Nespresso Anyone???

We were getting low on coffee and Peter has one of the new Nespresso machines, which use little coffee pods. I volunteered to go and get them because I had been drinking most of it (especially as Pete is in Dubai) and I need the exercise like the Dockers need a premiership!!

According to Google Maps the trip is a 34 minute walk each way .... for normal people maybe!

My sense of direction is getting better (one would hope) and I knew Boulevard Raspail, which is the one I would spend most time walking on.  My reading skills, however, could use some fine tuning.


All was going well until I turned into Rue de Vaugirard, I knew the next direction was a right turn at Rue Saint-Placide, I just didn't realise it was an immediate one.  


So after wandering along Vaugirard for some time, noticing that the environment was looking less and less like a place to have a coffee enterprise that George Clooney would be the face of and more like a scene from one of those British films with bovver boys popping out behind a wall to beat you up for the fun of it.  I thought I better check my map!!  Yep .... turn around and go all the way back.


I did notice a really interesting bric-a-brac shop on the other side of the street, when I was wandering aimlessly, so I thought now would be a good time to check it out. It had fabulous jewellery and I was tempted to go in .... but the shop owner chose that moment to go psycho at an elderly lady who was querying the price of tea cup.  She went on and on ... I thought the lady may have called her a whore or something by the way she was ranting.  I waited outside, hoping it would end soon, and another lady in the shop came out and then another.  The lady finally finished yelling, but by that time I thought it may be better to come back another day ... God knows how she would have reacted to my "non parles vous Français"???


Now, most people who know me, know I'm not much of a shopper, except when it comes to kitchen gear.  I have a feeling that the lady at the bric-a-brac shop may have been a witch, because something came over me and I turned into a big girly girl and stopped at another shop about 500m down and couldn't seem to get out of there.  


I am not supposed to be "buying things" on this trip ... but there were clothes on sale, beautiful clothes, and they were made in Paris.  I had to have the red beret and the white one with pom poms (huh) and a few other items which may turn into gifts so I can't show them here.  I bought an exquisite dress for one of my nieces in the hope that they might wear it to a ball or something because I couldn't leave it hanging on the rack.  If it weren't for luggage restrictions (and the fact that I was hit for excess on the way over), I may have continued.  With lots of "jolie" "si bon" and "merci bouqou's" I left the shop with everything wrapped in tissue paper (not too much, don't want it to affect my luggage allowance).  Feeling a bit shameful I got back on track ... I am buying coffee pots or pods, whatever they are.


I found the street I should have turned at some time and $$ ago and headed in the right direction.  This was more like it, lots of modern shops with "soldes" (sale) signs all over them and filled with things that I really need ......



Using lots of willpower, I managed to make it to Nespresso which had a queue from hell, I thought George must be in there with no shirt on, but as I am finding out, it is just the phenomenon that is Nespresso!  It really leaves looking for a jar of Nescafe or Moconna in a supermarket for dead.  This is a spicko shop, with assistants dressed beautifully and a lady or man at the door directing you to the end of the queue (I love watching the look of disbelief on the customers' faces as they realise they have to wait, or worse still, they've been caught trying to go to the wrong queue).  Another man wanders around with small cups of fresh coffee for you to try while you wait - in different flavours of course.


I was being directed to the queue while trying to tell the girl that I needed to drop the used pods off to the recycling bin first ... luckily I could show her because she had no idea what I was saying.  I could then take my place in the queue.  I had no problem with it being long, because the weather had started to turn chilly about an hour beforehand and it would give me time to thaw out a little.


Yay, it was my turn and the guy serving me spoke English!!  Monique had kindly written down the amounts and flavours for me ... I can only count to 10 in French (I know, I know)!  Yay, mission achieved, I could go home. 


But, I first had to stop off at Le Bon Marché, a beautiful store, that I have heard mentioned many times, that has a section filled with gastronomic delights!!  It is huge and had everything that you could ever want to taste and then some.  I was looking for paddy pans for cup cakes, but couldn't find any.  I thought it was best to get out of there before I started buying things I really didn't need.  Thank God I didn't go looking in the other parts of the store!!



Right, job done, now I can get back.  When I got outside it was even colder .... I was walking past shops, in and out of some, trying really hard not to buy anything until I noticed one with some really funky gear in it.  Somehow, I ended up leaving with two huge bags filled with really nice things again!!  Bloody nora .... how was I going to explain this to Big Brother ... there is only so much money I can make cleaning and cooking!!  Might have to start selling things on the street .... food that is.


I decided to walk all the way home as punishment and it was seriously cold, my fingers had absolutely no feeling in them and when I did get home, I had to heat them up with a small blowtorch to prise them from the shopping bags.  As for the rest of me, if there was a glass the size of a small elephant, you could have thrown me in it, poured on some scotch and sipped way until next Christmas!!! 



So, with shopping bags to the left of me, credit card to the right .... I feel it is now time to go and find some red wine as big brother gave me permission to help myself to the "cage"!!


Bon soir!!