Since I have become quite the Moroccan chef, my goal for the day was to not only enjoy the adventure of spice shops but also purchase some saffron to help put my already awesome Tagine chicken over the TOP! Thus after our lunch, our first stop was to the Goumanyat & Son Royaume, where they specialize in none other than saffron! So I am not only starting off with one of the cooler, older shops, it's also the place where I'm going to knock out the goal of the day.
Too bad we caught them on a day of fermeture exceptionnelle! Awesome! This is my favorite! If something comes up and a store has to close suddenly, the shop owner will throw up a classic homemade sign stating, "fermeture exceptionnelle". Rarely there will be an explanation and 
even rarer the shop owner will tell you when s/he is going to once again open but those two statements only occur if you're having a really lucky day. (What's really awesome about this is that less than a month ago when Pamela was here we missed out on my favorite hot chocolate place because of an F.E....oh, and don't even get me started on the Post Office here at the Cite...they're always F.E.-ing and they are a government office! That's just not right!)
even rarer the shop owner will tell you when s/he is going to once again open but those two statements only occur if you're having a really lucky day. (What's really awesome about this is that less than a month ago when Pamela was here we missed out on my favorite hot chocolate place because of an F.E....oh, and don't even get me started on the Post Office here at the Cite...they're always F.E.-ing and they are a government office! That's just not right!)The F.E. can happen for various reasons. And sure, I could be considered a huge jerk for talking badly about these F.E. because there could have been a family emergency or something horrible, however I have also heard of times when stores just F.E. for the heck of it: slow day, nap time, just not in the mood. It's just such an odd concept for me to accept: most places in the States have hours posted on their doors and hold to them like religiously. There are multiple people that can handle opening and closing the location and there is rarely a reason to shut down the store if one person can't make it. Someone else can always be called in to pick up the slack. But here that's just not the case. Small families own their stores and have few employees, if any, that are outside of the family. So if something does happen to the family, there is no one left to man the store. It's gotta be difficult. But still, Tuesday is my TTS. An F.E. is just not cool for the first stop!
Anyway, my magical saffron store was closed and we were bummed for all of one minute. We still had a nice agenda planned and plenty of time to make it to the next spice shop before they closed at 14:30. (they other best thing about owning a store in Paris, the afternoon closing for the classic sieste before the evening hours!) So we headed off and roamed the streets of the 2nd and 3rd arrondissements and enjoyed browsing in some fancy boutiques as we made our way to spice houses two and three.
L'Epicerie de Bruno was really cool and a good store to keep in mind when we really need a Mexican fix. They served some nice looking salsas and Cholula!!!! This store specializes in all different kids of combination spices for curries, risottos, and other creations. Plus, they had vanilla bean sticks that looked super awesome! I had to resist purchasing some of the vanilla but wrote it down as a goal to first learn what to do with those sticks before buying a bunch! It's good to miss out on one goal of the day but find another one during the adventure! I somehow see this as a healthy balance....
In between L'Epicerie de Bruno and Epices Roellinger we stumbled upon a really neat candy/wine/spice shop off the fabulous Galerie Vivienne, where I almost bought a bag of blueberry candy at 750 euros a kilo!!! Oh yeah, that was totally awesome! I not only had to return the four tiny pieces of candy that I thought was going to cost 2.50 euros, I had to do it in french and cause an embarrassing moment for me, in front of my friends. Fabulous! And yeah, I hear you out there, 7.50 for a bag of candy sounds intriguing and maybe you should of kept it Sara, when else are you going to buy candy from the deepest caves of the earth where people lost their lives in order to bring it to this fancy shop in Paris? (okay, I'm exaggerating the lose of life, but this guy just went on and on justifying his 750 euro/kilo price!) And here's my reasoning: that one bag of four tiny pieces could have bought me two delicious Lebanese sandwiches. Two lebanese sandwiches versus 4 tiny pieces of candy! I'm sorry, I went Lebanese!
So, TTS was pretty great last week. Despite an embarrassing return and an F.E., I did manage to buy some saffron from Olivier Roellinger, who by the way is a pretty cool guy. Check out his wiki when you get a chance. He also has a pretty awesome spice house that is worth a visit next time you're in town!
Thus, mission accomplished! Stay tuned for next week....
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