Not much is open on Sunday in Paris (but for the publicis drugstore!!...see below)--it is part of what makes Paris nice and calm and tranquil--but this is not so great when one is sick, home at the apartment, with no groceries. And it is freezing cold outside.
It helps that clients let me borrow their apartment, where the towels are huge and warm and fluffy, the sound system fantastic, and the huge kitchen better equipped than mine in Austin. But I cannot eat them out of house and home. I had to go shopping.
As I wander aimlessly with swollen ears, red eyes, sore throat I see the Arc de Triomphe in view as I walk up Boulevard Hoche. I have seen absolutely nothing open but for two cafes on Boulevard Hoche/rue du Faubourg St.-Honore. And then it dawns on me what the Arc de Triomphe symbolizes. It means that salvation is near. It means the publicisdrugstore is just right there.
What is this drugstore you may ask. To anyone visiting Paris, I think it would look super cool and hip for many reasons. It is no mere "drugstore." It is part designer boutique with gorgeous leather purses, scarves, baby clothing...part really fantastic bookstore, complete with a chic little patisserie with gourmet chocolates, and now a "steakhouse" with burgers, etc., and the high-end l'Atelier (Etoile) de Joel Robuchon. I still love this place. But I cannot stop at the bookstore anymore. I end up bringing too many heavy items home. I have many, many books from here from years past.
More important to me on this trip to le drugstore: the coffee bar, the bakery, the high-end to-go foods: salads, yogurts, quiche, pizzas (like goat cheese and sausage); chocolates, pastries, teas....you get the picture.
And for someone with a head full of stuffiness, those to-go foods included, halleluia...soup. Choice of pumpkin and zucchini. I went with zucchini. The soups are right there next to the sushi and the seaweed salad.
I was so happy at this big score I had a hard time making good choices. I ended up with a large cafe au lait consumed on site; 2 small pains au chocolat--one of which I consumed there--eggs; une baguette tradition; slice of quiche lorraine to warm up later; some gourmet tomato sauce for my pasta I still have from Angers; tea--for sure; butter cookies and some tiny chocolate cookies.
If you are in Paris and need some Hooters sauce for your wings you may be cooking up at home, or some Stubb's bbq sauce, you can get it here.
But le drugstore also is, most importantly, one of the few open almost all the time drugstores (7 days a week; until 2 am). There are some 24-hour pharmacies in Paris, but not so close to me--though that link shows one down the way--but this one was here, warm, playing great music, and near a coffee bar and gourmet food store.
I have a talk with the pharmacist about whether my nose is more runny or stopped up. I say it's both, but more on the side of stuffy. She hands over what I need. I get that and more toothpaste. Somehow the toothpaste I selected was 9 euros. Ouch.
Which brings me to the closing point. This is not the place to do your regular grocery shopping. I do not even want to think on what the price was for those emergency food items. (I averted my eyes when I signed.) Important thing is: I can stay in all day, nap, have soup and bread, and tea and cookies. And work on my work.
Speaking of which: it is time for lunch.
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