Paris - when it drizzles

I always tell people who ask about weather that the color of Paris is gray.  Pearl gray, soft gray, dove gray, misty gray.  January in Paris is just that.

We’re long past the days of chasing monuments, but we’ve been walking and bussing and metro-ing around town for a few days, through the touristy and not-so-touristy parts.  Went up to Montmartre to check our the Marché Saint Pierre, a famous fabric shop, which turns out to be surrounded by other fabric shops and provided a riot of color, even in the rain.

 

On the Place du Tertre, the artists just stuck up their umbrellas and kept on sketching, trying to hustle a few customers.  We stopped for lunch and listened to the piano player do a jazzy version of ‘Singin’ in the rain’.

 On the only day when the sun came out for an hour, we walked through Notre Dame Cathedral.   2013 celebrates the 850 year anniversary of the start of the building of Notre Dame.  Here  is one of the rose windows (there are three).

In another mode entirely,  January’s also the time of the semi-annual sales in Paris, and everything but everything is on sale.   I’m not much of a shopper, but it did give me an excuse to visit the Galeries Lafayette, one of the big department stores.  Here’s why it's worth a look, even if you're not buying.

 So - not entirely gray in Paris.   But would you believe - they're forecasting snow for tomorrow!