Le Marais

Le Marais is a neighborhood in Paris near where Brigitte and Fabrice live here in the 12th district. It's called many things, but mostly it's the Jewish neighborhood of Paris. There are no restaurants open Saturdays for the Sabbath, and the whole area is restricted to pedestrians on Sundays.
I went here with Klotilde Saturday morning before I left with the family around 2 pm for Etretat.

Things I learned about Klotilde:
-her father lives a two hour drive into some kind of forest reservation in Washington state, has four children who she doesn't know(one of which travels the world as a belly dancer), and makes jewelry. She hasn't seen her father in 11 years and he wants her to move to the states next year and sends her shoes in the mail.
-her mother was a model in her youth and now has four other children besides Klotilde.
-Klotilde is vegan, and that's why she goes home every day for lunch.
-the nuns at Sainte Clotilde pay her tuition.
-she listens to Blondie and the Beatles.
-she is my french soul mate.


She took me all over the neighborhood and showed me THE coolest vintage and discount shops. They are all tiny and packed full of people, ultra weird french clothing items from as early as the thirties.
I bought:
-white leather healed boots
-three shirts for 3€
-some presents for friends' birthdays
-some crazy vampire tshirt
-THE COOLEST faux fur super vintage-y purse that I am currently mending for school in the morning...
-i really chic jacket (10€!!)



We were walking down the streets at about 10.30 waiting for things to open (at 11.00) and I saw about four policemen on horses (whoa!) so i was being really touristy and ran after them to take pictures. Anyway, when I was finished we turned to keep walking and this elderly man who is trying to open a gigantic door in some mystery building says something to us (too fast for me to understand). Klotilde starts translating but then the guy asks me in English if I wanted to see a really old building that he has been working on renovating (he's an architect). I assume this is because I was acting touristy...
Anyway, why not? So he gets the giant door open and starts telling us he's been working on this building for two years against the laws of the city of Paris. He says there are super old buildings everywhere that the city wants to destroy and make commercial buildings, but he's been fixing them and selling them to the public on his own for years. He said he'd worked out of TX for a while and this and that and then told us that the president of France noticed his work and really liked it, so now the city of Paris can't sue him for what he's done.
Dunno if any of it is true, but it was really beautiful and there was a nice garden inside. Don't worry mom, I stayed close to the door :P

For lunch we ate the most delicious falafel. They must not have been real Jews to have their shop open on a Saturday... There was no seating inside so we walked around to a little playground outside a church nearby. We fed the birds when we were through :)