A Flâneur in Paris – part one

During our week in Paris I did not do anything specifically Sebaldian except to walk for hours every day.  I did, however, run across a women’s clothing store called Vertigo on the rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré (8th).

We tried to see the auction preview of the collection of Yves Saint Laurent, but the seemingly unmoving line of people stretched for blocks.  So I settled for a visit to Yohji Yamamoto’s store at 4, rue Cambon, which I consider a kind of museum dedicated to rethinking what beautiful means in clothing.

One of the treats of shopping in Paris is to encounter the dogs (mostly) and cats (rarely) that roam their owners’ stores.  The one cat pictured below occupies a central chair in the middle of the wonderful bookstore Librairie Henri Vignes at 57 rue St. Jacques (5th) where I looked at their first editions of Andre Breton.