The King's English, but Does It Matter?

Most people in Europe, especially in the big cities, can speak English. We could have made our way through this entire trip in English. Wanting a fuller, more authentic experience, though, we studied some of the native tongues. Laura already knew a little French. I knew Spanish. And we studied some Italian. We were ready to build bridges through words.

Once we learned a little French in Paris, we got cocky. We could order breakfast with confidence: Bonjour! Un pain au chocolat. We felt positively Parisian. In retrospect, we probably should have tacked on a s’il vous plaît for politeness. And been a bit more humble.

Glorieta de la Transexual Sonia

People used to walk around unfamiliar cities without GPS-enabled smartphones. Picture a flock of tourists huddled around a poster-sized paper map that has been folded and refolded until the creases have frayed. They’re jabbing at the map and waving toward landmarks. They shield their eyes from the sun as they search in vain for street signs, arguing about whether the map is right side up or upside down. Ancient tools for ancient times. Today when we travel, we have much better tools. We’ve advanced. We huddle around a smartphone, not a paper map. True, we still jab and shield and search and argue, but at least we don’t have to fold the smartphone. Yet.

The Seething Streets of Europe

The Arc de Triomphe stands at the head of the Champs-Elysses, the Parisian avenue famed for its shopping venues. We took a metro to the avenue’s foot, Place de la Concorde. A convertible gray Ferrari zoomed past, testament to the wealth of the area’s clientele. I couldn’t pull out my phone in time to snap a picture, but I did get one of a subsequent Lamborghini for hire:

A missing letter from a protective eyewear shop tickled my sophomoric sense of humor:

A Pen Diversion

As you’d expect from a country that birthed Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, Italy produces some of the world’s most beautiful pens. When planning this trip, I marked two places as “must see”:

• Casa della Stilografica
• The Visconti flagship store

The first, Casa della Stilografica, carries a range of pens from a range of countries. This trip, however, focused on Italian pens. I found the shop on Via Cavour, and its meager selection surprised me. When the shopkeeper understood that I was looking for fountain pens, however, she said, “There is another,” and redirected me across the street. They have two locations on the same street.

Dressing for Europe

Nestled in some twisty streets beside the Louvre, Les Caves du Louvre contains wine cellars that once connected to the Louvre. When Paris built its metro, it claimed large swaths of these cellars for tunnels and stations, divorcing a few sections from the palace. Les Caves du Louvre bought the separated property in 2015 and set up shop. The cellars’ history grants them rights to the name. In addition to storing and selling wine, Les Caves du Louvre offers wine tastings and tours through its cellars.