Another early morning start, as we had an appointment with Clare at Credit Agricole, about the in’s and outs of banking in France. Â Her office, the English-speaking focused branch for accounts and lending, was right off the Bercy Metro stop, one we had never visited – probably since it is fairly far out of the center of Paris. Â We discovered some interesting information: Â Banks in France are running about a 3 to 3.5% mortgage rate (the lowest since WWII), and, French lenders prefer to loan money to younger individuals and would prefer to have a mortgage paid off by the time the borrower is 70 years old. Â Our handicap is that I am one year older than Mike!
On the good side, Clare was able to let us know what information we needed to provide so she could open an account for us and get us a French credit card — with a chip! Â We have another appointment with her tomorrow afternoon – luckily not another early morning and the opportunity to schedule another of our walks in Paris.
Afterwards we checked out the garden shops and pet stores along Seine along the Quai de la Megisserie (which changes name from Quai du Louvre and ultimately to Quai de L’Hotel de Ville as it goes east). Â We found several cute pooches but none o fthem asked to come home with us, though one tried to talk to us and “kiss” us.
At BHV, the huge department store across from L’Hotel de Ville, we checked out their basement hardware, plumbing, and electrical supply area, their books (where I discovered a book titled “Unusual Shopping in Paris”). Â Listed I found Waaf & Miaou, a shop near l’Opera, specializing in canine and cat items. Â We mapped our way to on the Metro, exited the Metro stop at l’Opera, just three stores away from Waaf & Miaou, 14 Avenue de L’Opera, where the Japanese owner and her puppy sold everything from dresses, shirts, raincoats, collars, jewelry, leads, etc for dogs. Â The tiny shop was guarded by her puppy, dressed in a little satin-ish jacket with SECURITY embroidered on the back. What a hoot! Â http://waaf-miaou.pagesperso-orange.fr/
Old Theater, still in operation in the l'Opera District
Since we skipped dinner last night, we decided on wood-fired pizza for lunch, Â just down the street where Bd des Capucines changes names to bd des Italiens across from Passage de Jouffrey at Victoria Station. Â On the way, we passed this old iron-front theater – still in operation.
The pizza was as good as we remembered – though the carafe or pitchet of house rose was Italian not French and teh pizza was too big for any human to consume. Â The place is tiny, with tiny tables, tiny seats and kitschy light fixtures with fringe hanging off them. Â They also lack outside dining space which made it a little too warm for today’s warm weather.
After lunch, I convinced Mike to go back to BHV, so I could buy a new winter coat I tried on earlier but was not convinced I should buy. Â On the Metro ride back toward Hotel de Ville, we passed through Arts and Metiers, the Metro station that looks like it is a copper submarine, complete with round portholes and rivets. Â We retraced our steps; I tried on two coats, selected one, and we left the warm store to head back to the apartment for a tall glass of ice water! Â On the way home to the apartment, we passed an entire band in one of the corridors……Music from the Paris Metro, click to listen
During one of the many Metro rides, I noticed a sign posted that requested passengers do not support or contribute to those musicians, etc. on the Metro trains. Â They issue only 300 permits to musicians, etc annually and they are ONLY permitted in the corridors. I had been wondering why we had seen fewer musicians than normal…… Today, we received our money’s worth out of our Metro passes!
