Happy but quite cold, I go on to the Au Printemps store which is open for a special sale - with shoppers packed like sardines on every floor and on the mid-store escalators.
After a long and leisurely browse, I go up to the magnificent 9th floor terrace cafe. One hour to sunset - clouds moving swiftly across a panoramic view which reaches all the way to the Eiffel Tower. I have a delicious coffee, at 7f. the cheapest in Paris, with delicate cookies (free), and enjoy the best view I've seen in years, until the biting November wind makes staying impossible.
Back down by store escalator through the crowds to the street, people out everywhere. I walk down Blvd. des Capucines past a movie theater where a French-subtitled "Sister Act" is playing, then back to the Metro and home to Muriel's.
- Rosie McGee
© 2002
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