Offenbach and the Maison Dorée

Dear Everyone,

Just back from a little tour of central Paris. I needed to go to the Madeleine for some shopping and en route, took some pix of 24, square Etienne Pernet here in the 15è (see post dated 13/09)...then off I went to Bd de la Madeleine. What did I find? Offenbach's house just next to the Opera...and what else? La Maison Dorée on Bd des Italiens (3 pix on right and below left) built in 1839 by architect Louis Phillippe that I'd never noticed before... It was so-called due to its golden balconies. Today it's the head office of BNP Paribas. It was originally a restaurant and frequented by the Parisian top brass of the literary world. Have dinner there and you'd have run into the likes of Balzac, Hugo and Flaubert. Alexandre Dumas installed the offices for his newspaper, 'Le Mousquetaire' there on the ground floor in 1853. Howzat for rubbing shoulders with the best of them all in one afternoon.

Then a little peak into WH Smiths on rue de Rivoli just to see how Dan Brown was doing. He wasn't. Apparently. The book shelves seemed largely uncontaminated by human interest. I asked the sales girl how many copies of The Lost Symbol she had sold since opening...she looked guardedly at me and muttered 'a few'. Not surprised at 24,70 euros per copy. Hardbacks are so cumbersome. Obama is still number one best seller and Patricia Cornwell's 'Scarpetta' at number two. Number one in the economy section by Krugman that got my attention, but again, available only in hardback.

I had a look at Stefan Zweig...not much translated into English. "The Chess Player", "24h In The Life Of A Woman" and a few short stories (Amok)...very disappointing. Oh and something on Fouché. Yawn. No copy of Mary Stewart or Marie Antoinette which are both the most superb bios on these two incredible women I have ever read. Sorry, Antonia Fraser. I floated around a little just to see what else was new. Not much.

So, I left.

Chilly day, grey sky, no real desire to do much...shall play scrabble with the cats. Maybe they'll let me win.