Last minute shopping… ?

People were queuing up in front of the very fashionable - and expensive - shoe shop Christian Louboutin – famous for its red-lacquered soles. I was not aware about the fact that they also sell men’s shoes - people were queuing up there also. Most of the shoes are in the price range 500 – 1000 euros or dollars… I did not join the queue, but walked again through the beautiful and now very fashionable Galérie Vero-Dodat. I wrote about it already in 2008. You can find links to different posts I have written about different “passages” and “galéries” from this post.

The Galérie Vero-Dodat dates from 1826. As most galleries it was successful for a few decades, before the arrival of the department stores. Of some 150 Paris galleries existing around 1850 only 18 remain today. This is one of the most fashionable ones with art and antique galleries, fashion shops…

… and places for eating and drinking. (One of them is known for having been a favourite of the writer and poet Gerard de Nerval and this is where he had a last drink before committing suicide in 1855.)

The entrance to the upper floors, “escalier”, is well indicated.   

Less fashionable is the parallel, neighbour narrow street, Rue du Pelican. It’s especially remarkable for its name, deformed from “Rue du Poil-au-Con” (which I by decency may not translate here). During previous centuries it was a street of prostitution, now it's a clean pedestrian street.