUJI on Rue St-Sulpice and saw great basic color (gray, white, black) tank tops and spaghetti strap tees in the window.  I'd never been in there, though I've since discovered MUJI in New York City.  There are a few locations - in the New York Times Building near Port Authority, in Soho on Broadway and in Chelsea.  I love this store!  It's like not much else - clothes are just a part of it, for both men and women.  Paper things, pens (which I always love to shop for), notebooks, containers, kitchen, bath and organizing items, with a priority in style, minimalism and no-brand labeling.  Originally a Japanese, but now global, store, it's a cool place to browse even if you leave with nothing.  But the clothes I've purchased there are great quality for reasonable price.  The tees come in 3-packs, as do undies, if you run out of those and hate to wash on vacation.  All the clothes seem highly packable and great for travel, in that they tend to be in muted or basic colors, very wearable, layerable, washable, natural fibers and casual.  The notebooks and pens are a fun and useful purchase for travel, and many other items there, like bags and puzzles, make great gifts to bring home or to your out-of-town host. 

The predictability of unpredictable weather when traveling now has a fairly inexpensive solution (at least in Paris, New York and loads of other cities around the world). 

Lost in translation?

Seen yesterday in the store windows of French Connection on West Broadway in Soho:

"DO YOU STEP WITH PURPOSE INTO PROBLEM?"

"You are unsolvable mysterie, puzzle unworkable cryptic galaxie?"

"You are woman?"

"You make every thud sound like musique?"

What?  Seriously?  If this is English, I'm feeling much better about French!