" on french etiquette, and letting go "

thursday, october 9th


Well, dear Reader,  the Reporter tried to explore, a little more in depth, these mores of the french with the way they approach culture.  And really, one has to admit, they are quite open to new culture.

 They will say to you, we have "  l'esprit large " which roughly means, a large mind capable to assimilate different views and etiquettes and the french are at the same time pretty strict on "etiquette"  which is the same word in french : etiquette.

If you ask a question on such or such attitude or morals, they will say to you with that sort of knowledgeable voice, ' C'est l'etiquette. "  And that's it.  They will not necessarily give you an explanation, just be content that it's the etiquette and that is all there is to say.

So one of the etiquette here, if you are a woman,  is to own a pair of ballerines.  Which is simply put, a pair of ballet shoes like this :

no women in Paris will not own at least one pair. Usually grey, black, or perhaps navy.

Most people you will see,  will wear ballerines. Mostly because walking in therapeutic sneakers is just not done.

Since at the Bon  Marche, there was this Japanese exhibit at the same time as the french fashion  week took place, you could see lots of international buyers,  squeezing some time away from the fashion shows,  and showing up at the Bon Marche. And a lot of them were wearing sneakers like those :

now you should have seen the looks given to them by the true parisians,  but then they shrug their shoulders, and say nothing because they have l'esprit large.

Some of those tourists had really nice purple ones :

 Then everyone, in the Japanese exhibition  was checking the  department called :

That is Equipment in Japanese.







There was also :

That is color in Japanese,
and there was also in Japanese,   Epicerie,

 which roughly means,  At the Grocer's,

and where you can find Japanese Onion Chips, that's Onion Chips,

and then you could find more useful things like
dresses with leather sleeves :

very handy to make space when you take the tube,


and also,
lightweight Ecouteurs,  which are plain earphones like those :

 




 and
you can also
 have those  :

  or those 

that's a lot of Ecouteurs.

 There was also under a window some Japanese wood dolls, just like the old fashioned Russian dolls

that can fit into each other, but those are Japanese so they are under a glass bubble,

To finish off this interesting exhibit,  there were some really futuristic designed radios, that really captivated the Reporter :

and even in pink, the Reporter's favorite :

 Then the Reporter was slightly exhausted by such an array of interesting things to report,

and she decided to have a café in plain setting, like at :

and where they craft 

little macarons,  one by one.  That is what the french and their etiquette call also ' letting go ' when things at the end of the day make little sense,  and you need a café and a macaron.

 And then the Reporter went to bed.

With all love, 

the Frog