I have absolutely no idea how people know or find out about these things (I'm assuming it's some sort of elusive society once you've been here a certain time or are simply 'Parisian chic' enough, of which I clearly don't qualify for either) but a friend had heard about it so we headed along. It took place at an upmarket wine store on Boulevard Haussmann and despite my taunts and suspicions, it wasn't filled entirely with homeless people (clearly they're not in this haut society either...)
We arrived to a marquee over the footpath with about 10 barrels each corresponding to a wine seller. On each barrel was about 7 different kinds of wine that you simply walked up to and asked to try. Often they would explain a little bit behind the wine, including how that specific wine was made. Because it was June, all the wines for this tasting (it happens once a month at this specific place) were from the Loire Valley. The fact that it was about 11am on a Saturday morning seemed completely redundant to everyone there and I certainly wasn't about to rain on the parade.
I have no idea how many wines I ended up tasting but I do know that they definitely got better as the morning wore on. I also vastly extended my 'vocab de vin', and learnt that the more abstract the phrase the more pleased the wine makers seemed to be. (I told one intriguing bearded man that his wine tasted "comme les sapins d'Inde", meaning 'christmas trees from india'. I've never seen a French man smile quite so brightly. I also didn't tell him that it was actually the the wine talking by this stage.) We were slowly joined by more throngs of wine revelers and decided to leave before it was too obvious that we had out-stayed our welcome and became very un-French by showing signs of our alcohol consumption.
Walking along the Grands Magasins like Galaries Lafayette, we decided to pay a visit to Printemps and check out their flash merchandise and stifling number of unnecessary staff. We somehow ended up distracting ourselves on the elevators and before we knew it we were nine stories high at the roof top cafe overlooking the whole of Paris with one of, if not the, most impressive, spectacular and FREE views of Paris. Once again, the beauty of Paris took my breath away and I delighted in the ability to see Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower and Tour Montparnasse all in one swift move of the head. The Paris skyline has to be one of the most beautiful in the world. And that's NOT the wine talking.
We rode down nine floors again and as we were reaching the bottom we saw signs for a 'beach party model show' which happened to be in just a couple of minutes. We grabbed a spot near the action and were joined by quite a crowd before it started with models in bikinis walking up and down the stairs in the shops main entrance. It was then followed by cocktails, wine, macaroons and other delicious Parisian patisseries. All FREE. Needless to say, we didn't resist. I have no idea what was in my cocktail but it was absolutely delicious and entirely appropriate for 2pm after a morning of wine tasting. I managed to try almost all of their macaroon selection and delighted in passionfruit, pistachio and raspberry. Bizarrely, people didn't even seem that excited at this prospect of free food, there was no pushing and shoving and the people serving the food ended having to try and give it away! Luckily, I was there to help.
Full from our free food fix, we walked the small distance to the beautiful Opera building and sat on the steps talking and watching the many tour groups pass, trying to decide if it was worse to be made to wear matching backpacks or hats, and whether being hit in the head by one of the many low flying pigeons would kill you. (Decision: inconclusive.)
There's something about having nothing planned for a day in overcast Paris that makes it all the more interesting.
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