Things Disappear

While we're in one place, things disappear from the other place. They are things that I like, that I rely on. I get on a plane and "poof" it's gone!

Restaurants and shops are the businesses that do the disappearing act the most often. But there's also the beloved hair stylist or esthéticien that moves away.

This time, I've lost two things important to my pleasure, although not my daily well-being.

L'etudiant, a dive restaurant and bar with great, inexpensive food has changed hands. We went by the other night and they were painting the inside white. White is the only color that wasn't present in the old, beloved L'etudiant. Cracked brown plastic booths, mosaic tiled floor, a wooden rustic old bar created the atmosphere of the place. I'm sure the prices will go up and the quality will go down.

But, the thing that has caused the most grief so far is the loss of my tennis racquet stringer. First match in Paris and I broke a string. I didn't think much about it at the time because we had a good stringer at a shop in Montparnasse called Roissy Sports. The next day, we went to the store and it was closed, "Fermeture Travail".

I went home and called their number and a man answered and informed me that the store will be closed until June (read November) and that the stringer was at his house and not working. Yikes. This lead to a flurry of internet searches and a few failed trips around Paris. The worst was at Decathalon at Madeline where the woman stringer suggested the "bas de gamme" stings (low quality) at a price of Euro 42.95. We dashed out of the store since a good string should cost less than 20.

Another search yielded something quite surprising, a tennis shop in our neighborhood on a street that we go down all the time. I called and yes, he was there! We went, dropped off the racquet and found out he could string it in one hour for Euro 15.

Now if I can find a restaurant to replace L'etudiant, I'll be even. There's even a cute boutique that took the place of a beloved card shop in the neighborhood.